Take a brand like you
We are all brands now. That is the view first promulgated by business guru Tom Peters, and it has been taken to heart by recruitment consultants and employers alike.
It’s an important concept, because a brand is a promise, a big idea, and a set of expectations that live in people’s minds.
People fall in love with brands, trust them, develop strong loyalties to them and believe in them. A brand is a shorthand, which stands for something and stands out in a densely crowded market, and in the job market it’s your personal brand that counts.
So if you’re a brand - let’s call your brand Brand U - is it the one you have chosen to be, one you like and feel comfortable with, born of clarity and self-awareness?
Or are you simply a brand created by circumstance and defined by other brands, which you use or associate with?
Naming Names:
First things first, what does your name say about Brand U?
Let’s face it, your Mum and Dad probably didn’t sit through what marketers call a “namestorming” or give much thought to the brand values your name suggests.
So if you ended up as an India or Chelsea - or even Talula does the Hula from Hawaii – it’s probably down to your parents’ wonderlust, football favourites or plain stupidity, rather than their determination to set you on the road to being a great personal brand.
Of course, you can change your name to something which sends out the right message about your brand - which is why Marion Morrison sensibly became John Wayne and Diana Mary Fluck had (even) more fun as Diana Dors.
Be Driven:
One of the most public representations of Brand U is what you drive.
Are you sporty and bright or more mainstream and conservative? Are you green and hybrid or big and thirsty? Does it matter to you that you drive a well-engineered German car, rather than a little known Korean?
Well, it does to others.
In fact ‘’brand reputation’’ is by far the single most significant reason people give for their choice of car - far more so than green credentials, fuel economy or even reliability.
And as global automotive brands account for four of the top 20 most valuable brands on the planet, brand means bucks.
According to brand watcher Interbrand, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW and Honda have a combined brand value of $195bn and between them they spend many millions on building and managing their brand image and reputation, each in a distinctive way.
The car keys you throw down on the table in the pub say so much more about you than the house keys you don’t bother to show. That’s because, although the house is worth more in real terms, in brand terms it doesn’t compete because housing brands just don’t exist in the same way or enjoy the same marketing budgets or care.
According to www.coolbrands.uk.com, Aston Martin is the coolest brand in the world, with Ferrari and Lamborghini also amongst the top 20. James Bond’s association of the 007 brand with Aston Martin undoubtedly helped that rating, though in the latest Bond film the Ford KA also makes an appearance. No doubt Ford hope the association will also work in their favour – though while Ford should be happy, I’m not sure that Bond will be filled with solace by this particular association.
All in the game:
What you play and how you play it also speaks volumes about Brand U.
iPod, Bang and Olufsen, YouTube and iTunes all have top 20 “coolbrand’” status, as do PlayStation and Nintendo. So don’t worry too much about your dodgy musical taste or ineptitude on the sports field. The right kit can convert geek to chic at the press of a button.
You are what you wear:
For Brand U, what you wear is what U R.
It is your packaging, and has real symbolic and psychological value.
Your wardrobe and look tells your daily audience about your sense of style, your mood, your wealth, your sense of pride and even your self-esteem.
Get it right and you are the brand you want to be to a critical, if not necessarily streetwise, audience.
Get it wrong and ‘thanks for coming’ is the best U can expect.
YouGov:
Still not convinced? In the end, of course, it’s your choice and choices as to how you will manage Brand U. And cynical rejection of this sort of thesis is fine - it shows exactly the sort of self determination which will set U apart from the crowd just like a good brand should!
What is the difference between a brand and a logo?
A brand identity is a visual symbol or device to allow a brand to be recognised. You might know it as a logo.
Born on the medieval field of battle where full armour made recognition difficult, the heraldic banner was the first form of brand identity and then as now it helped the individual stand out in the crowd.
A brand, on the other hand, is much more then latter-day heraldry.
It is something that lives in peoples minds and with which they have a relationship. It is a promise, a big ideas, a set of expectations.
People fall in love with some brands and hate others, develop strong relationships with them and imbue them with meaning.
A strong brand can be a very valuable commodity indeed. Take a look at the Best Global Brands panel for just how valuable!
Best Global Brands and their brand value*
1 Coco-Cola $65,324m
2 Microsoft $58,709
3 IBM $57,091
4 GE $51,569
5 Nokia $33,696
6 Toyota $32,070
7 Intel $30,954
8 McDonald’s $29,398
9 Disney $29,210
10 Mercedes $23,568
11 Citi $23,443
12 Hewlett-Packard $22,197
13 BMW $21,612
14 Marlboro $21,283
15 American Express $20,827
16 Gillette $20,415
17 Louis Vuitton $20,321
18 Cisco $19,099
19 Honda $17,998
20 Google $17,837
* courtesy of Interbrand 2007
