Brand, strictly speaking

to brand: ...to mark indelibly, as proof of ownership, or sign of quality, or for any other purpose; to impress (a word, letter, or device) by way of brand. Oxford English Dictionary

A brand is an identifying symbol, words, or mark that distinguishes a product or company from its competitors. investorwords.com

With roots in farming and cattle ranching, the word brand has come a long way indeed. In the world of advertising the meaning of the word brand was first expanded in the late 1950s when David Ogilvy of Ogilvy, Benson & Mather, created “brand-image” advertising.

Strictly speaking, the word brand connotes ownership and associated rights. Just as the branding of a herd of calves identified its owner and set the herd apart from the herds of other farmers, so does the brand (name, logo, colors) of this can of beef soup identify the producer and distinguish it from that other can of beef soup. The original use of the word brand in marketing and advertising was limited to the name and/or mark given to a product or service and used almost always in the meaning synomymous with the term trademark, the legal term that indicates certain rights of ownership.

Today, the word brand is bandied around with abandon and used to describe companies, investments, business leaders, celebrities, generations (“x”), and lifestyles. Over the past 20 years the use of the word brand in news stories and magazines has risen tenfold. Source: Gale Group Business Resource Center, News and Magazines

Along the way, new brand-related words have been created, such as “brand personality” and “brand stretch”, and the frequency of brand-something and something-brand words has increased dramatically as the chart below illustrates. )

Branding while the iron is hot

Concurrently, the term branding has gained popularity, while the term corporate identity is all but forgotten. It is often substituted for by corporate brand and about to be eclipsed in use by brand identity, as illustrated in the chart below.

The all and nothing word

The words brand, brand-anything, and branding are so ubiquitous as to defy definition. This elusiveness may explain, at least in part, the increasing number of experts in the branding field (one other contributor being the “digital brands”of the dot.com world).

Watch for more bark than bite!

Branding is serious business. Waxing eloquently about brand values, brand vision, and brand personality is no substitute for knowledge, experience and skills. Begin establishing the credentials by asking your branding consultant some questions, such as:

• “how do you move from brand strategy into action and tangible results?”
• “can you show me examples of how your branding expertise has helped other companies?”
• “what are the relative merits of a logotype and a symbol?”
• “ how should we best communicate to our employees why we are changing our name? ”
• “why should I renew the registration of a trademark we no longer use,”
• “what does that S.A. mean in the name of our French subsidiary,”
• “why do we have to throw away all existing packaging?”

So, next time a branding expert wants to find out your company’s brand personality by asking you what kind of dog your company would be if it were a dog, you may want to tighten the leash!

Gerhard N. Ade