On Living Brands, and joy.

I just finished reading Living Brands... it took forever because it was interrupted by Harry Potter, as well as other books I've been reading, but it was a good read anyway. Loads of interesting brands and their stuff, and I really liked a few lines from the author's closing thoughts-

'Yes, the words business, work, and joy can be used in the same sentence without contradiction. More than anything, I want all of us to know joy and create joy. Without joy, we are betraying ourselves and everyone else, the consumers of our brands included. If you remember nothing else from this book, remember this: You can do what's right by consumers, create stellar brands, advance your career, and make both money and history.'

It reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend awhile back. A future civil servant, he wants to work in the private sector to know that he can make an important difference. And so he asked, what about the private sector? What meaning do you derive from it?

Thoughtlessly, I said, 'that's where all the money is.'

'But money... there's only so much it can do. Up to a point, you can't derive any meaning from making more money.'

True, I thought. And I couldn't really think of a good defence for the private sector. I thought of saying it's all about the ambition to do something remarkable... but that wasn't it either - surprising to most, but I'm not a terribly ambitious person. In the end, my answer was, 'Well, I guess, it's about working with a team of people to create something new... not necessarily needing to be the backbone of the team, but the satisfaction of knowing that I had definitely made a significant contribution to the team. ahhh....maybe I'm secretly egoistic!'

But after reading those final words, I finally found the perfect answer... besides the money, it's about creating something that has the capacity to bring joy to your consumers. That's why I've always liked reading about all the different brands/products in my marketing textbooks... the consumerist whore in me understands that ipods, guess bags, playstations, cosmetics etcetcetc are undeniably so cleverly marketed that they create artificial, materialistic needs... BUT they have changed many people's lives, made many people happy. And that's meaning in itself.

Of course I would understand. Zara has made me so happy on many occasions, haha.

And I think it's really apt that I finished reading this book on the way back from Vivocity... because of what I was thinking about while shopping around for a gift- This is yet another of Cheng Wei's quirky thoughts, but it suddenly came to me that a perfect job for me would be a professional present shopper/advicer. See, there're professional food tasters, professional personal shoppers... so why not a professional present shopper? Provide details on the occassion, recipient's personality, relationship etc... and the professional present shopper takes the effort to seek out a range of perfect gift ideas for you, to the exact brand name, model, colour, location... and you can easily pick out your perfect gift! Or, if you're really busy,, she (I'm pretty sure any professional shopper is a she) can get the gift for you, select the best wrappers, cards, ribbons... and have it nicely wrapped up for you. And I wouldn't say it lacks sincerity, since you'd have to think about the significance of the gift as an 'input' for the professional shopper! I figured it'd be a good job for me since I love buying presents for others, shopping around for the perfect gifts, and wrapping up presents. It's the pleasant anticipation that if you did everything right, your present might just put a smile on someone's face, add some joy to their day.

(or maybe, I just like shopping and spending too much... and seek to help others spend their money once I'm running out of my own!)

I once had a colleague called Joy. And she really lived up to her name... I used to look at her, and think about how much joy she seems to bring to everyone when she's at work, and wish I had the capacity to bring so much joy to the people around me as well.

I used to think that if I had a daughter, I wouldn't know what to name her because there're almost no girl names which I like. But now I know- If I had a daughter, I'd name her Joy. Not because I'd wish for her life to be filled with nothing buy Joy-That'd be asking for the impossible. But because I hope she'd always remember to seek out joy in her life.

Just as I'm trying to learn to do so.