Branded

How do you identify yourself?

Tall or short?

White or black?

Man or woman?

Red or blue?

Do you use a title or label given to you by employment to define your identify?

Do you state your identify as an association with another person?

Do you define your indentify by what organizations or groups you pay dues to?

Do you indentify yourself by your faith?

Your identity is your ‘brand’.

Branding is a set of marketing and communication methods that help to distinguish a company or products from competitors, aiming to create a lasting impression in the minds of customers. The key components that form a brand’s toolbox include a brand’s identity, brand communication (such as by logos and trademarks), brand awareness, brand loyalty, and various branding (brand management) strategies.

Brand equity is the measurable totality of a brand’s worth and is validated by assessing the effectiveness of these branding components. As markets become increasingly dynamic and fluctuating, brand equity is a marketing technique to increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, with side effects like reduced price sensitivity. A brand is in essence a promise to its customers of they can expect from their products, as well as emotional benefits. When a customer is familiar with a brand, or favors it incomparably to its competitors, this is when a corporation has reached a high level of brand equity.

Many companies believe that there is often little to differentiate between several types of products in the 21st century, and therefore branding is one of a few remaining forms of product differentiation.

In accounting, a brand defined as an intangible asset is often the most valuable asset on a corporation’s balance sheet. Brand owners manage their brands carefully to create shareholder value, and brand valuation is an important management technique that ascribes a money value to a brand, and allows marketing investment to be managed to maximize shareholder value. Although only acquired brands appear on a company’s balance sheet, the notion of putting a value on a brand forces marketing leaders to be focused on long term stewardship of the brand and managing for value.

A concept brand is a brand that is associated with an abstract concept, like breast cancer awareness or environmentalism, rather than a specific product, service, or business.

You name is your first brand. Your name introduces your family as a legacy of your forefathers and a unique identifier of gender. Your name is not a tattoo and can be changed like companies that rebrand.

Your outer appearance (packaging) identifies without knowing a name. Hairstyle, fashion, transportation and even physical positioning can categorize your identity to others who make assumptions on your aura. Your appearance immediately projects a brand that can create presumptions including wealth, romance, intelligence or even danger.

The best thing about life is you can change your brand. It is as simple as a new suit and a haircut. You can upgrade your brand. You can downgrade your brand.

It may depend on your audience or experiences in life itself.

If you want to logo your brand, you can get a monogram. It is very stylish and highly popular on signet rings, letterheads and yachting jackets. You can put your monogram on your silverware, napkins, and your car or even get a tattoo but you might want to change your initials later.

Your brand will stick with you over time but old friends might not understand it has changed. They will remember you by your old brand and have to be introduced to the new you.

What is your brand (identity) worth to you?

Maybe your identity is misunderstood or misrepresented to other’s preconceived perceptions? As simple as a profile can be hacked, an identity can become gossip, bullying, graffiti or manipulated without your permission.

Search the Internet and see how many of ‘You’ are out there. Maybe you are not there? You better check your résumé and see if you really exist.

With the flood of information (true or fake) a comment or suggestion or third-hand comment could alter an identity. The possibility of (but not proven) criminal activity or divisive thought could change your brand without a chance for a debate or rebuttal. Our microwave mentality is quick to judge.

If you identity is stolen, what will you do? Become another person?

Change names, locations, credit cards, social security, appearance, jobs, transportation, children?, eating habits, sleeping schedules are all possibilities but your essence will not. Unlike the witness protection program there is only one ‘You’.

Doppelgangers can sound like you or have a similar appearance or even act more like you and you do, but in the morning you make your decisions, you reap the rewards and pay the consequences for your actions and at night have no excuses.

Others can carry your brand like merchandise. Your brand, no matter how misconstrued or convoluted, can turn dreams into nightmares.

Warning: Your brand will not wash off.

Reboot

What would happen if it all went off?

No telephones, no Internet, no television, no nothing.

What will you do?

Turn on the microwave and nothing. Throw the light switch and nothing. Turn up the air conditioner and nothing.

What will you do?

Somehow we have this false faith that after we were presented with wonders like electricity and Internet and satellite phones that they will always be there at our beckoned call.

We have the belief we are entitled to power and air and transportation and abundance of food and water and sunshine and rain and yet we have no control over any of it.

If we go to the grocery and the shelves are empty?

What will you do?

If we go to the filling station and the pumps are dry?

What will you do?

If the rain doesn’t come and the forests start to burn?

What will you do?

Our previous society will fall apart. Mayhem will become panic, which will become anarchy.

Perhaps recent events teach us how quickly life could change.

And there is no insurance clause for a global disaster.

Politicians and lawyers and governmental rules won’t matter when medical care has vanished.

Hold tight to your family for when tribes struggle for the last remaining scraps of hope, family might be the only support you have.

Or it is time to reboot?

New Shoes

Shoes seem to be the most important article of clothing. Those things you wear everyday, just like your underwear, have become a ‘fashion statement’. And the old Buster Browns have gotten expensive.

It seems the fine tooling of leather and laces have gone across the waters and now those mammoth container ships bring boxes and boxes of rubber bottomed shoes that slip on or lace up with minimum expertise and maximum price tag.

Well let me tell you about shoes. I’ve done a lot of walking in my years and I’ve worn out a bunch of different styles and sizes and know a thing or two about shoes.

When I say ‘walking’ I mean while the rest of you were learning and the relying on driving to deliver you from place to place, I was hoofing it. Yes, I tried the mobile machines but that didn’t work out for me.

Luckily I lived within the boundaries of a neighborhood that had sidewalks and was open all night. I walked to school. I walked to work. I walked my dates and always had a distance requirement. Miles and miles and miles of pounding cement without a thought of my poor little feet, but it was the way to wander.

After the motor vehicle fiasco, I turned to the two-wheel transportation to rest my toes. I had learned that walking five miles barefoot on summer sidewalks was not good for the feet, so I had to wear shoes.

Shoes went from every style of army boots, penny loafers, Beatle boots, tennis shoes, earth shoes, slippers and dress polished shoes. Whatever the style of tie or suit coat or trouser changed with the fads, the shoes were just what were available.

Where they comfortable for long walks? Not exactly but I did find some of the soles that worked for walking long distances as apposed to playing basketball or walking on a sailboat or dancing.

And as the story goes, I went out today to buy new shoes.

Now I must admit I am not much of a shopper but I walked in and started to look at the styles and the soles and the sizes. Most of all the sizes mattered.

It seems my footsies have grown bigger than I had remembered. That means I used to stuff my feet into smaller shoes because I thought that was the size I was suppose to wear. Ouch! Yeah, but you get use to it.

Ask any woman who wears heels.

So getting back to the story of searching for new shoes, I wandered into that 2 for 1 shoe places but tried to stay with the ‘famous’ brands and checked the soles and also the arch support. Remember to check the arch support.

Find some right sizes, check the weight (summer is coming) and hopefully the soles will last at least through the summer I walked to the counter and presented my choices.

The shoe lady opened the boxes and checked to see that both shoes were the same size and there was a left shoe and a right shoe. Who knew?

No I didn’t try them on before purchase (Miller & Rhoades nightmares) and I waited for the guy to get off the phone while standing in front of what I was looking at (just like the grocery store) and worried about the old dude who was just wandering around (just like the grocery store) yet I walked out with my big cardboard boxes of rubber soled freshness for my tootsies.

Now to throw away old worn out friends and fill the recycle can.

It’s All About The Sex

People always wonder what life is about?

It is easy.

It’s all about the sex.

Forget all that stuff about the meaning of life and the meaningful accomplishments and educational teachings and scientific surprises and cultural wonders; we are all here for the sex.

There must be some reason why we have different plumbing?

Procreation?

We are placed on this blue marble in space to make more of us.

It is all we are good at and it feels good.

It is all we are interested in.

Don’t think so? Take a look around you.

Advertising is based on sex. Television and movies are based around sex. Books are read for sex. Even the Bible is titillated with sex.

Fashion? Sex. Celebrities? Sex. Scantily clad girls at sporting events? Sex. Motels? Sex. Bars? Sex. Porn? Sex obviously and very popular.

From the beginning our different bodies were kept apart until we found the sex. It was never the purpose of procreation but expanding the population was just a consequence of sex.

Deviations to the accepted morals have always been part of our sex. All the gender swapping and transitions and whatever else we do with our bodies has been in the shadows not discussed in polite company but enjoyed by all.

Sex can shame or be used as a weapon. Sex is a rite of passage but has emotional and physical repercussions.

Relax. It is inevitable.

Born Again

In some Christian movements to be born again is to undergo a “spiritual rebirth”, or a regeneration of the human spirit from the Holy Spirit. This is contrasted with the physical birth everyone experiences.

In contemporary Christian usage, the term is distinct from similar terms used to refer to being or becoming Christian, linked to baptism.

The phrase “born again” is also used as an adjective to describe individual members of the movement who espouse this belief, as well as the movement itself (“born-again Christian” and the “born-again movement”).

Understand having a term for a life-changing event like ‘married’ or ‘pregnant’ or ‘arrested’ but to be born-again? Being born the first time is a long difficult experience but to be born-again? Better ask your mom first.

So if a junkie can kick the habit, are they ‘born-again’. If an alcoholic stays on the wagon, are they ‘born-again’. If a domestic abuser can learn to play nice, are they ‘born-again’?

If the term ‘born-again’ is a start-over, how many times can you be born-again?

If a ‘born-again’ is a do-over, do you start all over again and repeat events and try to correct your previous mistakes until you get it right or reach nirvana? Do you just continue with society and make new decisions and possible worst mistakes? Is ‘born-again’ a rebirth or a renewal? Maybe it really is eternal life?

And can you die-again?

I F**ked A Beatle

No, not me personally but I can only assume there are many women among us who can say this phrase with conviction of a by-gone time.

Some may call them ‘groupies’ but it was the time of the mania and electricity was in the air. Young English lads with long hair and dry wit captured the hearts of girls around the globe.

In the hurried pace of promotion, travel, performance, recording the musicians and their entourage had to be fed, clothed, moved, medicated and properly relaxed to keep up with the demands.

While the paparazzi photographed young attractive models associating them as ‘girlfriends’ this increase the frenzied demand to share in the mythical culture of fame. “Who is your favorite Beatle” lead to fans becoming hysterical and who could blame the news media from flaming the lust.

The poor lads had to practice, write, perform for 15 minutes to an hour without hearing their hard work, escape, and then do it all over again in another town for another screaming mass of teeny boppers. It must have been lonely being away from home and no time to get to know anyone long enough before leaving again.

Those who did get into the inner circle became part of the here today gone tomorrow hotel life. Whether treated like room service or having an intimate emotional connection these girls would become mothers and carrying on with life remembering a brief moment in time.

Sex and drugs and rock and roll became the mantra for a wandering lifestyle and consensual or not, boys and girls do what boys and girls do. Dreams were broken and expectations crushed in city after city but the memory will linger.

If not a Beatle, a Rolling Stone, or a Kink, or a Who, or a never ending parade of flash-in-the-pan one-hit wonders young girls offered themselves just to be in the company of an idol.

And the English Invasion didn’t start the trend. Musical stars from Frank Sinatra to Chuck Berry partook of the adulation given to them. Stars in any field (sports, politics, science, education, military, etc.) had their followers, fans and groupies.

Carried and displayed as a badge of courage or a rite of passage the phrase “I f**ked a Beatle” is worth a book or a column in the NYT or at least a 3-minute interview on the ‘Today’ show. No one will care if there was a love child or necessity to contact a medical clinic but want to know about the experience. “Was it orgasmic?” “Who was better Ringo or John?” “Who was better ‘a Beatle’ or ‘Jim Morrison’?”

I salute all your ladies out there who have a certain glint in your eye when “I Want To Hold Your Hand” comes on the radio and a certain smile your partner will never understand.

FoMO

There was a time, not that long ago, where you say “I’ll call you when I get there.” It seems like such a simple statement but is put in the lexicon of historical relics for now we must stay in touch no matter where we are or whom we are with.

Technology has produced wonders of 24-hour news, weather, sports, entertainment and most important communication. Our microwave mentality must have immediate gratification or be frustrated.

Yet there was a time when everyone didn’t need to know where you were or what you were eating or even who you were with. If the car broke down you’d have to search for a pay phone or ask to use someone’s landline. If there were several choices of tomato sauce, the personal decision of which brand was made without consultation. If an artist performance was being observed; it could be appreciated without constant interruptions and annoying distractions.

These devices are helpful to make last minute business decisions or record breaking news but what happened before when you had to wait for the mail to arrive or the evening newscast? Newspaper gave up verified documentation of events and happenings from previous days but it was the best there was. Conversations with friends caught us up on what they have been doing since the last conversations.

Now we have FoMO.

Fear of missing out or FoMO is “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent”.

This social angst is characterized by “a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing”.

FoMO is also defined as a fear of regret, which may lead to a compulsive concern that one might miss an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience, profitable investment or other satisfying events.

In other words, FoMO perpetuates the fear of having made the wrong decision on how to spend time, as “you can imagine how things could be different”.

Self-determination theory (SDT) asserts that the feeling of relatedness or connectedness with others is a legitimate psychological need that influences people’s psychological health. In this theoretical framework, FoMO can be understood as a self-regulatory state arising from situational or long-term perception that one's needs are not being met.

With the development of technology, people’s social and communicative experiences have been expanded from face-to-face to online. On one hand, modern technologies (e.g., mobile phones, smartphones) and social networking services (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) provide a unique opportunity for people to be socially engaged with a reduced “cost of admission”. On the other hand, mediated communication perpetuates an increased reliance on the Internet. A psychological dependence to being online could result in anxiety when one feels disconnected, thereby leading to a fear of missing out or even pathological Internet use.

As a consequence, FoMO is perceived to have negative influences on people’s psychological health and well-being, because it could contribute to people’s negative mood and depressed feelings.

Are we better off today helping Sally pick out her prom dress or the latest picture of Fido or that silly video of grandpa playing games with little Billy? Could we put them into a scrapbook or journal to enjoy later?

Test your FoMO.

1.    Gather some friends for drinks (Wi-Fi available of course)

2.    Have all your friends put their phones on the table

3.    First one who picks up a message, tweet, call, text, email, etc. PAYS THE BILL!

Are they checking their phones?