Personal Branding - JF Bélisle

Last week, brands’ psychoanalyst (sometimes referred as cultural anthropologist) Clotaire Rapaille was fired by the Quebec City mayor Regis Labeaume from his role as a brand management (image) consultant for the city because mainly of curriculum vitae falsifications. The news arrived more than a month after being hired to a $300,000 3-month contract to propose a branding plan for Quebec City. By trying to push too far his own marketing, Clotaire Rapaille completely violated the fundamental principles of personal branding and lost a portion of his credibility. When reading all these stories about Rapaille, one question came off the top of my head: Is Clotaire Rapaille feeding or failing marketing?

Why is Clotaire Rapaille feeding marketing?

By qualifying himself as an anthropologist, Clotaire Rapaille first reminds me cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken who to my limited knowledge in this field, was one of the first high-end anthropologist marketing consultant to sign lucrative consulting contracts with multinationals (Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, IBM, IKEA, Chrysler, Kraft, and Kimberly Clark). Perhaps the hiring of Clotaire Rapaille is the sign pointing the beginning of an era of lucrative consulting contracts for marketers’ anthropologists. On the academic side, this hiring could reinforce the appeal of cultural anthropology in marketing at the undergraduate and MBA-level, a field led by the York University crew (Russell W. Belk, Eileen Fischer, Robert Kozinets & Detlev Zwick) and growing in importance in the Montreal area (Zeynep Arsel and Annamma Joy at Concordia University and Jonathan Deschênes, Jean-Sébastien Marcoux, Marie-Agnès Parmentier, Yannik St-James at HEC Montréal) and especially at HEC Montréal.

Why is Clotaire Rapaille failing marketing?

By being fired from his consulting contract with Quebec City, Clotaire Rapaille makes marketing sounds like magic in the eyes of the populace, which is completely false. Surely, marketing is not a hard science at the same level as pure mathematics. However, marketers are not magicians or should not claim to be, let magic to mindfreak like Criss Angel. The discipline takes its roots in psychology, anthropology, statistics, economics and computer science, which creates a sexy melting pot. The “science” of marketing is based on empirical generalizations, strong conceptual frameworks and learning-by-doing case studies that lead to best practices.

Conclusion

Briefly, one sure thing is that Clotaire Rapaille is a good example of a personal branding failure. However, the Clotaire Rapaille personal branding failure has had negative and positive spillover effects for all those working in the field of marketing in the province of Quebec and perhaps even in North America. What do you think? Any other comments?

Jean-Francois Belisle

Bad events are always important opportunities to reinvent yourself or to think about what went wrong. The recession is/was a good example for many organizations. On a more personal side, this Wednesday, I dislocated my left shoulder and spent a beautiful six hours (11PM to 5AM) at the hospital waiting for this nightmare to end. I was playing hockey as a goaltender when I fell on my left shoulder; a second shoulder dislocation in the last five years. Everything’s not lost, at least I am not a professional goaltender, this is not my career, God bless.

The Dan Blackburn story

This injury leads me to the story of Dan Blackburn. Dan Blackburn was a young goaltender born in Montréal in 1983, who was named in 2001 the Canadian Hockey League’s (CHL; which includes QMJHL, OHL and WHL) most valuable player. The same year, he was drafted by the New York Rangers in the first round (10th overall) of the 2001 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft. Blackburn made the New York Rangers team in 2001-2002 and became the third youngest goalie to win a NHL game. Unfortunately, two years later, Blackburn missed the entire 2003–04 NHL season due to a serious nerve injury to his left shoulder sustained just before training camp. He had nerve exploration surgery on March 31, 2004 and as his injury rendered him incapable of rotating his glove hand, Blackburn was forced to retired in 2005, at the age of 22. Afterwards, Blackburn enrolled at Arizona State University and became a manager of business development for the Goaltender Development Institute and now loves his new role. Even though Blackburn had to retire prematurely, his passion for hockey and knowledge of the game allowed him to continue to work in the same environment although in a totally different role. Other perhaps even more interesting examples in hockey also include former major NHL deception Gord Kluzak who ended up earning an MBA from Harvard University and having jobs as an analyst for Goldman Sachs and later on as a commentator for ESPN.

Dan Blackburn when he was with the New York Rangers

What can we learn from the Dan Blackburn story

Without wanting to make an Anthony Robbins of myself, the most important things we can learn from the Dan Blackburn/Gord Kluzak career changes are:
1. Past knowledge clearly helps in career change;
2. In terms of personal branding, being known helps to ease career switch;
3. Education brings credibility;

Past knowledge clearly helps in career change

In the case of Dan Blackburn, the knowledge he acquired as a goaltender and in hockey in general helped him to crack an organization using his past knowledge. He certainly had more than 10,000 hours of knowledge, passion and hard work under his belt. Even though he was quite raw in terms of business knowledge, he knew the industry before he stepped on the plate.

In terms of personal branding, being known helps to ease career switch

Connections are always important for future jobs; being connected with others in main social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) is always suggested. But being known because of positive screen presence is always an a priori edge for being hired. Olympic athletes, make yourselves visible!

Education brings credibility

I have always been a huge proponent of the argument that education brings success. Arguably, I am totally biased on this issue with four completed post-secondary degrees and another in-completion. Adding some letters on a business card like BBA or MBA is always useful and makes it easier to start many conversations.

Conclusion

So what do you think about the case story of Dan Blackburn? Do you know interesting examples of career changes that where really a success? Even more personal ones? Can you add a fourth point to my analysis?

Jean-Francois Belisle

Is Clotaire Rapaille Feeding or Failing Marketing?

Reinvent Yourself – The Dan Blackburn Story