Brand Storytelling

Try Richard Branson’s 5-Step Personal Branding Formula

October 2, 2024
Richard Branson Brands

Are you interested in improving how you market and sell your product or services?

Or how you can better communicate the value of your professional skills and expertise?

Then I want to share with you the brilliant 5-step formula that Richard Branson used to build his global Virgin Empire.

He used this branding formula to create brands that people love all over the world.

Remarkably, he is the only entrepreneur alive to have built 12 billion-dollar companies in 8 different sectors.

Some of the most well-known company brands under his hugely successful Virgin brand umbrella are:

1. Virgin Atlantic (airlines)
2. Virgin Mobile (telecommunications)
3. Virgin Music (media)
4. Virgin Money (finance)
5. Virgin Galactic (space travel)

How To Use Richard Branson’s 5-Step Personal Branding Formula:

When taking his big ideas and turning them into brands, Richard always asks himself these 5 questions:

1. Do people want what I’m planning to make or offer?

2. How can I create and deliver it at a price they are willing to pay?

3. Can this product or service deliver on the promise I make with people?

4. How will I let people know about what I’ve created?

5. How can I generate enough money to build on my idea?

That’s it, a simple yet brilliant branding formula to run all your business ideas through.

Want this 5-step formula in an editable document? You can download my 5-Step Branding Formula Cheatsheet.

Asking these 5 questions for your own business or career will help you market yourself with more clarity and position your brand as a premium offering in the market.

Richard Branson, LinkedIn and Personal Branding:

Richard Branson is also a shining example of the power of personal branding.

His personal brand is estimated to be 100x more valuable than his Virgin brand alone and he is the most followed professional on LinkedIn with nearly 20 million followers.

A big part of his success is he always develops a clear and concise creative vision for the changes he wants to build in the world. Then, he passionately and tirelessly shares his vision using the power of brand storytelling.

Other hugely successful entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk have had similar effects on their companies by building their personal brands using techniques from brand storytelling.

As Richard Branson frequently emphasizes, your reputation is everything.

Ultimately, it is his fun personality, entrepreneurial integrity, and remarkable creativity that attracts so many people to follow him and become brand advocates actively sharing his stories.

Despite running such a huge empire, he still finds the time to be a prolific content creator having written 6 best-selling books, grown his blog to millions of views by blogging regularly, and had over 17 million views on his YouTube channel.

Try Richard Branson’s Personal Branding Formula For Yourself:

Why not give his branding formula a shot?

Try applying each of his questions to your product, service, or skillset and see what kind of answers you get using the 5-Step Branding Cheatsheet I created.

Then you can iterate and improve your brand from there.

Headline Photo Credits: INMA/Jarle Naustvik (CC)

I'm a digital marketing specialist, community builder and learning experience designer with over a decade of experience helping brands grow with brand storytelling, community building and marketing automation systems.