There’s been a hefty shift of trust in our society. The days of trusting corporations may not be totally gone, but they’re well on their way. Instead, we trust people and we like that personal touch.
This is why a lot of businesses are leveraging personal brands to boost their reach and increase their success. None are better at it, in my opinion, than these eight.
1. Pip Edwards – PE Nation
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It’s kind of crazy to think that PE Nation is only a couple of years old. Why? Because they’re a leader in the activewear industry, and for a scene so oversaturated, that’s no easy feat as a newcomer.
Besides obviously fire designs that officially embraced athleisure as high-end fashion, the company took advantage of co-founder Pip Edwards‘ already-high profile in the Australian fashion industry.
“We already have a voice piece, and someone that as a founder personifies the brand,” Pip explained in an interview with Forbes, “So I bring it to life and I think that’s totally invaluable, to humanise the brand immediately.”
2. Zoe Foster Blake – Go-To Skincare
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Zoe Foster Blake had a name for herself in the beauty game long before she started Go-To Skincare in 2014. She went from Beauty Editor to popular beauty blogger, to author, to one half of the adorbs couple that is her and Hamish Blake.
So when she started her own business in the beauty industry everyone was already on board with her image as a beauty expert. When she told the world she’d taken her expertise to create a natural product that stripped everything down to what actually worked, the world was ready to believe her.
3. Hayden Cox – Haydenshapes
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Haydenshapes is one of Australia’s leading surfboard brands, starting out in Sydney’s Northern Beaches during the 90s. It’s now sold in 72 countries around the world.
Designer and innovator, Hayden Cox, started out the business at just 16 years old, but he really made a name for himself when he invented the carbon fibre frame called FutureFlex (surfers absolutely know what this is) and revolutionised the surfing world. How did the word get out? It all started by word of mouth among other surfers in the community.
4. Jimmy Niggles – Beard Season
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Jimmy Niggles has the most famous beard in Australia, a particularly hard crown to earn given the whole hipster movement. His beard quite literally embodies his personal brand and spurs on his charity, Beard Season.
After losing his friend to skin cancer, he and a mate came up with the idea to start a not-for-profit that asked men to grow their beards for three months, get a skin check and use their lush beards as a way to pass on the message to others. No better way to promote such a thing than becoming THE go-to guy for beard advice.
5. Emily Weiss – Glossier
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If any of you love The Hills as much as I do – don’t you judge me – you’ll remember those few episodes where the ridiculous good Vogue intern showed up Lauren Conrad without even trying. Yeah that was Emily Weiss. The girl worked damn hard in the fashion industry, for famous brands like Vogue, Ralph Lauren and Conde Nast.
Using her reputation in the fashion (and reality TV world) she started Glossier and took it from a regular beauty blog to a $1 billion dollar direct-to-consumer beauty brand.
6. Leandra Medine – Manrepeller
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I personally live for the Manrepeller blog and so do a lot of people really, seeing as it literally sparked the term and cultural phenomenon of dressing for yourself, no matter what a potential love interest might think of the outfit.
Leandre Medine truly embodies the brand she created and is well-known for her honesty, personal convictions and quest to live life authentically. People love to love her, and love to love her brand.
“I was starting to feel more and more comfortable with my place in the world,” explains Leandrea on the UnStyled podcast when asked her inspiration for starting the brand. “I think that was really it.”
7. Sam Wood – 28 By Sam Wood
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Australia knows Sam Wood as season three’s Bachelor, where we ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ as we watch him fall in love with Snezana on screen, then continue on to marry her and pop out the first Bachie baby.
Before the show, he was already a qualified Personal Trainer with his own kid’s health and fitness company. Post-Bachie he used his personal brand to start online fitness and nutrition program, 28 By Sam Wood. Let’s be honest, it’s not the first program of its kind to be invented, but it’s going gangbusters because Sam was able to market his personal brand.
Ready to build your personal brand? It doesn’t mean you can just have a bomb Instagram and leave it at that. If you want to take your idea and your voice to the big leagues you need to incorporate a platform like Mailchimp into your equation so that you can design unique campaigns, dissect invaluable data and analytics and personalise your communication.
Go on, get out there and start marketing your fine selves.
