The Unauthorised Guide to Doing Business the Jamie Oliver Way – 10 secrets of the irrepressible one-man brand.
© 2010 Trevor Clawson – 210 Pages Paperback
5R Score: 29/35
The 10 Secrets
- Be yourself, but more so
- Extend the brand
- Build on what you’re good at
- Remember the social dimension
- Become the face of a supermarket
- Deal with adversity
- Go international
- Protect the brand
- Be controversial
- 10. Be bold
On a scale of 1-7
Relevance – is it right for personal branding? - 7
Resonance does it make sense to the reader? - 6
Relation is there a connection for everyone? - 4
Remarkability – does it stand out, will it get noticed? - 5
Real – does the personal brand come through? – 7
Would you pick it up?
Normally I may not have even noticed this book, but it was one of those “others also bought” books that you get when checking out from purchasing online (see it does work!) and I am really pleased I took a gamble on the book (I liked the title and the subject matter and most readers would be immediately aware of who Jamie Oliver is). This is a UK published book so may be harder to find in North American book stores, but worth the searching out, especially for the self-employed / entrepreneur looking to work on their personal brands.
As the title lets you know this is not an interview of Jamie Oliver and he had no part in putting this book together, but the author Trevor Clawson has done an excellent job of dissecting Oliver’s personal brand and relating it to his business success.
Relevance
One of the few books on celebrity personal brands this book does a much better job than any of the others I have read. It is especially relevant for the small business owner, certainly more so than for someone in a corporate career, although they would still get plenty of insight and enjoy the read.
Resonance
The book does not go in to any great deal about a specific personal branding process or approach, so if you are looking for that then there are others out there that would more readily satisfy that need.
What it does do however is really open your eyes to the fact that defining, developing and continuing to work on your personal brand can really pay dividends. I would have to disagree with the author when he talks about Oliver’s brand being born at some point (we all have a personal brand) – what was really happening was that he had finally defined what it was and started to realise what he could do with it.
Relation
For the entrepreneur there is a lot of content that is very relevant and even gives good insights in to times that Oliver’s brand has not lived up to it’s definition. Also content is up to date, talking about moves he has made during the recent recession and the benefits of his strong brand and consistent focus in the area of strength he has – namely food.
Remarkability
The challenge for this book is probably getting noticed on the shelf enough that people will pick it up, I will certainly be checking out others in the series now. I really enjoyed reading it, in part because I am an Oliver fan, but also because I liked the writing style, excellent research and insight and how the author made the whole subject matter easy to understand – after all personal branding is not rocket science – unless you are a rocket scientist!
Real
The real personal brand of Jamie Oliver came through, the author has to be commended on his work. He has provided a great insight in to a strong personal brand who has developed a company that truly lives it values and mission to “help as many people as possible eat better food and live a better life”.