A Review on Personal Branding as Innovative Strategy for Global Recognition: 'I am Jackie Chan'

Purpose: This study reviews available literature on how Jackie Chan applied the personal branding concept as an innovative strategy for him to gain global recognition and a megastar position. Design/methodology/approach: This is a literature search type study focusing on Jackie Chan as the case subject of successful personal branding. Various literature sources including Jackie Chan's (1998) own autobiography ('I am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action') and published news reportage are used for content analysis. Findings: Five factors are identified as drivers of Jackie Chan's personal branding success: a) the ambition that has been conceived and announced to the world, b) co-authored his own autobiography in English, c) creating unique values to differentiate himself from others as a way of defining his own identity, d) negotiating between the role of a celebrity and a star, and lastly, e) strategy to utilize social media and participating in it. In sum, his strategic and innovative use of personal branding actions helped him to promote his aforesaid uniqueness and persona to amass global recognition, thereby developing his great stardom for the last four decades. Research limitations/implications: The study relies heavily on the content of Jackie Chan's autobiography which may limit the study's comprehensiveness of review and analysis. Personal encounters of the subject person might be too unique and situational to be generalized. Practical implications: Strategies used by Jackie Chan in how he builds his personal branding benefit performing artists to be used as their pre-requisite skill set in the film industry rather than totally dependent upon film production companies. Originality/value: This study has built on Jackie Chan's example to demonstrate the liberation of performing artists in unleashing their potential energies and personal uniqueness; establishing and promoting themselves strategically toward their targeted audience; and innovatively steering their fate and future in view of different challenges under different contexts along their career journey. Keywords: Personal Branding, Strategy, Innovation, Global Recognition, Performing Artists
Introduction The Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) that was signed on 29 June 2003 between Hong Kong and China governments study has opened a new market for Hong Kong's performing [...]