Tag: society

A Selfless Act Called…Branding!

 

Ideally, yes! And mind you, selfless doesn’t mean private.

 

Lets look at the importance of selflessness..

 

Selflessness improves relationships, Selflessness can keep you healthy, Selflessness gives us a new perspective, Selflessness forms connection, Selflessness gives you a sense of peace, Selflessness can be a form of therapy.

 

Typically brands spend millions of dollars to realise some of the above, if not all.

 

A great brand naturally flows out of the product or service. Graciously. Optimistically. With the singular focus of making it successful.

 

Yes, it needs shaping. Crafting. Articulating. Calibrating. But, the underlying shape- the bones of whatever it is- are present from its inception.

 

And the role of the brand builders is to help it find the appropriate outfit, to coach it on how to walk and talk, mentor it and set it free into the real world. So, when it finally goes out into the world, its appearance matches its personality.

 

Selfless, really?

 

Isn’t branding all about yourself? Looking inward? A transcendently selfish act?

 

Well, a brand is part of the society. As it steps into the world, it has to signal very clearly what it stands for.

 

That said, a brand cannot live in isolation. Like the fish in water, which are dependent on the ecosystem around it, a brand on its own is pretty much a useless entity.

 

A mobile phone needs a cellular network, an electrical infrastructure. It needs a marketplace, it needs software, it needs applications, it needs accessories. And each one of these ecosystems breaks down into smaller and smaller subsystems. Without all this, a cell phone is a useless brick of metal, plastic and glass.

 

With a logo on its back.

 

If a brand lives by itself in the forest, will anyone know it’s a brand?

 

You just maybe tempted to take a look at this article from BrandKnew about Personal Values and the Need for a Purpose Led Brand Culture.

 

ENDS

It’s an ever & over connected economy, but, we have never been more lonely!

The barrage is non-stop. Requests for connections. Another feather in the cap. Another vanilla metric to flaunt your social standing. Another ‘virtual friend’.

 

The legendary Greek Philosopher Aristotle once said, “Man is by nature a social animal, an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual.” He said this because human beings live in groups whether they are smaller like a family or larger like a city or country.

 

And that precisely is the reason why societal interventions seem to be dominating the discourse when it comes to offering solutions to foster connection, often to the exclusion of more individual ones. There are myriad theories about why we are struggling to connect, and just as many proposed solutions.

 

 

According to Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the United States is in the throes of what he recently labeled a loneliness “epidemic”, with nearly one in four Americans over 18 say they often or always feel lonely. Things may not be very different in other countries.

 

Findings at the intersection of neuroscience and psychology suggest that feelings of loneliness are a biological signal, a clarion call to remind us that we need other people. That being said, there is a theory that runs counter to the default. Without the crutch of social connection, what we, as individuals can do to alleviate the situation- most of them are frictionless and non controversial- like engaging with nature or woods( if our modern day cities have them), physical exercise, one on one cognitive intervention and such like.

 

Mind you that this is not a prescription asking you to plough a lone furrow but a reconciliation to the fact that we need the best of both worlds to fight this ‘ epidemic ‘ via a personal as well as collective approach.

 

As we all know, it takes nothing to join the crowd, but, you also have to go ahead, even if no one goes with you.

 

” Alone is a state of being or body, whereas loneliness is state of mind “- Invajy

 

As I conclude, may I tempt fate and ask you to take a look at this article in BrandKnew about the power of emotions.

 

ENDS

How Steep Is Your Love?

Please pardon me if the caption of this blog post sounds comfortingly familiar to the Bee Gees classic single ” How Deep Is Your Love “. Inspired? Yes, absolutely.

 

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

 

It shouldn’t be such a difficult thing to do, but, yet it is.

 

How to love yourself.

 

One of the best guides to how to be self-loving is to give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others.

 

There will be times when you will be feeling lousy about your state of mind, your over-fifty body, your hair, you see yourself as too fat, too this or too that..it’s a rabbit hole that we all go into.

 

Yet you fantasise about finding someone who would give you the gift of being loved as you are. Contrarian, isn’t it?

 

It is silly, isn’t it, that you would dream of someone else offering to you the same acceptance and affirmation that you are voluntarily withholding from yourself.

 

The word ‘ love ‘ is most often defined as a noun. But, it is worth altering the trajectory. We would all love better if the word love is used as a verb, rather than a noun.

 

The ask here is: could we proactively offer a new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness– not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, unity ?

 

People are divided by our society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love.

 

Should we be razing the cultural paradigm for a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and society?

 

Definitely so. Count me in!

 

As Katrina Mayer puts it, ” Loving yourself isn’t vanity, it is sanity “.

 

ENDS