Times have changed. It's no longer "One Size Fit's All" when it comes to branding. If you have a business and you can no longer just rely on your personal brand to do all the work. And if you have a business brand brand, it's time to consider "humanizing your brand." Hybrid Branding is the blending of two types of brands: Your business brand and your personal brand.
In my professional opinion, hybrid branding is the future for coaches, consultants, and service-based businesses. But of course, I don't expect you to just take my word for it. So, let's take a look at three different types of branding so that so you can see for yourself:
PERSONAL BRANDING:
Starts with an intention.
It’s built around you.
You’re upfront.
You position yourself as an expert.
A personal brand is an emotional commitment you make to yourself. It’s who you are and how you move through the world. Personal brands tend to be easier to create, given all the social media tools that are available to you.
A personal brand is built around your name. So your name and your business name will be one and the same. Personal brands are great launch pads for opening the door for speaking opportunities, but with so much competition these days, they are no longer great for your entrepreneurial goals.
A personal brand is built around your name, so you can’t state what your business does and position your business in the name of a personal brand.
This will prove to be an obstacle in building your business because you need to find a way to explain exactly what you do and for whom you do it —all while showing value in your services to them in the long run.
So while personal branding is a low-cost marketing strategy — it requires that you continuously provide value to the people through content and engagement. And therefore, it will take some time before people start associating your name with the real value of the product or service you are providing.
You must also consider the fact that a personal brand will not save a bad business brand, and a bad business brand can end up hurting your personal brand.
BUSINESS BRANDING:
Starts with an idea.
A name is created.
Service/ product is first.
You position your offer as the solution.
A business brand is a commitment you make to your business. It’s who it is and how it moves through the world. A business brand is built around an identity you create for your business and is independent of your personal name.
Business brands are harder to create. This is because they need to be crafted on identity and personality, and they must know who their target audience is so that it can be seen… felt…heard, and shared by the right people.
They need a strategy to provide them with all this, along with a strong sense of what their business needs and wants to be moving forward.
Business brands are also easier to sell when compared to personal brands. If you decide to move on from your brand and want to sell it to another owner, it will be easier if the business name is associated with its service and products rather than the person behind it.
HYBRID BRANDING:
Starts with an intention and an idea.
It’s built around your personality and business.
Both personal and business brands are upfront.
A name is created.
Service/ product is an extension of your personal reputation.
You position yourself as an expert and your offer as the solution.
A hybrid brand is a commitment you make to your business through your personal brand. It’s who you are, and it's how you move through the world and your business. It's the strategic blending of two types of brands: Your business brand and your personal brand. This brand type is used if you know that by putting yourself as an expert (or with your reputation) front and center, services and products will have an even greater appeal.
HUMANIZE YOUR BRAND
Blending elements of both the personal brand and a business brand not only humanizes your brand it gives your business brand maximum advantage through endorsement from the personal brand. This “endorsement strategy” presents the best of all worlds because when the trust and equity from your personal brand are lent to the business brand, it helps to grow the reputation market.
THERE IS NO LIMIT TO WHERE THIS CAN TAKE YOU 🚀
If you decide to create different types of businesses (under your direction)— you can use the power of your personal brand equity to launch and grow it under your new HYBRID BRAND.
The way you present yourself and your business can sway public perception and help you become whom you want to be, and shape how you want to be perceived.
Each element, from your business logo, offering, messaging, overall persona, and beyond forms the “public perception” of your brand — arguably the most important element of all.
People will buy only when they trust in your ability to deliver. That trust is formed by the sum total experiences with you and your business. This is why brand perception matters, and this is why taking a proactive, strategic approach to figuring out how you’d like your target audience to think and feel about your brand is vital.
The single most effective way to save your time and energy in doing this is by first establishing your brand strategy to;
Stand out
Know and attract dream clients
Communicate what sets you apart
Become recognized as a top choice in your industry
While most hybrid brands are tied to famous names, famous people were not born famous.
Let's look at some examples:
Sarah Blakely — SPANX Sarah Blakely used her personal savings of $5,000 to start Spanx in 1998. She did not begin to use HYBRID BRANDING until 2000 ( when Oprah named SPANX her favorite product of the year. Sales hit $10,000,000 in revenue. Before that, SPANX relied almost exclusively on celebrity endorsements, word of mouth, and PR for brand awareness.
In October 2021, Blakely sold a majority share of Spanx to Blackstone, bringing her net worth over the $1 billion mark.
Now that she is a well-known, successful entrepreneur, you can bet that if she decided to start a new brand, she would use HYBRID BRANDING to leverage the equity she has as a business expert with her audience to launch her new business brand.
Bethenny Frankel — Skinny Girl Bethenny Frankel was a little-known natural food chef, marketing “Bethenny Bakes,” her healthy baked goods service, and selling “Princess Pashminas" at house parties while living and working out of her small one-bedroom apartment in NYC when she attempted to build her personal brand when she became runner -up in the 13 eps show of “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” in 2005. Using that equity, she then signed up as a “Real Housewives of New York” to cement her personal brand.
It was while appearing on Real Housewives that she dreamt up a game-changing idea and created the brand “Skinny Girl,” disrupting a then “all men market” with the FIRST low-calorie cocktail category for women.”
I remember watching her create a new niche market and grow her “Skinny Girl” empire. As a strategic brand designer, I was impressed by how from day one, she strategically and consistently used her personal branding and her business brand together. She wore her brand color (red) she decorated in red, and she even made sure the front door of her newly purchased house in the Hamptons was branded “Skinny Girl” red. All while consistently using her disrupter image on the show and beyond.
I loved that she understood the power and use of branding, and I was not surprised when she was able to expand her “SkinnyGirl Brand” and launch her own talk show, but she was able to sell “SkinnyGirl Margaritas” to Beam Global Spirits and Wines for a reported $120 million.
Today as a well-known, successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. She is still using HYBRID BRANDING to leverage her brand equity as an author (BUSINESS IS PERSONAL), speaker, podcaster, and lifestyle influencer on Instagram(where she can be seen currently seen disrupting the beauty industry).
Remember, Sarah Blakely in 1998 and Bethenny Frankel in 2005 started out just like you. So, don’t think for one minute that this can’t be you.
Changing times dictated their business moves, and today’s changing times should have you considering what moves you need to make to dictate yours as well.
Ready to consider HYBRID BRANDING?
If you know you need some extra help to figure it all out — that’s my superpower! Let's connect to see if we are the right fit!
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