7 Brands
A brand is a concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect.
The primary focus of your brand message must be on how special you are; not how cheap you are
The primary focus of your brand message must be on how special you are; not how cheap you are
Let's Talk About Brands.
.png)
Personal Branding
A Personal Brand is an individual’s trademark which encapsulates a set of skills and attributes which one projects out. But on a serious note, a personal brand is lot more than that. In order to resonate with a high degree of individuality the person employs Belief Management which imparts the actual appeal. It is a learned behavior through recognition of the “self” assisted by feedback and reinforcements which develops into set patterns. It is not about being someone that you are not, but rather being 100% natural in everything that you do by projecting excellence. PB is something that you own, something that you eventually become and the way people recognize you “symbolically” in their own minds. There are programs which develop a personal brand resulting into a high degree of satisfaction professionally and socially.
.png)
An individual’s PB evolves with the passage of time. The set of defining character traits gets further refined in light of experiences which then forms the “symbol” into the minds of others. In leadership positions especially, the greater the degree of discipline and control one demonstrates, the stronger a PB becomes. Those disciplinary set of guiding values flows out from all aspects of an individual’s life.
The benefits of PB can be measured in finding desired employment, selling, managing, doing PR and advertising work, through written and verbal expressions with complimenting body language. It is an important business element which involves one on one contact. We are all unique brands with a distinctive identity which get developed with the passage of time contributing in exactly the same manner in which people perceive us. The wise is the one who understands this and uses it skillfully in career progression and organizational development.
Organizational Branding
An organization is a blend of mystical forces in a bottomless ocean of brands with a character having a footprint of its founder. It represents deep emotional intelligence, a thought process, a reason for being and guided core values in a battle to attract and retain something much bigger. Also, CSR plays a very meaningful role in the deployment of organizational attributes where ingenuity and sagacity increases the appeal and the overall brand harmonics.
.png)
Well branded organizations rely on the brand to influence the company's strategy, because of the impact it creates which, in exchange, forms a culture. Every business function is focused on accomplishing the organizational purpose, which encourages them to live and breathe it every day through their actions. By having the brand purpose influence the organization, it is able to create meaningful experiences at every customer contact point. This generally leads to consumer trust & brand loyalty. The brand thus becomes a pillar of support for the entire organization out of which image, loyalty and CSR flows.
Blending Personal & Organizational Brand
An organizational brand requires daily doses of energy and a strong leadership. Department heads are often too busy with the daily requirements of their duties and lack sufficient energy levels necessary to consider factors beyond their area of expertise. For this reason, the highest level of leadership must present the vision that drives the engine of a company. All firms have an Organizational Brand, whether they are aware of it or not, because brand, in essence, is merely a representation of the company. For this reason, the leadership must ensure that organizational practices reflect desired values. Leadership relies upon a relationship with the followers. If there is not an alignment between the two, there is disharmony.
Memetic Branding
Humanity’s behavior and value systems are deeply anchored in traditions, culture and collective consciousness of a society and get influenced by circumstances and the surrounding environment. A Memetic brand is a culture based brand with a high EQ. It presents thoughts, ideas, catch phrases, beliefs and promotes imagination and attributes which define themes of a particular culture by making it absolutely unique. A “Meme” is a unit(s) of information passed down through generations which serves as an identity influencing individuals who can relate with the message.
.jpg){kind=small}
Memetic brands endeavor to integrate the precise cultural units of targeted viewers/listeners so that a buying decision may ensue. This particular branding is valid only within the confines of a targeted culture which neutralizes and dilutes the identity of other brands categorically due to its ability to speak to the individual(s) on a more personal level with emotional intelligence. Memetic brand focuses on the content and the methods of delivery by forcing brand developers and managers to come up with creative objectives for new goals before launching a brand.
Have you ever Googled something, used a Kleenex, or made a Xerox copy. These are examples where brand names become the product. You don't actually use a Styrofoam cup; you use a Styrofoam brand Styrene cup. Memes can also be behaviors like jogging with headphones. At one point people simply ran, then came the Sony Walkman and everything changed.
.jpg)
So, what makes a good meme? It should be short and easy, a phrase or word which is easy to pronounce. It needs to be a complete idea or behavior. If you find yourself with a good meme, don't be surprised if you get a huge bump in new business.
Memes are everywhere ... from personal mannerisms to the political buzzwords that dominate the media. Over time memes tend to morph, vanish, or even dramatically change in meaning. For example, we still toss coins into fountains because that was how the Romans once asked aquatic deities for favors; today we simply say that we are making a wish.
A Meme is like an intangible "controlling device" in marketing strategies which deliver a blow to the subconscious by influencing our decision making habits. That may be a jingle, slogan or a physical characteristic which gets under our skin instantaneously.
Emotional Branding
There is no surprise or doubt that everything which humans do is motivated by an emotion. There are a very few and rare instances in life when we stand in observation of a thing and remain dispassionate about it. And even in those instances ... what if the object of contemplation is so bland that it simply fails to evoke any degree of emotional response? Or the message it is conveying completely escapes our comprehension by being out of the way peculiar?
.jpg)
All purchasing decisions are subtle and made subconsciously; even at times when we are least motivated to buy any product at all. Late night non-primetime TV advertising is big business even in the absence of a large audience. Infomercials run in past midnight hours and there are folks who call the hotline with a credit card to make a purchase at 3 O’clock in the morning. They do it simply because what they are watching somehow delivers a solution by making their lives a little easier.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Youtube is a good place to watch Volvo's crash test and safety commercials. The reputation management of this Swedish car company delivers emotional blows with right imagery, ongoing R&D, catchy tunes and emotional hook phrases like...
Not everyone drives a Volvo, but everyone knows about its safety. It comes standard - Not as an option!
Situational Branding
This specialized area of branding belongs to a conscientious group of individuals who carry an inborn understanding of how life functions. Unquestionably, each passing moment offers us an opportunity to become something greater than what we really are, especially to those who hold powerful positions and carry a bigger load of responsibility. Because their decisions impart the larger whole which they are also part of.
Situational branding is strictly situation based, as the category implies. And even for those who live within normal parameters, it beckons to do the right thing by going against all odds and transform themselves dramatically in the process. That may require facing a life-altering challenge. It can be quitting smoking to starting a diet/exercise regimen, selflessly becoming a national hero who stood for what he or she believed in or simply a philanthropist; this clearly is a category where people respond to an inner calling and where sacrifices are made as a norm.
.jpg)
In general terms, where humans are conditioned to avoid pain and pursue pleasure, this category forces people to get out of their comfort zones and willingly choose a great deal of discomfort. The purpose behind the act is the resulting consequence which it promises.
This category is reserved for a select few; no pun intended. But anyone can be a part of it through actions which stretch out and resulting into from gaining self esteem, a defining confidence, confronting deep-seated fears/weaknesses to saving precious lives.
It is the opposite of personal branding because of the height of human drive it represents without the ego or vainglory. It brands the participants indelibly in a remarkable way. They get stamped on our minds and give a give us a glimpse of humanity and supreme human potential.
The story FUKUSHIMA 50 is the perfect example of situational branding.
Conscious Branding
This is a branding category of people who are born with a limitation or have impressively adjusted their lives after a catastrophe, a severe limitation or incapacitation, which they have to live with for the rest of their lives. People who fall under this class are the soul warriors, though they may not look it.
There is no resistance involved when the time of transformation approaches because they can actually see and go past their limitation(s). They have somehow won the battle that nobody can see but only feel, and have miraculously re-emerged from the depths of acute depression, insanity or paranoia. This is a category of people which are too few and far in between. And it is as real as it gets because of the conscious effort involved which lies beneath.
.jpg)
Conscious Branding is laced with emotion which cut a deeper slice from life. It actually brings the individual to a point where they start contemplating about ending their own lives.
And to emerge from such depths, not only as a survivor but rather as a societal and a paradigm icon, is a feat which is accomplished by a very select few. It takes an amazing amount of mental stamina and will power to laugh in face of a personal calamity, gather shattered pieces of a life that once was and tell the world about it.
Examples of Conscious Branding:
.png)
Mothers Against Drunk Driving: The Texas based organization was founded in 1980 in California by Candice Lightner after her 13-year-old daughter was killed by a drunk driver. The mission of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking. www.madd.org [Reference: Wikipedia]
Nicholas James Vujicic (born on 4 December 1982) is an Australian motivational speaker. Born with Tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs. As a child, he struggled mentally and emotionally, as well as physically, but eventually came to terms with his disability and, at the age of seventeen, started his own nonprofit organization, Life Without Limbs. Vujicic presents motivational speeches worldwide, on life with a disability, hope, and finding meaning in life. http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/ [Reference: Wikipedia]
Conscious branding, therefore, is a unique category of those warrior spirits who make a conscious choice of living a full life and set exemplary markers around each bend for people to follow. They offer a hope to those lost souls whose inner fire has died down due to a personal tragedy.
Unconscious Branding
Conscious Branding is laced with emotion which cut a deeper slice from life. It actually brings the individual to a point where they start contemplating about ending their own lives.
And to emerge from such depths, not only as a survivor but rather as a societal and a paradigm icon, is a feat which is accomplished by a very select few. It takes an amazing amount of mental stamina and will power to laugh in face of a personal calamity, gather shattered pieces of a life that once was and tell the world about it.
Examples of Conscious Branding:
Conscious branding, therefore, is a unique category of those warrior spirits who make a conscious choice of living a full life and set exemplary markers around each bend for people to follow. They offer a hope to those lost souls whose inner fire has died down due to a personal tragedy.
Unconscious Branding
Entering The Red Zone
Incontrovertibly, this is the most dangerous category for it represents the dark side of human nature. It directly impacts the reputation of the individual concerned or the organization running the show. It takes years and decades of conscious effort to establish a name but only seconds to destroy it.
It is the act of engaging into wrongful / illegal / irresponsible behavior which, without fail, contributes to falling into this category. We have real life examples laid out in abundance which serve as signposts reflecting bad management and decisions which have smeared the brand leading companies to an impasse.
Organizations don’t have a life of their own. It is the top management at the helm and footprints of teams below which contribute to the livelihood or in the destruction of a brand. In either scenario, companies can be structured to run like frictionless perpetual machines upholding the values or can be transmuted into entities which can nose dive without a warning. Oftentimes, it may not be the deliberate deception but rather negligence and bad judgment calls which deliver the fatal blow to a name.
All white-collar corporate crimes are intimately associated with UB. And when the reputation gets tarnished irretrievably, aside from organizational … personal brands stand in ruins without a glimmer of independence which was once enjoyed by individuals. Historically speaking, the act of one, or a few, stigmatizes the entire organization and has blemished the careers of many.
Here are some brands for your dispassionate review. While you read the text and look at the images, understand the associated symbolism which comes to your mind and see how it impacted the lives of thousands of individuals.
Examples of Unconscious Branding:
Phar-Mor was a United States chain of discount drug stores, based in Youngstown, Ohio, founded by Michael Monus and David S. Shapira in 1982. Phar-Mor's business model was based on selling a large quantity of merchandise with a very small profit margin. In 1992, when the company had grown to over 300 stores and 25,000 employees, Monus and his CFO Patrick Finn were accused of embezzlement. They had allegedly hidden losses and moved about $10 million from Phar-Mor to the World Basketball League that Monus had founded. Based on deceptive data and inventory, Phar-Mor borrowed millions, ostensibly to finance its unusually rapid growth. Finn testified against Monus and received 33 months in prison. Monus was convicted on 107 federal counts, mostly related to fraud, and sentenced to 17 years and 7 months in federal prison. Prosecutors estimated that the total loss to all investors exceeded $1 billion. The company was delisted from the NASDAQ Stock Market on October 10, 2001. The company went out of business in 2002.
The whole case was profiled in a documentary on the PBS show Frontline, entitled "How to Steal $500 Million". For detailed study: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phar-Mor. Source: Wikipedia.
.JPG)
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion in 2000. At the end of 2001, it was revealed that the reported financial condition was sustained substantially by systematic and creatively planned accounting fraud, known as the "Enron scandal". Enron has since become a popular symbol of willful corporate corruption. The scandal also brought into question the accounting practices and activities of many corporations throughout the United States and was a factor in the creation of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002. The scandal also affected the wider business world by causing the dissolution of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron.
The CEO Kenneth Lay (above) became synonymous with corporate abuse and accounting fraud when the scandal broke in 2001. On July 7, 2004, Lay was indicted by a grand jury on 11 counts of securities fraud and related charges. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison plus monetary fines, but death during appeals process resulted in the abatement of all charges. He died on July 5, 2006, about three and a half months before his scheduled sentencing. Source: Wikipedia.
.JPG)
L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco International Ltd., and former Tyco Finance Chief Mark Swartz were sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the company. Kozlowski, 58, and Swartz, 44, were convicted after a four-month trial on 22 counts of grand larceny, falsifying business records, securities fraud and conspiracy.
In closing, this particular category never sees a happy ending. Deliberate insanity is very short lived and with ramifications reaching far beyond the individual’s life span. Whether one is a head of state, political figure or a C level executive, when the illusion bubble bursts, it bursts violently relegating them into text book examples of what not to do when one is occupying a position of responsibility.
Incontrovertibly, this is the most dangerous category for it represents the dark side of human nature. It directly impacts the reputation of the individual concerned or the organization running the show. It takes years and decades of conscious effort to establish a name but only seconds to destroy it.
It is the act of engaging into wrongful / illegal / irresponsible behavior which, without fail, contributes to falling into this category. We have real life examples laid out in abundance which serve as signposts reflecting bad management and decisions which have smeared the brand leading companies to an impasse.
Organizations don’t have a life of their own. It is the top management at the helm and footprints of teams below which contribute to the livelihood or in the destruction of a brand. In either scenario, companies can be structured to run like frictionless perpetual machines upholding the values or can be transmuted into entities which can nose dive without a warning. Oftentimes, it may not be the deliberate deception but rather negligence and bad judgment calls which deliver the fatal blow to a name.
All white-collar corporate crimes are intimately associated with UB. And when the reputation gets tarnished irretrievably, aside from organizational … personal brands stand in ruins without a glimmer of independence which was once enjoyed by individuals. Historically speaking, the act of one, or a few, stigmatizes the entire organization and has blemished the careers of many.
Here are some brands for your dispassionate review. While you read the text and look at the images, understand the associated symbolism which comes to your mind and see how it impacted the lives of thousands of individuals.
Examples of Unconscious Branding:
Phar-Mor was a United States chain of discount drug stores, based in Youngstown, Ohio, founded by Michael Monus and David S. Shapira in 1982. Phar-Mor's business model was based on selling a large quantity of merchandise with a very small profit margin. In 1992, when the company had grown to over 300 stores and 25,000 employees, Monus and his CFO Patrick Finn were accused of embezzlement. They had allegedly hidden losses and moved about $10 million from Phar-Mor to the World Basketball League that Monus had founded. Based on deceptive data and inventory, Phar-Mor borrowed millions, ostensibly to finance its unusually rapid growth. Finn testified against Monus and received 33 months in prison. Monus was convicted on 107 federal counts, mostly related to fraud, and sentenced to 17 years and 7 months in federal prison. Prosecutors estimated that the total loss to all investors exceeded $1 billion. The company was delisted from the NASDAQ Stock Market on October 10, 2001. The company went out of business in 2002.
The whole case was profiled in a documentary on the PBS show Frontline, entitled "How to Steal $500 Million". For detailed study: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phar-Mor. Source: Wikipedia.
The CEO Kenneth Lay (above) became synonymous with corporate abuse and accounting fraud when the scandal broke in 2001. On July 7, 2004, Lay was indicted by a grand jury on 11 counts of securities fraud and related charges. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison plus monetary fines, but death during appeals process resulted in the abatement of all charges. He died on July 5, 2006, about three and a half months before his scheduled sentencing. Source: Wikipedia.
In closing, this particular category never sees a happy ending. Deliberate insanity is very short lived and with ramifications reaching far beyond the individual’s life span. Whether one is a head of state, political figure or a C level executive, when the illusion bubble bursts, it bursts violently relegating them into text book examples of what not to do when one is occupying a position of responsibility.
Power does not corrupt men. Fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power
No comments:
Post a Comment