What is a brand? According to Wikipedia “a brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes an organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer.” The practice of branding is thought to have begun with the ancient Egyptians who were known to have engaged in livestock branding as early as 2,700 BC. Branding was used to differentiate one person’s cattle from another’s by means of a distinctive symbol burned into the animal’s skin with a hot branding iron. If a person would steal the animals, anyone could detect the symbol and deduce the actual owner. However, the term has been extended to mean a strategic personality for a product or company, so that ‘brand’ now suggests the values and promises that a consumer may perceive and buy into. In a nutshell “Branding is a set of marketing and communication methods that help to distinguish a company or products from competitors, aiming to create a lasting impression in the minds of customers. The key components that form a brand’s toolbox include a brand’s identity, brand communication (such as by logos and trademarks), brand awareness, brand loyalty, and various branding (brand management) strategies.”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand A brand can deliver: • Awareness • Improved image and perception of value • Preference for product/service • Increased engagement and market share • Loyalty • Increased revenue Branding is a very complex topic and plenty of books are written about it. It is not easy to define what a brand is, along with how to create, manage, and value it. I would like to include a part of a well written, and well-researched, in-depth article about essentials of branding by Landor. This article was first published as Chapter 4 in The Big Book of Marketing: Lessons and Best Practices from the World’s Greatest Companies, edited by Anthony G. Bennett (McGraw-Hill, 2010). “There are museum brands (Guggenheim, Smithsonian), people brands (Martha Stewart, David Beckham), political brands (Labour versus Conservatives), destination brands (Australia, Hong Kong), sport brands (Manchester United, New York Yankees, Super Bowl), nonprofit brands (Red Cross, Oxfam, RED), branded associations (YMCA, PGA), along with the product, service, and corporate brands with which we are all familiar. Brands help people make a choice, a choice among salts, financial institutions, political parties, and so on, and the choices are increasing. The purpose of branding is to ensure that your product…
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