Branding in the Age of AI, Part II

bydeelilah

1.4K followers

1 year ago

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than you." (Dr. Suess)

Uncovering the Shades of Brand, Voice, and Tone

In part one, I used an example of how I used an AI program to uncover and describe my voice as a writer, which one generally has (a voice), whether aware of it or not. In doing so, we took a short, but somewhat deep dive into the source/s and development of our uniquely individual voices.

Furthermore, I attempted to show how the larger term, brand, encompasses a trio of terms: Brand, Voice, and Tone. And having read other marketers calling it "Brand DNA", I went with that in Part I and will continue along that vein now, using a little less philosophy and a few more nuts and bolts. I hope.

How Things Fit Together

Personal Brand Vs Business Brand, The Same, But Different

After looking into the subject of "branding" a bit further, I discovered we all have a personal brand, which may, or may not, need tweaking.

Don't be foolish. We all have something about us that needs some fixing. Since that truth is a hard one to accept, we may need to work to uncover and overcome our weaknesses. And we may (probably will) find there are some things that simply cannot be fixed. In that case, we find a way to compensate.

Ideally, this self-evaluation would occur before we launch our business, though it often doesn't. But be of good cheer! It is never too late!

Tweaking or no tweaking, we do need to understand how the two concepts of personal branding and business (also known as corporate) branding are different but fit together.

It does all start with DNA. Consider your personal brand as a prequel to your business brand.

Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?

Some of Us Just Need to Break-Out of Our Shell

Why does it matter, defining these terms, if they are so similar? And why the chicken or egg question?

Think of your business as an extension of yourself. It could be the other way around, you as the extension of your business-- but that won't work. Why? Because, if you're weak going in, and you are your company's example, your company will be weak.

It's the DNA example: if you are genetically disposed to melancholy, say, until you fix yourself, you will bring that trait along with you and it will be a sad day, the day you launch that company.

Going forward, let's discover how to use our personal tools, our strengths, in sounding forth our best voice, in the proper tone, to the ideal audience.

At the same time, it is imperative we figure out our weaknesses.

Some of us have weaknesses we cannot change. It could easily be physical, like getting older and slower. But to be effective marketers, we must figure out how to overcome. Oh, let me praise my AI helpers right now!

Let's start with a Mission Statement, a SWOT Analysis, and a Business Plan. Watch for more on these subjects, coming soon.

Someone's Perfect Customer

Someone Else's Perfect Customer

Don't forget, our customers also have a personal brand. Do we need to modify our delivery? In a marketing discussion, this coin has two side. Heads up! Customer wins! Chances are probably over 99%, your customers do not give two hoots about who you are. They are them-- and they know what they want. Get what I'm saying?

When you know yourself, understand your own personal style/brand/voice, you will much better understand who your customer is-- and how to talk to them.

De plane! De plane!

This phrase just popped into my head. It was like, "Yes, boss, we're going to make someone's dream come true. Yay!"

Imagine my surprise when I googled that phrase and learned there is an updated version of Fantasy Island. Apparently there are two audiences who may relate to that saying. Me and you.

It pays to dig a little deeper. Which audience are you in? I may need to adjust my tone.

This article started out about how AI could help us out in discovering our voice, so in that vein, I tried, and this was the best Bing Image Generator could do.

Apparently, Bing has not heard of the original version of Fantasy Island.



On with the show!

I remembered from the 1980's, various studies and quizzes, which determined one's personality type among, usually, four possibilities. You may be familiar with A, B, C, and D type personalities. The following illustration gives them a name.

The Four (supposed) Personality Types

In a different lifetime, I was prepared when I needed to be. In this lifetime, it's a good thing I'm good under stress, or you would never be privileged to see the end of this post.

You see, I have made it (one) of my goals to never be "voiceless". It is in my DNA to be first, a Thinker, and then, if not overcome by stress (so far, so good), a Director.

BUT-- one of my personal (I guess) DNA faults is to be a mixed-up mess, and unorganized to the max.

You get the picture. Figure out your own personality profile and what might be going awry. And try to fix it. Ha ha!

You may have noted a change in my tone. This is what happens late at night and my neural networks are shutting down.

_____________________________________________________________

Carrying on, it's a new day. I asked Claude, my newest, favorite, large language model, AI chat assistant, about this, meaning the four personality styles.

He had more new titles, that I had not heard yet, for the four personality types. But he's very smart and he got the gist of the (my)program right away.

The following, or very similar, were my prompts:

I said: Would you say there is a difference, and if so, what is the difference between personal branding and business branding?

His answer was basically the same as you read here, so far, but much less nonsensical than mine, one might say clearer and easier to read. I will label him Type X with a leaning toward Type C.

He expressed his brand and I am expressing mine. Fair enough?

Continuing, my interview with Claude:

I said: There was a study, once, on four personality types. Please name the four personality types and then write a paragraph, or more, if you want, on each of the four personality types.

Claude answered:

Intro:

There are four main personality types - Analyst, Diplomat, Sentinel, and Explorer. Your personality can impact how you approach building an affiliate marketing business. Let's explore how each type might differ.

Section 1: The Analyst

- Focused on logic, systems, and data

- Likely to thoroughly research affiliate programs and pick based on commissions and data on conversion rates, etc.

- Will test different marketing methods and meticulously track performance

- Will build systematic processes to scale their affiliate promotions

- Unlikely to be very experimental or risk-taking

Section 2: The Diplomat

- Focused on relationships and collaboration

- Likely to promote affiliate products they genuinely like and believe in

- May focus on one niche they are passionate about connecting with

- Will build relationships with followers and promote affiliate products through conversations

- May collaborate with other affiliates rather than compete

Section 3: The Sentinel

- Focused on practicality and reliability

- Will pick simple, useful affiliate products to promote

- Likely to stick to proven conventional marketing tactics

- Will take a steady, consistent approach rather than chasing quick wins

- Unlikely to take risks, will follow affiliate program terms dutifully

Section 4: The Explorer

- Focused on novelty, innovation, pushing boundaries

- Likely to promote unique, innovative affiliate products

- Will experiment with creative off-the-wall marketing tactics

- May change approaches frequently to keep things fresh

- Willing to take risks and break conventions to stand out

Conclusion:

- Personality influences how we approach problems and tasks

- Play to the strengths of your personality type when building your affiliate business

- But also be aware of your natural blindspots and consider compensating for them

Me: Spellcheck says Claude misspelled "blind-spots".

My Building Materials

My Crew

What Tools Will You Choose?

I suggest the tools we choose speak to out Brand DNA.

Understanding this may help us to choose our niche and our audience.

In the field of affiliate marketing-- and in any field requiring one to write, or speak, or sell, in some way share information, we use a voice, our uniquely branded voice, first personal, then business. We are scaling our brand.

These traits of yours will also help you to identify what type of customers you're interacting with and how to speak to them. This is probably the most important thing to understand.

Stay tuned for more on tone, as I promised, more on the business side of branding, which we have barely begun, and more on the customers' personalities. Are we up for Chapter Three?

Whether they're analytical, amiable, expressive, or driver, four more, new to me, words to describe A, B, C, D personality types, we are coming close(er) to understanding why and how to craft compelling content specifically catered to our customers' preferences.

Thank you for reading. See you next time.

Donna (aka Deelilah)