Q4 | David asks: EXPLAIN WHAT 'BRANDING' MEANS

EXPLAIN WHAT 'BRANDING' MEANS

And if you work for a design 'agency' it's a near-on certainty that it'll be bullshit peppered with words such as 'holistic' and 'paradigm'. Or something like this maybe:

"It all starts with the creation of a mark and a brand system which includes a mission, vision and customer promise. Once BigBoy has created these using our proven research-based methodologies you can move forward with identity creation, message architecture and creative implementation across the marketing mix."

Impressive, eh?

But my favourite definition is from Jeff Bezos of Amazon: "it's what people say about you when you're not in the room".

Anyone got anything better?

You can ask a question in the comments section here.
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First off you won't find any "bullshit peppered with words such as 'holistic' and 'paradigm' " around here and you certainly won't find any where I work.

It's probably a good idea to look at the little tag cloud on the left hand side. You find that the biggest word is design, followed by good, interesting and stuff. That probably tells you more about the words I use than anything else.

So, what does branding mean?

I like David Ogilvy's suggestion, "A brand is all the ways a company is perceived and experienced".

If you're feeling a little more academic then Socrates' quote is useful, "Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of - for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear."

But I also like Johnny Cash's quote, this is an honest way for consultants to approach a clients brand, "I think I understand a little bit about how you feel about some things, it’s none of my business how you feel about some other things and I don’t give a damn how you feel about some other things."

Jeff Bezos' quote is good, very good, but it has one fundamental problem. It doesn't take into account that what people say when you are in the room is important.

(All pictures taken from Wikipedia  with huge thanks, usual stuff applies.)

What's interesting is that as terms like 'logotype' and 'mark' are being lost, 'brand' and 'branding' are being used to mean everything from logo to identity to reputation to just graphics.

Comments

[dan at innocent]

That is a great post. Especially the Johnny Cash quote.