Aren’t brands just about dressing a product up in pretty packaging?

People don’t drink a sweet-tasting brown liquid: they drink Coca-Cola, with all the connotations surrounding that brand. The value of brands resides in the minds of those who use them. Brands may start life in planning documents but ultimately they rest in the minds and hearts of people.

Brands are thus much more than just logos or names. They are the culmination of a user’s total experience with the product or service (or company) over many years. That experience is made of a multitude of good, neutral and bad encounters, such as the way a product performs, an advertising message, a press report, a telephone call, or a rapport with a sales assistant.

In a wider sense, a brand is the effect on the user of everything the company does and how it behaves. It is not the responsibility of one department but of the whole organisation. Every employee influences brand encounters.

Get it right and the brand strengthens, users become more loyal, shareholder value increases, business partners are attracted and employees enjoy a better environment. Every stakeholder has a stake in the brand.