Beyond Brand Building: When You Are Your Brand

We are seeing a shift in what it means to be a brand and how to build your brand.

From about 2007 or 2008 -- alongside the rise of social media as a mainstream technology -- we cultivated a mindset around building our personal brands (where the winners were the ones shouting the loudest). This in turn led us to reimagine business brands where the focus was on humanizing those brands. Brands evolved beyond the words and visuals to describe them and manifested more as “what we do, is our brand.”

In recent times, this evolution has continued as brand building has focused on greater authenticity, transparency and empathy. This evolution has been inspired by consumers who have become more demanding of the businesses that supply them of products and services. Gone are the days where branding was considered a marketing activity purely for the benefit of the company doing it.

Not sharing your why? It’s time to start.

Today branding is about being open and accessible. It's about telling the stories behind the company you're building and the products you sell. Founders are sharing their "why's" publicly ever since Simon Sinek convinced us that "people will do business with people that believe what they believe." Consumers are more picky than ever when deciding the brands they are willing to support. Read more

Adii Pienaar - Entrepreneur - 12 June 2017