Branded - Brandead - Braindead

BRANDING : from http://www.designtoday.info/brand-new-the-history-of-branding/

The term branding comes from the Old Norse “Brandr” which means to burn. Cattle, slaves, timber and crockery were burnt or branded with the markings or symbols of the owner using a hot iron rod.

MAVERICK : from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Maverick

Samuel Augustus Maverick (July 23, 1803 – September 2, 1870) His name is the source of the term "MAVERICK" first cited in 1867, which means "independently minded." Various accounts of the origins of the term held that Maverick came to be considered independently minded by his fellow ranchers because he refused to brand his cattle.  In fact, Maverick's failure to brand his cattle had little to do with independent mindedness, but reflected his lack of interest in ranching. Unbranded cattle which were not part of the herd came to be labelled "mavericks.

So using the term "Personal Branding" historically links us to ranchers and slave-owners. The reason I am not a maverick regarding brand is because I appreciate GREAT BRANDS. 

Today people promote "personal branding" as if they have founded Jesus.  Rest assured the branding of Jesus is several leagues and a million miles beyond where even the best shrill of "personal branding" is.  When people wear personal branding as a dogma, it is cult.  Otherwise it is just one small segment of much more important discipline called BRANDING.  Branding is what creative people engage, personal branding is an economic mark and/or cultist lifestyle.

People are not brands, they are people - but corporations have applied to the courts in the US to be declared as "people" and the courts agreed.  Today corporations are legally "people" - I will at this point separate the legal definition from people and return people to the status of HUMAN.

It is not troubling to me that beBee have introduced a slogan "Successful Personal Branding" it is troubling that they have set a limit to their vision by thinking slogans are valuable in our age.  The term "Our Age" will mean different things to different people - tribal people in BRANDYOUISTAN will feel that they are living in "our age" - so let me define my "our age" as the 21st Century.  Just because 21st Century media connects us does not mean that it connects us to the 21st Century - BRANDYOUISTANI'S can convince smart middle class people to join their personal brand clans - to support personal brands strapped on bodies to explode them on us.

As a part of a total branding effort, personal brand can play a part in the branding scheme. One can become a bonafide brand soldier and drill oneself with military precision as a personal brand.  When we turn personal branding into a slogan - we have lowered the bar automatically to that of a slogan.  Slogans are the kind of thing that normally feature in movies like Office Space or characterizations like Dilbert.  In Office Space the "flare scene" is the reality of personal branding - for sure in a general discussion we can make a case of a perfect image.

Is there an alternative to using slogans in the 21st Century?  Yes there is - but it requires accepting the minds and capabilities of people who can breath life into DOA slogans, [DOA means "Dead on Arrival]. This means listening to people of this life giving capability and in this case, one cannot go far wrong than observing the mindset of Guy Kawasaki.  He does not start from a mission statement, he starts from a mantra.  I am the first person to appreciate that Guy Kawasaki is a truly great personal brand, but I am not Guy Kawasaki and nor are millions of people who are conditioned by media and messages and know are being told that turning their life into a message changes the future.  Guy Kawasaki is not a mind that one finds on the high street - he absolutely wanted to work on his personal brand, but he is just one way of professing life - and I appreciate his ability to understand brand and not his personal brand.  As a personal brand I am not interested in him and to be taken in small doses. He knows BRAND.