Just What Is a Brand, Anyway?

If you were to look at what people have written about branding, chances are you'd be confused about many things, not the least of which is the term “brand.”

What is a brand, anyway? What does it mean? How is it different from brand image, or other terms for that matter?

Are We Confused Yet?

There is a good reason why you may be confused. No one seems to agree on just what a brand is. Look, for a minute, at the various ways different organizations, people or companies have defined “brand” (italics mine):

1. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.
   
   
2. The well-known advertising creative site Adcracker defines a brand as “the sum of all feelings, thoughts and recognitions — positive and negative — that people in the target audience have about a company, product or service.”
   
   This definition resonates with those of companies such as Hyundai and brand-naming companies like Brand.com. The former defines a brand as “nothing more, nothing less than people's perceptions about a product or company.” The latter defines it as “the proprietary visual, emotional, rational, and cultural image that one associates with a company or a product. A brand is how the company is perceived by its consumers—the associations and inherent value they place on your business.”
   
   
3. Michael Eisner, arguably one of the biggest keepers of the Disney brand, defines a brand as a living organism and suggests that it is “enriched or undermined cumulatively over time.”
   
   
4. The company Virtual Business defines a brand as the personification of the organization, its products and services.
   
   
5. The Brand Names Education Foundation defines a brand as “a highly compressed communicator. ” According to the foundation, brands “deliver rich bursts of information that ease, speed, and reduce the costs of transactions, enabling the economy to function more efficiently.”
   
   
6. The company Target Marketing proposes, “A brand is not a name. A brand is not a positioning statement. It is not a marketing message. It is a promise, made by a company to its customers and supported by that company.” 
   
   
7. Several companies describe the brand as the face of the company to the world. 
   
   
8. Finally, the European Brands Association proposes that a “brand is a constant point of reference: a contract, a signpost, a relationship. A contract because it implies constraints and responsibilities. It is a signpost because it shows consumers a way to fulfill their needs. It is a relationship because trust and loyalty are earned over time.”

Brands Versus Brand Images

So who's right?

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Debbie MacInnis is a professor of marketing, the president of the Association of Consumer Research, and the associate editor of MarketingProfs.com. She can be reached at djm@MarketingProfs.com.