‘What has my personality got to do with my company’s brand?’ you may ask.

Well, ‘everything’, according the CEOs of some of the world’s largest and most successful organisations.

More and more often, and in today’s incredibly competitive market, we need more than just a great product or service. Increasingly, the need to relate to and to respect the people behind this product or service is being felt. And what better place to start this ‘brand personalisation’ than with the boss?

We’re going to take a look at how some of the big-hitters go about creating and maintaining their own, personal brands using design and social media.

It’s important to recognise, of course, that this ‘personal branding’ isn’t purely the domain of CEOs, though. People want to do business with people. As business owners, as freelancers, as professionals, we’re encouraged to maintain just one Twitter account, for example. The days of living separate professional and personal lives seem to be in the past.

First up – who else? Donald Trump.

As the newly-elected President, Donald Trump’s personal brand has been subject to enormous exposure. But the bedrock of it wasn’t created on the spot. Trump’s fortune was made initially via rental housing, and, later, hotel chains and numerous associated enterprises. And throughout this time a brand – based on luxury, power and tradition – elevated his company (in perceived success, rather than actual success, possibly) above the competition.

Donald Trump has never been shy of displaying his wealth, and the tools we all have at our disposal – design, tone, graphics, typography, use of social media channels – have been employed expertly to reflect this pride, and to back up his public conduct and his business philosophies.

The Bold and the Beautiful

Throughout the Trump family of brands, logos favour traditional, almost regal, serif fonts to communicate a sense of class and superiority.

As Patrick Bateman and co. in American Psycho will vouch, a business card can say a lot about you.

And Trump doesn’t miss a trick in using his card to bolster his image as a successful and truly international businessman – it features a gold logo construct; powerful, capitalised text; and a translation on the reverse. Whilst there’s no doubt he does business in Asia, there’s also little doubt this translation is included to remind us of that very fact.

Leading the followers

On social media Trump likes to post motivational quotes. They’re concise, punchy – again they seem proud and unapologetic – celebrating his success and inspiring others to follow suit.

His success – while questionable in pure business terms and arguably largely inherited – is treated as definite and entirely self-generated. Occasional use of photographs of Trump ‘in action’, and hashtags featuring his own name, paint a picture of a no-nonsense, plain-speaking – and persistently successful – tycoon.

Quite what Donald Trump’s brand has become over the past year as a presidential candidate (and now as president elect) is an entirely different matter… and mercifully beyond the scope of an article about branding for business.

Next up, we’ll take a look at Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington…