4 years of business school education as an undergrad has taught me a little something about marketing, and if you ever took a marketing class, you know about the 5 Ps: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, and Presence. I am always a fan of incorporating business theories in an non-corporate setting, and when I was asked to write about personal branding, the 5 Ps of marketing immediately came to my mind.

But I thought, applying the 5 Ps of marketing to personal branding cannot be THAT original of an idea, so I did a little Google search, and sure enough, up comes a great blog post on the application of 5 Ps on marketing oneself.

Instead of repeating what has been said, I thought I would talk about how I’ve unknowingly applied this business theory as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon.

Product – I am a Taiwanese-American serving in West Africa. Conversations that I have with villagers often circle around this background. I offer perspectives on Cameroonian culture from not just the American viewpoint, but also a Taiwanese upbringing. The other “selling point” of mine is my training in economics and finance from the private sector perspective and my application of these training in the public and non-for-profit sectors. Also, the fact I live without running water but with Internet continues to blow everyone’s mind, myself included – and people enjoy these stories.

Price – I am just another one of your fresh-out-of-college-with-limited-experience girl. So, the price I ask for right now when someone asks me to translate an article or write a guest blog post is relatively low, if not completely free, not just because I am nice, but because I am trying to establish a name for myself. But watch out world, after my two years in Africa, the supply-demand curve of Wendy’s services will shift and hopefully that optimal price level will be higher than my current one!

Place – For as long as I can remember, when someone asked me what I want to do when I grow up, I always said “something international”. And even now, I am still précising what exactly I want to do internationally. However, with that one keyword, I’ve been fortunate, but also taken personal initiative to make sure my experiences are well beyond one nation-state border. When someone tells me they want a career in “international development” but has never even left the continental US, I think to myself, “I am living in Africa without running water for two years, I have better get a job over you after this!”

Promotion – I’ll admit that I am a bit of a social media junkie and I can’t get enough of Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc. I used to feel quite guilty about it, but now, I realize it’s my own way of promoting who I am to the world. I wouldn’t be writing this very post if I hadn’t associated myself with Twitter and Brazen Careerist! In this day and age, thanks to technology, we don’t need to be on a billboard somewhere to get someone’s attention!

Presence – On average, I try to blog at least once a week, update my Facebook status once every few days, and several times a day on Twitter. I very rarely share with the world what mundane activity I am partaking at the moment. It’s seldom that you’ll see Wendy is eating and going to go for a run later today. But you’ll see Wendy had a great run in the hills of West Cameroon. To me, it’s all about context and how interesting you can make what you have to share with the world.

As I grow as a person, my strategy of personal branding will most certainly change. But for the time being, these are my personal 5P’s, what are yours?