U R a Brand! How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success [Hardcover]

Catherine Kaputa (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0891062130 | ISBN-13: 978-0891062134 | Publication Date: April 15, 2006 | Edition: 1

Today's hottest business concept meets the realities of the modern workplace. U R a Brand! delivers 10 key personal brand strategies that aren't taught in business school--or anywhere else. Like a personal branding coach right by your side, Catherine Kaputa reveals the inside secrets of Madison Avenue product branding and applies these tried-and-true principles and techniques to a dynamic new strategic branding process for individuals. U R a Brand! highlights the self branding odysseys of savvy professionals who have repositioned their experience and talents in pursuit of the corner office and budding entrepreneurs launching their own business ventures--all from the personal brand strategist and executive coach who helped them achieve their success.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Finalist for Career Book of the Year. -- ForeWord, June 2007

If you're seeking new ways to get ahead in a very competitive business world, this book can teach you how to brand yourself as a success. -- Innovation, August-September 2008

If you're seeking new ways to get ahead in a very competitive business world, this book can tell you how to get yourself branded. -- getAbstract, September 2007

Loaded with advice and tools. To learn how to deploy the strategies, you need to read the book. -- ExecuNet, August 14, 2006

Winner of the Ben Franklin Award for Best Career Book. -- Publishers Marketing Association, June 2007

Book Description

If you're seeking new ways to get ahead in a very competitive business world, this book can teach you how to brand yourself as a success.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing; 1 edition (April 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891062130
• ISBN-13: 978-0891062134
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Catherine Kaputa is a personal branding strategist, speaker, workshop leader and author. She is the founder of SelfBrand, a NYC-based personal branding company (www.selfbrand.com ).

From Madison Avenue to Wall Street to the halls of academe, she perfected how to brand and market products, places and companies. Catherine learned brand strategy under Al Ries and Jack Trout at Trout & Ries Advertising. She led the award-winning "I Love New York" campaign at Wells Rich Greene. For over ten years she was SVP, Director of Advertising and Community Affairs at Citi Smith Barney, and taught advertising at NYU's Stern School of Business.
Yet Catherine discovered that the most important application for branding is not products, places and companies - it's for individuals to define and own their career identity.

Personal branding can help people create more success for themselves and the companies they work for, the topic of her book, U R a Brand, How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success, winner of the Ben Franklin award for Best Career Book 2007 (www.urabrand.com ).

Catherine is also active as a speaker and workshop leader on women's leadership, the topic of her new book: The Female Brand: Using the Female Mindset for Business Success (Davies Black, June 2009, www.femalebrand.com ).

Catherine has spoken at a wide range of corporations and organizations as part of talent development, sales force meetings and diversity and women's initiatives - organizations focused on creating career and leadership development opportunities particularly during turbulent times. Clients include PepsiCo, Microsoft, Intel, UBS, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bank of New York, UST and others. (For more information contact: [e-mail]. Visit www.selfbrand.com. Catherine blogs at www.artofbranding.com ) You can follow her at www.twitter.com/Catherine Kaputa

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Many books in this category, this is one of the better, May 30, 2006

By 

Tom Carpenter "- www.sysedco.com" (Marysville, OH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: U R a Brand! How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success (Hardcover)

I have been a BIG believer in the personal brand for years. Books like Be Your Own Brand and Book Yourself Solid, I feel, do a better job than this one. However, there are many great ideas in this book and it should not be overlooked. Every author brings his or her own perspective and ideas and there are definitely a number worth noting in this resource.

Here are the ideas I particularly found useful, and you will want to read the book to understand them fully:

-Using testimonials in your resume. I never thought I'd see this one, but it's a great idea. Place quotes in your resume from your references. After all, they've agreed to be a reference, right?

-Use the principles of visual identity. To have a whole chapter on creating a look for your personal brand seemed - at first - to be overkill, but the more I thought of it, the more I realized that the most successfull people in history seem to look very similar in all their photos. This gives you immediate recognition - particularly if you can develop a brand look that is unique but not downright silly.

-Harness the power of signature words and phrases. This is an amazing concept that is little known and used. I've been teaching seminars and training classes for nine years and, in that time, I've seen the power of signature phrases unfold. The concept is to come up with a unique combination of words you can use in just about every setting of five minutes conversation or more. This allow you to use the phrase frequently and be branded by it.

These are just a few of the good ideas. If you've read Be Your Own Brand and Book Yourself Solid, I'd read this book next. If you haven't read the other two, buy them and read them, then read this book. I'm not sure, but I think you get a discount here at Amazon when you get all three. Anyway, brand yourself and find success...

Tom Carpenter, Author: Wireless# Certification Official Study Guide, CWSP Certification Official Study Guide, and Foundations of Effectiveness

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Self Brand = Higher Perceived Value, December 17, 2007

By 

Larina Kase "New York Times Bestselling Autho... (Based in Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: U R a Brand! How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success (Hardcover)

I read this book on a Sunday (it takes a lot for me to dedicate my whole Sunday to a book, so that give you an idea what I think of the quality).

The most important message that I took away is, whatever you do, when you have a brand, you'll have more value.

If you have a job, having a brand for yourself will increase the perception of your value in the eyes of key stakeholders (your boss, your customers, your team-members, etc.). This means that YOU control how they see you, and you can position yourself for what you want- a raise, a promotion, greater respect, increased responsibility, new customers, whatever.

If you own a business, having a brand for yourself will increase the fees that you can command. Everyone wants to hire or buy from the best, and your brand will show how you are just that. You become memorable (because brands are memorable) which means that your marketing process becomes much easier.

With a brand your clarity and confidence greatly increase. You know what your value is and can therefore articulate it to others.

The takeaway message that Catherine Kaputa says is essentially: If you don't brand yourself, someone else will, and it probably won't be the brand you want.

Don't let that happen. Read this book.

Larina Kase, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Confident Speaker

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth your money and time, September 29, 2007

By 

Jaewoo Kim "OB-Wan" (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: U R a Brand! How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a book to enhance your career, this book should be in your list. It says, flatly, that being good and skilled in your job is insufficient in getting head. It is actually more important to be perceived and noticed as a person of excellence.

It should be noted that the author already assumes you have some marketable skills. Without it, you don't have anything to build a brand around. "If you don't stand for something relevant to the marketplace, you have no value", states the author.

Influencing how others perceive you and your ideas starts with a building a brand. One must brainstorm one's strengths and how one's strengths align with the market (or employer) values. Then one should focus on one's strengths and highlight its relevance in the marketplace in a emotionally connecting way.

Branding is executed primarily through visual (good attire, personal appearance, body language) and verbal (communication through effective rhetoric and tone). The book also highlights the paramount importance of gettting noticed by the right people. If you are not invited to the right meetings, author notes, you are dead in the water (of real career progression).

Overall, I felt this book contained as much good career advice as any I have read. I highly recommend it.