See your self as you really are. Watch your self move and interact with others in a candid home video. Listen to a recording of your own voice. Or ask friends, colleagues, or supervisors for their utmost honest opinions of you. You may discover someone you don't really know. A person you don't quite recognize. Perhaps this other you is a kinder, gentler you; A more successful and happier you; A bolder you; Or maybe an insincere, selfish you? And you thought you were a nice person to work with? Truth be known, there are a multitude of YOUs out there in the world. A you exists for every single person who knows you, who knows of you, who sees you, who hears you, or who, in any way, shape, or form crosses your trail. Unless you have never had any contact with another human being, you and you and you exist beyond the confines of your skull and skin. As social beings, the entity of you is engaged in a constant and dynamic process of defining and redefining, preserving and protecting, or altering and modifying an identity; your identity. As individuals, as groups, as corporations, or as nations, we are most likely to define ourselves by what we know ourselves to be. But what we know is only one of the parts of the whole, one of the fragments. We are never entirely who we think we are. Our identities are not entirely our own. We share ourselves with the world around us. We identify or are associated with various organizations. We are trapped in our external selves, our faces and our bodies. When we speak, we do not even hear ourselves as others hear us. The world around us watches how we walk, how we move, what we buy, and what we wear. We are judged by who we are friends with, where we work, what we do for a living, how tall or short or wide or thin we are, what color hair we have, or whether or not we even have hair. Often, we think of identity as merely a name or a number. But name, rank, and serial number alone do not connect us with an identity. A rose by any other name is not a rose. For John Smith, a rose is romance and beauty and elegance and style. For Jane Smith it's a bloody thumb, a sneezing fit, and burning, itchy eyes. Identities are empowered by the associations we assign to them. And these associations have many components. An identity is an assembly of parts. It is the whole of many and a collection of fragments. Identity is in fact a balance or a dynamic relationship between our internal selves (our conscious, our subconscious, and our unconscious, our ego and our super ego, our memories) or personality and our external environments (prejudice, interpretation, scrutiny, cultural symbols, values, traditions, public opinion) or perception. Identities are built on two-way streets. We are not just ourselves. We are also who we are perceived to be. As individuals, many of us may choose to ignore what the rest of the world thinks of us. Some of us care perhaps a bit too much. And for others, who we are perceived to be can influence or even create who we think we are. Personality and perception are intimately linked events in the creation of identity. In businesses where survival depends on relationships with the external world of clients and consumers, strong personalities, like Walmart or the GAP, could never afford to ignore perception. Their success relies on an understanding of the balance between personality and perception and how these issues resolve themselves through their respective corporate and brand identities. We are familiar with identity as "the distinguishing character or personality of an individual: INDIVIDUALITY."* For businesses, the essence of being unique is what defines our marketplace of choices. It is that which delineates one company's value and purpose from another, or even a product's reason for being. The need to define distinguishing character enables our culture of innovation, curiosity, exploration, and discovery. Identity is also defined as "sameness in all that constitutes the objective reality of a thing: ONENESS."* Oneness is the understanding and expression of what belongs and what does not belong. It is our sense of things whole. It is an order that we bring to confusion to establish continuity within an object, a group, a system, or even groups of systems. Without oneness, it becomes much more difficult to define individuality, and impossible to build a strong identity. Identities are, by their nature, imperfect and changing. Since brand identities and corporate identities tend to be collective experiences, the active management of individuality and oneness plays a consequential role in maintaining an identity's integrity. Recently, there have been many great books written on the subject of brand identity. They contain numerous examples of companies that have shaped their businesses from a branding perspective and have prospered for it. Typically, these companies embrace design and creative leadership as integral components of their corporate DNA. CEOs are recognizing more and more that even the types of periodicals in the office reception area convey messages that impact and define corporate or brand identity and, therefore, are just as important as any fiscal considerations. Successfully branded companies like Nike, The Gap and Old Navy, Volkswagen, Caterpillar, Apple Computers, Cannondale, and even Madonna, to name a few favorites, have understood the necessity and appeal of creating individuality and have mastered clarity and focus in maintaining oneness. And more importantly, each manages the balance between their huge personality and the scrutiny of public perception. This synchronization builds consumer loyalty, trust, industry respect, and, ultimately, a shared biographical dialogue or narrative with the capacity to fashion belief, establish legend, and surround a brand with a mystique of desire. Afterthought While the success of these intentional identities and constructed branding efforts are certainly noteworthy examples to study in more detail, there should be a final word said for the endangered species of the "unbranded" world. We stand, as a culture, in the vestibule of a brand-dominated landscape. Armed with the knowledge of the dynamics of identity, branding zealots pursue the branding of entire marketplaces, industries, lifestyles, and eventually our entire physical and social landscape. In many respects, this may be a liberating evolution where consumers find simplicity, certainty, and security in a fast-paced, complicated world of technological innovation, infinite choices, and constant change. At some point we shall pause, ever so briefly, to consider what may be lost in our haste? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps the beauty of spontaneity, randomness, and discord. * Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1986), s.v. "identity."