You have no idea what branding is.
I don’t know, either.
I don’t know that anyone does, actually. At least definitively.
I think “brand” is one of the most misunderstood, inconsistently defined words on the planet.
Some people think it’s the logo. Others think it’s the vision statement. Some think it’s advertising and promotion. Others think it’s packaging. Others think it’s the essence, the position, and all those other frilly words . . . . of the company.
- This guy thinks it’s an art. This guy thinks it’s a science.
- These guys think it’s all buzz and word-of-mouth. These guys still believe in traditional advertisting.
- This guys thinks it’s really simple. This guy thinks it can be more complex than we give it credit for.
- These guys think it’s an identity. But not a tagline.
- This guy thinks it’s a stamp on a cow’s butt.
For sake of simplicity, I’ll just say that the brand is the overall impression, and all that implies, of your company/product/service.
Branding is what makes . . . .
- Target so different than Wal-Mart.
- Apple so different than Microsoft.
- Coke so different than Pepsi.
- Barack so different from Hilary.
- Kentucky so different from New York.
- Half-Price Books so different from Barnes & Noble.
- Dunkin Donuts so different from Starbucks.
- Baptists so different from Pentecostals.
- Ozarka water so different from Fiji water.
- T.D. Jakes’ church so different from Charles Stanley’s church.
- Me so different from you.
So I guess if you can define all the differences among these groups, you’ll have a pretty good definition of branding.
I’ll stick with it being the overall impression. Or mabye better, branding is the difference.
Brett’s note: This post is part of a series known as The Vault, which looks back periodically at some of the better moments of MarketingInProgress.com. This post was originally posted on February 17, 2007.
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Have you ever seen the documentary “The Corporation”? In the beginning, a street team interviews passers by. They do a sort of call and response. The interviewer says a corporation name, the interviewee instantly describes the corp as if it were a person. Example: GE….A warm, grandfather. NIKE…a good looking athlete. Etc.
That’s an abstract take on branding.
Haven’t seen it. I think the only takes on branding are abstract. It’s one of the most elusive and debated words in the English language.
[...] is one of those topics that is poorly defined and rarely understood. That’s because it’s so broad. At the end of the day, if [...]