Building Your Brand
This post about building your brand in my series about the first element of the Circuit Questionnaire, you and your brand. These posts will soon be assembled in a logical and coherent fashion. In the meantime, read and enjoy them as they are!
My brand stands out because it is political. If you are building your brand you may wish to copy me in this respect but would that be wise? Being political is not a good idea for a business and indeed some business support networks do not allow political or religious bias. So, why a political brand?
- I am seeking people with sympathy for my vision as collaborators and potentially as clients
- I am seeking transformation of the economy and this strongly implies political activity
- My stance does not imply support for any particular political party. If I have readers outside the UK, my specific political affiliation is hardly relevant. My approach implies change to political processes and these will impact political parties in different ways. It is not possible to predict how the parties would respond to the changes I advocate. Whilst I actively support the party I believe is closest to my goals, it doesn’t follow other parties would necessarily oppose my approach.
- My economic thinking is my own and has not been adopted by any political party. It is not my purpose to get it adopted because it is (1) under development and (2) designed to inspire others who may in turn seek to develop it and use it politically as they see fit.
You see why branding is important? It is partly about me and how I convey my experience and what I have to offer. But it is also about how I want to be seen. I’m seeking lasting transformation of society and so seeking people who seeking similar change.
I am at the centre of my brand. If I am successful and find I have a legacy, other people will take my place. They will be there because of my brand. Brands evolve naturally and so,n the distant future, they may be able to trace a line back to me, even though I would not recognise what they are doing. Would I approve of what they’re doing in my name? Possibly not. Would Mr Kipling (if he existed) think the cakes sold under his name today are “exceedingly good”?
So far I’ve written about my brand but I haven’t said what it is! Here are my notes from a few months ago under questions from the circuit questionnaire:
What does my brand stand for?
Money flowing in the local economy is far more important than personal wealth. So, I aim to change the mindset, encouraging investment in localised economies and discouraging offshore accumulations of vast sums of money.
The first sentence is crucially important to understand my political position. Note this is not opposition to personal wealth. It is a statement about the nature of money. Money’s value is through its use to build community. It builds community as it changes hands and so the flow of money is where our focus should be. When money accumulates it is not put to work building community.
This has profound implications for the ways in which we understand our roles as participants in the economy. The decisions we make have profound effects on the economy. Wealthier people have more power and so more responsibility. This is why integrity is an important personal value and why transparency and accountability are paramount political values.
What does it stand against?
Goliath is the corporations and the political system that has handed so much of the country’s assets to them.
Need to resist this mindset from (1) a pro-business perspective because businesses keep money flowing, and (2) community associations who care for their place and tackle disadvantage.
We elect governments to protect us against the power of large unaccountable corporations. When we find governments are selling out to them, not safeguarding our interests, then there is a need for a greater democratic input into politics. I believe this will come from an alliance between community organisations and local businesses. Businesses and their customers, if you prefer.
In what ways is my brand contentious?
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For the political right it challenges huge accumulations of wealth
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For the political left it supports small businesses
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Uses the simplest methods to enable online collaboration and so stands against agency approaches to web design
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Resists easy solutions (grants)
A word about the second bullet. I’m advocating a pro-business approach from the left, not a move from the left to the right. The right favours deregulation and that favours the corporations solely. The left needs to be advocating regulation that favours local businesses. That’s a sweeping statement and it will have to do for now. Ask if you would like to know more!
Who should be afraid of what I’m doing?
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The political establishment, bewitched by big money
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The corporations (should be but won’t be)
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Web design agencies that treat website design as a technical problem.
On the third bullet, my point is this. We’re going to see many new uses of the Internet by radical economic projects and campaigns. The reason for this is the technical issues are not so crucial as they were. There will always be a need for technical support but it is not the main support most organisations and businesses need. They need developmental support. They always have. What’s happened is the Internet has caught up with real life in this respect.
Why will people want to talk about me?
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This is about how we are governed and the need to reclaim the marketplace, where we build trust, from the corporate state that has hijacked it for the benefit of the 1%.
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But the above is a common thought – the real distinctive approach is the need to build an alternative economy.
Capitalism has been a boo word on the left for many years but it is true there has been no more democratic approach found. The communist experiments in the twentieth century demonstrated the dangers of enforced solutions.
There are capitalist models of the left. The old retail co-operative movement is a brilliant example of how bottom-up economic approaches can co-exist with massive corporate systems. Is there a modern alternative, equivalent to the retail co-ops? I think there is and I blogged about an economy for the common good recently.