Image-Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Image-Making - Essay Example Although once identified as simply the swoosh on the side of a Nike athletic shoe or the golden arches soaring over every McDonalds entrance, the term ‘branding’ has grown to encompass many aspects of a company or individual. â€Å"Brands are not simply products or services. Brands are the sum totals of all the images that people have in their heads about a particular company and a particular mark. Brands absorb everything around them† (Scott Bedbury, CEO of Brandstream, a Seattle-based marketing consultancy, quoted in Kalin, 2001). Indeed the term has come to refer to not only the images a company produces in order to call their product or services to mind, but also the products sold, the services rendered, the building in which the company is headquartered or even the country in which it originated as well as the methods used to project these ideas and images to the broader public. To remain competitive in the world today, just about anything can be identified w ith a brand if it is so chosen – companies, museums, hospitals, even individual people. In making his bid for the 2008 Presidential Election, candidate Barak Obama skillfully applied the elements of branding or image-making to himself, successfully presenting himself as the most viable candidate through his general appearance, the ways in which he is identified and the context of his message. Barak Obama seems keenly aware of the importance of appearance in making a good impression on the American public. From our earliest history, it has been through our outward appearances that we project who and what we are to other people. Studies conducted by Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Dacher Keltner have revealed that people most often make snap judgments about the people they meet without even thinking about it that can often prove to be quite accurate (Walker, 2006). Therefore, the physical appeal of an individual often plays a significant role in his (or her) acceptance by the