When your brand is your business

Nigella Lawson doesn't like the idea of brand Nigella, despite her popularity. Photo: Wolter Peeters

There are Nigella Lawson books, apps, television shows and even a kitchenware line but the original domestic goddess says she didn't deliberately set out to create a brand.

Lawson is in Australia filming MasterChef's "Nigella week" and speaking at a series of Business Chicks events around Australia and says despite her omnipresence "I don't feel it's a brand because it's just me".

There are so many different demands on me that I don't wish to be a commodity. 

Nigella Lawson

Brand control

Mia McCarthy made a conscious decision to use her name in her business name Yummia. Photo: Supplied

Earning an estimated $3 million a year, Lawson says she does everything herself.

"Not being a good delegator is not something I would recommend to everyone and I can get overloaded," Lawson says. "But what I do is I work with people who I respect and who are talented but I can't let anyone do my work for me."

Lawson says "her work" includes everything from sketching the designs for her own kitchenware line and posting on her Twitter and Instagram accounts.

"Which is why recipe of the day is often late," she quips.

Lawson does make it a priority to identify talented people to work with her for the work that she does delegate.

"One of the things I have learnt about working life is when people are very talented and confident they are very open to other peoples' ideas," Lawson says. "When they are insecure and less talented they are aggressive and territorial and I can't work with those people."

Lawson says because she is so hands-on she doesn't see herself as a brand. 

"I think with branding you have people being you or doing stuff that feels like it is you and it is not," she says.

"There are so many different demands on me that I don't wish to be a commodity." 

Branding applies to everyone

While Lawson may not like being described as a brand, she is, according to Jane Anderson, author of Impact: How to Build Your Personal Brand for the Connection Economy.

Anderson says branding applies to everyone because each of us has a unique identity. 

"Your personal branding is the message that comes to mind when someone thinks or talks about you," Anderson says. 

"It is all encompassing and affiliates with your vision, values and purposes, as well as those abilities that others associate with you. Your brand tells people three things:

1. Who you are;

2. What you do or how you add value;

3. What makes you unique."

People are as interested in the story as the product

Mia McCarthy, founder of Yummia, has used her unique story to help build her dairy business, which turns over $500,000 a year.

The first step was McCarthy's "definitely conscious" move to use her name as part of her business name. 

"With my name it worked quite well," she says. "I didn't have to have my name in the business but I also think it's good it works. I didn't want to call it Mia McCarthy Muesli but I wanted to choose a name that could lend itself to other things."

McCarthy quickly discovered that the story behind how she started Yummia, making her bircher muesli at home and then getting a supermarket deal, was an asset to her fledgling business 

"It seemed to be where we got the most attention and the most amount of publicity," McCarthy says. "When I first started selling the product people were often as interested in the story as they were the product." 

McCarthy says a personal story that adds to your business brand is a "really great marketing tool" and if you've got it, it is worth using.

"People love a story and they love being able to speak direct to the founders," she says. 

McCarthy says being so closely associated with your business is a "massive privilege", as you've created something and people associate it with you.

"I feel sometimes it puts the pressure on a bit, you kind of think, 'Oh god I hope I can maintain this'," she says.  "It's not necessarily a bad thing but it does make you accountable for how the business goes."

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