Branding Yourself
What’s a brand? Basically, it’s how your product or service differentiates itself from other products or services by instilling in your customers a collection of beliefs, feelings or perceptions about your product. If your product is not differentiated, it’s just a commodity.
Everything has a brand – your shampoo, the café where you picked up this morning’s coffee, the shoes you wear, the country in which you live, and even YOU.
With that, I just want to share a little anecdote from my marketing/branding class this week. Right after describing the course requirements, grading guidelines, etc, my prof invited the class to join him at “The Ranch,” to better leverage our personal brand. “The Ranch” entails no food other than fruit, nuts, leafy greens, and water in class (mind you class is from 6-9pm). He promotes exercise (only take the stairs) and wants us to dress well. He also noted, “When I see you eating a fast food meal, my immediate perception of you is that you’re weak. Isn’t that ridiculous?” So – food for thought. I guess.
This made me check the Wikipedia where I found out:
’In the Old English language, the noun brond is first attested from the epic poem Beowulf (circa 1000) meaning “destruction by fire.” ’
‘A brand blotter was a thief who stole, and removed marks of ownership from, cattle.’
