IS PERSONAL BRANDING ARROGANT?

“Son go, your sins are forgiven thee”. In a society where the forgiveness of sins was a tedious process presided over by the self-righteous Pharisees, that was the height of arrogance! The question in their minds and on their lips was “who is this man to utter such words?” Jesus Christ made no pretences about the matter; He is superior to others.

Any brand which cannot claim superiority to others which are competing with it is doomed. Simple! The very essence of branding lies in differentiation; the ability to prove to people that it has something to offer which others cannot or do not. Does this mean that every brand must be ‘superior’? There may not be a straight-cut answer to this question but take the example of the car rental brand; AVIS. It is definitely not the first and faced an uphill task convincing people that it is better than the dominant brand in that market; HERTZ. It adopted an unusual strategy which admitted that it was not the first but represented that fact to mean that they were prepared to work harder to get and maintain the customer. Their tagline reads: “We’re Number two. We try harder”. I call that arrogance dressed in humble garb!

The word ‘arrogance’ usually connotes something negative but then one of its synonyms is the word ‘superior’. It is very important to note however that what people usually term arrogance is the ability to do effortlessly that which competitors are struggling to do. A footballer who converts half chances to goals with annoying ease and walks away like it was just a casual pass is seen as arrogant as is a professor who analyses a knotty issue with irritating simplicity or even a lawyer who characteristically presents superior logic in arguing a case. It is of course incumbent upon a brand to ensure that such perceptions are mitigated by avoiding a condescending (incidentally another synonym) attitude.

To answer the question posed by the title; Yes, an element of arrogance is inherent in personal branding.

                                             Put some magic in your brand!

                         ......Olatunji Ladi Adejumo