In this article, we explain what a brand is and how it works. We’ll give you some examples, and we’ll give you a definition that you can use next time someone asks you what, exactly, you, as a Marketing Director, are responsible for.

For something with an estimated value of $323 billion, you’d expect to be able to touch it.

But Apple’s brand (value: $323bn, according to Interbrand) is, like all brands, intangible. You can’t touch it, dissect it or weigh it.

So although everyone would probably know one when they see one, most people would struggle to come up with a good definition of a brand.

But when you’re responsible for managing a brand, it’s important to have a clear definition for this thing that you own – especially when your sceptical colleagues in finance want to know what, exactly, they are being asked to approve a budget for.

Think of a brand that you like – or, even better, a brand that you love. Your appreciation of this brand is probably due to more than the quality of the product or the service. That’s important, of course, but it’s more than that.

Chances are that, as well as the quality of its products, you like the brand because of the way that it speaks to its customers, the style of its advertising, the way that it behaves and the values that it demonstrates, plus a whole lot more.

In other words, you like the brand because everything that it does makes you think favourably of it, so you’d be happy to be associated with the brand.

Put it another way, the brand is the same as the company’s (or product’s) reputation.

One of the simplest definitions of a brand comes from the advertising tycoon David Ogilvy. He said that “A brand is the customer’s idea of the product.”

“A brand is the customer’s idea of the product”

David Ogilvy

This is a good definition, because it reminds us that a brand isn’t what the brand director says it is. Nor is it what the branding agency says, or what the strapline promises. If the customer disagrees with any of them, then the customer is right and everyone else is wrong.

But Ogilvy’s focus on the product needs explanation, because the brand is hardly ever the same as the product.

For example, people don’t buy an expensive car because of its functional performance, such as its fuel consumption or its acceleration rate.

Instead, they buy it because of the associations that it bestows upon them. If they drive a Mercedes, then people might think of them as being wealthy and successful. This has nothing to do with the way they transport themselves from one place to another.

And nobody buys a Rolex because it’s good at telling the time.

Another definition helps to explain this. According to Muhtar Kent, former CEO of Coca Cola, “A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept.”

“A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept.”

Muhtar Kent

The promise refers to the consistent delivery of a set of values that the customer can permit themselves to be associated with by using the product.

So if Mercedes were to launch a cheap and basic hatchback, then this would break the promise because the owner of a Merc would no longer enjoy the kudos of being associated with aspirational values. Or if Rolex developed a budget range to compete against Swatch, their brand would evaporate.

This is why our favourite definition – and one that we recommend any brand executive should use, when explaining branding to their colleagues – is that a brand is the company’s reputation, and that it is the job of the whole company to understand and protect that reputation so that people want to have a relationship with the brand.

“Your brand is your reputation.”

Credobrand

It is, of course, the role of the brand team to make sure that this happens. To find out how to achieve this – and in doing so, giving your company an unbeatable competitive advantage – read our article “How to build a successful brand in three steps“.

If you’d like to discuss your brand and get an unbiased assessment of its performance, and some ideas about how to improve it, we’d love to hear from you.