Brand identity is important if you are marketing your Dharma center to attract customers—oops, I mean sentient beings. Perish the thought that your 'cash flow' should become like the Great Void or like a dried up California stream bed! (Dear reader, I am writing this tongue-in-cheek—yep, a wee bit of sarcasm.)
Pertinent to the above, does Buddhism really need to brand itself or more to the point, rebrand itself? Of course we are all aware of the impact great brands like Gerber baby food and A-1 Steak Sauce have on our minds. Let me put it this way, A-1 Steak Sauce does draw us to it when we shop at our local grocery store. To be sure, a lot has gone into building up such a brand identity. Often building up a brand identity is the work of decades; even generations.
But darn it, I am getting ahead of myself. First of all we need to ask ourselves just what is a brand? A good answer is that a brand is a word or symbol that when we hear it or see it, our unconscious mind approves of it if, of course, the branding has been done right. Who, for example, upon hearing the name "Yugo", might have a favorable reaction? Our unconscious might be, in fact, laughing as in "are you kidding—buy that pile of junk?"
It also needs to be said that not every company or religion needs to or wants to brand themselves overtly. Procter & Gamble doesn't brand itself. Yet it owns a legion of highly recognizable brands. It could be argued that the Catholic Church doesn't brand itself, either. Still, the Christian Cross counts as an important brand symbol.
I think of all the religions, Buddhism hits almost the top of the chart with a number of brand items which gets us to identify with it in a positive way. Just look at Buddhist art! Who in Hollywood doesn't have Buddhist art in one of their homes and doesn't think about compassion not to mention their next rebirth hoping it will be a good one?
Another Buddhist brand is a robed monk or nun. When people look at a robed monk they identify with Buddhism, especially wisdom. Of course not everyone identifies favorably with Buddhist brand items such as fundamentalist Christians and Muslims. But then not everyone likes the brand of Apple—least of all those who use Microsoft operating systems.
In a way, Buddhism has had a great brand identity for well over 2000 years. I think any attempt by modern Buddhist to rebrand Buddhism into something new is doomed to fail. You simply can’t use the name “Buddhism” or see a statue of the Buddha or Kuan Yin and not connect with its huge and magnificent history and philosophy. So why spoil a good thing by rebranding?
Comments