OVER THE ATLANTIC -- Seated in seat 3B, the seat beside me, is a guy with an iron filings goatee and an Iron Maiden t-shirt.  He's got a new tattoo that he keeps licking and scraping.  It's his software company logo -- just above the wrist on his right hand.

More power to him.

Because it is his company it is obviously an important part of who he is.  He owns it and lives it and breathes it.  There is no space between him and his business.

I wish him great success.

But not too much, because you wouldn't want to be so successful that you sold the company, and had someone else's logo on your wrist.

We are being asked a lot this month about internal branding (sometimes called employee branding, or employer branding.) 

We have seen a number of different variations on the internal brand.  And handled some interesting questions:

• What are the differences, for example, with a company that is family or privately owned and employees are simply salaried?
• How can you make employees identify with the company closely while you are also making redundancies?
• What happens to your employee brand when you change owners, or merge?
• Do you really want people to brand themselves with your logo anyway?

I'm sure you have a view on this.  What has your experience been?

/df