Cognitive mapping the topic of personal branding

Cognitive mapping the topic of personal branding

Joseph Kim-keung Ho

Independent Trainer

Hong Kong, China

Abstract: The topic of personal branding in the subject of Business Management is complex. By making use of the cognitive mapping technique to conduct a brief literature review on the personal branding topic, the writer renders a systemic image on the topic of personal branding. The result of the study, in the form of a cognitive map on personal branding, should be useful to those who are interested in the topics of cognitive mapping, literature review and personal branding.

Key words: Personal branding, cognitive mapping, literature review

Introduction

As a topic in Business Management, personal branding is complex. It is thus useful to employ some learning tool to conduct its study, notably for literature review purpose. For a teacher in research methods, systems thinking and management, the writer is specifically interested in finding out how the cognitive mapping technique can be employed to go through a literature review on  Personal branding. This literature review exercise is taken up and reported in this article.

On the cognitive mapping exercise for literature review

Literature review is an important intellectual learning exercise, and not just for doing final year dissertation projects for tertiary education students. On these two topics of intellectual learning and literature review, the writer has compiled some e-learning resources. They are the Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page and the Literature on literature review Facebook page. Conducting literature review with the cognitive mapping technique is not novel in the cognitive mapping literature, see Eden and Simpson (1989), Eden, Jones and Sims (1983), Open University (n.d) and the Literature on cognitive mapping Facebook page. In this article, the specific steps involved in the cognitive mapping exercise are as follows:

Step 1: gather some main points from a number of academic journal articles on Personal branding. This result in the production of a table (Table 1) with the main points and associated references.

Step 2: consolidate  the main points from Table 1 to come up with a table listing the cognitive map variables (re: Table 2).

Step 3: link up the cognitive  map variables in a plausible way to produce a cognitive map (re: Figure 1) on the topic under review.

The next section applies these three steps to produce a cognitive map on personal branding.

Descriptions of cognitive map variables on the personal branding topic

From the reading of some academic articles on Personal branding, a number of main points (e.g., viewpoints, concepts and empirical findings) were gathered by the  writer. They are shown in Table 1 with explicit referencing on the points.

Table 1: Main points from the personal branding literature and referencing

Main points from the personal branding literature	Referencing
Pont 1: " Personal branding is a strategic process – it is about intentionally taking control of how others perceive you and managing those perceptions strategically to help you achieve your goals. We all have a personal brand to a certain extent though most people don’t realise it and do nothing to manage it – yet it has a big impact on us all. Your personal brand influences whether you are considered for jobs and other opportunities, it determines how credible your opinions and ideas are, it determines how much help other people will give you, how seriously your competitors take you".	Wilson, G. 2003. A summary of Montoya, P. 2002. "The Personal Branding Phenomenon" Personal Branding Press (url address: http://www.the-confidant.info/uploads/montoya.pdf) [visited at June 6, 2017].
Point 2: "Brands are generally built on one area of specialisation. There are obvious examples of people stretching these, like Richard Branson, but the majority are based on just one. It is important to keep the brand simple, and to avoid diversification in favour of becoming even better at the core activity".	Wilson, G. 2003. A summary of Montoya, P. 2002. "The Personal Branding Phenomenon" Personal Branding Press (url address: http://www.the-confidant.info/uploads/montoya.pdf) [visited at June 6, 2017].
Point 3: "It is important, however, when developing your online and offline brand, including your leadership brand, to do it with integrity, authenticity, and consistency. Hernez-Broome, McLaughlin, & Trovas (2007) said “Think of effective self-promotion in terms of strategic visibility, meaning that leaders are intentional in the way they publicize, what they share, and how they communicate” (p. 13)".	Ward, C. and D. Yates. 2013. "Personal Branding and e-professionalism" Journal of Service Science 6(1): 101-104.
Point  4: "Rather than focusing on self-improvement as the means to achievement, personal branding seems to suggest that the road to success is found instead in explicit self-packaging: Here, success is not determined by individuals’ internal sets of skills, motivations, and interests but, rather, by how effectively they are arranged, crystallized, and labeled—in other words, branded".	Lair, D.J., K. Sullivan and G. Cheney. 2005. "Marketization and the recasting of the professional self" Management Communication Quarterly 18(3) February: 307-343.
Point 5: "...we define branding as a programmatic approach to the selling of a product, service, organization, cause, or person that is fashioned as a proactive response to the emerging desires of a target audience or market (see Cheney & Christensen, 2001). In personal branding, the concepts of product development and promotion are used to market persons for entry into or transition within the labor market".	Lair, D.J., K. Sullivan and G. Cheney. 2005. "Marketization and the recasting of the professional self" Management Communication Quarterly 18(3) February: 307-343.
Point 6: ".... because personal branding offers such a startlingly overt invitation to self-commodification, the phenomenon invites deeper examination".	Lair, D.J., K. Sullivan and G. Cheney. 2005. "Marketization and the recasting of the professional self" Management Communication Quarterly 18(3) February: 307-343.
Point 7: " It is important to note that developing and identifying your personal branding is a never-ending journey. With personal branding, you establish the value you are able to consistently deliver. In other words, it can be viewed as your professional value contribution. It is a “mixture of perception and promise that describes the other person’s experience of having a relationship with you.”..".	Trepanier, S. 2014. "Personal Branding and Nurse Leader Professional Image" Nurse Leader June: 51-57.
Point 8: " One way to start the journey to personal branding as a nurse leader is to keep in mind the 7 essential behaviors .... of effective leadership: 1. Understand the future of healthcare 2. Always see opportunities 3. Anticipate the unexpected 4. Always demonstrate passion and excitement (if you don’t, why should others do?) 5. Demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit 6. Be generous 7. Always lead with purpose and intent to leave a legacy".	Trepanier, S. 2014. "Personal Branding and Nurse Leader Professional Image" Nurse Leader June: 51-57.
Point 9: "... an executive aiming to promote his organization within the context of their personal branding would likely use mission and values based messaging in their personal branding communications, and effective, well-received personal branding communications of an organization’s executives can serve to bolster that organization’s corporate image and reputation".	Nolan, L. 2015. "The impact of executive personal branding on non-profit perception and communications" Public Relations Review 41, Elsevier: 288-292.
Point 10: "A pervasive anxiety about finding and staying employed has accompanied these changes (Fullerton & Wallace, 2007; Van Horn, 2013), as organizations have turned from investing in long-term employees to hiring temporary and contract workers. This trend has spawned a small industry of career and marketing professionals who have found a career niche in helping job seekers create personal brands and market their personal narrative identities using tactics originally developed to sell products and services (Williams, 2014)".	Brooks, A.K. and C. Anumudu. 2016. "Identity Development in Personal Branding Instruction" Adult Learning 27(1), Sage: 23-29.
Point 11: "Personal branding is the deployment of individuals’ identity narratives for career and employment purposes. Trainers, career and vocational development consultants, and personal branding enthusiasts publish books and articles and conduct workshops to teach individuals to build their personal brands to become more employable and successful. Instruction and advice are also freely available via websites, pamphlets, social media, libraries, and the popular press, contributing to a vibrant public pedagogy for adults (Sandlin, Wright, & Clark, 2013)".	Brooks, A.K. and C. Anumudu. 2016. "Identity Development in Personal Branding Instruction" Adult Learning 27(1), Sage: 23-29.
Point 12:  “Having your own blog and sharing your thoughts is like gradually creating your own brand.....  There are so many thoughts on your mind and so many ideas that you want to write about them all. However, that leap from taking the thoughts from your mind and putting them on paper is the toughest. Along with that, of course, is finding the time to do it".	Krell, E. 2014. "Gupta, M.: The Rationale Behind Personal Branding" dmnews.com March: 16-17.
Point 13: "Once considered a tactic only for celebrities and leaders in business and politics, personal branding becomes an important marketing task for everyday people [4] [5], [6], [7] [8]. The Web 2.0 has enabled anyone to create profiles and web pages, which makes the Web a perfect platform for personal branding [9], [10]".	Khedher, M. 2013. "Dramaturgical perspective of online personal branding" Computer and Information Technology (WCCIT) World Congress June 22-24, Sousse Tunisia.
Point 14: "Personal branding is defined as varied activities undertaken by individuals to make themselves known in the marketplace [11], [12]. That people can be considered as brands, everyone has a personal brand and that regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business, and everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark, that, personal branding if applied correctly can transform any person into a brand in any field [17], [18]".	Khedher, M. 2013. "Dramaturgical perspective of online personal branding" Computer and Information Technology (WCCIT) World Congress June 22-24, Sousse Tunisia.
Point 15: " Personal brand identity is based on inherent internal characteristics that make a person different, unique, and stand out from the crowd to compete in the world of work and external elements encompass the person’s relationship with other people. Personal brand should be founded on authenticity, the brand proposition is the promise of value to the market demand and should clearly reflect a person‘s purpose, uniqueness, passion, professionalism, expertise, and values".	Khedher, M. 2013. "Dramaturgical perspective of online personal branding" Computer and Information Technology (WCCIT) World Congress June 22-24, Sousse Tunisia.
Point 16: "Taking place in the virtual world, personal brands can be experienced on different types of social media sites such as facebook, twitter or blogging, and that each site has its own unique architecture, culture and norms".	Khedher, M. 2013. "Dramaturgical perspective of online personal branding" Computer and Information Technology (WCCIT) World Congress June 22-24, Sousse Tunisia.
Point 17: "Personal branding strategies are clearly aimed at developing reflexivity because they encourage actors to engage in careful and critical self-assessment about their relative strengths and weaknesses. The ultimate goal is for an actor to make use of this self-knowledge to better influence how he/she is perceived".	Wee, L. and A. Brooks. 2010. "Personal Branding and the Commodification of Reflexivity" Cultural Sociology 4(1), Sage: 45-62.
Point 18: "Personal branding strategies also downplay the complexity of social interaction, yet ironically they also stress its importance since (it is claimed) if interactions are not properly handled, then the goal of building a strong personal brand will, ultimately, be an unsuccessful one".	Wee, L. and A. Brooks. 2010. "Personal Branding and the Commodification of Reflexivity" Cultural Sociology 4(1), Sage: 45-62.

With a set of main points collected, the writer produces a set of cognitive map variables. These variables are informed by the set of main points from Table 1. These variables are presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Cognitive map variables based on Table 1

Cognitive map variables	Literature review points
Variable 1: Drivers of interest in personal branding	Point 10: "A pervasive anxiety about finding and staying employed has accompanied these changes (Fullerton & Wallace, 2007; Van Horn, 2013), as organizations have turned from investing in long-term employees to hiring temporary and contract workers. This trend has spawned a small industry of career and marketing professionals who have found a career niche in helping job seekers create personal brands and market their personal narrative identities using tactics originally developed to sell products and services (Williams, 2014)". Point 11: "Personal branding is the deployment of individuals’ identity narratives for career and employment purposes. Trainers, career and vocational development consultants, and personal branding enthusiasts publish books and articles and conduct workshops to teach individuals to build their personal brands to become more employable and successful. Instruction and advice are also freely available via websites, pamphlets, social media, libraries, and the popular press, contributing to a vibrant public pedagogy for adults (Sandlin, Wright, & Clark, 2013)". Point 13: "Once considered a tactic only for celebrities and leaders in business and politics, personal branding becomes an important marketing task for everyday people [4] [5], [6], [7] [8]. The Web 2.0 has enabled anyone to create profiles and web pages, which makes the Web a perfect platform for personal branding [9], [10]". Point 16: "Taking place in the virtual world, personal brands can be experienced on different types of social media sites such as facebook, twitter or blogging, and that each site has its own unique architecture, culture and norms".
Variable 2: Improve intellectual understanding of personal branding	Pont 1: " Personal branding is a strategic process – it is about intentionally taking control of how others perceive you and managing those perceptions strategically to help you achieve your goals. We all have a personal brand to a certain extent though most people don’t realise it and do nothing to manage it – yet it has a big impact on us all. Your personal brand influences whether you are considered for jobs and other opportunities, it determines how credible your opinions and ideas are, it determines how much help other people will give you, how seriously your competitors take you". Point 5: "...we define branding as a programmatic approach to the selling of a product, service, organization, cause, or person that is fashioned as a proactive response to the emerging desires of a target audience or market (see Cheney & Christensen, 2001). In personal branding, the concepts of product development and promotion are used to market persons for entry into or transition within the labor market". Point 14: "Personal branding is defined as varied activities undertaken by individuals to make themselves known in the marketplace [11], [12]. That people can be considered as brands, everyone has a personal brand and that regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business, and everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark, that, personal branding if applied correctly can transform any person into a brand in any field [17], [18]". Point 15: " Personal brand identity is based on inherent internal characteristics that make a person different, unique, and stand out from the crowd to compete in the world of work and external elements encompass the person’s relationship with other people. Personal brand should be founded on authenticity, the brand proposition is the promise of value to the market demand and should clearly reflect a person‘s purpose, uniqueness, passion, professionalism, expertise, and values".
Variable 3: Effective personal branding practices	Point 2: "Brands are generally built on one area of specialisation. There are obvious examples of people stretching these, like Richard Branson, but the majority are based on just one. It is important to keep the brand simple, and to avoid diversification in favour of becoming even better at the core activity". Point 3: "It is important, however, when developing your online and offline brand, including your leadership brand, to do it with integrity, authenticity, and consistency. Hernez-Broome, McLaughlin, & Trovas (2007) said “Think of effective self-promotion in terms of strategic visibility, meaning that leaders are intentional in the way they publicize, what they share, and how they communicate” (p. 13)". Point  4: "Rather than focusing on self-improvement as the means to achievement, personal branding seems to suggest that the road to success is found instead in explicit self-packaging: Here, success is not determined by individuals’ internal sets of skills, motivations, and interests but, rather, by how effectively they are arranged, crystallized, and labeled—in other words, branded". Point 7: " It is important to note that developing and identifying your personal branding is a never-ending journey. With personal branding, you establish the value you are able to consistently deliver. In other words, it can be viewed as your professional value contribution. It is a “mixture of perception and promise that describes the other person’s experience of having a relationship with you.”..". Point 8: " One way to start the journey to personal branding as a nurse leader is to keep in mind the 7 essential behaviors .... of effective leadership: 1. Understand the future of healthcare 2. Always see opportunities 3. Anticipate the unexpected 4. Always demonstrate passion and excitement (if you don’t, why should others do?) 5. Demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit 6. Be generous 7. Always lead with purpose and intent to leave a legacy". Point 9: "... an executive aiming to promote his organization within the context of their personal branding would likely use mission and values based messaging in their personal branding communications, and effective, well-received personal branding communications of an organization’s executives can serve to bolster that organization’s corporate image and reputation". Point 17: "Personal branding strategies are clearly aimed at developing reflexivity because they encourage actors to engage in careful and critical self-assessment about their relative strengths and weaknesses. The ultimate goal is for an actor to make use of this self-knowledge to better influence how he/she is perceived".
Variable 4: Learn from personal branding practices	Point 6: ".... because personal branding offers such a startlingly overt invitation to self-commodification, the phenomenon invites deeper examination". Point 12:  “Having your own blog and sharing your thoughts is like gradually creating your own brand.....  There are so many thoughts on your mind and so many ideas that you want to write about them all. However, that leap from taking the thoughts from your mind and putting them on paper is the toughest. Along with that, of course, is finding the time to do it". Point 18: "Personal branding strategies also downplay the complexity of social interaction, yet ironically they also stress its importance since (it is claimed) if interactions are not properly handled, then the goal of building a strong personal brand will, ultimately, be an unsuccessful one".

The next step is to relate the cognitive map variables to make up a cognitive map on personal branding. The cognitive map and its explanation are presented in the next section.

A cognitive map on personal branding and its interpretation

By relating the four variables identified in Table 2, the writer comes up with a cognitive map on personal branding, as shown in Figure 1.

These cognitive  map variables, four of them altogether, are related to constitute a systemic image of personal branding. The links in the cognitive map (re: Figure 1) indicate direction of influences between variables. The + sign shows that an increase in one variable leads to an increase in another variable while a -ve sign tells us that in increase in one variable leads to a decrease in another variable.  If there no signs shown on the arrows, that means the influences can be positive or negative.  For further information on personal branding, readers are referred to the Literature on personal branding Facebook page.

Concluding remarks

The cognitive mapping exercise captures in one diagram some of the main variables involved in personal branding. The resultant cognitive map promotes an exploratory way to study personal branding in a holistic tone. The experience of the cognitive mapping exercise is that it can be a quick, efficient and entertaining way to explore a complex topic such as personal branding in Business Management. Finally, readers who are interested in cognitive mapping should also find the article informative on this mapping topic.

Bibliography

1.      Brooks, A.K. and C. Anumudu. 2016. "Identity Development in Personal Branding Instruction" Adult Learning 27(1), Sage: 23-29.

2.      Eden, C. and P. Simpson. 1989. "SODA and cognitive mapping in practice", pp. 43-70, in Rosenhead, J. (editor) Rational Analysis for a Problematic World, Wiley, Chichester.

3.      Eden, C., C. Jones and D. Sims. 1983. Messing about in Problems: An informal structured approach to their identification and management, Pergamon Press, Oxford.

4.      Khedher, M. 2013. "Dramaturgical perspective of online personal branding" Computer and Information Technology (WCCIT) World Congress June 22-24, Sousse Tunisia.

5.      Krell, E. 2014. "Gupta, M.: The Rationale Behind Personal Branding" dmnews.com March: 16-17.

6.      Lair, D.J., K. Sullivan and G. Cheney. 2005. "Marketization and the recasting of the professional self" Management Communication Quarterly 18(3) February: 307-343.

7.      Literature on cognitive mapping Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/Literature-on-cognitive-mapping-800894476751355/).

8.      Literature on literature review Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/literature.literaturereview/).

9.      Literature on personal branding Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/literature.personal.branding/).

10. Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/managerial.intellectual.learning/).

11. Nolan, L. 2015. "The impact of executive personal branding on non-profit perception and communications" Public Relations Review 41, Elsevier: 288-292.

12. Open University. n.d. "Sign graph" Systems Thinking and Practice (T552): Diagramming, Open University, U.K. (url address: http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/T552/) [visited at April 10, 2017].

13. Trepanier, S. 2014. "Personal Branding and Nurse Leader Professional Image" Nurse Leader June: 51-57.

14. Ward, C. and D. Yates. 2013. "Personal Branding and e-professionalism" Journal of Service Science 6(1): 101-104.

15. Wee, L. and A. Brooks. 2010. "Personal Branding and the Commodification of Reflexivity" Cultural Sociology 4(1), Sage: 45-62.

16. Wilson, G. 2003. A summary of Montoya, P. 2002. "The Personal Branding Phenomenon" Personal Branding Press (url address: http://www.the-confidant.info/uploads/montoya.pdf) [visited at June 6, 2017].