| High Visibility: An Interview with Philip Kotler, Irving Rein, and Michael Alan Hamlin
March 28, 2006
“Brilliant” is an adjective often associated with the third edition of High Visibility: Transforming Your Personal and Professional Brand. Marketing guru Al Reis says the book “brilliantly captures the how, why, and what of the celebrity-building process.” Robert Morris, a consultant and top Amazon.com reviewer, says, “High Visibility is a brilliant achievement.”
Even experts at achieving high visibility have praise for the book. Consultant Peter Cohan, who is profiled in the book, said, “While I was flattered that Chapter 6 began by recounting how I've tried to generate visibility over the years, I found the concepts and anecdotes presented here offered me new and thought-provoking insights.” Political consultant Paul Bograd believes High Visibility “paints a complete portrait of the power and implications of modern celebrity branding on the commercial, political and cultural landscapes of the post-Internet world.”
Three of the authors — Philip Kotler, Irving Rein, and Michael Alan Hamlin — recently responded to questions about the book and the pursuit of high visibility. An edited transcript follows.
1. “High Visibility” is a somewhat ambiguous term. How exactly would you define or characterize a person or brand that is highly visible?
 Philip Kotler. Being highly visible means that an individual has generated a high level of awareness in the market segment that he or she serves. Many people in that segment have heard of the person and may even know the person. For example, an investment banker would want to be highly visible to high net worth individuals. That banker would like to be easily called to mind by high net worth individuals looking for someone to manage their wealth. The banker’s friends may bring up this person’s name.
However we must not presume that the opinion that people have of a highly visible person is always positive and favorable. The person’s high visibility might stem for other characteristics, such as notoriety, outstanding physical or mental features, and so on. But if the high visibility is based on positive traits, it can lead to higher financial success. Thus if people say that the banker is the most experienced or talented banker, that banker will naturally attract more business.
Note that the banker may not have much visibility outside the target sector. He or she may or may not want extensive visibility. People with high egos, however, may strive for general high visibility. Others may prefer to be less known or unknown outside of their market segment.
 Irving Rein. When we wrote the first edition of High Visibility 19 years ago, we used the term to redefine the importance of developing a public personality. As far as we know, high visibility was rarely used in that context before, and there was a lot of uncertainty as to what it meant. In the ensuing years, high visibility has become more clearly defined. It means that in your sector, visibility earns a premium, and your brand will bring you what we define as the three P’s: Power, Pay, and Privilege. It’s also important to understand the historical concept of high visibility. For many centuries, fame was the operant term, and it usually meant presidents, generals, and religious leaders. It was only in the twentieth century that we began to understand the importance of celebrity and that it could evolve into a brand form that had status in the marketplace. High Visibility goes beyond those definitions to include people seeking market share in all sectors.
 Michael Alan Hamlin. If I were to ask you to name the top three businesspersons, televisions news anchors, or fiction authors, chances are that you would name one or two immediately, and perhaps struggle to name a third. You might not be able to name more. A highly visible individual is one that has achieved “memory lock,” or long-term recall as marketing experts might call it, to become one of the top two or three individuals people remember. However, a highly visible person does not necessary need to achieve memory lock across many sectors.
2. Is it necessary for people and organizations to be “highly visible” in order to become successful?
PK. We view the relationship between visibility and success as a dynamic and interdependent relationship. To achieve success, an individual must possess the success requirements in that segment and be good at communicating these traits. One cannot be regarded as a major league baseball player without having the talent and substance to be one. Conversely, the baseball player probably won’t achieve the full visibility and financial potential of which he is capable if his agent and publicists fail to leverage his success to increase the fan base, generate endorsement contracts, and enhance the terms of his contract as a result of calibrated exposure via multiple communication channels: media, the Internet, and personal appearances, for instance.
IR. The most important concept for people in organizations is that visibility demands transformation. This is the core proposition of the book, and it’s absolutely essential that a systematic and thorough change process is undergone. In conducting the transformation, a lot of what defines high visibility is determined by the sector and the needs of the target audience. In organizations, highly visible people can serve as role models and inspiration for employees of the organization.
It also can serve to crystallize the product as the person becomes an extension of it. For example, Bill Gates, whom we use as a case in the book, branded Microsoft with his public speaking at media appearances, highly visible conferences, and his non-profit work. In a sense, Gates like other branded personalities such as Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffett put a face on their organization and help consumers understand what their organization is all about.
MAH. For many individuals and organizations, yes, visibility can make the difference between success and unrealized potential. But success has many levels, from minimal to moderate to high. We suggest that to achieve the level of success a personal or corporate brand is capable of, visibility is a core requisite. For this reason, we believe that organizations and individuals should think as seriously about their brand strategy as they do their product or service strategy.
3. In your experience, are there turning points in a person’s life or an organization’s existence that serve to propel the quest for high visibility? Or is it something one just decides to do?
PK. Developing a desire to be a strong personal brand can have its source in a number of factors. The person may have an eminent role model in mind and is trying to achieve the same stature. The person may rationally see success as highly tied to being well-known. The person may seek high visibility to compensate for some limitation or deficiency in his or her makeup.
IR. There are many circumstances that launch personal and professional branding. It might be a crisis, an unusual opportunity, or a technological innovation. All of this can encourage people to seek high visibility. In the book, we use the example of Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels, started by two recent college graduates at the time. They understood very early in the process that their story, which included a commitment to their product and their own relationship, was a central focus in marketing their brand. Their high visibility was the driver that turned the company into a successful product.
MAH. As Phil and Irv have indicated, it varies. The earlier the realization that visibility should be pursued occurs, the better, however. I’m currently talking to a client who is a serial entrepreneur which a good track record. He doesn’t believe that he can achieve the full measure of the success he is capable of, however, without achieving a higher level of visibility for himself as well as his latest venture. The problem is, he lacks the self-confidence required to successfully pursue high visibility. This is a hurdle to his success that must be overcome. And the sooner he overcomes it, the more successful he’ll be, and the faster his venture will grow. Interestingly, he knows and accepts this, and is striving to develop the mindset he needs to succeed.
4. If a person’s brand has come to be perceived negatively, would it be better for the person to stick with that brand and make minor improvements or shed that brand and reinvent him or herself?
PK. Unless the highly visible person has strong benefits coming out of his notoriety, it would be better to consider brand rehabilitation. There are many successful cases illustrating makeovers. They include Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, Rudy Giuliani, Jimmy Carter, and Michael Milken, among others. Donald Trump became a highly visible author and TV personality aside from his role as a real estate developer and casino operator. Martha Stewart reformed her image and softened it around the edges. Rudy Giuliani became a hero through his response to the 9-11 disaster. Jimmy Carter became an inspiration in his post-President years. And Michael Milken left jail and became a well-known philanthropist and publisher. Each identified attributes in their brand that they could leverage to establish what might be called “domain expertise” in a field related but different from that in which they first rose to visibility. Even in Giuliani’s case, he leveraged a tragedy of epic proportion to launch a new career as an advisor and investment banker and he may further leverage his reinvigorated brand to pursue national office.
IR. This is an excellent question because it strikes at the heart of what our book is about. We have a concept we call reversing the negative in which we detail what strategies can be used to turn around a person’s brand. In most cases, it’s important to understand that behavior and communication go together. It’s important for aspirants to understand that no communication strategy or image-making device can reverse behavior that is unacceptable to an audience. We address this issue when we develop our four stages of brand transformation – generation, testing, refinement, and realization.
It’s in these four stages where a person finds out whether or not the brand is going to find an audience. It’s really a systematic process where there are steps involved that provide the aspirant both theory and practice to meet audience expectations. It could be argued that if the steps are followed carefully and there is a strong sense of audience feedback that reversing the negative will not be necessary. That is, as a developing brand, you’ve monitored the problems and obstacles and have established a strong personal and professional brand that will be received favorably in the marketplace.
MAH. Notoriety can serve a brand well. Most corporate raiders of the 80s leveraged their notoriety, for example, to get the deals they wanted at best or to cash out of positions with phenomenal returns. They include T. Boone Pickens, Carl Icahn, and Henry Kravis and his cousin George Roberts. Pickens and Icahn are still scaring up high returns on the strength of their brand reputations. Kravis and Roberts have become less notorious, and have struggled to keep partners and deals.
If an individual is well known for a negative reason, he or she is still visible. As a visible individual, he or she “counts,” and when the time comes to attract media or audience attention, the chances of doing so are much greater than for someone who is unknown. Consider Maurice Greenberg, former CEO of AIG. Greenberg’s reputation was heavily tarnished by developments that led to his ouster. Yet he continues to enjoy a very high profile, which he in fact courts more aggressively than in the past. This enables him to continue to generate opportunity.
5. What would you say are the top three local brands in the Philippines? What accounts for their dominant brand equity?
MAH. Interbrand conducts an annual evaluation that ranks the world’s most valuable corporate brands using both quantitative and subjective measures. It is interesting that the most valuable brands generally are those that are managed by a highly visible CEO. Such highly visible CEOs include former GE chairman Jack Welch, Dell’s Michael Dell, Intel’s Andy Grove, and Apple’s Steve Jobs. This list is tech-heavy because technology firms probably understand better than many others the contribution of CEO visibility to building a strong corporate brand.
So it’s not surprising that in the Philippines there is likewise strong alignment between successful businesses and highly visible CEOs. They include Shoemart’s Henry Sy, Jollibee’s Tony Tan, and PLDT’s Manny Pangilinan.
There are highly visible individuals in other fields, too. Cosmetic surgeon Vicky Bello stands out. So does Senator Mar Roxas, also known as Mr. Palenke. Former Central Bank governor Rafael Buenaventura leveraged his visibility as a successful bank executive to become a senior government executive.
6. What is the first step one must take towards the path of high visibility?
MAH. The first step is acknowledging whether the visibility aspirant possesses the skills, traits, appearance, and behavior his or her audience is likely to value or desire. For most aspirants, these attributes must be developed to realize their full market potential. Development involves a transformation process which, to be successful, requires an understanding and mastering of the marketing process. The marketing process includes market analysis, environmental scanning, and market segmentation. Market analysis is important because it is necessary to understand the market to understand what it values and desires. Environmental scanning is undertaken to identify opportunities. Because markets are increasingly fragmented, market segmentation helps fine tune the brand to the audience. Choosing a segment also depends on a number of variables: size, growth rate, purchasing power, and accessibility. Our book provides insights that will guide readers in taking these steps, and how to leverage market drivers to achieve what we call “memory lock,” or that place where the aspirant dominates his or her segment.
Let me say something about transformation. Transformation at its most successful uses existing attributes and fully develops them. These attributes could be physical appearance (Donald Trump’s hair), fashion style (Madonna, Britney Speakers), manner of speaking (Billy Graham) or singing style (Neil Diamond). Attributes and associations that provide leverage can also include birthplace, a troubled childhood, or a unique or compelling philosophy. Once these attributes and associations are identified, we begin developing a communication strategy targeting our segment.
IR. Usually, when talking about first steps, there is recognition of the problem. For most people who are thinking about high visibility, they have a need that can be solved in a number of ways, and visibility generation is a possibility. It can be that the company needs some sort of emotional connection or that it’s a service such as plastic surgery that has lots of competition and needs differentiation and a human face. Another consideration is what we term the “talent threshold.” In most sectors, there are skill levels that have to be met in order to be able to use high visibility strategies. For example, a lawyer needs to master an array of courtroom and legal skills in order to be in position to seek high visibility.
The same could be said for a rock singer or a baseball player. The aspirants need to be in position to use the strategies that we talk about in the book. That means ultimately that you need to inventory your asset base and be realistic about whether you can succeed or not. The good news is that in most sectors the talent threshold is not overwhelming and that many of the strategies we use in the book can be used strategically and easily.
7. Your new book, High Visibility: Transforming Your Personal and Professional Brand, is the third edition of the 1987 groundbreaking work. What has changed since then that merits a third update?
IR. A major change in the book is that we no longer have to convince our readers that seeking high visibility is a legitimate endeavor. When we wrote the first edition, we were virtually inventing the idea, and many critics felt that we were not harsh enough on the moral implications of strategically developing celebrity. In this book, there was no necessity to make that argument because the marketplace now accepts it as an important aspect of how you do business. This freed us up to explore the branding proposition and its relationship to image and other key components of celebrity.
The second change is that our original position that sector interest in high visibility would explode came true. We believed that it was inevitable that physicians, architects, businesspeople, and the entire array of non-entertainment professions would embrace high visibility. As a consequence, in this edition we are able to further expand and deepen the relationship between these historically non-traditional visibility-generating sectors.
The third change is not only the use of technology but how it affects the changing marketplace. There are a lot more people who have access to visibility-seeking because it is cheaper and has the advantage of more reach. The aspirant of 19 years ago was faced with some formidable barriers of getting recognition because of fewer distribution channels and high costs. We are now in an age where virtually anyone can reach people with their branding story because of convergence. What it now takes is a strong sense of your brand concept and an understanding of how to distribute it with effective communication strategies.
MAH. The most obvious thing is the dramatic change that digital media channels — also called new media — are making. Personal websites, blogs, Podcasts, XML syndication, and online media all make it easier in terms of cost and demand for content to be seen. Of course, with so many people online, it is also more difficult to distinguish yourself from others. For example, estimates vary widely, but there are many millions of bloggers but only a handful of very successful bloggers. Yet a personal blog has quickly become a basic requisite of most any strategic personal brand initiative.
I think that it is also a reality that more people understand the benefit of a strong personal brand, and actively pursue visibility. Our book will help these individuals because it provides a clear roadmap to visibility.
One other thing is that because people are living much longer than in the past, sustaining a personal brand has become an important consideration. In the past, only childhood actors needed to think carefully about transitioning a brand over time to keep it relevant and vibrant. Now, everyone has to think about sustaining their visibility. A university professor, for example, early in his or her career aims to stake out an area of expertise and become known as a respected specialist in that area. He or she sustains the brand through regularly speaking and publishing scholarly research. As the professor ages, he or she may gradually spend more time speaking before groups outside his or her academic sector and publishing in the popular press. Ultimately, like the late Peter Drucker, he or she may move to a smaller institution where the professor is one of a small number of central figures driving the institution’s brand.
Irving Rein is a professor of communication studies at Northwestern University. He is an internationally known expert on public communication and popular culture and a consultant to highly visible individuals and corporations.
Philip Kotler is the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is one of the world’s foremost marketing experts and the author of Marketing Management, the most widely used marketing book in graduate business schools worldwide.
Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing director of TeamAsia, a strategic marketing communications consulting firm. He is an international corporate and personal brand consultant and is based in Asia. For
more information, visit www.teamasia.com or call +63 2 7573500. ###
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