The American Marketing Association had the pleasure of hearing Monica Skipper, VP of Brand Experience at FedEx speak to over 1,400 members of the American Marketing Association this past weekend at the AMA Collegiate Conference in New Orleans.
Skipper kept the large audience engaged by testing their brand recognition using partial sections of logos of some of the world’s most iconic brands like Disney, BMW, and Nike. More, Skipper asked the audience what the first word that came to mind when thinking about each. So, for Disney it was magic and Nike it was shoes. This exercise was a precursor, meant to get the crowd thinking about how each member of the audience should be thinking about themselves as a brand.
The audience was challenged to compare how we view ourselves versus how others view us. An interesting technique Skipper shared to help in creating a personal brand was to follow the phrase be-do-say: be who you are, do what we say using the products and tools we have, and communicate our own personal brand the way we want others to perceive us. This technique allows assurance in the assumption that we are expressing our personal brand the way we would like.
Skipper compared personal branding to FedEx’s brand by saying your personal brand won’t develop over night. FedEx Corporation was incorporated in 1998 and has been evolving their brand ever since. Their long history has allowed the company to create a brand that stays true to who they are. As Skipper said, “consistency over time builds trust and a strong brand.”
After having the pleasure of listening to Monica Skipper speak about FedEx’s and how to create a genuine personal brand, all of the students in the room were left thinking about how they were going to move forward in creating their own positive brand.
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