Recently I had a heated discussion about brand with a friend.  Coming from a corporate environment, I learned that brand was an asset you actively protected.  One of the duties of my job at a national bank was serving as “logo police.”   Most of my colleagues thought that it was primarily focused on protecting the company’s brand, making sure the correct colors appeared in print, or on a t-shirt, or whatever.  They felt no real connection to the company brand because it was nebulous, ill-defined, and ultimately it became irrelevant.

My friend challenged that brand was exactly that… a brand… you know the reference to cowboys literally putting a brand on a cow’s rump.  It got me thinking about personal brand and how we find it or at least describe it.  Is it something we carefully craft by using surveys and focus groups to uncover sentiment?  Then we test out our ideas, figuring out what the right combination of logos and taglines? Continue reading Brand, An Invisible Tattoo? →