Your Brand

I work a part-time retail job in a large department store. As I walk around straightening things up and helping customers select merchandise, I am increasingly aware of brands. Levi. Disney. Polo. What hits me is not so much about the brands themselves but how we, as human beings, want to associate ourselves with such things. We want to have the right car. We want to go to the right church and vote for the right political candidate. We even want to have certain brands emblazoned on our clothing. It's almost as if we no longer matter--just the things we associate ourselves with.

Brands are important if you are a business. After all, you want to sell your product, and the more distinctive you can make that product the more recognition (and more sales) you will receive. Product marketing relies heavily on making the brand recognizable and valuable so more people will want to identify with it. 

I've personally never put much stock in brands. I learned long ago that brands don't necessarily mean quality. When I was in Junior High, Gloria Vanderbilt was huge in design and everyone wanted a pair of her high priced jeans. Several of my friends were "lucky" enough to get a pair. They wore them exactly twice before the washing machine tore them out at the seams. Shoddy workmanship meant to pay big profits to the designer. After that when someone told me about the latest and greatest, I would just shake my head and walk away. While I do occasionally wear name brands, it isn't because they're name brands. They just happen to be lucky enough to share closet space with my no-name generic stuff.

While I was at work the other day, the energy of the brands really hit me. There were people wearing brands on their shirts, and I could feel they literally identified with those brands--as if those brands were them!!! It was as if the people inside the shirts no longer recognized their own value. Their personal value was tied to the brands they were attached to. A marketer's dream, but a soul's nightmare.

Somewhere in this very materialistic world we have lost the essence of who we are!!! We feel worthless if we don't identify with a brand, so we happily take on the brands of others in an attempt to feel good about ourselves!!! Is is any wonder things can't make us happy? They are not us!!! When we take on the brands of others, we are making others more important than ourselves!!! No wonder we feel like crap!!!

You are unique!!! One-of-a-kind!!! Valuable!!! In all the world--in all the Universe--there is no one exactly like you!!! Don't fall for the idea you do not matter in and of yourself!!! You are whole and complete and perfect just as you are!!! Don't forget it!!!

Be willing to stop representing the brands of others!!! Understand they need you a whole lot more than you need them!!! 

Your brand is who you BE in the world!!! Show it!!! Own it!!! Shout it from the rooftops!!!

~CSE