Читать книгу How You Are Like Shampoo for College Graduates - Brenda Bence - Страница 11

Great brands are like people. They have a personality and a character all their own. Stop for a second, look around you, and find two doorways that you can see from where you are. In the first doorway, imagine that Mercedes Benz — the brand — is standing there as a person (not the car, but the brand of Mercedes Benz itself). What kind of person would the Mercedes Benz brand be? Is it a man or a woman? What does this person do for a living? How is this person dressed? What is this person’s income — low, medium, or high? What does this person do for fun?

Now, look at that second doorway, and imagine that Ferrari — the brand — is standing there as a person. What kind of person would the Ferrari brand be? Is it a man or a woman? What does this person do for a living? How is this person dressed — more formally or more casually than Mercedes Benz? Is the income of this person higher or lower than Mercedes Benz? What does this person like to do for fun?

Now, compare the answers to both sets of questions. They’re very different, right? Even though Mercedes Benz and Ferrari are both high-end luxury cars that get you from one place to another, the brand images of Mercedes Benz and Ferrari aren’t the same. Why is that? It’s because you perceive, think, and feel differently about these two brands. Your perceptions, thoughts, and feelings have been carefully created in your mind by smart marketers who understand the art and science — and the power — of branding.

That’s right. Branding, whether we’re talking about a product or a person, is both an art and a science. On the one hand, brands appeal to our logic — they’re “rational” in terms of how we think about them, and that’s where the science comes in. But branding is also an art form because brands make us feel a certain way about them.

Take a minute and think about the brands you’re loyal to. Maybe you’ve even traveled out of your way to find and buy that one special brand that you just had to have. What if you could grab hold of that same kind of power in your own job search as you get ready to graduate? How would you like to have that kind of influence over a recruiter or a potential boss?