Brand, in vocational psychology dictionary

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Dictionary of Vocational Psychology

Brand

Once reserved to describe efforts to create unique identities for products and services that were immediately recognizable, the concept of branding is increasingly also applied to individuals, as "personal brands." In a sense, the brand is the public, interpersonal analog of vocational identity, which is having a clear sense of one's own characteristics and career objectives. It differs from the concept of vocational identity in that it also emphasizes that one's unique 'position' must differ from that offered by others. The creation of a personal brand reportedly calls for planning and attention over time, and requires building self-awareness, developing a brand position statement (just as a business does), brand promotion, and essentially marketing one's brand through a network of contacts. This notion of promoting and marketing one's brand is similar to recommendations by many career counselors for clients to engage in networking, sending out resumes, and so on. However, personal branding carries this concept further and stresses the importance of personal marketing to a greater extent, because the effort is not merely to get and keep a job, but to become increasingly identified by all others with a unique market position. No empirical research has yet been conducting on measurement of personal branding or its use in career interventions.

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