Protect your personal brand

A tarnished brand can destroy your business!

A tarnished name can destroy your life!

When you think about it, branding really hasn't changed much since its genesis hundreds (and probably thousands) of years ago. Why are we constantly deluged with brand images at great cost to advertisers? Brands are valuable because they build loyalty. Whether or not it's true, an effective brand essentially projects two messages about your product or service: 1) Quality and 2) Authenticity.

It takes a long time to build up your brand, but once your brand is tarnished, it's darn hard to re-establish it. That's why protecting your brand is so important. It has always been important, even a matter of life and death.

Like so many great advances throughout human history, branding all started with weapons, then moved into the kitchen. Seriously, you didn't think fire was first captured for cooking, did you? No, it was men trying to throw flaming sticks at each other that led to notions such as a heated cave and hot tea. Believe me, the guy with the first heated cave got way more tail than he could ever handle. So did the guy with the first brand, which he placed on the blade of a sword, probably in Japan though orthodox trademark history places the practice's origins in Europe during the Middle Ages.

Branding was first codified with the Baker's Marking Law, passed in 1266 in Jolly Olde England. I suspect sword and shield makers branded their goods on a more informal basis well before that but can't prove it beyond pointing out that a coat of arms is essentially a brand, one so powerful that it drew many a knight to his death.

Why go to all the trouble of branding? Because for some nutty reason, people like to have a symbol to which they can pledge their loyalty. (Actually, I'd like to think it's not quite that simple.) They choose Buttwiper over Swiller not because it's a better beer but because loyalty to Buttwiper has been branded into them.

So why would anyone choose a more expensive brand like Sandy Addams? These people are loyal to quality. They are willing to pay for it. They love to show off their commitment to excellence.

Brand identity is very important. If Sandy Addams is caught using low-quality Chinese hops, they're toast. If Buttwiper turns out to be the secret beer of flaming fops everywhere, manly men will shun it. Since manly men are far more likely to drink crappy beer than are flaming fops, this would be a disaster for Buttwiper.

Likewise, all you have is your good name. That's why I write here under the CharlieHipHop brand -- so that I can say what I want without worrying about retribution from the next dumbass who might want to hire me for some stupid job in the real world. (Of course, smarter people will see the value of the CharlieHipHop brand and will pay a bit of a premium for it, but I don't want to alienate the far larger market of dumbasses.) This is not a blog for dumbasses. It's a blog for smart people like you, people whose identities (brands) are worth something.

As all you have is your good name, Protect it. Identity theft is a real problem that will happen more frequently as things deteriorate economically. Is your brand already tarnished? It may be, and you might not even know it. Make sure to monitor your own identity.

Are you going to let the bad guys push you around, or are you going to learn how to be invisible? (affiliate link)