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The Power of Brands
Is Google a ‘better’ search engine? Is Red Bull a ‘better’ energy drink? Is Microsoft a ‘better’ operating system? Or did these companies just build better brands?
— Laura Ries, Media commentator
A book on personal branding wouldn’t be complete without taking some time to understand the powerful role that brands play in our lives every single day. Not that long ago, a Time magazine article reported that the average American citizen runs across about 3,000 brands per day. When I first heard that, I found it hard to believe! But, then, I stood at a busy intersection in downtown Los Angeles and looked at all of the signs … I drove to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport with hundreds of billboards lining the way … I walked down a grocery store aisle in Philadelphia and saw brand after brand peering down at me. Maybe 3,000 brands per day isn’t all that hard to believe after all!
Think about it for a second. How many brands have you seen today on can labels, the side of a bus, the top of a taxi, or on the web? No matter where you look, brand names are screaming for your attention. Let’s face it: Brands are everywhere and are such a part of our day-to- day lives that we often don’t even think about them.
But, if you’re like most of us, you will probably be loyal to at least one or two name brands for the rest of your life. Are you loyal to a favorite brand? Would you consider it out of the question, for example, to wear anything but Adidas tennis shoes or to switch from your favorite brand of MP3 player? Why? What is it about that favorite brand of yours that gets you to buy it time and time again? Great brands make us intensely loyal.
Great brands can be incredibly big and influential, too. Take Coca- Cola, for example. People all around the world buy an estimated $15 billion of Coke every single year — that’s more than $1 billion worth of Coke per month. To fully get the picture, that’s more than the GDP of about 85 countries in the world. How’s that for powerful?
The Untouchables
So, what do we know so far? We know that brands are everywhere, that they can create intense loyalty, and that they can have a powerful influence on us. Is there any question why I find brands so fascinating?
But what’s even more amazing about brands is that, even though they have all of this power and influence, you can’t touch a brand. It’s true. You can smell the aroma of a cup of Starbucks coffee, you can taste the kick of an Altoid when you pop one in your mouth, you can hear the sound of Windows starting up on your computer, you can feel an ice cold can of Red Bull in your hand, and you can see the golden arches of the McDonald’s logo, but you cannot touch a brand. The smell, touch, or sight of a product is really just a representation of that brand. The brand itself is invisible. Its power only exists in your mind.
So, can these untouchable things called “brands” actually change the way we act and think? Let’s see…
Powerful Brand Images
Great brands are like people. They have a personality and a character all their own. Stop for a second, look around you, and find two doorways that you can see from where you are. In the first doorway, imagine that Mercedes Benz — the brand — is standing there as a person (not the car, but the brand of Mercedes Benz itself). What kind of person would the Mercedes Benz brand be? Is it a man or a woman? What does this person do for a living? How is this person dressed? What is this person’s income — low, medium, or high? What does this person do for fun?
Now, look at that second doorway, and imagine that Ferrari — the brand — is standing there as a person. What kind of person would the Ferrari brand be? Is it a man or a woman? What does this person do for a living? How is this person dressed — more formally or more casually than Mercedes Benz? Is the income of this person higher or lower than Mercedes Benz? What does this person like to do for fun?
Now, compare the answers to both sets of questions. They’re very different, right? Even though Mercedes Benz and Ferrari are both high-end luxury cars that get you from one place to another, the brand images of Mercedes Benz and Ferrari aren’t the same. Why is that? It’s because you perceive, think, and feel differently about these two brands. Your perceptions, thoughts, and feelings have been carefully created in your mind by smart marketers who understand the art and science — and the power — of branding.
That’s right. Branding, whether we’re talking about a product or a person, is both an art and a science. On the one hand, brands appeal to our logic — they’re “rational” in terms of how we think about them, and that’s where the science comes in. But branding is also an art form because brands make us feel a certain way about them.
Take a minute and think about the brands you’re loyal to. Maybe you’ve even traveled out of your way to find and buy that one special brand that you just had to have. What if you could grab hold of that same kind of power in your own job search as you get ready to graduate? How would you like to have that kind of influence over a recruiter or a potential boss?
Branding People?
I really believe that people — just like shampoo and other products — are brands, too. Consider some examples of people we all know — starting with celebrities. What do you perceive, think, and feel when you hear the name “Brad Pitt?” What do you perceive, think, and feel when you hear the name “Will Smith?” Both of these actors are good-looking leading men, but you don’t have the same perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about them, do you? Now, let’s throw “Johnny Depp” into the picture … you have different perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about him, too, right?
Think of any category of well-known people — let’s try singers this time. Think Taylor Swift … Madonna … Beyoncé. Again, they’re all very different. That’s because each of these singers has a very specific personal brand that is absolutely unique and ownable as compared to the others. And it’s not just because they all look different!
“But hold on a second,” you may be saying. “Those people are all celebrities and have a lot of money, so they can all hire full-time image specialists to manage their personal brands!”
Fair point. But you don’t need high-priced help to define and communicate your personal brand as you get ready to join the professional world. The personal branding system shared in How YOUTM are like Shampoo for College Graduates will help you build your brand without handing bundles of cash to a publicist. It’s designed for the millions of grads all around the world who aren’t famous and who don’t plan on turning their personal brand into a global household name. What you want to do is define yourself in your world to reach your ultimate personal career goal: to land that first great job that you can really love so that you can get your career off to a fantastic start.
So, if Johnny Depp and Beyoncé have one, and you have one, too, just what is a personal brand anyway?
Taking Your Brand on a Job Search
When it comes to looking for a job, your personal brand is defined as:
The way you want potential employers to
perceive,
