If you are a 'Brand' how divested are you?
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| What Brand??? |
This semester we were told that each one of us is a brand and that we are all unique personalities, ironically we were also given an assignment to write about ourselves, however no matter how reluctant we were at the beginning it turned out to be interesting.
People have the view that as human beings we love to talk about ourselves but I would tend to differ and disagree, still here I am talking about a human as a brand and that too at a social media platform that I was reluctant to join in 2008 … peer pressure got me a Facebook profile.
Depending on how we behave or misbehave we become consumer durable or non durable goods, later if we could be classified as white or brown (goods) is a question to ask ourselves.
The self image we project carves the perceived positioning of us which should be close to the actual positioning that we want to have of ourselves, now, that is determined by how well people around know us or how well we let people know our personalities or allow to get close to us for that matter.
You should know your essence and identity and what you stand for, as the saying goes, ‘Those who stand for nothing fall for anything’ (Alexander Hamilton). It might be difficult to know but then there must be something that you stand for and you should know that for your very own brand building strategies, just stay focused and find out what you are good at that you could churn out into a profession, yes … not all of us have discovered what we are good at and it should be your aim to discover yourself.
What you wear is not exactly your packaging but how you interact or how bad or nice you are with those around is, at times one might just learn to say ‘no’ in different ways and be rude to some, believe it or not it’s a requirement, you should learn to be ASSERTIVE.
Every brand has attributes, for instance, as a human brand your attribute might be ‘a person of his/her words, never faltering on commitments etcetera. However, people do tend to be judgmental when it comes to perception … it might be a way of judging people’s personalities according to how they perform in academics, that’s where a few go wrong. Good GPA or average GPA both might not promise a job at times, at least these days with respect to the job market it doesn’t, no employer seems to be giving a damn about it! So don’t compare yourself on the basis of GPA, work and studies could be two different measurement scales.
Whether you are a right brain individual or a left brain individual would further elaborate the brand you are, if you are creative and concentrate on visuals and patterning of certain things that means you are a right brain person, however, if you focus more on connecting pieces to the picture as a whole and have deep analytical skills you could be a left brain person, that is to say that you could be very much into mathematical courses and all. Ironically, schools mostly are designed to foster to left brain activities and learning based on that than catering equally to right brain focused people which in return is a huge drawback. Forgive the right brain individuals for not being interested in subjects like CALCULUS! Get a life … will you? And get me one too ... :)
You might be a closed brand by not revealing much of yourself to anyone, however, you need to get yourself known and heard for what unique attributes you have. Thus, the concept of a positioning statement comes up. According to Wilson and Blumenthal (Managing Brand You), there are four parts of a positioning statement, that is, the target audience your brand is meant to be marketed to, the frame of reference (your comparison with other competitors you have), your point of difference, and support (a supporting statement for the above mentioned establishments).
Well it’s easy to say Brand You, brand this, brand that, branded ingredient bla bla, however, among the brands that you know, knowing yourself could be the most difficult brand of all. It’s easy to say but difficult to become one. To become a good brand you have to start believing in yourself first and in your capabilities then later maybe you can make your potential employer realize that …
You, on the other hand, might have dreams based on the brand you are, sometimes, creative, sometimes destructive and at times confused. I have all kinds of dreams, This morning I had a dream … Earth was about to finish off completely, we were packing to shift to a new planet altogether, dress lovers had to leave their most cherished dresses here, I picked up a few books but had to let go of my valuable knitting and painting books in this world because we were short of space and I kept on thinking whether we would have mobile signals and internet on that other planet where we would start from scratch. Well what in Heaven was that! Goodness … My branded mind should at least stop thinking while I am sleeping … phew …
Ok I have limited needs and unlimited wants and yes I’m unemployed too. What’s the name of my disease? Acute Brandosis???
No matter how disease inflicted or short of brain cells you are, you will still be a brand. Know yourself before others try to translate you…
great post! =D
ReplyDeleteThanks Annie! It's great to have you here ... :)
ReplyDeleteA nice piece, and let me confess: I am proud to have her as my student at SZABIST!
ReplyDeleteBut Hiba has given me a good lead. I will request her here to remind me of this in the next class, and I'll talk of an important predicament in our comity of 'Human Brands'.
Jamil Syed
Thanks for presence here Mr. Jamil!
ReplyDeleteYes we are human brands with the internet doing most of the branding job for us now ... I'm at the verge of relaunching myself ... :)
= ).. Great blog.. nicely written.. But a question .. were there aliens on the new planet?? = p
ReplyDeleteNope ... I woke up before I could even travel and go meet them! :(
ReplyDeleteWhat to blame for 'disconnecting' my dream? Ahh ... KESC maybe! Haha.