What The Bear Teaches Us About Brand Equity
How Carmy Berzatto's restaurant resumé elevates those referenced
The Bear is over. No spoilers, I promise.
I also promise that this is not a think piece; it’s merely an observation that supports an incredibly important lesson:
Good brands tell stories. Great brands become part of ours.
Carmy’s elite status in The Bear is anchored by his history at restaurant “brands” like French Laundry, Daniel, and Noma. The show’s gritty realism relies on Chicago staples like Pequod’s, Avec, and Kasama. These restaurants are elevated by being part of someone else’s story.
This mirrors how we use brands to anchor our own realities. Consider the psychological gap between saying, “We were out drinking,” versus “We were out drinking Don Julio.”
This reveals three foundational points of modern branding:
The Power of Proximity: Organic cultural references establish far more authority than shouting your own narrative.1
Identity Signaling: Consumers use specific brands as shorthand to telegraph their taste and status.
The Cultural Lexicon: True equity means moving past transactions and entering daily vocabulary.
Years ago, I was party to extreme example of such a phenomenon. I was hauling boxes and cashiering in a liquor store when a customer asked if we sold Patrón. We didn’t. When I offered a number of other wonderful tequilas, she abruptly cut me off and said, “I don’t drink tequila. I drink Patrón.”
Patrón was part of her story. Tequila not so much.
This applies to academia, too. The power of a researcher's “brand,” their authority, is derived from how many times they are referenced by others.
The Bear oh my, catch the attention of the reader, bait and hook. Bringing in the fish is the excitement, flash a mirror and capture those who like their own reflection.
Ra, ra keep it Goin 💯