Your Professional Brand: Creating a Brand Essence Statement for Your Career

Abstract

Although not all MBA students end up working in a marketing function and/or on a brand per se, all students will develop a professional brand, whether it is proactively built or created through happenstance. This exercise helps guide students through a process to think strategically about how to develop their professional brand at work. It is used in conjunction with a technical note that details how to build brands using a tool called the Brand Essence Statement. In this exercise, students are asked to use the tool to create their own Brand Essence Statement, focused primarily on the brand image that the students wish to achieve as a full-time employee. This exercise is appropriate in a general marketing, brand management, or strategic marketing course at the undergraduate or graduate levels during a module focused on branding. It should be used in conjunction with the technical tool and a discussion on Brand Essence Statements. Excerpt UVA-M-0887 Rev. Aug. 13, 2018 Your Professional Brand: Creating a Brand Essence Statement for Your Career It's this simple: You are a brand. You are in charge of your brand. There is no single path to success. And there is no one right way to create the brand called You. Except this: Start today. Or else. —Tom Peters . . .