Personal Branding vs. Company Branding – Which One is the Winner?

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch (at least, for now)

The big news story driving this post is the possibility of Michael Arrington leaving TechCrunch.

Arrington began TechCrunch as “just a blog” and grew it into the tech juggernaut it is today. The TechCrunch story is a powerful demonstration of what happens when you exercise complete editorial freedom and have great writers.

There are now a number of excellent and diverse writers and content producers working for TechCrunch, which was recently bought out by AOL. So the TechCrunch brand has for years now been evolving and becoming more multifaceted with the likes of Paul Carr and MG Siegler, just to name two whom I can recall off the top of my head (which shows you just how much they influence my perception of the TechCrunch brand).

But Arrington’s personality was always the driving force behind the scenes as well as publicly due to his prolific writing. Brash, ballsy, outspoken, breaking the big news and taking no prisoners is the TechCrunch brand. Much of that comes from the personal brand of Michael Arrington.

To answer the question my headline poses (at least for me), let me share with you my first thought when I heard Arrington might be leaving TechCrunch:

If he leaves, I’m going with him.

Let me unpack that for you: If Arrington leaves TechCrunch, I’m going to continue to follow what he does, read what he writes and listen to what he says. I don’t mean I’ll be riding shotgun with him.

Because I dig him. Arrington is a boss.

This doesn’t mean I will stop reading TechCrunch, but the main reason I liked TechCrunch was because I like Arrington.

If Arrington leaves, I’ll be watching for signs that TechCrunch is changing and assessing whether or not I will like those changes.

So for me, personally, it seems that personal branding wins over company branding.

How about you?

Filed Under: Blogging

Jericojien

This is a very interesting post. I agree with you. If he leaves techcrunch then i will leave too. Personal branding is powerful if that person has a strong influence for any business. It’s like without “Mr. CEO”, the company wouldn’t even exist.
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  I wouldn’t stop reading TechCrunch but I’d be very interested in whatever he did next if he left.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BKGATVZGJA2353WJDV5TNVRURU Stylo
  
  You need to be as good as you can to choose personal branding.. Rather go for Company
http://upyourimpactfactor.com/ JennyBBones

In the blogosphere, there’s no question in my mind, personal branding always trumps…no matter how big the company gets.

While it’s an offline example, whenever I think about this personal v. company brand issue I always think of Jim Henson. SO much talent in that company, so many great writers, puppeteers and artists. But when he went so went the brand. It takes a very special person to carry a brand that big…sounds like Arrington is from the same mold.Interesting article…some people get their news from TechCrunch, I get mine here
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  Great example. Are the Muppets the same without him? Definitely not. Many would argue it’s not as good as when Henson was at the helm. You can see his influence in it still, but as time passes and even his son no longer works there, it will wane even more.
Stormy Aitken

I totally agree – personal branding is the way to go. Reminds me of Gordon Ramsey walking out, his whole kitchen staff went with him. It’s hard to run a restaurant without a kitchen…
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  That’s a great example.
http://staffperformancesecrets.com/ Leon Noone

G’Day Michael,
It’s a most unsatisfactory answer, but I reckon “It depends.” People haven’t stopped buying Fords since Henry died. And I suspect that the iPad will continue to lead the market after Steve Jobs’ retirement.

There’s room for both personal and corporate branding, even on www. I suspect that anyone who believes that it’s one or the other, wil be the loser ultimately

Make sure you have fun
Best Wishes

Leon
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  You’re right, Leon, it does depend. There is still a Ford and people still see him as the soul of the company and its leader even if he may not be the one in charge on paper (I don’t know what his title is or responsibilities are).
  
  In some ways you could argue that strong leaders with their own branding are even bad for a company (Jim Collins’ Good to Great makes a good case for this) if it goes downhill when they leave. And that if they couldn’t transition leadership without casualties, they weren’t such fantastic leaders to begin with. But there’s a difference between a great leader and a great business planner.
http://www.harrisburgpadj.com Harrisburg PA DJ

This is tough, I would vote company branding if you are the owner of the company, but if you are well known like this and in the industry he is in then personal. I see it like this, does the CEO of exxon mobile brand himself or the company, the company, although one could argue facebook practically brands zuck. I dunno.
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  You could imagine a corporation like Exxon deliberately avoiding having any one person stand out so that they can pursue a risk-averse strategy without upsetting the shareholders. But in a case like this, does Exxon the corporation even have a brand? How would anyone describe it?
http://www.ricardobueno.com Ricardo Bueno

I work for a company right now. I write just about one post per day, manage our clients, train them, speak at conferences, etc. I am the brand. Or am I?

I still make time to write for myself (my own blog linked through this comment). That’s still very important and near and dear to me. Because at some point, I realized, that as much as I am the “face” of the company, people still connect with me for me. They make purchasing decisions because of me (I Know because they’ve said so). They choose to stay despite a negative experience, because of me and the trust/faith in me that I”ll make it better.

I don’t know if I can separate the two. I’m passionate about both and in a way, it kinda feels good.
http://www.nuparcenergyjobs.com Roidin

Hmmmm, okay. I’ve been betwixt and between wondering whether or not to have other members of the company to freely post to the company blog or to keep having them provide me with the copy for me to rewrite it myslef. I thought it best to keep a single tone of voice, but now i’m even more confused. Maybe I should have them all go buckwild for a while and see what happens.
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  That’s a great question and there’s no single right answer, but you may find that having a team to post works very well for you. Tools such as HootSuite give you the ability to manage a social media team all posting to their own accounts or to a single account. There is nothing wrong with the way your’re doing it now, but consider this: you are the bottleneck. Does social media marketing happen if you take a vacation? Are there delays because someone asks a question and you have confer with someone before getting back to them? So you have some interesting possibilities to consider.
Katie

Great discussion! I am going through personal branding right now. We are still branding our company but also me as the CEO. So far the branding of myself has lead to greater brand awareness of my business. Has anyone gone through this personally? any insight would be great.
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  Glad you’re enjoying this. I haven’t been through such a thing myself so I don’t have anything to suggest for you.
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I’m with you on this one Michael. Personal wins hands down.