Marketers often recommend conceptualizing a brand as a person. In this mode of thought, various human attributes are attached to the brand. These attributes are often the ones research has indicated are most important to the consumer. A famous example (dating myself) was the creation of the Marlboro Man to embody the attributes male smokers valued. Another example is Betty Crocker. Most brand statements today include some version of a brand personality.
What is missing? Well, if you are an employee of the brand you may have a question regarding how you (as an example) a 23 year old MBA graduate working in sales, how do you get to the point where you can act like the Marlboro Man might act in a particular situation? Not that you have to wear chaps and carry a branding iron; but how do you display the character of your brand in your personal behavior?
Or if you are working in Nordstroms, how do you enact that brand personality? Or a Mercedes dealership's personality? This is where the concept of a "habitus" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitus_(sociology) comes into play. There are several steps in developing (let's use the more common term) a habit. For example, there must be memories of actually performing the behavior to draw on. These behaviors are rooted in a belief.
So when we ask the MBA graduate to "act the way the Marlboro Man would" we should have previously provided some insight into how the true (brand) Marlboro man thinks and what he he believes in. We should have provided insight into how and why the Marlboro Man translates this in a particular set of behaviors. Very importantly we would provide insight into why other, alternate behaviors would not be acceptable to the Marlboro Man, even if they would be socially acceptable to someone else.
And we would have provided our MBA graduate an opportunity to practice.
The point is that an employee can act like the brand only if he/she has been taught to think and feel like the brand.
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