A brand is a brand is a brand

This is something debates have raged about ad nauseum, and even today there are such a slew of different view on the matter that many people don’t quite know what to say when asked: “What is a brand?”
Wikipedia defines it as “the identity of a specific product, service, or business.. ..can take many forms, including a name, sign, symbol, color combination or slogan”
David Ogilvy – considered the father of modern advertising – defines it as “The intangible sum of a product’s attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it’s advertised.”
Best-selling author Al Ries, one of the brightest minds on the subject of brands and branding today, refers to a brand as “A singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect; the sum total of each customer’s experience with your organization”

There you have it. Three definitions by three famous brands. Now who said you hopped on over here to read what’s on David Ogilvy, Al Ries or the editors of Wikipedia’s mind. You obviously came here to hear what I have to say on the matter – yes?

I’d like to start off by letting you know what I think a brand is not.

• A logo
• A company name
• A website domain name
• Fancy packaging
• A product name
• A product category
• Marketing paraphernalia
• A corporate identity

And then I’m gonna follow this up with a little story.. story of my life actually. In the early to mid 80s I was involved in a Cape Flats gang. I’ve always gone to school like a normal child would, done my domestic chores religiously (had a big sister who would see to it that I did), however when I hit the streets I was like Clark Kent turned Superman. It was bad.. really bad. Without getting into the details.. by 1988 I wanted out, and badly so. This after one of my tightest “street soldiers” was murdered over a few rands change he received short during a drug transaction. I really wanted out before I did something drastic or fell victim to it. The challenge was that with Cape Flats gangs you can’t just walk away and all is hunky dory. Doesn’t happen like that. You’re in it and you don’t get out. That simple. So over a game of table tennis at a homie’s place I was invited to a matinee club on Shortmarket Street in the Cape Town CBD. I went and to my surprise the place was packed with people I recognised from my breakdance days a few years earlier. Something else I discovered on my first visit to the club was the punk rock fad that swept the Cape Flats in the 80s.. and it didn’t take long before I – out of sheer fascination – started wearing black clothing, painted my nails black, straightened my hair to make a spiked mohawk.. and a whole lotta other things we’d consider silly today.

This had most people in my school and community in awe. I was the object of sheer surprise and fascination at first and then – a bit later – considered a complete weirdo. What was funny about this was that my gang buddies started avoiding me.. stopped talking to me and refused to acknowledge my presence wherever we met. Yessssss!!!!!
That experience – at the tender age of 16 – was my first lesson in branding.

So to come back to what I believe a brand is.. this is my standard response: “A brand is a set of attributes/characteristics about a product, service, company or person in the mind of one person or several people” What then follows is that branding is the creation and perpetuation of those attributes. The reason why I made the list above is because many people – even educated professionals – believe that a brand is actually a logo on a box or a piece of clothing – hence the term a “branded t-shirt”. Instead of what the t-shirt aims to project with the logo emblazoned on it people mistake the logo on the t-shirt for the brand. I also agree with what Al Ries says about the “sum total”, because that is ultimately how these attributes are created in the mind – through experiences with the different facets and aspects of your company. Where Ries’ definition falls short though is that it stops with the experience. Brands are created as the “offspring” of a users experience with your products, services, personnel, you personally etc. User experiences are what leaves indelible impressions (both positive and negative) and are ultimately converted into perceptions which are the main ingredients of brands.

A brand is nothing more than a perception.

Remember how my gang “brothers” shunned me because they perceived me as a weirdo, as a lunatic. That was my “brand’ at the time. I was considered “Crazy Arthur”. Never mind the fact that I excelled at Math in school and got A’s for all tests in my Physics class.. I was still a lunatic as far as everybody was concerned.

My brand was my brand was my brand.

And like that.. forget about the logo, the office address, the packaging.. Make sure you work on how you or your company will be perceived by your customer. Perception is so much more important that reality and facts. At the end of the day it is the customer’s perception of you that will form your BRAND.

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Tags: Al Ries, attributes, branding, breakdance, Cape Flats, Crazy Arthur, David Ogilvy, impressions, logo, Perception, Shortmarket Street, spiked mohawk, Wikipedia

Category: Branding, Featured, Marketing