What We Can All Learn From “The Oprah Personal Brand”

When you stop and think of celebrities, you really get that their personal brand is what they have to promote.  That’s when people really understand the power of having a strong personal brand.  When you stop and think of Brand Oprah, you really get the power of a strong personal brand.

Coming from humble beginnings, Oprah Winfrey has managed to promote herself and her mission so well, we are often left awe-struck.  Along the way, via her show she has sold everything from books (Oprah’s Book Club) to Spanx, to Sprinkles cupcakes.  She consistently had “favorite things” shows where vendors donated their products in return for her genuine endorsements. It is estimated that when Oprah tweeted live on the air, US web traffic shares by Twitter increased by 24%. When Oprah offered free grilled KFC chicken, there were 10.2 million coupons downloaded for free KFC.  When she featured Spanx on air, the company sold 50,000 pairs of their product in three months. Get the personal branding power picture?

Whoever came on her show was likely going to sell and be a success afterwards.  Any endorsement made by Oprah carried some serious weight. This phenomenon is because Oprah was genuine and authentic. We were never in doubt about what her mission was with her show- to educate, inform, help charities and along the way build other businesses.  She knew who she was and thus, sold it well.  Whether you like Oprah or not, you have to respect her for her achievements.

As any great personal brand expert/marketer would do, she has expanded her reach constantly- from magazines (O Mag) to education. She has also stayed relevant by launching the careers of other experts who she liked- Dr. Oz, Nate Berkus and Dr. Phil, to name a few.  She has moved on now to the cable industry and we’ll see how her OWN Network does.

As far as personal branding and strong community service/charity platforms, Oprah is queen. Oprah’s Angel Network, a grant-making nonprofit has been operating successfully throughout Oprah’s career. In fact, fans of Oprah donated an estimated $80 million to the nonprofit alone!

Oprah’s personal brand is associated with celebrity, charity, education and successful launches of products.  What else could you ask for?

What does this mean for you?  Stop and learn from expert personal brander, Oprah.  You don’t have to be as big as Oprah to have an impact on the rest of us with your personal brand.  If you have a well-thought out, strong, confident, authentic personal brand where you help others you will have a positive impact on as many people as you can imagine. No one is too small or too unknown in my opinion. It all depends on how “big” you are willing to play in your life.

So step up to the plate, build a genuine and effective personal brand and play big in life! Others will appreciate you for it.