Rename: become Brand You

JULIE MIDDLETON finds a woman who feels her deliberate name change has boosted her career.

Ange Steiger used to be Angela Wong.

But in 1997, mired among thousands of salespeople in the burgeoning mobile phone market, she decided a stronger-sounding name to match her strong selling skills was her ticket to standing out from the crowd.

Steiger, a New Zealand-born Chinese, says that Wong was "a very common name; it wasn't memorable. And Angela was a bit of a mouthful on the phone sometimes."

But she denies that prejudice may have prompted her decision. All Steiger, 33, will say is that New Zealand was a much less diverse society earlier in her working life. Names are, she adds, enigmatically, "a label that can define us, limit us, enrich, expand, enable".

And like many in sales and marketing, she sees herself as a product, a selling machine, and rebranding herself, just like a gadget or company, as part of making that machine better, stronger, faster. Something that will make customers and potential bosses pay attention.

The cover of her CV - a slender, vertical document intended to shout above a pile of A4s - clarifies it with the words: "I am my own brand."

Steiger wanted to "separate myself from the pack. I suppose it was a launch - I was moving into my sales and marketing career.

"More than anything in sales and marketing, you're looking for a point of difference. I was looking for something distinctive - and a memorable name becomes someone you'd really like to meet."

After all, it was good enough for the careers of Norma Jean Baker (Marilyn Monroe) and Allan Stewart Konigsberg (Woody Allen), she says, adding that thousands of movie-goers might not have swooned quite the same way had Scarlett O'Hara been a Pansy.

It was also a career boost for the father of former Governor-General Sir Michael Hardie Boys. Reginald Boys, later a judge, added his mother's family name - which was his own middle name - to his surname because it sounded more impressive for a struggling young lawyer setting up shop.

Her research for a new handle, says Steiger, was simply a week of running attractive names past friends and colleagues to gauge reaction, measuring them against tips about the power of language picked up from speaking club Toastmasters.

"The letters M, N and L roll off your tongue," says Steiger, a member of two Toastmasters clubs. "They have a certain beauty to them. If you add an R, it adds power. I wanted something strong and memorable - and likeable as well."

She decided the lone-syllable Ange was punchy and memorable with a hint of informality.

"And Steiger has a bit of mystery to it," she says. "It sounds like steel." The new name, she says, "would open doors because it had a certain strength to it".

Once the legalities were complete and new business cards printed, Angela Wong was retired.

So how did it feel to be a new person? This elicits a long pause.

"I felt brand new. It had a launch feel to it," says Steiger. "A launch into new opportunities. I felt it could take me anywhere."

Friends were told as she encountered them, and Steiger claims her family offered no opposition: "I'm independent."

And the rebrand continues to work, says Steiger, now business development manager at Auckland company Executive Events.

"I've been a top salesperson at the companies I worked for.

The name's become well-known at Toastmasters.

"I'm really happy with it and I was quite surprised how well it has worked for me."

And the change itself is a talking point: Steiger, who generally doesn't venture far from careful sales-speak in business settings, is amusingly open about her name change. The story is often just the conversational icebreaker a deal needs.

A total of 6781 New Zealanders changed their name by statutory declaration last year, says Internal Affairs spokesperson Tony Wallace.

That includes those who changed their name after hatching or matching.

One can only guess how many opted for a new handle to enhance their business or escape prejudice - making the change doesn't require justification.

A birth certificate ordered after all the paperwork is processed bears the new name.

You can change your name as often as you like and to pretty much whatever you like - Wallace can't recall anyone having their chosen name vetoed.

Reinvent, renew, recharge. With the all-pervasiveness of product marketing - and the increasing primacy of personal relationships in business - it wasn't going to take long for people-packaging to become the latest career credo.

Think about personal branding and many will think Tom Peters, whose 1999 book The Brand You 50 is a staunch advocate of personal refashioning. Its central question is: "What do I want to be?"

Peters, an American who writes in enthusiastic exclamation marks, defines "Brand You" as a "pragmatic, commercial idea" for staying on top of business quicksands.

He doesn't overtly advocate renaming, but does describe the concept of rebranding as being self-definition, liberation and opportunity.

"Those ... who want to survive ... will grasp the gauntlet of personal reinvention ... before we become obsolete. In other words, do unto yourself before the bastards do it unto you."

The key to "Brand You", he adds, "is making sure you control your package and the message it sends. Create your own micro-equivalent of the Nike swoosh."

It's a concept Steiger backs, though the Peters book, which she recommends, came out two years after her own conversion.

Her own reinvention didn't lead to alterations in dress, speech or style. But her personal version of the Nike tick of approval was a white-on-black logo.

The name Ange is woven in sinuous cursive script, Steiger in strong capitals. The logo and slogan, she says, add a certain cohesiveness, consistency and credibility to the package she presents to customers.

She tries to persuade the Herald that her logo is a far better illustration than a photograph. In the end, Steiger's desire for the logo to speak for her wins - there will be no picture despite her photogenic face, chin-length dark hair and snappy red suit.