If you care about the environment would you by a hybrid vehicle? According to CNW Marketing Research, you shouldn’t. In their Dust to Dust report, which ranks cars based on their total energy consumption throughout their useful life (from concept to disposal), they reveal that hybrids waste more energy and cost the environment more in terms of dollars per mile than many large SUVs.

But, of course, those are just the facts. We don’t buy brands based on facts. We choose them for what they say about ourselves.

Conventional wisdom says that hybrids are better for the environment (facts be damn!) and driving one is the politically correct thing to do. We buy a Prius because what we really want is to be perceived as somebody who cares about the environment. Want to be part of the green crowd? A Prius will give you instant cred.

Similarly, you don’t pay three times more for Starbucks because it is three times better than your average cup of joe. You do it because you hope that some of the caché of that white cup of Grande Latte will rub off on you as you walk into your office.

Likewise, you don’t spend $11 bucks on sea salt because it tastes better than plain jane salt. You do it because, deep down, you want to be a little bit like that funny guy with an accent on Food TV.

The world’s best brands have high aspirational value. Rather than chasing customers, they have customers chasing after them because they make it easy for customers to make a statement about themselves. Not easy to achieve, but one thing’s for sure: just focusing on features and benefits is not going to take you there.

Photo Credits: Pascal Lagarde

In recent days, the blogosphere erupted in criticism against Michelle Obama for chowing down on a cheeseburger with fries while campaigning for a Democratic candidate for Congress.

Nothing wrong with eating a burger, but Mrs. Obama just happens to be the administration’s torch bearer for the initiative against childhood obesity and a vocal critic of greasy fast food.

From a purely personal branding perspective the cheeseburger episode weakens the First Lady’s credibility as a healthy food advocate.  If you want to build a strong personal brand, make sure that what you do matches what you say.

Photo by lricharz

Posted via email from Mario Sanchez Carrion | Posterous

In almost every professional meet-up I’ve attended in the past six months the question has inevitably come up: “is it really worth it to go to a job fair?”

The answer, of course, depends of what you expect.

Watching soccer back in South America, I could never understand why whenever a referee called a penalty kick against one of the teams, the players would immediately surround him and argue, sometimes yelling and making threatening gestures with their hands.

If you’ve watched soccer before, you know that a referee never takes back a penalty call. Why, then, do players even bother to argue over it? Simple: they do it to give the referee a guilt trip. They want to condition him into believing that the call was unfair so that his calls become more favorable later in the game.

While this strategy may seem questionable and childish, those players are just trying to shape the future to their advantage by influencing the decision maker. They understand that the current situation will most likely not change, but they want to ensure a better outcome in the future.

Going to a job fair expecting to get a job can be as frustrating as expecting a referee to take back a penalty call. Instead, go to the job fair to meet recruiters and peers, promote your personal brand, and expand your contact base to increase your chances of finding a job in the future.

You don’t go to a job fair to get a job. You go there to network.

I am not a gregarious person, but at the same time I’m a strong believer in the power of networking. That’s why I’ve developed a few habits and tactics to make my networking efforts easier. I’ll share them with you here:

1. Make full use of the Internet and social networks:

The Internet offers you many opportunities to network without necessarily having to meet people face to face. If you enjoy writing, you can start a blog. Blogging is a great way to meet interesting people (some of whom can become friends) and expand your contact base.

Social networks like LinkedIn or Twitter are also great for networking. I’ve used the “people search” feature of LinkedIn to find people that I hadn’t heard of in years.

Twitter is also very helpful. You can do a Twitter search for a topic you’re interested in, and start following people who’s tweets you find interesting. You can then visit their blogs, leave comments and start conversations. If you get to know them well, you can then ask them to join your LinkedIn network.

2. Arrive early to meet ups

Whenever I go to a meeting, I make it a habit to arrive very early, usually when only a couple of people are there. It is much easier to meet people this way than to come in late and try to break into a large group where conversations have already started.

3. Volunteer to help organize events

This is a great way to meet people. One of the best tasks you can volunteer for is to work at the entrance booth of a meeting. This way you will greet everyone who comes in, and strike conversations early and easily.

4. Do something unusual

You don’t need to dye your hair purple or introduce yourself with a song to strike a conversation. Something I’ve tried successfully several times is to write my Twitter handle instead of my name on my name tag.

Those who don’t Twitter usually ask what does @mariobox mean. On the other hand, those who know Twitter say: “Oh, great, you’re on Twitter. I’m on Twitter too… let me write that down so I can follow you”.

In either case, it always works. You can also try having a cool or unusual business card.

5. Volunteer to do a presentation:

This may sound counter intuitive, since most people fear public speaking. However, introverts may feel more comfortable speaking about something that they can prepare in advance, and having an audience that is ready to listen, rather than by talking to random people from scratch.

If you do a presentation people will also come to afterward to ask you questions or give you their business card. Being a presenter also makes it easier for them to remember you when you contact them in the future.

With the collapse of our financial institutions and the wave of foreclosures and bankruptcies sweeping the nation, it’s no surprise that employers are turning to the credit report as a tool to measure an applicant’s character.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows employers to have access to your credit information. While they still need your written permission to run your credit report, not granting it may give them the impression that you have something to hide.

My friend Hajj Flemings is one of the few personal branding experts who regularly talks about the importance of a good credit history for personal branding (he calls the credit report a “character report”), going as far as dedicating one chapter of his book The Brand YU Life to the subject of financial integrity.

The point is this: just as once-powerful brands like Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch are now worthless due to financial mismanagement, our personal brand can be negatively affected by poor personal finance habits. Fortunately, there are a few things that we can all do to improve our financial position in any economic environment:

• Go to annualcreditreport.com and request a copy of your credit report from each of the three major consumer reporting companies (you are entitled to a free copy every year). If you see errors, dispute them in writing . The reporting companies are required to investigate and correct any mistake within 30 days.
• Live within your means. If you don’t have the money don’t buy it (except for big ticket items like a car or a house).
• Keep a budget and stick to it. Study your budget and make small cuts every month, starting with the items you don’t need or use.
• Put every bill on automatic payment, to make sure you pay them on time.
• Use credit cards to build credit, not to buy stuff you can’t afford. Pay your balance in full every month.

You can also read this simple personal finance guide I put together a few months ago. It is short and easy to read, and will give you some guidelines on how to set up your financial accounts and develop good money habits:

I also highly recommend Ramit Sethi’s blog, and his new book I Will Teach You To Be Rich. Don’t get turned off by the tongue-in-cheek title: Ramit is one of the most knowledgeable and entertaining personal finance experts (until I discovered his blog, I didn’t know that reading about personal finance could be fun).

While presentations are meant to be delivered, and the slides by themselves don’t tell the whole story, I wanted to show it to you regardless, since I believe that in this case the main ideas will come through clearly enough.

The main audience is made of job hunters who are not really familiar with the web and social networks, and the objective of the presentation is to give them enough information and motivation in one hour so that they start experimenting with web tools for networking and personal branding.

Let me know what you think.

Owning your name domain is very important for personal branding.  Given the fact that .com has become the default extension, yourname.com should be your first choice. However, if you haven’t registered it yet and your name is very common, chances are that the .com extension is already taken. There are, however, some alternate options that can work just fine:

• Get the .org or the .net version, in that order. Lately, .name extensions have also become popular.
• Use either your middle name, your maternal last name, or your husband’s last name (in case you’re a married woman) to create a slightly longer, more unique name, increasing the chances that the .com extension will be available.  Several prominent bloggers use this technique: mariareyesmcdavis.com, davidmeermanscott.com, suzannefalterbarns.com and lukeharveypalmer.com are just some examples.  For this tactic to be successful, you will need to start marketing yourself using your full name (repetition builds awareness).
• If you think using two names or last names would make your domain too long, you can just throw in your middle initial, for example: michaeljfox.com, johntreed.com or georgewbush.com. Again, you will need to start marketing yourself using your middle initial to build awareness.
• Use your name plus the fist letter of your last name (or the first letters of your compounded last name, if you have one).  This tactic is commonly used in the offline world by those who have a last name that’s difficult to pronounce or spell.  Some examples are garyv.com (a Philippino singer, not our Gary V), chrisg.com and alexdc.org.  A variation of this tactic is to use your first initial (or your first and middle initials) followed by your last name (for example: agsinger.com and tdjakes.com).

My personal case

I have a compounded last name: Sanchez Carrion. While in Latin countries compounded last names are common, here in the U.S. they are rarely used.  That is why most people I know call me just Mario Sanchez.  Now, the name “Mario Sanchez” is as common as apple pie and, naturally, mariosanchez.com was already registered when I first tried to get it years ago, so this is what I did:

• I registered mariosanchez.org and created a Tumblr blog that I use as a repository of all my RSS feeds (my Twitter, my WordPress blog, my Posterous blog, etc).  I then placed prominent buttons on the right sidebar with links to my other sites. By linking to mariosanchez.org with the anchor text “Mario Sanchez” from my other sites, I’ve been able to consistently rank mariosanchez.org in the top three results for “Mario Sanchez” in Google.
• I registered mariosc.com (my name plus the first letters of my compounded last name), since it is short and memorable. Whenever I write my domain name on business cards, collateral, etc., I normally use a different color for the “s” and the “c” to make it easier to remember. I use mariosc.com as my home base, where I give a brief introduction about myself and post links to my blog and my different social media profiles.  I have also created three virtual “folders”: mariosc.com/blog (forwarded to ShoestringBranding.com), mariosc.com/twitter (forwarded to my Twitter page) and mariosc.com/linkedin (forwarded to my LinkedIn page). This gives these profiles a more “branded” feel in printed collateral, especially since I wasn’t able to register a handle with my name on those sites.
• I registered mariosanchezcarrion.com and forwarded it to mariosc.com.
• I’ve gotten into the habit of using “Mario Sanchez Carrion” instead of just “Mario Sanchez” to build brand. Lately, I’ve noticed that most bloggers are already using my compounded last name to link to me, so it seems to be working.

Final thoughts

Since most people looking for you will usually start by Googling your name (some even say Google is the new domain name, you can follow these tips to increase your Google visibility:

• Create profiles in the most important social networks, since they normally show up in Google’s first page (especially LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter). If your name is available as a handle, register it.
• If you have a blog under its own domain and you’re the only author, change the About Us page title to Your Name. This will give you a boost in Google.
• Register different extensions of your name and create different profiles or sites: for example you can use the .net extension for a Tumblr blog, the .org extension for a Nombray page, or the .tv extension for a video blog. This will create more touchpoints with your name, and increase the chance of having more results coming up under your name in Google’s first page.

All these tips reflect my personal situation and personal branding strategy, and they work for me. However, their effectiveness will depend on what you want to do. If you have other tips or want to share your particular case, please feel free to leave your feedback in the comments section.

Today was a particularly bad day for the job market, with several large companies announcing over 70,000 job cuts (you can see the total jobs lost so far in 2009 in this table).

While many of these layoffs were inevitable as the economy adapts to a more sustainable level of consumption, I wonder how many jobs have been lost simply for failing to quantify, articulate and communicate the value that these employees were providing.

The key is that your contribution must be perceived as being worth more than the money they’re paying you. How do you do this?

• By doing something exceptionally well and making sure the right people know about it.
• By becoming your company’s go-to-guy .
• By accomplishing more than you’re asked to.
• By bringing a solution (or two, or three) every time you bring up a problem.
• By working on reinforcing the positive mental associations you want others to recall when they hear your name.

There will be those rare cases when even all this won’t help, like when a whole company or division closes down. However, you can prepare for that worse case scenario by building your brand and your network of contacts outside your company, long before you need them.

By thinking in terms of career security instead of job security, you’ll run circles around those who just go through the motions when times are good, but don’t know where to start when the going gets tough.

I spent a good portion of last weekend doing some research on vision and mission statements. The difference had never been very clear to me, but somehow I had always thought of them as crucial exercises for companies and individuals who want to be successful.

What I learned is that the “mission” is rooted in the present, or the day to day, while the “vision” is anchored in the future.

A mission statement explains what is a company’s purpose or “claim to fame”. A vision statement, on the other hand, articulates a preferred version of the future: where a company wants to get as a consequence of following its mission.

Most companies keep their vision to themselves but are usually pretty open with their mission statements. Therefore, I started going through the mission statements of Fortune 500 companies and noticed that while some companies are very good at developing mission statements, most do a terrible job.

Bad Mission Statements

I found bad mission statements to have one or more of the following characteristics:

Stating the obvious:

“Our mission is to earn the trust and loyalty of our customers, business partners, and neighborhoods every day”, or “We provide outstanding products and unsurpassed service that, together, deliver premium value to our customers”.

Speaking in corporate cliches:

“We do business each day with absolute integrity, honesty and passion, partnering as a team to meet our consumers’ needs”.

Try to appear politically correct:

“We are committed to truly making a difference through the preservation of the earth’s resources and the betterment of our communities” (you would never guess that this company sells office supplies).

Internally-focused (or shareholder-focused) instead of customer-focused:

“To maximize shareholder value by enhancing financial performance and providing long-term profitable growth.”

All of the above are actual mission statements of Fortune 500 companies.

Good Mission Statements

On the other hand, I found that good mission statements are usually:

1. Short and memorable
2. Very specific (no generalities)
3. Expressed in simple language (no cliches or corporate speak)
4. Customer-focused
5. Easily understood by employees and customers alike

These are some examples of good mission statements (with the company name in parenthesis):

• “We will be the easiest pharmacy retailer for customers to use”. (CVS)
• “We fulfill dreams through the experience of motorcycling”. (Harley Davidson)
• “We help people save money so they can live better”. (Walmart)
• “We bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”. (Nike)
• “To build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” (Amazon)
• “To provide a global trading platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything.” (Ebay)
• “Our Goal is to provide the best claim service in the industry”. (Auto-Owners Insurance)

A good mission statement sets clear expectations for customers, focuses employees and provides a yardstick against which to measure the soundness of a business strategy.

Personal mission statements

A personal mission statement helps you make sure that the jobs and projects you take match your skills, interests, goals and values. A carefully crafted mission statement can help you avoid costly career mistakes.

To make your mission statement compelling don’t just ask yourself the usual questions: what do I do, for whom and what is the benefit?

Think bigger.

Ask yourself: what is my way of improving the world I live in? What is my platform? What is my message to the world? That is likely to produce a more powerful mission statement that you can embrace and feel excited about.

I’ve crafted my mission statement to be: “To empower business professionals through personal branding, so that they can live happy, successful lives”.

In the future, I may change it and refine it a little bit. For example, I could chose to focus on business professionals from a particular industry, or on a more specific aspect of a successful life, like improving work-life balance.

As for the “vision thing”, it is slightly more complicated and I haven’t figured it out completely yet, but it might be something along the lines of making a positive impact in the lives of every person I meet.

So, to wrap it up, here are my own, simple definitions of “mission” and “vision”:

Mission is what you do best every day. Vision is what gets you out of bed every day.

What’s your take?
.