Have you ever wondered why certain individuals stick out in the crowd and others don't? What is so special about them that they manage to catch and keep our attention?

I recently finished reading "Brand Seduction". A book that explains how good brands become, well, good brands. We see new startups every day, but very few succeed in creating a good, well-rounded image in the eyes of consumers. Those who do are not lucky. Those who do create their own brand fantasy from the beginning. The brand fantasy is what you feel when you think of a brand.

Let's take Apple for example. When you see an iPhone what do you think of? Some of you might say "it's just a phone". But you are not 99% of the people. 99% of the people see a means to an end. That end is higher status, appearing important, feeling more worthy. I'll go as far as saying 95% of Apple's revenue comes from these people. They are not really buying a tech product, they are buying higher status, or at least, the appearance of it. Of this 95%, 70% are probably females. I come to that conclusion simply because females have a greater need to be accepted in society, so to them, buying an iPhone 19 with specs they'll never even use, feels worth it. This is the trick Apple has done to our brains. It's called marketing. Tech was considered geeky just a decade ago. But Apple made it look cool. I leave you with one question to ponder on: what's so inherently cool about a phone?

Personally, I believe iPhones (and expensive phones) are a marketing joke. Sure, they look quality, but do you know most of them are produced in Vietnam and Asiatic countries anyway? I own a Chinese Xiaomi phone, paid for $130 three years ago and it works better than my previous iPhone 6. Food for thought.

If you have very strong opinions about this, you effectively fell inside Apple's brand fantasy. A brand fantasy is an illusory world where many associations come together. Every small thing that represents the brand Apple will form the brand fantasy. That may include feelings and words such as "quality", "creativity", "high status", as mentioned before.

Just recently, I was thinking about how this can be applied to individuals too. That's what brought me to write this post. I'm writing this for myself but I thought I might as well make it public.

"Celebrities" (now called "influencers") elicit the same feelings good brands elicit. They elicit the "fantasy". They elicit an illusory world where most people end up putting them on a pedestal. A world where they are seen as gods, while in reality, their value is over-inflated to the point of it being both sad and funny.

The truth is, it's indeed, a fantasy. Celebrities are not gods. They simply took the effort to build their own image and portray it consistently, forming the associations they wanted people to form about them. Simple positive reinforcement and conditioning psychology.

When you see Brad Pitt, it's like seeing Gucci. Isn't it? You probably see high status, wealth, power. That's again a fantasy we have in our brain. It's a bunch of mental associations we formed with time. Probably it all started with a few of Brad Pitt's movies, where he is portrayed as a cool/bad-boy character, so our unconscious mind immediately started attaching that feeling to the image of "Brad Pitt". Then that image was reinforced by hearing about girls saying how hot Brad Pitt is. See where I'm going?

You want to get to the point where YOU are building the right associations about your character. You don't want to leave those associations to fate. You must decide whom you want to be seen as, and consistently reinforce that image. And let me tell you, it starts with yourself. If you don't fall into your own fantasy, nobody else will. If you don't believe yourself to be cool and confident, nobody else will. Again, if Apple didn't confidently sell its products, why would anyone believe Apple is cool? Even selling gold might fail if you act like you are selling dust. Own it. Own your fantasy. Own your character. And show it to people. Be like Apple, like Virgin (the brand), like Louis Vuitton. Amp up the value in your fantasy. It's not "being fake", or being wrong. Every celebrity is doing that, every brand is doing that, whether you realize it or not.