Building a Strong Business Brand the Ellen DeGeneres Way

If you follow my Facebook page you’ll know I share a lot of Ellen’s content on my social networks. Ellen DeGeneres is one of the most popular daytime TV show personalities. Add to that a net worth of about $285 million and a yearly salary of $65 million and you have a Hollywood powerhouse and a great success story.

DeGeneres has not always had the type of success she enjoys today. She started off doing standup comedy in lesser known clubs in her home town in Tennessee. Today, her personal brand is one of the most recognized, with her daytime show attracting over 4 million viewers.

How did a young, unknown stand up comedienne build a multi-million dollar worldwide brand?

She highlighted her individuality

DeGeneres is openly gay. When she first disclosed this in late 1997 in an episode of her sitcom Ellen, her show was cancelled. Losing her show was, at the time, the worst experience in her career. However,she continued to discuss her status even on popular TV appearances such as on the Oprah Show.

Her ability to showcase and be proud of who she was and to leverage this has earned her popularity among the LGBT community and the heterosexual audience as well.

Ellen is now recognized as the first openly gay TV talk show host. Her style and appearance are certainly different from the typical female TV host. Her success can be attributed to this remarkable capability to differentiate herself from the pack.

Leveraging opportunities to showcase her brand

Strategic self-promotion goes a long way in helping to build your business and personal brand.

Essentially, branding means making your business, merchandise, assets and yourself ubiquitous to your target audience.

When providing a celebrity endorsement for a guest on her show, DeGeneres usually gives away all sorts of merchandise with her smiling face embellished on the products or packaging.

Of course, the products or services she is endorsing are not hers. However, she always takes the opportunity to make her personal brand pervasive by giving away or endorsing products that carry her trademark face.

Whether on social media, at events or in your own in-house branding routines take advantage of opportunities to remind your audience about your brand and what you stand for.

Ellen Understands Social Media Is Indispensible In the Branding Matrix

Ellen’s famous Oscar selfie broke the record for having the greatest number of retweets in just a couple of minutes.

On this occasion, two brands leveraged the dynamic power of social media- Samsung and DeGeneres herself.

The popular tweet was taken on a Samsung Galaxy. Samsung was the event’s official sponsors and did a great job promoting itself.

Ellen too understands the power of social media. She made her intention clear by asking followers to help make the selfie the most retweeted tweet and her fans helped make that a reality. Unsurprisingly, the following day, the Ellen Show received more viewership than it ever had in its 11 years.

Lesson: Plan your social branding to ensure that you are projecting your best image to your audience. Do not be afraid to piggy-back on significant events to promote your brand because such opportunities could be your best shot at making more sales, generating more traffic and building greater brand awareness.

DeGeneres humanizes her brand

Ellen began her career in standup comedy only by chance. While still young, she once used comedy to overcome her stage fright. Her quick wit and humor set the foundation for her successful career in acting, comedy and TV hosting.

The laid-back, easy to talk to host is known for her iconic dance at the start of every Ellen show. These warm and human attributes have helped DeGeneres create a likeable brand that everybody can relate with.

There is more to a company than just its products or services.

If you are selling to people, you are better off connecting with these people by showing them the human side of your brand.

Humanizing your brand entails a wide range of activities for example, having a community manager who engages one-on-one with customers; having an easy to access and pleasant customer support team; sharing pictures of your team across your chosen social media platforms, sharing with customers a video featuring a personal message from the company owner etc. If it’s just you in your business, even easier – just be you! People will love you for it.

All these activities serve to put a human face on your brand and in turn make it easy for customers and prospects to connect with you.

Be unforgettable

Ellen DeGeneres is now a household name in spite the fact that she started her career from complete obscurity. Her ability to humanize her brand, highlight and leverage her differences and to take advantage of every small opportunity makes hers an unforgettable brand.