PPMAG.COMBEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND
One of foundational principles of any good
portrait, particularly a personal brand por-
trait, is to begin with the end result in mind.
To do this effectively, you have to understand
who your client is and what he or she is pro-
moting. Then consider the audience that will
be viewing the image and what will appeal
to them. When you’ve understood these ele-
ments, you can begin to create the portrait.CREATE AN AVATAR
DeLoache likes to create avatars of his cli-
ents’ ideal customers. Like a marketing per-
sona, these avatars are conceptual images
of his clients’ target audience. He then uses
these avatars to help guide the creation of
the client portrait. What would appeal to the
client’s customer? What characteristics are
they looking for in the people with whom
they do business? What will create a positive
emotional connection?For example, for his business, DeLoache
focuses on executives. So he created an ava-
tar of his perfect client, built from the real-
world demographics of his best clients over the
years. This avatar’s features include age, gend-
er, income, education level, interests, hob-
bies, social outlets, and every other element
DeLoache can reliably record. “With that av-
atar in mind, I craft my message and my vi-
sual communications,” he says. “I design ev-
erything specifically to appeal to that avatar.”APPEAL TO THE SUBLIMINAL
Ultimately, a brand portrait should sublim-
inally encourage people to contact the sub-
ject. “When most people see someone walk-
ing down the street, they form dozens of
opinions about that person in a fraction of a
second,” says DeLoache. “Humans are con-
ditioned to act that way. So we need to por-
tray the appropriate characteristics through
those subliminal messages right away.”64
4 PRINCIPLES OF A BRAND PORTRAIT
- Assured competence
- Resolute trust
- Shared values
- Authenticity