
Angelina Jolie on goodcircle.org
Originally uploaded by goodcircle.org
But the personal brand is not just a name, it is linked to outcomes. What is it that you are known for? Tightly linked to the personal brand is an understanding of its power to create change and achieve outcomes. Angelina is one of those celebrities who are known for leveraging their celebrity to assist causes. Let’s take a look at how Angelina uses both her celebrity and her personal brand to achieve her leadership outcomes.
CEO of Angelina Inc
Way back in 1997, Tom Peters wrote about The Brand Called You and set in chain a whole personal branding industry. Personal branding is about branding and marketing yourself and your career — taking lessons from the marketing and advertising industry and applying them to yourself. As Tom explains, personal branding is both easy, hard and inescapable:
Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.
As with any brand, there are what marketers call the “four Ps” that you need to be aware of:
But the celebrity as leader goes beyond the four Ps, adding a new dimension — Power (or the 5th P).
The Power of the Brand
Angelina is well known for her commitment to social causes — especially those related to children and education. And perhaps more importantly, she is also committed to networking and bridging the gap between the causes that she supports and the global business community. She has attended Davos, worked with the UN High Commission for Refugees and recently become involved in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) — you can see the press conference below. Listen to the murmur in the room before she arrives and watch as the camera flashes light up when she arrives. This is power in action. Here Angelina is manifesting the five Ps.
These are children who most need a safe place to learn; a place to heal; a place to learn reconciliation and a place to just be children. Some think we should only provide emergency relief to children in conflict … they say education is not lifesaving. All of us here today would beg to differ.
These are not words alone. This is a call to action. Angelina is articulately positioning herself and her audience as active participants in the solving of a problem.