Are you a brand? Whenever I have asked this question, it has almost always elicited a giggle and a smile and a ‘No’ response. Barring very few people, who are celebrities, people don’t think of themselves as ‘Brands’.

But, what are “Brands” and how can anyone become a “Brand”?

First let us look at what a brand is. A brand is nothing but a set of values associated with a symbol or a name or both together, consistently over a long period of time, which is different from the values associated with any other symbol or name. That is what it is very simply put.

Let us apply it to people. A person becomes a brand if we associate some values to him and consistently over a period of time. So, to become a powerful brand, what does one do?

1) Stand for something.
2) That something has to have value to others. Not just to himself.
3) This should be sufficiently different from what one would associate with others.
4) The overriding factor of association would be through this
5) Whatever the person does, has to be through this lens of this set of values

If one sets out to do this, he would get associated with those values over a long period of time and as such a brand would be born.