the importance of brand

Today one of my professors forwarded me an email from a student who wanted to meet with someone knowledgeable about persuasion. The student has a job interview and needs to be able to convince her potential employers that she will be able to persuasively secure funding, even during this down economy. In other words, the student was hoping for advice on how to persuade her interviewers that she is persuasive. Irony aside, I've recently been working on "selling my brand" (as the persuasion guy), and I'm happy to see that it might be working.

Branding yourself is necessary in lots of areas, including academia. The idea is that, when you see the Nike's swoosh symbol, you automatically know what they're all about. When people see my name in an academic setting, I want them to automatically know what I'm all about. Incidentally, it also strikes me that we Christians should be focusing on achieving a similar outcome for all areas of our lives. When people hear our names, they should know what Christ is all about.