Brands

This week I heard a great presentation about an interesting topic:
What is a Brand?

First of all, these are not brands:






These are logos - graphical representations of a company's name. They reinforce a brand, but they are not themselves brands.

So what is a brand? A brand is:

• A collective set of memories
• An expectation of experience
• A product personality

When someone sees one of the logos above, that person experiences an emotional response based on the interactions that person has had with the company. Every advertisement, product, communication from the company contributes to the brand, for better or worse.
Why is this important? Well, it helps explain why people will pay a premium for what seems to be a simple label. Why is a shirt bearing the "Abercrombie" label $50 and a similar shirt with an unknown label only $15? An MP3 player bearing a certain logo sets record sales, while others are struggling to keep up. Logos instantly bring to mind a set of collective memories that have been built over time. Logos represent brands and people buy products in large part based on their brands.

It is also interesting to note that everyone and every entity has a brand. Companies have brands, Churches have brands, Cities have brands, Individuals have brands. They way they look, talk, act, etc. together create a brand. Think of these examples: Redwood Chapel, Saddleback, New York, Miami, Brittney Spears, Billy Graham, Apple Computer, Starbucks. The response these names evoke is their brand. Its almost magical.