Business Vs. Personal Brand

A Decision to be made.

Corporate brand, or to make things a bit more centered on a personal brand?. Their focus is between using your personal name being be melded into corporate identity. This choice will be the first step in building an identity around your brand.

Decide Now · Hold Your Peace

Naming a business ultimately comes to to choosing both the purpose and desired as wells as the desired size of a brand, as well as the proposed longevity of the desired outcome. A personal name such as ”Bob Evans“ can build a reputation of good food and great family atmosphere. McDonald’s, however, will not impose the same memory response. It all just depends on the goal you want your brand to set. You may not want your brand to be so personal, or to carry a personal name. Could you imagine if you branded Apple computers as Steve Jobs Computers, or Microsoft as Gatesware? While I have a lot of admiration for Mr. Jobs, his legacy will carry on through Apple, and maybe in time be relegated to a business article about his accomplishments, while being written on a Macintosh computer, regardless, it falls to individual choice. Apple, Microsoft, and Bob Evans leave a desired outcome, and are known by their target markets.

There really is no right or wrong answer. If you choose to go with a personal or have a more corporate approach, it’s always possible to rebrand your presence, but better to assure consistency, getting it right the first time, and not have to worry about audience confusion, or costly/confusing promotion to announce the rebranding. The proposed longevity of the desired outcome. A personal name such as “Bob Evans’ can build a reputation of good food and great family atmosphere. MacDonald’s however, will not impose the same memory response. It all just depends on the goal you want your brand to set.

You may not want your brand to be so personal, or to carry a personal name. Could you image if you branded Apple computers as Steve Jobs Computers, or Microsoft as Gatesware? While I have a lot of admiration for Mr. Jobs, his legacy will carry on through Apple, and maybe in time be relegated to a business article about his accomplishments, while being written on a Macintosh computer, regardless, it falls to individual choice. Apple, Microsoft, and Bob Evans leave a desired outcome, and are known by their target markets.

Cooperate/Personal, Which is better?

The beauty of this approach lies in the fact that you have the freedom to make your own decisions. However, it’s important to learn from the names you follow and understand that you’re not your target audience; the public is. It’s a costly mistake to try and repair an audience’s opinion, and sometimes irreparable. For instance, consider the Bud Light controversy that emerged between 2021 through 2023. This incident caused substantial financial damage to the Anheuser-Busch company, extending beyond the Bud Light product line. Many people feared that the fallout would lead to the complete demise of Anheuser-Busch. This serves as a clear example of why you might not want to have a business centered around a personality, or at least a ‘wrong’ personality. It seems that whenever Dylan Mulvaney appears now, Bud Light’s brand cringes.

It is possible to have a hybrid branding. While Steve Jobs was alive, you were hard-pressed to think of Jobs and Apple computers together. He was an amazing, positive influence on Apple, without the drama of the Bud Light example. Without pause, if you knew about Apple up to his death in 2011, you’d more than likely associate Mr. Jobs with the company he co’founded.

The key lesson is: make sure your brand is focused on what will sustain, scale, and expand. Because if you grow well, that reputation can carry with you, affecting your bottom line both in the positive or negative. It can go both either direction for a corporate or personal brand. The decision is up to you. Public relations should be ready to push the envelope across the table with continual news and offerings.