Brand

Brand is one of those pervasive words in our culture. Its ubiquity and varied context of use compels me to define it in my own terms.

The logo, the identity, the product, or the advertising message may represent a brand, but they are not the brand, just like Magritte said.

Neither is a brand what brand owners or consultants say it is—it is what people make of it. I like to define a brand as the story that connects a company’s activities to people’s lives. This is a two-way street, which can challenging for brand owners since the value of their brand is not entirely in their control: it is tied to the meaning people attach to it.

Brand value is measured in financial terms, but that’s only one aspect of it. Arguably that value derives from the social and human value of brands: how people use them to construct their own identities, how they enable communities to form, how they create shared meaning.

In my practice as a brand strategist and designer I see that Brand has multiple dimensions. It is a code; a set of signs, meanings and associations. It is the perception people have of a business. It is the story connecting producers and consumers. People form their perceptions of a brand as a result of all the interactions they have with it. When these interactions are coherent over time, the brand emerges.

The word “brand” comes from the Old Norse “brandr” meaning “to burn” — originally referring to marking ownership by burning a mark into livestock or goods. Brands mark identity and signal ownership, but ultimately its meaning is created more by those who perceive the mark, than by those who burn it.

As I wrote elsewhere, the brand has two faces. Internally, the brand is a framework to make decisions. The definition of this framework is the task of brand strategy. Externally, the brand is a set of expectations in people’s mind. This is often referred to as the brand image¹

As a means to ensure cohesion, the elements of a brand strategy can be expressed in narrative form.

Brand — the story that connects an organisation’s purpose, principles and practices to its stakeholders.

Stakeholder sounds like corporate jargon, but its meaning is quite literal. People holding a stake. Brands start and end with people.

Those internal to the organisation behind the brand, and the people whom the brand serves. The role of a brand framework is to capture and codify the values, goals, aspirations and relationships for those sets of people.

Creating a brand strategy framework is a process of analysis, interpretation and [[ synthesis ]]. It is about apprehending a [[ complex ]] set of factors and distil it down to something that can be expressed clearly, simply and coherently.