A Reluctant Guru

Readers of Director will have seen the first of a series of articles from executive coach Brenda Bence. While that continues, and will so for the duration of 2009, there is much more to Brenda than being a coach. Director’s Thomas Schmid spoke to her to find out how she came to be a coach to senior executives, and how her own professional life gives her the credibility to do so.

What makes a guru of any kind? Well, you certainly don’t just wake up one morning and are suddenly enlightened.

First of all, a potential guru needs to discover a special talent or skill they’re really enthusiastic about. After that, a lot of hard work honing and developing that talent is required before one can join the club. Nobody can attest to this better than Brenda S. Bence, president of the Bangkok-based company, Brand Development Associates International Ltd. (BDA). However, she has always disliked being called a guru. “It has a sort of religious sound to it; I would rather call myself a professional marketing trainer and branding coach,” she says.

Guru or not, the U.S. native has always been fascinated by corporate marketing and product branding. After receiving an MBA from Harvard Business School, Brenda joined Procter & Gamble as a member of the company’s brand management team. “Marketing and I, that was just like a fish to water,” she says, “and I realised that was exactly what I wanted to do.” She went on to become vice president International Marketing of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Consumer Division, Mead Johnson. While based in Bangkok, she was responsible for dozens of brands in almost 50 countries that spanned four continents.

Defining Communication

For Brenda, ‘marketing’ is how you identify, meet, and satisfy the needs of a particular target better than the competition. ‘Branding’, on the other hand, is how you want a specific audience to perceive, think, and feel about your company or about ‘YOU™’ - the trademarked you - in the case of personal branding. “Both marketing and branding are designed to communicate with the target,” she says.

When it comes to marketing, Brenda focuses on the fundamental principles, which are essentially the same around the world: to define the product, to identify the needs and expectations of the market, to determine the target audience, and to develop a strategy to communicate the product to that audience and the market.

It might sound easy enough, but it isn’t at all simple. It is also necessary to ensure that the marketing approach is in compliance with the local environment and does not belie the true character of the product or brand. “For example, I have noticed that Thai people like to have an element of fun in marketing approaches. But if you’re marketing a ‘serious’ brand, you shouldn’t try to fit in fun elements. It won’t work,” Brenda says. “I mean, how much fun can a hospital brand possibly incorporate in its marketing strategy? Or a life insurance company? Don’t deviate from the true character of the product you’re selling,” she stresses.

Equally important is to streamline or “synchronise” marketing messages. “If your PR department and your website communicate something different from what your advertisements say, and your sales representatives tell your customers something else, you will fail to build a successful brand,” Brenda says.

Corporate Break-Up

After 20 years of learning the marketing and branding ropes at Procter & Gamble and Bristol-Myers Squibb, Brenda had an epiphany in 2001. On 9/11, she was stuck in Brazil, unable to get home. It was then and there that she decided she wanted to start her own company and she used the long return to Bangkok to develop her business plan. As a result, in 2002, BDA was born, which marries her love for marketing, branding, and executive coaching. It gives her the opportunity to work as a speaker, trainer, and coach for both corporations and individuals across the globe, helping them build powerhouse corporate brands and personal brands.

Since she was already based in Bangkok, Brenda and her husband resolved to remain in Thailand’s capital “because it really is a great, central location where you can easily fly to the whole of Asia, as well as to other continents,” she says. Having gone solo, she allowed herself six months to secure her first client. Success arrived far, far quicker, though. Within just six days, she had her first client!

With so many years of experience in corporate marketing, Brenda had both the knowledge and the credibility to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, seven years after starting BDA, her client portfolio includes companies and brands across three continents and about 20 countries, prestigious names like Johnson & Johnson, Dannon, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Mattel – and without all that much promotional effort from her side. “About 98% of our business comes from word-of-mouth. People I have worked with in the past recommend me to somebody else,” she explains.

A Personal Touch
   
While her primary customers are multinationals, Brenda occasionally works with smaller companies, especially if she realises the company leaders have a phenomenal vision and really want to give themselves a boost. “Branding is even more important for smaller firms, and I’ll tell you why: Multinationals have deeper pockets and can spend a lot of money to get their marketing right,” Brenda says. “Small companies, on the other hand, have limited funds so they have to spend even smarter and need to be even more targeted than the large players.”

When it comes to applying branding principles to individuals, Brenda has developed a unique system that can make personal branding work for just about anyone. “People don’t always present themselves as they truly are. If you look at who they really are and what they are communicating, their personal brand may not be authentic,” she says.

Brenda’s coaching work is not just about personal branding, and she is quick to emphasise that a coach is not to be confused with a “counselor or therapist.” She defines it as “a combination of mentor, manager, personal trainer, and sports coach.” In her opinion, coaching is all about helping to facilitate positive change. “Most of the people I coach have already been successful on many levels, but they want support and guidance to go to the next level in their careers and in their lives,” says Brenda. In this capacity, she generally coaches corporate executives and successful entrepreneurs.

Sometimes, clients want to improve the way they come across to others, just like celebrities. “I guess you could say Britney Spears is very much like a bar of soap, for example,” Brenda says, “because product branding and personal branding follow the same principles.”

Her one-on-one personal coaching system consists of 12 sessions. The first session is free so the client can find out about Brenda’s approach before deciding whether or not to continue. Up to three goals are set to be achieved by the 12th session and, yes, each client gets homework.

New Adventures

Brenda is also an accomplished author. She is a regular columnist in Director Magazine, and in 2008, she released How YOU™ Are Like Shampoo, a book that presents her unique personal branding system. In it, she explains how you can use the same proven principles used by the world’s most successful big brands to propel YOU™ – the trademarked you – to greater success in the workplace.

Brenda’s second book in her personal branding book series, How YOU™ Are Like Shampoo for Job Seekers, was launched in January 2009 and focuses on how to use personal branding to get the job you want. Of course, the launch couldn’t have been better timed, just as the job market has become increasingly tough.

During her long career, Brenda has worked with brands that were launched from scratch, brands that were already at the top but still wanted to climb higher, and brands that were failing and needed to be turned around. She has worked with blue chip companies and small players alike, has delivered seminars and presentations to large audiences across the world, and has coached individuals one-on-one. But throughout all of it, success has not clouded her self-assessment. “I learn something new every day. I don’t really work for myself. I work for my clients, and every new challenge is yet another opportunity for me to learn and grow and become a better speaker, trainer, and coach so I can serve my clients well,” she says.

It is this insight that has perhaps made Brenda Bence one of the best in her profession. Even though she isn’t fond of the label “guru,” it seems to be appropriate for someone who has accomplished so much.