Month: February 2011

As Elaine was talking about branding in class yesterday, something she showed on the slide really struck me :

Brand = Trust.

That simple equation somehow attracts me.

I was immediately reminded of a women’s conference I went to just a year ago in my hometown, Jakarta. The speaker (a renowned public speaking coach and author of Talk-inc), Becky Tumewu, was talking about building your personal brand. I think the right term for it is ‘personal branding’.

This idea is relatively new to some. Usually, we associate brands to things or products, but associating people with brands? Well it’s definitely less common. However, Tumewu convinced us that having a strong positive brand image for ourselves will make our lives easier as others can attach certain ‘brands’ or characteristics to us.

According to Becky Tumewu, there are 8 simple but practical laws that we have to follow to build a strong brand image:

1. Law of Leadership – become the most knowledgeable and respected person in your field

2. Law of Specialization – select a specific skill you can excel in and be consistent

3. Law of Personality – create a respectable and credible personality

4. Law of Visibility – be active repeatedly and consistently

5. Law of Distinctiveness– express yourself in a unique way, be someone different

6. Law of Congruence –your  public and private behaviour must be consistent (both must be authentic)

7. Law of Persistence – once you have built your personal brand, you must now sustain it; stick with it through thick and thin

8. Law of Goodwill – create a positive interaction with people around you

Concluding Elaine and Becky’s point, for any brand to succeed, it must be able to deliver what it promises. It takes a long time to build trust, but it only takes one incident to break it.

Sunday, February 27 2011, 8pm. Mark the date on your calendar.

Make sure you’re free on that day, because you’re invited to the Oscar this year! You really don’t want to miss this golden opportunity because invitations to the Oscar don’t come very often.

Don’t believe me?

Check out this video from the Oscar hosts, James Franco and Anne Hathaway:

Oscar’s tagline “you’re invited” definitely appeals to most of us. I mean, how many people actually get invited to see the Oscar right?

As much as we want to be “invited” to the greatest event in Hollywood, we all know that we’re not going to walk down the red carpet.

So, what do they mean we’re invited?

For the first time in 83 years, Oscar invites us to ‘live it,not just watch it’. What this means is that, we can go online to watch the award show live, and here’s the catch – “Oscar fans can direct their own experience on the red carpet and inside the ceremony using groundbreaking “360 cam” technology to control multiple cameras with the click/drag functionality of their computer mouse”

How awesome is that! We can watch everything that’s happening at the Oscar live from our own laptops!

If you want to accept this invitation, there are 4 simple steps you need to follow:

1. Go to oscar.com before the award show

2. Click on “Me, My Oscars” on the top left of the page.

3. Click on the “Oscar All Access Button”

4. Pay $4.99 to be granted all access to the show and you’re done!

The nominees this year include: Natalie Portman (The Black Swan), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), Oscar’s own host James Franco (127 Hours) and many more.

You really don’t wanna miss this.

Here’s another funny video of the hosts:

See you at the Oscar!

I don’t understand why so many people are against Justin Bieber. I admit that I was skeptical about him at first, but I proudly declare that I am a big Bieber fan now. I mean, how can you not like him? He has an awesome voice, he can dance, he’s young and good-looking! And if you actually listen to his songs, you will understand why millions of people are so in love with him. Here’s one of my all-time favourite Bieber song, “That Should Be Me” :

He’s so sensational that CBC even wrote an article about him (which I found out today in class) : “Don’t dismiss Justin Beiber too soon”. And I couldn’t agree more. Such a talent should be celebrated. At the same time, it is inevitable that his popularity would attract companies to endorse him. This soon-to-be-17 years-old has turned into a money-making machine. Every product that has his name or picture on it will sell out fast. Really fast.

Recently, when I was browsing through the Web for a new pair of earphones, I came across this purple Justin Beiber headphones. He has his own signature Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Headphones: JustBeats. That is so cool!

It costs CAD$249 to buy a pair of those purple headphones. That is definitely not cheap. But I’m pretty sure the price won’t stop Bieber fans to purchase the JustBeat headphones.

My point is, your passion and talent can definitely take you places. Justin had his humble beginnings as a YouTube singer, and now he is a major music icon. You can never know what to expect in life, but if you are passionate about something, pursue it with all your heart and something good will definitely come out of it.

Live your dream.