The Basics of Marketing: What is a Brand?

When you begin searching for marketing advice on the Internet you get a lot of deep conversations and extended thinking. It’s the natural progression of dialogue among professionals. But if you’re just trying to learn this marketing stuff, it can be confusing. It’s best to start with the foundations and thus, The Marketing Spot occasionally likes to get back to the basics. Periodically, I will explain the foundational concepts of the four essential spots of marketing. Here, we start with the often mystical process of branding.

“A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company.”
Marty Neumeier – The Brand Gap

What is a Brand?

It is the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your customers. Strong brands elicit opinions, emotions, and sometimes physiological responses from customers. Examine the following logos:

brand-logos

Simply looking at these logos elicits an emotional response. You had thoughts and feelings about each company. In fact, when you looked at the Aflac logo, you probably heard the duck in your mind saying “Ah Flack.”

“A brand isn’t a brand to you until it develops an emotional connection with you.”
Daryl Travis – Emotional Branding

Logos are not brands, they are merely representations of brands. They are the entry point and the shortcut to the brand for your mind. Brands are not concrete; they are the thoughts, feelings, and psychological relationships between a business and a customer. And your brand is the foundation of all your marketing activities.

“…brands speak to the mind and heart”
Alina Wheeler – Designing Brand Identity

A Brand is a Cornerstone

What is a brand? The first stone set in the construction of a solid structure is the cornerstone. It is the most important piece of any masonry structure because all other stones will be set in reference to this stone. Your brand will be the blueprint of your customer experience design, it will flavor all conversation about you, and it will align your advertising & promotional activity. Your brand determines the position and strength of your entire marketing framework. Your marketing cornerstone must be plumb and level. In other words, your brand must be the truth and it must be about you.

“In a copycat economy hype will not sustain a brand.”
Oren Harari – Break From the Pack

Benefits of a Brand

Branding your business yields both internal and external benefits. Externally, you create an identity that resonates with customers. You form emotional relationships with customers. That’s important because people don’t buy products logically, they buy with their emotions.

Within the business, your brand serves as an internal compass of focus. If you clearly brand your business, you have an understanding of what you are about. You have a self awareness that dictates your actions. All decisions, not just marketing, are made in alignment with the brand. Over time, you build a stronger business identity.

The process of forming a brand is the result of “unrelenting passion, not unending spin.”
John Moore – Tribal Knowledge

What is your Brand? Here are some free tools to build it:
New Training: One Hour to More Business
Free ebook: The Brand Building Checklist
Free branding webinar: Branding U

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  1. […] the idea or image that best reflects your company, and should be a constant across all medias. The Marketing Spot has a pretty good definition of a brand; “It is the emotional and psychological relationship […]

  2. […] is sending?  First let me help you understand that your brand is more than just your logo.  Your Brand includes everything your company is about, your logotype, your services or products, the quality of […]

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  4. […] The Basics of Marketing: What is a Brand? Let’s start from the beginning: What is a brand? Hint: It’s not your logo. This article simplifies the brand concept and lays the groundwork for brand building. Read more to learn what a brand is… […]

  5. […] The Marketing Spot defines branding as, “the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your customers.” They go on to talk about your feelings and expectations as you look at famous company logos like Apple, Starbucks (trenta) and others. Branding is, in other words, vital to showing your potential readers who you are and what to expect from your books. […]

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  9. […] Brand vs. Brand vs. Local Brand Written on October 31, 2011 by Jay Ehret in brand building, branding 0Every new customer goes through a decision process. And the first decision is “Where do I buy?” The answer to that question is determined by the strength of the brands in consideration. Whether or not you get a chance at the business is determined by the strength of your brand. […]

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  11. […] some of these articles:Branding, Identity & Logo Design ExplainedA Practical Guide to BrandingWhat is a Brand?The First Step of Building an Awesome BrandBrand, Innovation & Design (Presentation)Kendra […]

  12. […] Brands Help Customers Make Choices Written on December 6, 2011 by Jay Ehret in branding, brands 0Why branding? What is the value of a brand? The simple answer is this: Brands help customers make choices. [Reference: What is a Brand?] […]

  13. […] articles on brands and branding: The Basics of Marketing: What is a Brand? Free Webinar: Branding U Branding is About Self Discovery Free eBook: Evaluate Your Business and […]

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  16. […] Many of the major Brands in today’s marketplace have attracted loyal and enthusiastic fans who have not only made their chosen Brand an integral part of their everyday lives but have also chosen to actively seek out and interact with others who share the same interests as well as those who may have been unaware of the Brand’s benefits. The community that arises from the consistent conversation and interactions among these peers is what we call a Brand. […]

  17. […] of a brand, it is all about what the perception of the product, organisation or service is. As Jay Ehrit says “It is the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your […]

  18. […] The Basics of Marketing: What is a Brand? by Jay Ehrer of The Marketing Spot–This is a great article, written for entrepreneurs, that gives an overview of branding. […]

  19. […] The Basics of Marketing: What is a Brand? by Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot–This is a great article, written for entrepreneurs, that gives an overview of branding. […]

  20. […] The Basics of Marketing: What is a Brand? by Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot–This is a great article, written for entrepreneurs, that gives an overview of branding. […]

  21. […] to sharpen and polish your brand: What is a Brand? Free Recorded Branding Webinar: Branding U Free Branding eBook: The Brand-Building […]

  22. […] most people think of a logo. Though a logo is an important part of a brand’s identity, a logo alone is not the brand. To me, a brand is a personal experience that tells a story. It’s a history and a giving […]

  23. […] You ask? It’s all about the emotional connection. Brands are relationships between businesses and consumers, relationships are built on emotions. When you lay out your story, […]

  24. […] may be what you are as a business, but it’s not what you are as a brand. You are so much more than that, because you have spirit, passion and uniqueness. Your answer to […]

  25. […] The Marketing Spot defines a brand as “the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your customers (or in your case, your fans). Strong brands elicit opinions, emotions, and sometimes physiological responses from customers.”  Forbes describes a brand as “a specific combination of logo, words, type font, design, colors, personality, price, service, etc. or a bundle of attributes. Think of Volvo, for instance, and your first thoughts are probably going to be something like well built, comfortable, Swedish and, most of all, safety.” […]

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  28. […] you probably do. For a good brass tacks explanation, I would refer you to Jay Ehret’s piece, “What is a Brand?” Ehret defines a brand as “…the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your […]

  29. […] That’s your opportunity to entry in the Relationship Era of marketing. Have you done this? Do people buy from you as a business, or know you as a brand? […]

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  32. […] Related information on branding & taglines: The Tagline Creation Process The Importance of Taglines in Branding The Basics of Marketing: What is a Brand? […]

  33. […] you probably do. For a good brass tacks explanation, I would refer you to Jay Ehret’s piece, “What is a Brand?” Ehret defines a brand as “…the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your […]

  34. […] perhaps the single biggest challenge for marketers has been to convince businesses to accept the concept of a brand. Why is this such a tough […]

  35. […] role does your relationship with customers play in their lives? A brand is a relationship between customers and a business. What’s your emotional connection to customers? Build your brand […]

  36. […] The Marketing Spot defines a brand as “the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your customers (or in your case, your fans). Strong brands elicit opinions, emotions, and sometimes physiological responses from customers.”  Forbes describes a brand as “a specific combination of logo, words, type font, design, colors, personality, price, service, etc. or a bundle of attributes. Think of Volvo, for instance, and your first thoughts are probably going to be something like well built, comfortable, Swedish and, most of all, safety.” […]

  37. […] in consideration. Whether or not you get a chance at the business is determined by the strength of your brand. Lets define Brand, brand is the “name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that […]

  38. […] think at best this idea deserves a night of surfing the internet and exploring some ideas.  At The Marketing Blog, they say a brand is “the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your […]

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  40. […] as their emotional response when they think of your company. The company tangibly exists, but your brand doesn’t. It’s only as good as your customer thinks it is, precisely because a brand is […]

  41. […] as their emotional response when they think of your company. The company tangibly exists, but your brand doesn’t. It’s only as good as your customer thinks it is, precisely because a brand is […]

  42. […] The Basics of Marketing: What is a Brand? by Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot–This is a great article, written for entrepreneurs, that gives an overview of branding. […]

  43. […] And that then generates the engagement gap – the differences in motion triggered between the two channels. The inability to solve a complex or highly emotional issue online creates negative emotions – frustrations and anxiety, for example. That then has to be dealt with by the customer service agent at the end of the phone, making the call more challenging than it probably needed to be. It’s worth pointing out again here that human contact creates positive emotion, offering trust and re-assurance, so something that has be considered. After all, “a brand is the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your customers” according…. […]

  44. […] After all, “a brand is the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your customers” according…. […]

  45. […] After all, “a brand is the emotional and psychological relationship you have with your customers” according…. […]

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