Anna Karenina 1878

The Oprah Effect—Part 2

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, what does your personal or company brand stand for?  Can you say it in a few words?  Better yet, can you say what your brand stands for in just one word? 

In a few words, Oprah stands for “building a better life”.  A Yoga teacher in Chicago, Robyn Okrant, committed herself to living the Oprah way (following all of Oprah’s advice) for a year in 2008, and blogging about it.  She now has a book deal, which effectively made her dream come true as she wanted to be a writer.  There is the Oprah Effect in action.

One of the ancillary words that Oprah stands for is “education”.  Oprah is passionate about reading and one of her sub-brands is Oprah’s Book Club. By enrolling her vast audiences in her club she has introduced the public to literature by great and important authors. Now, before she recommends a book, she gives the publisher a “heads up”, so that they can print an additional 500,000 books. 

This is another facet of the Oprah Effect. It only takes 20,000 sold books to become a best seller.  A classic Leo Tolstoy novel, Anna Karenina, usually read by university students studying Russian literature, became a bestseller, thanks to Oprah.  The same thing happened when Oprah recently recommended a novel written in 1985 by Nobel Prize winning Columbian writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez,  Love in the Time of Cholera. It was originally published in Spanish. Then, 3 years later it was translated in English.  Neither of these books were best sellers when they were published.

When you express your personal passion it becomes clear that you are doing what you love to do. Oprah’s love for education is evidenced by her building a school in South Africa for girls. Oprah walks her talk with no pretense, no spin, and no hype.  That is why she is one of the most trusted personal brands in the world.

What are you passionate about?  What do you stand for, in a word or a phrase? This is the core of your personal or company brand?

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