Olivia Omega Coverage
By: Elise Werner
The Boulder chapter of The Women’s Network was joined by Olivia Omega to talk about building your own brand. Olivia Omega is a CU alum and was in the Leeds School of Business where she studied marketing. Omega’s senior internship, at an agency here in Boulder, led to the first ten years of her career. Those ten years had a profound impact on Omega, she took what she learned at the agency and applied it to helping other people build their own brand.
Whole heartedly Omega believes that everything has to start with strategy. She considered the agency to be where she was born and raised, and that included an early emphasis on strategy for Omega.
The first step in building a brand is creating the brand strategy. A brand strategy essentially answers a few questions but mainly focuses on answering the question of what the brand stands for. Omega explains the importance of brand strategies when it comes to two very popular shoe brands, Converse and Vans.
Due to the saturation in the shoe industry, to compete and succeed brands must position themselves in a strategic way that sets them apart. When it comes to Converse and Vans, they each have their own brand identities. Vans is known for being the original skater shoe and to have originated in Southern California. Converse, also known as Chuck Taylors to some, were East Coast based. Converse has deep roots in basketball.
And so the first brand that Omega positioned was Lay’s potato chips. The strategy behind the Lay’s campaign was to position Lay’s as wholesome. The idea here is that Lay’s are made of potatoes and potatoes come from the ground. In comparison to other snack brands that may use more unnatural ingredients. To position potato chips as wholesome required Omega to utilize emotional benefits. Emotional benefits position the brand to make consumers feel a connection with the brand.
Just like Lay’s potato chips, each person has their own brand. The beauty in this world is that each one of us is unique and diverse. Enter another one of Omega’s passions, diversity and inclusion. Omega believes that just like a brand being built for a client, each person has the opportunity to position themselves in a way that makes them stand out. Omega says that in doing this, as women, it is important how you talk about yourself. Talk about what makes you you, but don’t talk about yourself as though you are competing against other women. Omega acknowledges that it is often difficult for women to brag about themselves. After all Omega reminded us that no one on this planet can be you, we all have different DNA.
The first step that Omega recommended to building a personal brand was to understand your heart. By heart she means what is at your core as a person, what you value, and the feelings that impact the decisions you make. Omega encouraged us to ask ourselves “what are the five things that I know for sure?” and to be consistent in communicating that. All of these factors contribute to the overarching personality of a brand.
Once you have an understanding of what is at your core you can move forward into marketing the way that your brain works. Omega helps people come up with strategies and the proper messaging to get a certain result. Once a strategy is put in place then, she can explain the next steps that an individual or brand should take.
As always there was time for questions from members and when asked about her thoughts on the term “entrepreneur”, Omega felt although being an entrepreneur gives individuals the freedom to piece together what they want to do. She emphasized that the term needs to be understood as a more broad definition. Entrepreneurship has evolved so much that in 2021 it cannot be defined as easily as in the past.
Candidly, when the concept of imposter syndrome came up in a question, Omega told us that everyone is just trying to figure it out too. She explained that things change so often, such as technology and social media, it can be difficult to keep up with. But maintaining the idea that the ability to flex and do multiple things is not only important but so normal. Then people pivot again and find out what they like as they go through life. At the end of the day, Omega believes that consistency is so important when it comes to building your own personal brand.