Brand Names vs. Generic

The top selling brand names in cookies are Oreos, Fig Newton’s, and Chips Ahoy!  The top selling name brand clothing linesare Nike, Polo, and Levi’s.  The top selling name brand soda/pop/soft drinks (geography dictates their name) are Coca Cola, Diet Coke, and Pepsi-Cola.  The top selling name brand sports shoes are Nike, Adidas, and Reebok.  Did you find any of your preferences on these lists of the top three selling brands?  I gave up cookies on the second day of kindergarten, I do not drink pop, I wear Asics, and I love Levi’s blue jeans.  The primary use of a brand label is to focus consumer attention of what makes the brand memorable.  To do that, the brand must be easy for the consumer to comprehend and to see the benefits.  Each of the brands listed above carry some memorable tag line or capture some allure.  The marketing departments of each of these companies are paid ridiculous sums of money for clever people to come up with the sales pitch.  Their goal is simply this –What is the primary message we want our target audience to remember about our product?  Don’t be fooled because the real primary goal is to make bucks…big bucks.  Generic products do not have a sales slogan.  They just kind of show up on the supermarket aisles, the clothing racks, or in soft drink machines.  Their allure, of course, is that they typically cost less money. They have no pizazz, they have no cute slogans, they make no promise of leading you to the zenith of your social interactions, they do not claim to make you run faster, jump higher, nor do they produce a claim of attracting the opposite sex in droves. 

Are you a brand name teacher or of the generic version?  What does a brand name teacher look like?  Glad you asked?  Brand name teachers put forward a strong message that what they are delivering is the most important thing to learn.  They are excited about what they are teaching and they do not put a muzzle on that excitement.  That excitement transfers over to their students and geez whiz, pretty soon you have a whole class that is excited about learning.  Generic teachers have all of the marketing skills of their subject as a Dodge dealer in Japan.  Their students do not get excited because their teacher is not excited one bit; in fact, they appear to hate what they are doing.  Brand name teachers create memories for the kids every day.  They do so with engaging activities on a daily basis.  Their kids flourish. Generic teachers have not created a memory for a student ever except that they all watch the clock and can’t wait until they are released from this non-cerebral dungeon of boredom.  Brand name teachers help their student see the benefits of learning the material. They make their instruction relevant.  Generic teachers just go through the motions and really don’t care if anything sticks.  They don’t tie any lessons to real-life experiences because that would take some effort.  People buy name brand items because they think that brand serves their needs well.  Students do the same thing with their teachers.  So, what are you selling in your classroom…and is anyone buying?

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The Browns travel to San Diego to play the Chargers. After a very tough loss to the Raiders last Sunday, we need to come back strong against another struggling team.  National viewing audience is expected to be in the hundreds.