| Kippreport.com

Want a pay rise? Apply make up

January 5, 2009 9:59 by Mansi Shah

Paris Hilton is a brand in herself. But the public image the drink-driving sex-tape starlet has generated isn’t exactly wholesome; it’s not necessarily the kind of perception you would want people to have of you. So when we saw Blue Banana, a UAE-based Web site offering gift experiences, was promoting its “Brand You” workshop using the airhead heiress as an example, we were skeptical.

We set out to meet Marissa Woods, managing director of Brand and People, which conducts the workshop for Blue Banana. She starts with a quick explanation of how Paris Hilton’s image is a party-girl, living-it-up kind of brand, leaving us suitably reassured about the wisdom behind the workshop. Woods also explains how Oprah, Nelson Mandela and other famous personalities have become personal, individual brands.

“Brand You is about breaking first impressions down,” says Woods. “An impression is a combination of appearance, grooming, traits, and the way you present your core values,” she explains. “It’s about how you present yourself to the world.”

In the “Brand You” program, participants are first put through a self audit. This audit is both rational and emotional, we are told. It is about measuring yourself up against your peers. The participant fills a survey, which weighs up traits like smile, voice control, posture and gestures against one’s peers. The statements are simple, the options ranging from below-average to six-star. In fact, the process seems so rudimentary, you get impatient to get ahead, and move beyond the screamingly obvious.

The session might not get too profound, but it certainly could get real nasty, as friends and colleagues (anonymously, and surely gleefully) are asked to list how they feel about you and your personality. This perception is then mapped against your own understanding of where you stand, so you can measure the difference.

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Tags: brand you, branding, Dubai, make up, pay rise, personality