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Transforming Personal Brands
By Michael Alan Hamlin
July 26, 2004
Good companies that become great
companies according to Jim Collins, author of Good to Great:
Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, regularly
transform themselves to leverage new opportunities, competitive
threats, technology, and shifts in market dynamics. Among the changes
that must take place, in my view, is how a company communicates
its brand so that it remains relevant as times change.
Individuals, too, need to evolve
over time. Some of this change involves "how" they do
what they do. It also involves how they communicate what they are.
What they are can be called a "personal brand." This personal
brand allows individuals to distinguish themselves from other similarly
talented individuals in the same way corporate brands distinguish
enterprise competitors. Consider singer Justin Timberlake, for instance.
My co-authors (Irving Rein and Philip Kotler) and I at work on a
new edition of High Visibility spent some time thinking about
this fast-evolving celebrity.
Timberlake was the leader of the
chart topping, award winning band N'Sync. In 2000, the group's image
was squeaky clean, boy-next-door and bubble gum pop. Their music
was centered around budding yet incomplete adolescence. The lyrics
were simple and the music was repetitive. This would turn out to
be the first phase of Timberlake's career transformation.
It was clear that the adolescent
audience for N'Sync was drying up as the group got older and the
target audience broadened to young adults. A second phase was implemented
with the introduction of the group's new album, Celebrity, which
repositioned N'Sync and especially Timberlake from teen pop icon
to a mainstream musical attraction with a wider audience. The lyrics
were more self-revealing and the sound incorporated rhythm and blues.
The strategy was clear as Billboard.com observed, "Celebrity
has the potential to be a textbook study in straddling the line
between commerce and creativity."
The third phase of the transformation
was to convert Timberlake to a solo act. The transformation included
his personal appearance. Timberlake ditched his trademark curly
hair and abandoned his boy-next-door image. He posed shirtless on
the cover of music's premier magazine Rolling Stone newly
buffed and toned, erasing any doubt over whether Timberlake had
matured. Collaborating with hip hop and urban music royalty of the
likes of the Neptunes, Timbaland, and Janet Jackson for the album
"Justified," Timberlake now completely moved into the
soul and hip-hop artist role.
In essence, Timberlake in a four
year period was able through appearance, material, and style changes
to recast himself as a solo star. As evidence of his transformation,
he won Pop Vocal album and Male Pop Vocal performance at the 2003
Grammy Awards for his album. In the new fast-paced model of visibility
transformation, Timberlake emerged full-blown and credible. He not
only prolonged his own career but has kept open the option that
N'Sync will eventually be reunited with Timberlake.
It's unlikely to be Timberlake's
last transformation. Singer/actress Madonna has already demonstrated
that successive transformations can work to sustain a career. These
artists understand that as the audience and culture changes, so
often must the entertainer. This is a process that requires constant
reevaluation of the audience and a remaking of the product and image.
Singers aren't the only examples
of personal brands and their evolution. Last week, the Singapore
government announced that in August, it would install its third
prime minister. Consider some of the branding changes involved in
that development.
It has never been a question of whether
Lee Hsien Loong, Deputy Prime Minister and son of Singapore's founding
father and first Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew, will eventually become
prime minister himself. It was just a question of when. It
is never easy to follow the footsteps of a wildly successful leader
- especially so when that leader is the aspirant's father - but
Lee took on the formidable challenge under his legendary father's
stern tutelage. Like his father, the eldest son is reputed to be
brilliant, efficient - and blunt. He does not suffer fools gladly.
Unfortunately, that reputation translates
into an image problem that makes Lee an unattractive leader to Singapore's
politically powerful young professionals. These young voters are
much more open-minded about their relationship with government than
the subservient generation that grew up with Lee's father in control.
Outgoing Prime Minister Apparent Goh Chok Tong publicly addressed
the issue when he said, "Loong's public persona is that of
a no-nonsense, uncompromising and tough minister. Singaporeans would
like Loong to be more approachable." Soon after those remarks
were made, the tightly controlled Singapore media began highlighting
Lee's softer side. The effort included anecdotes from a reporter
recalling Lee's genuine fondness for children and pictures of Lee
talking to everyday citizens at subway stations and shaking hands
with a fishmonger in the market.
Lee apparently has the skills to
lead Singapore. He has the lineage. And it seems he has the insight
to understand that his country doesn't need a clone of his father.
When Lee takes the reigns of leadership over a new Singapore next
month he will be leading a much worldlier and widely traveled constituency
than that of his predecessors. Lee must adapt to be successful as
its leader and he has already demonstrated his understanding that
constant market scanning - and transformation - is essential.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing
director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on
Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian
Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001), and he is
currently at work on High Visibility: The Making and Marketing
of Asian Professionals into Celebrities. Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2004
Michael Alan Hamlin. All Rights Reserved
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