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WHAT IS YOUR BRAND?

WHAT IS YOUR BRAND?

It’s funny how the meaning of words changes over time. Many years ago, the word “brand” referred only to the marking a farmer burnt onto cattle to mark them as belonging to him. With each farm having a unique brand mark, it was a means of identification if the animal strayed off or was stolen. I suppose it also had the effect of ensuring that the cattle were healthy and well looked after. It could be embarrassing to have the neighbours see scrawny cattle with your brand on them.
These days, while the word still applies to cattle markings, most people associate “brand” with companies and products. A company’s brand is made up of its name, its colours, design and image. Branding is now a major business in itself, and brands are regarded as having their own commercial value apart from the company or the product. For example, I heard that if you wanted to take over the Coca-Cola brand and use it on your products, if the brand was for sale at all, it would cost you more than 700 billion dollars (and I’m not talking Zimbabwean dollars here!)
Branding is associated with impressions and feelings. Think of any major brand. What do you think of? What are the feelings associated with that brand? Brands evoke any number of associations – fun, luxury, reliability, good value – all carefully cultivated by the brand owner by consistently putting out the same message wherever their brand is displayed. In some adverts on television you can pick up which product is being advertised, long before the name appears, simply through the colours being used and the “feel” of the advert.
So, what is your brand? Each of us has a personal brand. It is made up of the feelings, impressions and images we leave with people. When someone’s name comes up in conversation, it brings to mind the impression we have of that person – not only their physical characteristics but also how we feel about them. An entire “package” is conjured up.
Now, while I don’t believe we should spend our time worrying what other people think of us, it makes sense, particularly if you are in business, to ensure that when your name is mentioned it brings up a package of positive associations. It’s simply a case of having a good name.
You can build your personal brand by deciding what it is that you want people to remember you for. If you want to be known as friendly, then make sure you constantly give out a friendly message. If you want to be associated with reliability – then hammer away at the reliability message, every time. Branding is built by consistently putting out the same message over an extended period. If you are consistently negative or complaining or critical, that is the brand you are building. On the other hand, if you are positive, friendly, helpful – those are the associations people will make when they hear your name. Success is based on good branding. How does your brand work for you?





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Kim Castle
With nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website


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Jonathan Payne
(Visit Jonathan's Website) Jonathan Payne has spent years studying and working with human behaviour and has facilitated numerous seminars in personal effectiveness. He is a management and executive coach, a professional speaker, a facilitator of workshops and seminars for businesses in effective performance, a personality profiling practitioner and a regular columnist in the local press. Jonathan holds memberships of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa, Coaches and Mentors of South Africa and the Association of Psychological Type International.You can contact him at jonathan@livingways.co.za or visit his website at www.livingways.co.za

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