WHAT IS A BRAND?

David Aaker, author of Managing Brand Equity:
▫ A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol (such as a logo, trademark, or package design) intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers, and to differentiate those goods or services from those of competitors.A brand thus signals to the customer the source of the product, and protects both the customer and the producer from competitors who would attempt to provide products that appear to be identical.
Scott Davis, author of Brand Asset Management:
▫ Brand [is] an intangible but critical component an organization “owns” that represents a contract with the customer, relative to the level of quality and value delivered tied to a product or service.A customer cannot have a relationship with a product or a service, but may with a brand.
▫ A brand is a set of consistent promises. It implies trust, consistency, and a defined set of expectations.A brand helps customers feel more confident about their purchase decision.A brand is an asset and, next to your people, no asset is more importan.
Duane Knapp, coauthor of The Brand Mindset:
▫ [A brand is] the internalized sum of all impressions received by customers and consumers resulting in a distinctive position in their “mind’s eye” based on perceived emotional and functional benefits.
Adam Morgan, author of Eating the Big Fish:
1. Something that has a buyer and a seller—the Spice Girls, but not the queen.
2. Something that has a differentiating name, symbol, or trademark— Tide, but not sugar or bleach—but also something that is seen as being differentiated from other like products around it for reasons other than its name or trademark—the Los Angeles Police Department, but not the Fourteenth Infantry Division.
3. Something that has positive and/or negative opinions about it in consumers’ minds for reasons other than its literal product characteristics—Cirque du Soleil, but not Concrete.
4. Something that is created, rather than naturally occurring— The X-Files and Las Vegas, but not Adam Morgan or the Blue Grass of Kentucky.
Daryl Travis, author of Emotional Branding:
▫ A brand is an unwritten contract of intrinsic value.
▫ A brand is an expectation of performance.
▫ A brand is a covenant of goodness with its users.
▫ A brand is predictable.
▫ A brand is an unwritten warrantee.
▫ A brand is a presentation of credentials.
▫ A brand is a mark of trust and reduced risks.
▫ A brand is a reputation.
▫ A brand is a collection of memories.
▫ A brand can be—must be—more than the sum of all these parts...
Perhaps the simplest way to think of a brand is to use the metaphor of a handshake.A brand represents the handshake that has been used by generation after generation of ordinary people as the sign of a deal well done.