Ration Reality

Ever wonder how we tend to have very strong perceptions about certain high-profile personalities? They’re usually very specific, but very concise personal impressions. What comes to mind when you think of Paris Hilton? Will Smith? Barack Obama? David Bowie? Chances are that if you have a strong identification–positive or otherwise–with any of these people, it’s a good chance part of your perception has been influenced by a marketing technique called personal branding. This is a process by which a public figure (or that figure’s handlers) manage him or her persona in the same way a corporation would manage its product (brand). Therefore, if one were to wish to be seen as a “leader”, “innovator”, “leading man” or “bad girl”, there is a PR firm willing to help you create and maintain that idea.

While nurturing brand identity has been a part of marketing products for centuries, it is a relatively new development in terms of marketing a person. It is taking on a new dimension among the candidates in the US Presidential elections. To go one further, many non-celebrities are using personal branding techniques to help advance their careers and personal lives.

Now, we have people being commodified through branding. Since turnabout is fair play, I thought it would be enlightening to take established product brands and speculate what kind of traits and behaviors they’d have, were they people.

Dr. Pepper: Has a practice out in the suburbs and lives in a gated community. He gets behind the wheel of a Lexus most days, but sometimes drives a Land Rover Discovery on days when he’s feeling “rugged”. He just got accepted into the county’s most exclusive country club. In the throes of a mid-life crisis, Pepper’s trophy wife isn’t cutting it anymore, so he’s diddling his PA. He’s not holding out hope for a Smiths reunion tour.

Mr Pibb: Helped landscape Pepper’s McMansion when the development first opened. He lives in a double-wide out by the rail yard. Read the rest of this entry »