Category Archives for "Brand Magnet"

A recent examination of Amazons catalogue indicated there are over 1.8 million business books available, with 22,161 new books added just in the last 90 days.

But how many of them get read?

According to Amazon 2015 sales data, on average 37 business books are sold each day. But they lag far behind the massive fiction book sales (634 sales per day) and rank 8th in non-fiction sales, well behind teen & young adult, religion & spirituality, children’s books and biographies.

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Of course business books are not always written to be sold. Many are used to provide profile for the author, to add credibility to their credentials.

The e-book has become the modern day business card, and it definitely helps to launch a personal brand when you have a book to your name. It’s just that not all business books are created equal, probably because it’s just a bit too easy to produce one.
So why do so many business books never see the light of day?

Fear is a funny thing. It’s possibly one of the most powerful influencers inside the entrepreneurs brain.

The fear centre of the brain, or Amygdala, works on memory and emotion, it generates that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, the fluttering butterflies and sweaty palms.It’s not all bad though, the Amygdala is there to keep you alive, so that’s pretty useful.

It stops you from making bad decisions and reminding you of pain or suffering to avoid repeating mistakes.

Fear also stands for False Expectations Appearing Real though, and that can have serious consequences for your personal brand.

In the study of Neurobranding it has been enlightening to undercover how our brain subconsciously deals with the 5000 branded messages it is hit with every day.
Given there are so many messages, it's not surprising that we miss many of these messages on a conscious level, but they do get through to our subconscious brain, and form attitudes and beliefs we are not even aware of.
That's why consistency and repetitiveness is so vital for a stand out brand.

Is there a hidden message in your brand that targets
that subconscious level?

?

When you have a personal brand, your marketing decisions become very simple and easy.

The latest news that !2 Years A Slave Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong'o is now the face of Lancome is a true example of this.

Lupita recently spoke at Essence, the Black Women in Hollywood organisation where she told the heart wrenching story of her own desire to "whiten" her skin, praying to God to do this for her as she slept because she believed it would make her more beautiful. Of course her Mother told her she already was beautiful, but the magazines, media and world around her didn't give her the same message. It wasn't until she saw a stunning (and very dark skinned) model in the media that she began to develop her self confidence and acceptance that she was indeed, a very beautiful person, both inside and out.