Personal branding seems to have re-emerged as a hot topic. The concept introduced by Tom Peters over 10 years ago is now back on everyone’s radar screens — or at least mine. Several friends and colleagues have recently asked for my POV on persona…

It’s a process that seems disconnected from inherent human qualities, and as a result, comes off very artificial. To me, it’s more of an external facade or persona, expressing what you want people to see, or how you’d like to be viewed instead of who you actually are, or the values you represent.

Perhaps I am old school, but one’s ‘personal brand’ is developed through a consistent delivery on a core set of values/traits, just as a product’s brand is built by consistent delivery on a mission/brand promise.

If a person conducts him or herself with honesty and principles on a regular basis, for example, they build a reputation of character and integrity. They don’t wear a sign that says, “I’m honest” or print “you can trust me” on the back of brightly colored business cards. Trust is earned. Reputation is built. Neither are manufactured out of thin air.

It is my increasing concern that ‘personal branding’ is more about the latter, creating the perception of certain qualities without actually embodying those qualities. And iit’s how we’ve ended up in a space overridden with self-proclaimed, ‘experts,’ ‘mavens’ and ‘gurus’ with little to no credibility or substance to back it up.

At the end of the day, we, as brand strategists, can seek to portray ourselves, or our products, any way that we’d like, but unless we actually deliver on those publicized attributes, all they really are is a series of empty, well crafted words on a page.

Personal Branding is a lot more than the color of your business card or the look of your blackberry. It’s not about me, it’s about THEM. Personal Branding is what they are going to say about you when you turn your computer off…

In addition, I do not like the term’ guru’ to be used nowadays. I call Drucker and Levitt gurus for God’s sake! In today’s digital world, where new talents emerge every day and people have a great deal of megaphones to express their feelings, the term ‘guru’ seems pretentious, myope and irrelevant.

I must tell you that maybe i’m too passionate. I shouldn’t care about the constant vulgarization of Marketing (as an ideology not a tool box) and Branding, but i do. (I believe Marketing and Branding are sides of the same coin)

Do you think the horror show will stop one day? We haven’t studied so much for this…

Genius article. I’m glad someone took a stand.

Gabriel Rossi- Brazil