What You Can Learn About Personal Branding From “The Next Food Network Star”

On Saturdays I often find myself folding laundry and landing in front of the TV to catch up on some guilty pleasure reality TV.  Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve found myself tuning into “The Next Food Network Star” to see how the field of cooks and chef’s has whittled itself down.

For those of you not familiar with this show, a diverse group of cooks and chefs vie for fame, stardom and chef-fulfillment as the next Rachel Ray or Bobby Flay on the Food Channel and land their own show.

It’s About Brand Power

Every week you get to watch the judges (food network execs, marketers, stars, etc) critique the finalists.  And what you see and hear most is their focus on the finalists “brand power.”  Do they have the personality for TV, do they have enough brand power to launch a line of cookware?  What’s their authentic story?  Are they likable?  Then somewhere toward the end of the list is “is their food good?”

What I find most interesting is how intensely each of the judges digs and looks for the real essence of each finalist. Sometimes these evaluation sessions sound almost like therapy.

All this digging into each finalist’s potential “positioning” and “finding their voice” is not easy.  In this post by Bob Tuschman, one of the judges and the General Manager of the Food Network,  you’ll get a clear idea of what these folks are looking for in the next star.  And Bob should know because HE’S the one responsible for my laundry folding addiction to his Saturday morning lineup of Giada, Barefoot Contessa, Paula Deen and Bobby Flay — yeah, that’s sad.   So, if anyone would know what it takes to get people excited about food celebrities – Bob Tuschman knows.

Branding Lessons From the Food Network

1. A great brand requires long hours of reflection. The judges spend hours reviewing video and information from behind the scenes.  In addition to this, they spend even more time with each finalist to really understand who this person is and to understand that special mix within them that has star power.  It’s almost as if they don’t want to have the next major star slip through their fingers just because they didn’t dig long and deep enough.
2. You might have to “train” your brand. It’s clear to me that great cooks and chefs are everywhere, but people who can cook AND shine on TV and in print are one in a million.  A powerful brand is like a diamond in the rough.  It might require polish, practice and training to really make it shine.  In other words, great brands may start out as ok brands — that just need some polish.
3. Your brand has to be ON all the time.  When I use the words power brand I’m referring to the responsibilities that I think few of us realize go with a strong personal brand.  You have to BE YOUR BRAND at all times.  People see through a persona and straight to the person.  An audience will only connect and invest in an authentic brand.  As soon as a brand falters – its equity suffers.

So the next time you’re folding laundry or just vegging check your local listings to find out when you can catch the “Next Food Network Star” and watch it for the food and for what works in building a personal brand.