Use the business model blueprint to build your personal brand

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Alexander Osterwalder When (Alexander Osterwalder) was studying for his doctoral degree at HEC Lausanne, he met Professor Yves. Yves Pigneur (Yves Pigneur) jointly designed the “Business Model Blueprint” (Business Model Canvas). They condensed a thick stack of business plans into a simple form, allowing people to comprehensively review the company’s operating system on one piece of paper. This not only helps them think about how the company can make profits, but also facilitates external communication and persuasion.

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Simply put, a “Business Model Blueprint” is a tool used to describe and analyze business models. It consists of nine key elements:

1. Customer group: the target customers served by the enterprise or individual.
2. Value proposition: The core value of the products or services provided by the company or individual.
3. Channel: The channel used by enterprises or individuals to deliver value propositions to customers.
4. Customer relationship: The way a business or individual interacts with customers.
5. Source of income: Income generated by a business or individual by providing value propositions to customers.
6. Key resources: resources needed by a business or individual to operate.
7. Key Activities: Activities that a business or individual must perform to deliver a value proposition.
8. Key Partners: Third parties with whom a business or individual works to deliver a value proposition.
9. Cost structure: How much does each of the above elements cost?

So, how can we use the “Business Model Blueprint” to build personal brand? The following steps are provided for your reference:

1. Define your customer base: First, you need to define your target customer base. Who do you want to provide value to? What are their needs and pain points?
2. Identify your value proposition: Next, you need to identify your value proposition. What unique value can you provide to your target customer group?
3. Choose your channels: You need to choose the right channels to deliver your value proposition to your target customer groups. Through which channels will you establish contact with your target customer groups?
4. Build customer relationships: You need to build strong relationships with your target customer groups. How will you interact with them? How to make them your loyal fans?
5. Design your revenue stream: You need to design a viable revenue stream to provide financial support for your personal brand. How will you monetize your personal brand?
6. Identify your key resources: You need to identify the key resources you need to build and operate your personal brand. What skills, knowledge, experience and connections do you have?
7. Plan your key activities: You need to plan the key activities that you must perform to deliver your value proposition. How will you implement and live your personal brand every day?
8. Build key partnerships: You need to build partnerships with other personal brands, businesses, or organizations to expand your reach and value.

Next, let me use a case of successful personal brand management to explain. She is Martha Stewart, a well-known American lifestyle homemaker who also runs many brand businesses.

1. Core resources: extensive knowledge and passion for cooking, gardening, and home crafts
2. Key businesses: magazine publishing, TV program hosting, product licensing
3. Customer group: middle-class housewives with a strong interest in elegant lifestyle

Martha, known as the “Queen of Housekeeping” (https://club.commonhealth.com.tw/article/4067), is now 82 years old. Although she was just a housewife in her early years, she has a strong passion and rich insights into cooking, gardening and handicrafts. All of this was the basis for her later creation of the core resources and value proposition of her personal brand. In 1990, she founded “Martha Stewart Living” magazine, a well-known lifestyle magazine that teaches people how to manage every little detail of life. From gardening, cooking and ingenious indoor decoration, she not only shared knowledge, but also conveyed her unique life taste and aesthetic views. After the publication of the magazine, it immediately aroused enthusiastic responses among middle-class families in the United States.

1. Value proposition: interpreting a high-taste and exquisite lifestyle
2. Channels: magazines, TV programs, online media, product licensing

Marthastewart continues to convey its philosophy of life aesthetics through multiple channels such as magazines, subsequent TV programs, the Internet and social platforms. She regards elegant and tasteful life as an art. Whether it is cooking, handicrafts or gardening, she strives to show delicacy and detail. This concept of pursuing quality of life resonates with many admirers.

1. Customer relations: Encourage readers to practice elegant living and share their experiences interactively
2. Important cooperation: support from experts in various fields, cooperation with sponsors

Martha actively encourages readers to practice the various lifestyles she proposes, and hopes to establish long-term and close connections with them. She invites experts in various fields to support content editing, and also cooperates with many well-known brands to launch co-branded products to bring readers closer to her brand experience.

1. Sources of income: advertising fees, distribution income, authorized product royalties
2. Cost structure: content production, marketing promotion, authorization management, etc.

With the expansion of its business territory, Martha can earn considerable income from advertising fees, distribution income, product licensing and other channels. Even so, the huge costs of her brand are also quite high, including the production costs of programs and magazines, marketing and promotion expenses, and the expenses of managing various licensing cases, etc., which all need to be carefully controlled.

Overall, Martha is a successful case of taking personal brand to the extreme. With her passion and unique insights into the aesthetics of life, she has developed a brand empire spanning media, television and merchandise, with influence all over the world. What’s even more commendable is that she maintains her insistence on quality and constantly injects new ideas into the brand’s connotation. This is not only a successful business case, but also represents a beautiful concept of elegant life.

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Further reading

• Sister Kathy talks about “Building a Personal Business Model”: How to establish key activities and maintain customer relationships

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