Contributor - Dennis Hahn

Most companies have recognized for some time that branding is of paramount importance to the success of their business. Building a strong brand, it is believed, will make it easier for over-stimulated consumers to make buying decisions. More importantly, it will increase the likelihood that one company's product or service will be chosen over another's. But what, exactly, does it mean to build a brand? What is a brand, anyway?

While there is overwhelming consensus on the value of branding, and of owning a strong brand, most of us would be hard-pressed to define these concepts in no-uncertain terms. Even if we tried, it is likely that no two of us would articulate the same understanding. When it comes time to plan and execute an effective branding strategy, then, one that will lead to the emergence of a cohesive, enduring brand in the minds of a business's audience, this confusion is often made painfully - and expensively - apparent.

The purpose of this white paper, then, is to bring some clarity to this nebulous concept known as "branding." By examining what some of the business world's foremost branding experts have to say, and by taking a look at some real-world examples of branding, readers will perhaps be better prepared to undertake their own branding initiatives with greater hope of success.

Branding happens
One of the most common misconceptions about branding is that it is something one chooses to do, as if it were a project one could start and finish. But branding - the process through which a cohesive, enduring impression of a business, product or service is formed in the minds of your audience members - never ends. Branding is ongoing, a process that takes place constantly in every interaction between a company and its audience come whether a company intends it to or not.¹ This includes interactions between a company truck driver and the woman who passes him on the freeway, between a man and a product's instruction booklet, even in a short conversation between a receptionist and someone who has called the wrong number.

All of these interactions with a company, its products or its services leave impressions. Over time, these impressions - along with whatever associations they bring to mind - accumulate to form a "living memory"² in the minds of individuals and a "collective perception"³ across a wider audience. A brand, then, is the unique sum of impressions associated with a particular company, product or service. If the impressions are overwhelmingly good, if individuals desire a steady affiliation with the brand, the brand will endure and become an important - perhaps the most important - asset to a company.

The greatest asset you'll never see
The idea that a "unique sum of impressions" can be a business's greatest asset may seem counter-intuitive at first. As David A. Aaker points out in his book, Managing Brand Equity,

Ironically, it is the very intangibility of a brand that gives it so much potential value. While individual experiences with a product or service are usually transient in nature (indeed, products and services themselves may change or disappear altogether), the brand endures in the minds of audience members in the form of a unique set of feelings and impressions. In this way, a strong brand can remain so even if the product or service fails occasionally to deliver on its promise and meet audiences' expectations. A strong brand becomes a trusted friend, and brand loyalty arises not so much out of rational consideration, but more on the basis of an emotional affinity or personal connection.

For instance, while you may have experienced a flat, warm Coca-Cola at your local mini-mart, you will probably continue to associate Coke, the brand, with a cold, bubbly and revitalizing drink you first guzzled as a kid. The Coca-Cola brand is strong; it endures because one (or two or three) negative experiences cannot displace our overwhelmingly positive impression - our "living memory"-of what Coca-Cola means. Unlike Coca-Cola's tangible assets - its bottling plants, delivery trucks and corporate headquarters - Coca-Cola, the brand, was built up over decades. It cannot be rebuilt in a few months, even years: its value is inestimable.⁵