Blaine, Washington - America is probably the most heavily marketed-to society in history. Every day, in print, on television and even on the Internet, there's deluge of advertising, all carefully designed to capture consumers' attention.

Persuasive product messaging is key to any company's effort in "building a brand" that is both desirable and completely unique.

In a tough U.S. job market, employment seekers will have to do some of the same brand-building that traditional product advertisers do. Those applicants who want to stand out from the pack must promote their salable skills and experiences using the same American brand-centric "wow" techniques that marketers employ. You are selling a product, and the product is you.

This "wow" principle is even more important for you if you are applying for a position from outside of America. Your competitors may be applying for the position from within the USA, and the applicants from within the States will most likely be more appealing to the employer as it is more convenient for them to hire a person who is already in the country and is ready to start work. For this reason alone, it is very important for you to sell yourself to the employer in the best possible manner and present yourself as the BEST candidate for the job.

Marketing yourself with what I call the "wow factor" is a delicate task. The initial spark for product branding is: The Right Product With The Right Message. You must use this mantra when you market yourself to an employer, as you are the advertising campaign for yourself.

Before you "wow" anyone, you first have to be sure of what it is you are selling, and who you are selling it to. You must find out what your "consumer" - the Employer - is seeking from an employee and design your "wow" campaign toward getting yourself that important first interview. So before you apply for any job, try to learn as much as possible about the company you're seeking employment with. Use the Internet to find their corporate website or search for cached news stories about their successes, and their failures. Make a file on the company so that you know what they do, who they appeal to, and what their needs are.

After you've done your research, you may want to try to arrange an informational interview as a casual employment seeker. These types of interviews are not always easy to set up outside of the traditional corporate recruitment campaign, but if there's a sympathetic person in a particular department you'd like to find employment with or in the company's human resources department, you should jump at the opportunity to learn more. Use your investigative knowledge to discover or confirm who their "ideal" employee is, what their department or organizational needs are, etc. This is what advertisers would call a Market Survey.

From there, it's a matter of designing your advertising - your "wow" campaign -- to attract the employer's attention. From your informational interview and research, you'll have a pretty clear idea of exactly how to design your employment campaign to directly appeal to the company or industry. Use the details you've gleaned from your research to assemble a cohesive and impressive cover letter and American-style resume.

Successful "wow" employment campaigns will cut through the clutter of other job applicants. Things like creating your own website that you can direct potential employers to is a trendy idea. Online, you can display your statistics, your portfolio of accomplishments, even a pictorial history of successful projects you worked on. A website doesn't replace a resume and portfolio, but instead reinforces it, and allows the employer to potentially spend some more time with "you" on their own time, at their convenience, learning more about you. This kind of web presence not only explains just what you do, but also shows that you have the good organizational skills needed to build and launch the site, the creative talents you have to offer to the job, and your determination to speak to the employer on a business-to-business level.

Another winning, if less visual and more direct, way of reaching potential employers is to advertise yourself like a product in trade or professional association publications. This can be an expensive proposition, but if you pick your placement carefully and economically, you will be speaking directly to an audience that is prepared to appreciate your skills and talent. Many of these industry-specific newsletters and magazines offer low-cost or free classified listings for job seekers.

Every stage of your job search is a part of your branding campaign to make a good impression on the employer. At all points in the job application process, you and your efforts are being critiqued. It is important to always be at your best and always be your true self. This kind of brand building or self-marketing will serve your purpose to "wow" the employer, and most likely get you the job interview you want.