I've been spending a lot of time attending meetings in PETRONAS about how the organization is trying to improve its brand equity. Yes, that's right: brand = equity. In such a highly competitive market, every small advantage helps, and until lately, the area in which PETRONAS has always lagged behind its competitors, especially SHELL, has been in how the public perceives its brand.
Before (and maybe still, but its changing), while SHELL was known as the "performance brand", PETRONAS was often looked upon with disdain as the "sluggish brand" - it unfairly obtained this tag for no other reason than because it was seen as a quasi-government, Bumiputra (sons of the earth) run company.
During my many meetings on this topic for the company, i began to wonder whether each of us have our own "brand". I can probably say with some degree of confidence what brand means for a company, but what does it mean for humans, if anything at all?
Still rolling on the floor laughing from the latest tales of Mat Yan and -me-, i began to understand that our personal "brand" is represented by what people talk about us when we are not around.
Is he a hunk? Is she a babe? A gigolo? A slut? A lazy bum? A workaholic?
The adjectives that people use to describe us = what they think about us = our brand.
If this is true, then the question that remains is whether our brand should matter to us. The answer to that is a little bit less straightforward, but just like everything else in this life, its probably a bit of "yes" and "no".
"Yes" because none of us live in a vacuum. Humans are by nature, social animals and as long as we require the support and assistance of others to survive (who doesn't?), its important that we manage the ideas that people have in their head about us. A person who thinks you're a bastard (or bitch if you prefer), will probably not help you in your time of need. That in isolation is not so bad, but there is a tendency that such a "brand" can spread and soon, more and more people may believe the same. Its immaterial sometimes whether its true or not. What matters is the results that such a "brand" generates. Unchecked, a negative brand can make life an absolute hell. Just ask the senior accountants responsible for Enron.
"No" because if you live your life trying to make others feel good about you(companies like PETRONAS have whole departments dedicated to making the customer feel good about buying its products), then there will come a point when you will not know when the "brand" stops and "you" begin. You will become a slave to the masses and every small blip of negativity will make you miserable. Its always best to remember this rule: the people who are important to you (i.e. those who feel that you are important to them) are the only ones whose opinion matters. 90% of your social comfort will come from 10% of your friends. And strangely enough, these are also the people who, because they know you, tend to be the most tolerant to your quirks. So as long as you don't do anything absolutely horrifying (e.g. sleep with your best friend's baby sister), your "brand" is safe with them.
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