My manager said to me that I am a brand. I told her I am not. I do not believe in that way of thinking. I am not a commodity. I am a person with contradictions.
This whole ‘be your own brand’ crap to me is insulting to me. It is like stereotyping-not seeing people as individuals. After you see someone as that brand, you do not see them in any other light.
However, I am a Brand. Really. It’s my IRL last name.
I get what you’re sayin’ though. It’s one of those buzz word things that get on my nerves.
If there were 9 before you, you could be Brand X!
Well if you are dissatisfied we can brainstorm on some new ideas, run them up the flagpole and, at the end of the day, we will examine any synergies, form a few focus groups, strengthen our core values and create a win-win situation.
I’ll get a six-sigma team right on it.
I can count nine of my ancestoral Brands and get me a tshirt that says BrandX. Genius! I have a tshirt from a local company called “Better Brands.” When I wear it, it’s true!
Hmm
So if we are all Brands, does that mean we all will be branded? With hot branding irons? Branding irons made hot by being put in the fire?
Who lives in the fire?
Could it be SATAN?
This Brand stuff is obviously part of the Devils evil plan for humanity and proof of the coming Apocalypse.
I’m watching you Swampy.
Whatever you say, User 57844
You mean like Malcolm the Tenth?
I wouldn’t say a person “is” a brand, but I would say that the idea of each individual “having” a brand is useful. Brands aren’t supposed to be stereotypes–they are supposed to be about what makes the branded entity unique.
Arguably, the OP is trying to brand herself as brandless. Bit of a catch 22 there, but it shouldn’t be taken as meaning she “really does” have a brand whether she likes it or not. The question isn’t whether she really has one–the question is whether the metaphor “Each individual has a brand” is useful.
Sounds like he read a new book.
I’ve literally never heard of this before. This is a thing? Referring to people as a brand? Like Apple is a brand, and Snapple is a brand, and Michael is a brand and little Joe Horner is a brand?
How exactly is a person a brand? How is this idea useful at all? And how have I gotten through life (thankfully) never having heard of it until this moment?
What can you do when you’re branded, and you know you’re a [wo]man?
Tell her “Life’s a Campaign” for you already.
Or better yet, you’re too busy trying to “Be your own boyfriend.”
I hear this “personal brand” crap all the time at work. I updated my Buzzword to English Dictionary to define “personal brand” as “reputation”. Yes, there are differences between the two terms, but those nuances do not matter enough for us worker bees to bother with the buzzword. I’d like my reputation in the company to be “does great work”, but the best I can do is “wears weird ties”. 
Relevant Firefly quote:
And here’s a Gene Weingarten column on “personal branding”, and everything I dislike about the concept: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/2011/06/07/AGBegthH_story.html
Being branded used to be a bad thing.
I do not like the whole thinking behind it. I am not trying to brand myself as brandless. If you are a brand, you are not a person. You are a thing, you are a commodity. The whole brand crap is making everyone a commodity. Do you want to be a commodity? Even if you consider yourself topshelf, do you still want to think like that?
Corporations want legal rights that people have, but want their employees to be their product, essentially a thing. I’m glad you told your manager that’s a bunch of crap. I would have too.
Every metaphor plays on certain similarities while ignoring certain dissimilarities. Of course you’re right that you’re not a commodity, but that is simply one of the dissimilarities this metaphor ignores.
Again, I wouldn’t say you are a brand, but it seems fairly innocuous to me to suggest that you have a brand. In other words, there is an array of signals which you maintain by which people try to get a handle on what you’re about.
It is one of the new business buzzword crapology - leverage your personal brand. You are lucky to have never heard about it.
Now for my other reply.
Your manager is calling you hot. File sexual harassment charges.