Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel

Today, I interviewed Rob Frankel. Rob has managed to seize spot #1 in Google for “branding expert” and his blog is #3, which is extraordinary. I’m on page 2 and hope one day to be as successful as Rob. You might have seen him on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams or on FOX with Neil Cavuto. He’s been called “the best branding expert on the planet,” by Fortune 1000 companies and media like CNN, CBS News, FOX News, NBC Nightly News, ABC News, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, London Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg News Media , the Washington Post, INC magazine and more. He also commentates on branding issues in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the New York Times and CBS Marketwatch Radio. Rob is also a fellow blogger. He is quick and to-the-point with his answers, which allows you to remember his message.

1) Rob, how do you define the term “brand”?

Branding is not about getting your prospects to choose you over your competition; it’s about getting your prospects to see you as the only solution to their problem. As long as you’re perceived as “the only solution” to “their” problem, your brand is good to go, no matter what you’re branding.

2) What is the difference between building an online brand versus an offline one?

None. People are people. A strong brand functions in any medium and affects people in those media the same way.

Why do we need both in the new millennium?

Because that’s where people are. Not everyone is in the same place at the same time.

3) How did you become known as the “best branding expert on the planet”?

Originally, that’s how Jaclyn Easton described me in her book, StrikingitRich.com. It stuck and then clients began evangelizing me that way.

Does that mean the media views you as the top spokesperson or that is what you wanted to be in the first place (maybe both)?

Both. It’s nice to be known that way.

4) What was your brand strategy with the various web properties you have, including robfrankel.blogspot.com, frankel-anderson.com, frankelbiz.com and revengeofbrandx.com?

Those are only a few of the web properties. We also have i-legions.com and peermailing.com. Each one truly is “the only solution” to clients’ problems. Each has its own brand strategy and all are complimentary to one another. But everything begins with a strong brand strategy, which is why the portal to everything in my practice is RobFrankel.com. That’s where the branding lives. Everything else provides strong, revenue-producing, measurable results from the executions of those brand strategies.

5) Over the course of your career, how much weight have you seen placed on branding, as opposites to other marketing topics?

Well, there’s been a lot — tons — of weight placed on what people mistakenly think is branding, but very little on real, tangible, accountable branding strategy. The vast majority of branding people are actually warm-over designers, public relations people or old ad agency types. These are executional practices, not strategic. This is why I wrote The Revenge of Brand X, by the way. To point out the differences and set the expectations of what real branding should deliver.

6) Out of the 3,000+ social networks plaguing this earth, what are your top 5 favorite brands?

1) FEDEX
2) Harley-Davidson
3) Sears DieHard
4) P.F. Flyers
5) Apple