• Your CEO is possibly the most underutilized marketing channel you have
• You have to be strategic about how to deploy your CEO’s brand in order to drive the right impact in the most authentic and credible manner possible
• Your CEO requires a smart approach to “media” – pick the places where they’ll be and where they won’t be, and own them

Not everyone – actually, no one – was like John Legere. The former T-Mobile CEO was probably the best example of a “branded leader” there is. He dressed in T-Mobile gear to build awareness, he grew his hair out to appeal to T-Mobile’s target demographic and he ran a livestream on Facebook called “Slow Cooker Sunday” where he cooked live for his fans out of his home.

 That last one may sound odd, but it’s all part of a pretty potent branding plan. T-Mobile, the self-proclaimed “Un-Carrier” looks, feels and sounds nothing like the rest of the telecom industry; and John Legere, the “Un-Telecom CEO” looked, felt and sounded nothing like a telecom CEO.

 Sometimes it may be easy to think that a brand like John Legere’s just happens naturally. But the reality is, Legere built his own brand quite intentionally. From an article in Business Insider:

Legere said that as he was giving interviews to the media on his first day as CEO, he coined the phrase “the Un-carrier,” to describe what T-Mobile under his watch would become … He may have already been in his mid-50s, but he needed to look the part. He began experimenting with different combination of loud clothing options, eventually settling with long hair, a bright magenta T-Mobile T-shirt and accessories, and usually a black jacket of some kind.

There’s no doubt that Legere was naturally a disruptor who believed in the mission of T-Mobile. But it was his willingness to go all in on this positioning – from his wardrobe to openly sniping Verizon on Twitter to crashing AT & T parties – that made him such an effective example of leadership branding.

While a Legere-level leadership brand is rare, there is still an important broader lesson to be learned: a CEO’s brand is one of the most effective-yet-underutilized marketing channels in a business’ marketing mix. Here are three critical considerations to deliver and deploy an effective leadership brand.

Consideration 1: The Business Link

As mentioned, a CEO’s voice is critical in building a brand. The number one question to ask is – what does your brand need help building? Are you a financial services company that needs to feel more approachable? Are you a company that needs to be seen as doing good for the community in order to establish goodwill with various stakeholders? Are you trying to be a bold innovator in the healthcare space? Are you a disruptor that needs to look, sound and feel different from everyone out there?

In the case of CEO branding, you should know what that one core objective is so that you can use your CEO’s bully-pulpit to drive it. But it may also be good to have a broader list of needs for your brand. The reason? Not every CEO can deliver against every need – they’re humans, after all, with a specific personality, various comfort levels and personal preferences. Having a list can help you match your CEO’s preferences to your brand’s core need(s).

Consideration 2: Make It Authentic (And Keep Your Job)

If we’ve all learned one thing in adulthood, it’s that changing a company is hard, but changing a human being in a business setting is 99% impossible.

Ask yourself what your leader can authentically deliver and who they authentically are. Are they more down to earth than the average CEO? Are they doing unbelievable things for charity? Are they quasi-crazy, brash innovators? Use what’s already there to your advantage.

Don’t swim against the stream and tell your CEO to change their external delivery. Instead, swim with the current and find what they are already passionate about that builds your brand. Tap into that and you’ll have a much more authentic, organic messaging platform to build from. (And, you’ll still have a job when all is said and done.) 

Consideration 3: Delivery Matters

It’s not just about messaging – it’s also about where you deliver the message. Just like with any branding initiative, you have to pick your place that’s authentic and differentiating. The old, rote, “post on every social media platform and do some PR” approach will maybe get you somewhere. But being strategic will get you much further.

Gary VaynerChuk needs to be the smartest digital marketer out there for VaynerMedia, so he is all in on social 1,000,000,000,000%. Just look at his responsiveness and frequency on the platforms. Ray Dalio is a principled, “higher order” guru in the hedge fund industry – so he doesn’t just have a book, he has an animated YouTube series that brings the book to life. John Legere had slow cooker Sunday and did nothing on LinkedIn. Todd Carmichael used to have a TV show about being a globe-trotting coffee-hunter.

Be creative. Be strategic. Pick your place and do big things. And stop wasting time trying to do everything else.

But Wait! There’s More … Including Some Villains

There really is, but unfortunately, the thought leadership powers-that-be say that 800-1,000 words is all you will read, given that you have the attention span of a goldfish.  Candidly, you probably haven’t even made it this far in the article. But if you have, and you want to know more about leadership branding, email info@havesubstance.com and we can have a conversation. There’s a process you’ll want to go through, there’s some tonality you’ll want to think about, there are villains you need to consider (no, really!), and much, much more.