Gone are the days of aggressive marketing. The customer gets agitated, defensive and negative as soon as you get aggressive about your product. If products cannot be marketed aggressively these days, how can people be?

ONE MAJOR difference between product branding and personal branding is that you can easily appreciate the products, but you cannot sing your own praises. If you do, of course, you will be considered haughty and proud, while good people and leaders are supposed to be humble. There is a solution and it is called soft marketing.

Soft marketing is a non-aggressive and non-intrusive way of marketing yourself. It is ethical, humble and yet it brings similar results, sometimes better results than aggressive marketing. It will not irritate people and not create an impression that you don't have work and that's why you are marketing yourself aggressively. Now the challenge is, how do we do soft marketing? My formula is KVP, (remember Kissan Vikas Patra as a memory trick) which means Knowledge, Victories and Passions.

Now let us take a look at each element one by one.

Knowledge sharing: Knowledge is not just the domain of Professors and Consultants. If the entrepreneur sounds knowledgeable about his industry, he can easily convince venture capitalists. He can even get customers by assuring them that he understands their industry and can collaborate closely with them. No doubt, Knowledge is Power, immense power in fact. If you are a doctor or architect your knowledge in the field will impress potential clients and may bring you business in the long run. In any case, branding is not for the ones who want to win 10 meters race, it is for those who consider life a marathon. The best tools are Linkedin Answers, Forums and Quora.

Victories: Share your honest stories of how you overcame challenges in life. We are all struggling in some way in life and are always looking for inspiration. Be honest in discussing your failures, challenges and setbacks and then describe how you overcame them with the determination and grit. If you come from a small town, you will become a role model to the people who come from small towns and face the metro/city challenges. If you are physically challenged, you will inspire other people going through same difficulties. The best tools are Talks, Blog and guest posts.

Passions: We all love people who are passionate about something, speak with excitement on their topic and spread infectious enthusiasm around them. It is important to share our genuine passions and not do a drama for the sake of career because you cannot fool all the people all the time. If the passion is genuine, the expression shall be genuine and the energy sent by you will bring energy back to your brand. Swami Vivekanada, the Indian sage expresses it beautifully, "Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success." The best tools are Talks, Blog and guest posts.If you are armed with KVP, you will kill the target softly with your song (without singing praises). So are you ready with your sleeves up?