morning boy's letters on serious matters and commentary on funny things aplenty
This reminds me of BRAND. The expression BRAND.
I find TATTOO very similar to BRAND.
BRAND is that mark that has been ‘burnt’, sort of permanently. Difficult to erase. Difficult to get rid of once the brand has been burnt on to the skin.
TATTOO isn’t that torturesome as BRAND, but it is also difficult to erase, difficult to get rid of.
Now the thing is while a BRAND can be burned in or into or on their heads, TATTOO can only be put on their heads. ‘In’ their heads takes something.
Is that the word? Think about it.
“Build”
Look at the meaning of ‘brand’, look at the meaning of ‘build’.
For a long time, I’ve had doubts about this expression and similar other expressions which include ‘brand’.
Folks say, the name of my brand is…
‘Brand’ if understood in the sense of its the original meanings, whether as a verb or a noun, doesn’t make any sense in such expressions as ‘build a brand’.
Actually, ‘brand’ feels like an abstraction. An abstract name given to the phenomenon of making one remember your name at the moment of truth.
I read and hear many people say ‘D2C Brand’ in introducing or talking about certain businesses.
While showering just a while back, I asked myself, ‘What is a D2C Brand?’
When customers speak about a brand, do they utter these exact words, ‘D2C Brand’?
Conveniences in semantics and sentence-forming gives rise to such expressions and somehow many people adopt these and utter them naturally.
One doesn’t know when this little adoption of innocuous or exact-feeling expressions becomes a distortion, a barrier when opportunities to present a business arises.
What good is a D2C Brand for buyers and consumers? What good is it for you to utter that yours is a D2C Brand?
The word is abused enough.
Differentiation, expressing differentiation, all forgotten so soon.
Folks can’t even express the ‘category’ their business operates in. But go about tomtomming ‘brand brand brand’ in every conversation.
What did they do their MBAs and certifications for? SEO?
Yesterday, I read a post which mentioned that shoe-shape has been perfected.
I was amused.
To amuse me more, here comes an ad in my FB feed.
Relaxo slippers may feel relaxo; I am not confident about that but for the shape of minimally designed slippers. I haven’t checked Relaxo shoes yet. Am sure they aren’t relaxo.
Meanwhile, great profits can always make me feel relaxed.
Dear Brand Manager,
What is Victorious Muscle?
You see I wrote on the email id shared on your website but I was kind of dismissed after a short chat with someone in the sales team, that too after a stern follow-up from my end to elicit a response to my email.
No, I did ask for your contact, a way to have a chat with you, even if that meant flying down to your office.
I was told the Marketing Team handles this and has given the project to an agency. “If they need you, they will contact you.”
Who needs whom, well in this world, who can even tell.
I said to the sales guy I was talking with, “Look I’ve got an idea that will really benefit a product like the Keeway 250V in the Indian market. It may position this brand in just the right way and may have a great impact on sales.”
The conversation was closed with some platitudes by your sales guy.
Life, I tell you, even when you have the right idea and the product is right in front of you, you can only wish…
Dear Al, it’s possible that folks don’t understand branding but like to be branded all the same.
Can a brand, that doesn’t proclaim to be a platform, view itself as a platform? What changes if it views itself that way?
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