Brand Definitions

We use the term “brand” with such frequency, such alacrity, and such assurance, you’d almost think we know what it means.

Brand and reputation are tightly linked but not synonyms. I raise this because I seem to be having more and more conversations where brand projects are being renamed as reputation  projects to make them more “palatable” internally. That in itself says a lot about what senior management think brand is and why they believe it’s not what they need.

We often talk about “brand” as if it is one thing. It’s not of course –  in fact, the meaning and the use of the term differs, quite markedly, depending on the context. By my reckoning, brand is categorized in at least 21 different ways. (So much for the single minded proposition!). In no particular order:

Not long ago, a popular post was published on the Harvard Business Review site by Dan Pallotta. It was headlined “A logo is not a brand.” That is a familiar enough declaration, and not far from the phrasing I use myself on the subject of brands. I clicked on the link expecting to find a familiar argument. But what I found was very different.

What’s a brand? I think it is the product of two things: