The Real Meaning of "Branding"

I looked at the business book section yesterday and here's a partial list of the books on branding: Be Your Own Brand, Primal Branding, A Brand New World, Managing Brand Equity, Brand Leadership, Building Strong Brands, Emotional Branding, Strategic Brand Management, Brand Asset Management, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, and more. But even though books on branding flood the market, I find remarkably few professionals who actually understand what branding means.

Simply put, branding is the story that surrounds your product, your company, or you. Yes - you don't just brand products, but you can brand people as well. Look at Oprah's brand management for instance. It's all about the story that every customer, viewer, supporter, or member of your organization experiences when they encounter your product. And you need to tell the same story across every "touch point" that those customers encounter - retail, TV, radio, Internet, print, etc...

Doubt the power of a successful brand? According to James Twitchell, author of "Branded Nation:"
-- 10% of a two year old's nouns are brand names.
-- One out of every four babies speaks a brand name as their first word.
-- The Marlboro man is still better known that George Washington.
-- More people recognize the golden arches than the Red Cross.

So what does this madness mean to you? Story telling is the focal point of our culture, and in a world of competition, it's not about the product, it's about the story. Line up a row of athletic shoes. They are all pretty much made of the same materials, are constructed the same way, and most probably come from the same factory in China.

But Nike tells a better story.

If there was only one brand of soap, shampoo, sugar, production company, insurance agency, or church, there wouldn't be a problem. But with multiple products, organizations, or companies - how does the consumer distinguish the difference? Through a powerful story.

For Nike, it's "The Spirit of the Athlete."
For Starbucks, it's "A Great Coffee Experience."
For McDonald's, it's "Our Customer's Favorite Place and Way to Eat."

What's your story, and how can it change your customer's life?