What is Your Brand?
This question isn’t asking if you are a Coke or Pepsi person or a Chevy or Ford lover. This question is asking you, how do you brand yourself to the world around you? A brand is more than a name, a logo, and a product. It’s everything that is connected to a company or person. Brand makers must consider every way their audience can see their product in the public square because a brand’s purpose is to establish how an entity is seen.
If you don’t think this is true, consider the former Washington Redskins, now called the Washington Commanders. Their name did not impede their ability to play football as a professional team but because of outrage due to cultural appropriation. The owners and management of the team didn’t want the public opinion of disrespect for native peoples to impede their ability to be seen as a professional football team. To protect their brand, they changed their name and made a move to protect their public perception.
Here is a reality you may not recognize, you also have a brand. The way you choose to present yourself at work, the way you dress, the way you talk, and everything that you do will give you a brand. This is an important recognition, especially if you are a Christian. Remember, a brand is not about ensuring you are pleasing public opinion. Branding is about controlling how you communicate to the world around you so that the message you want to share gets heard.
In business, that message is almost always “buy our product or service,” and good branding will work to promote that and not detract from it. However, as Christians, we must realize that we are not just promoting ourselves. We are also not promoting our churches. We are glorifying our God, savior, and lord, Jesus Christ. This means that our branding, the way we live our lives, needs to promote the message of God. Before we do anything and everything to tickle the ears of people to get them in the doors of the church, our message must unapologetically represent a non-hypocritical view of our love for God and his gospel. Understanding our brand and how we express ourselves must include loving others how we love ourselves. However, that love must not impede first loving the Lord our God.
My challenge to you, please consider your brand today. Consider the message that you are telling the world around you. Number one, it’s just a practical thing to do. Second, as Christians, we have something to do that is way more than being pragmatic. We have a call to conduct ourselves in a way to bring God glory and others to that same knowledge of His glory. So, let’s be conscious of how to conduct ourselves in all we do so we do not hinder or detract from that calling or the message we share.“Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.” (1 Peter 2:12, CSB)
I haven’t considered before that I might have branding. Thank you for walking me through this concept. I want 1 Peter 2:12 in my life.