High Visibility

The Importance of Being Visible By Brett M. Decker Success in business is often based on philosophical nuances. For example, there is a fine but essential difference between vanity and a desire for high visibility. Vanity, according to one raggedy old dictionary, is excessive pride in qualities or appearances that lack genuine value. The hunt for high visibility, on the other hand, is often part of an effort to add value to individuals, organizations or operations that already have legitimate worth but would benefit by calling greater attention to their positive traits. The newly released, highly revised third edition of High Visibility: Transforming Your Personal and Professional Brand (McGraw-Hill, 2006, $27.95), by Michael Alan Hamlin, Philip Kotler, Irving Rein and Martin Stoller, takes a hard look at why being seen can be as important as having vision. The book's first nuggets of classical business wisdom center on the fundamental need to establish a brand identity. Essentially, this boils down to crafting, controlling and communicating an individual and recognizable image. As the authors write, the goal is to "deeply imprint the product in the minds of some target audience so that it is well understood, recognizable, desirable--and recalled when buying decisions are contemplated." In this way, branding is one of the fundamental tactics to successful business strategy. This manner of imaging is no longer chiefly in the realm of corporations, as individuals increasingly are developing their own personal brands. In the case of an entertainer such as Jennifer Lopez, also known as J Lo, personal celebrity is used to sell consumer products based on her fame itself. Or in the case of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, a CEO's swashbuckling image provides an identity for a corporate brand despite the fact that most of its diverse product line has little to do with Sir Richard's personality. He simply adds an instantly recognizable face and reputation to the conglomerate's name. As these two case studies reveal, visibility is intrinsic to branding. Whether it is by walking down the red carpet at the Academy Awards, giving a speech at a charitable event, or by having her personal life exposed in the tabloids, J Lo maximizes her profit by maximizing her visibility. The more she appears in public, the more of her records or name-brand blue jeans she sells. Or as Mr. Hamlin and his co-authors put it, "In an age when people, places and things can be mass manufactured and easily made into commodities, name recognition becomes one of the few saleable factors that can bring a premium in a competitive marketplace." Turning a good reputation into a solid brand is not only for superstars and corporate titans. The same rules apply in a small town, in a firm, or within a given profession. At the heart of the matter is the concept of transformation, which is based on studying what is needed at a particular time and changing oneself to be able to satisfy these nee

Hollywood's star system pervades global culture. While there are tens of thousands of aspiring actresses in film capitals around the world, only Reese Witherspoon can command $18 million a picture. Whether you sell real estate, defend criminals, lift faces, opine on the economy, or consult to managers, you are among millions of others aspiring to reach the peak of your profession. And why not? In these and many other endeavors, the top fraction of 1% receive a disproportionate share of the rewards. The Third Edition of High Visibility can help you win this star system. Having just completed reading the book, there were four sections that particularly caught my attention: * Chapter 4's Visibility Hierarchy introduced a compelling way to chart an individual's visibility on a two dimensional scale mapping visibility duration (from a day to forever) against visibility reach (from global to international). I found this a useful way to assess one's position in the hierarchy and to consider one's future. * Chapter 5's 22 Major Storylines highlighted popular media story concepts such as "success/failure/success" or "the big break" illustrating them with individuals who fit these storylines. This list struck me as a very useful way to brainstorm story ideas for editors and writers. * Chapter 6's four basic charisma strategies fascinated me. Detailing approaches such as "The Impressive Stranger" or "Charisma Through Audience Mastery" I was struck by the example of how Scarlett Johansson's performance in Lost in Translation helped her emerge from the pack. * Chapter 11's Visibility Life Cycles presented seven standard patterns of visibility which reinforced to me the evanescent nature of fame -- highlighting the need to adapt effectively in order to maintain visibility. While I was flattered that Chapter 6 began by recounting how I've tried to generate visibility over the years, I found the concepts and anecdotes presented here offered me new and thought-provoking insights. If you're aspiring to reach the top of your profession, High Visibility is a must read.

NOTE: The remarks which follow discuss the updated third edition of a book first published in 1987 and then revised ten years later. Be aware of the fact that several of the other Customer Reviews are of earlier editions. As the authors explain in their Preface, "In High Visibility, we address the growth of visibility seeking and the contribution of visibility and strong personal brands to competitiveness and opportunity generation in a systematic format....Central to the book's foundation is the concept of [begin italics] transformation [end italics], the process that aspirants typically undergo to become personal and professional brands. We take the reader through all the stages of the transformation process, including brand generation, testing, refinement, realization, distribution, and sustaining." Here are some of the questions to which the authors respond brilliantly: 1. How to break through a cluttered, fragmented, and global marketplace? 2. When doing so, how to manage and balance the demands of the private-public self? 3. How to prioritize public and private goals and aspirations? 4. How to achieve visibility more cost-effectively? 5. How to formulate an appropriate high visibility strategy? 6. How to integrate technological decisions with that strategy? 7. How to inventory your talent threshold and, when doing so, be realistic? I greatly appreciate the authors' provision of all manner of reader-friendly sections and devices which both summarize key points and facilitate convenient review later of those. For example, Figure 3-7 (page 46), which illustrates the "Structure of the Visibility Industry"; a boxed check-list (page 75) which identifies and then briefly explains the reasons why intensive transformation and image-building activity, while accelerating in all sectors, are doing so at different rates; another boxed check-list (page 146) which identifies and then briefly explains five focal areas of the cultural environment that are especially important to monitor; and finally, for present purposes, a brief but revealing review (page 287) of the publicist's ten most major functions. Near the end of their book, the authors discuss business executive Ed Brill and wellness doctor Steven Lamm who have successfully adapted to the new visibility environment by combining their talents with visibility practices and principles. Others who also aspire to do so must focus on two critical issues: "First, no matter how the competitive environment changes, aspirants must pay close attention to the fundamentals of high visibility marketing as they are the centerpieces of any plan. Second, aspirants must be aware of the future challenges that impact the process of attaining visibility and be prepared for powerful responses." The authors then suggest five key principles to guide and inform such initiatives. For several reasons, this third revised edition of High Visibility is far superior to earlier editions. First and obviously, the auth

First, I read the 1987 edition of this book. Saying it is pretty much the same and just mildy updated...This isn't a nuts-n-bolts how-to book on becoming a celebrity. For that, you'll have to read elsewhere. HOWEVER, this is an absolute must-read for all wannabe, current, and former celebrities and those that make people celebrities. I've never come across a book that has exposed the foundations of celebritydom as this book has. It's "Audience Intensity Ladder" alone is worth picking up this book. Since 1987, I've regularly re-read my highlights of this book and I commonly recommend it to the posters of the four business newsgroups I co-moderate. Those being misc.business.marketing.moderated, misc.business.moderated, misc.business.consulting, and misc.entrepreneurs.moderated.