Lessons in Branding From Tebow

Whether you love Tim Tebow or hate him, you have to admit he ...

-- is very differentiated from his colleagues,
-- more visible than almost all of his counterparts despite his rookie status, and
-- stands clearly and firmly for his beliefs.

In short, Tebow is a branding sensation. Let’s take a deeper look at a couple of reasons why.

Differentiation

Different might just be an understatement. He’s far from the typical NFL quarterback, but despite being under the bright, and quite critical, spotlight of every single sports commentator, he was taken as a first round draft pick. The “experts” just shook their heads.

He was 3rd string, then 2nd, and then a starter...turning a losing record into an improbable winning record. He suddenly had “rock star” status...some positive, most negative as the “experts” once again just shook their heads.

Then he started losing and suddenly all those “experts” looked pretty smart. Only to be stunned into “Tebowing” when, against ALL odds, he led the Broncos to a record-breaking OT win against the highly-ranked Steeler defense.

He’s unorthodox, and that difference means he is highly visible. Differentiation in the world of Chief Financial Officers seems to be highly under-rated.

Visibility

Good, bad, or indifferent, Tebow is the most highly-talked about football player in the National Football League. He just might be the most talked-about person in the country.

Google his last name, and you’ll see 8.3M results. Google Tim Tebow and the results are in the neighborhood of 115M.

If you haven’t measured your Google visibility, now is a great time to do so. What, if anything, is Google saying about you? Quantity is good; quality is much, much better.

Tebow’s great visibility is due in large part to his strong, personal brand.

Brand

“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything,” so says Alexander Hamilton. It’s a great definition of “authentic branding.” A well-defined, strong brand attracts those things that are a good fit and repels those that are not. Authentic branding can also create positive and negative buzz. Certainly that is true of Tebow.

What CFOs need to remember about a strong, visible brand is that it speaks to “fit.” Fit within an organization. Fit within a culture. Fit within an executive team. No one - not the employer and certainly not the candidate - wants to make a bad decision on something so critically important as a career move ... and “fit” is the most difficult part of the hiring process.

The power of a well-defined, visible brand is crystal clear in the lightening rod named Tim Tebow.