What is a Brand?

There are a lot of opinions and misconceptions out there on what actually constitutes a brand. A lot of people think that a brand is a product label, like Land O' Lakes butter—or if you prefer, the fancy stuff from the gourmet grocer, Plugrá. Some disregard the labels all together and go with generic butter, treating the product like a commodity. While we refer to product labels as brands, I think it's an incomplete picture.

Another idea is that the logo itself is the brand. The Harley-Davidson Motor Company has a very recognizable word mark/crest. In reality the logo itself is not the brand, but it represents the open road, freedom, American-born, bad-boy attitude that even a middle aged tax accountant can achieve.

Here's what I think is the best definition of the concept of brand. It's not original with me, but from California brand-guru Marty Neumeier from his book Brand Gap:

"A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It's not what YOU say it is. It's what THEY say it is."

"THEY" being the customer, this definition puts the essence of your brand firmly in the customer's hands. We can nurture our "brands" by having solid and honest identity design, compelling ad campaigns and a corporate climate that lines up with that impression. We can be as smart as we want, but we still can't assume we know everything about our brand. We need to trust our customers in this experience-driven economy to show us the way. Our customer's opinion is key.