What Brand is, and
What Brand is not...

Brand is::

Brand is not:

• A term most business people feel comfortable with.

• Useful to customers, because it helps making buying decisions quicker and less risky.

• Credible and appealing to customers in many circumstances; perceived as hype in others.

• Effective only when trusted by customers (i.e. customer experience consistently matches or exceeds the brand promises).

• Most powerful when differentiated from competitors and highly relevant to customers.

• Based on the marketing axiom: "perception is reality"

• Different things to different people. Because individuals start from different perspectives when they consider a brand, not all will react to / perceive it the same way. Sophisticated brands are designed to have multiple personalities across different segments.

• Not fixed, capable of being evolved in line with shifts in the marketplace, being divided into sub-brands, stretched to cover new products and services, or bridged into new brands.

• Capable of providing high differentiation with otherwise commodity products

• Applicable to nearly any product category in most markets.

• A convenient idea around which many marketing concepts can be explained

• Sometimes unrelated to any specific product or service (with very strong brands).

• An"umbrella" capable of giving identity to numerous products and services within a brand.

• The basis of a specific business philosophy ("Brand Management")

• A career structure in FMCG companies through internal marketing training and career development.

• Itself "branded" the best approach to business and marketing by companies and individuals with a vested interest (especially "Brand Consultants")

• A strong revenue source for advertising agencies, researchers, and media companies.

• Compartmentalized neatly in a person's mind. Brands impact one another, have "halo effects", and cross a person's work-life boundary (e.g. emotions about brands experienced outside of work - perhaps with one's spouse or children - impact related brands at work, and vice-versa).

• Just for big business. A micro-business operating in a local community may well have the resource to brand itself very well within that community, though "going national" may be beyond its current means.

• The same thing as Brand Management. One is a marketing technique, the other is an approach to business management.

• The same thing as reputation. Reputation is more about people's beliefs about a business (perhaps whether their products are of durable quality, or whether service personnel can be depended on to show up on time). Brand is reputation + emotions and attitudes.

• The same thing as corporate image. A company may brand itself at the corporate entity level, but most times feelings and beliefs about who owns, produces, or distributes products are detached from customers' perceptions and feelings about the brands it operates. (This is particularly relevant to global brands)

• Confined to Consumer Goods. Brand techniques can be applied in all market sectors.

• Just about creating awareness and recall.

• The only set of marketing techniques available to marketers.

• As important as customer franchise and customer equity.

• The best place to invest if funds are limited.