What is a brand?

I have been talking in length about brand positioning and other aspects of branding. But what is a brand? In my opinion, a brand is a distinct identity given to a company's product. It should be visualized and vocalized. It begins with a name being given to the product. may be distinctive font and color. for instance, Cadburys. A symbol can be tagged to the name, like Nike, Reebok, amazon.com. The symbol or the visual identity is called the logo. A lot of reserach goes into selecting the names and logos. Fedex has an arrow depicting moving forward, amazon.com has a smiley signifying service with a smile and an arrow from a to z (amazon) telling customers that it has everything from a to z. A mid-tier IT company in India, MindTree Consulting has its logo painted by a student of the Spastics society, which again signifies the vision of the company.

Of late, companies are trying to add another dimension to the brand. Identifying a distinct smell to the brand. This is a relatively new attempt in the context of branding. Otherwise retailers selling food, flowers have used both visual and nasal appeal to attract the customers.

It is not just products that can be brands. Services, ideas-cruelty against animals, places and even people. When I say people can be brands too, one should not confuse it with brand endorsers, but inherent brand value of the person. For that matter, we are all brands. It is just that companies pay attention to those having a higher networth. Like Madonna, Beckham, Amitabh Bachchan, ..... Branding has assumed such importance today when sportspersons or actors hog the limelight, there are organisations and individuals to market and position these 'brands' right. This has also resulted in the increasing acceptance of political branding.

Finally, let me wind up by stimulating your thinking process- to what extent would companies go in the name of branding? Is the customer at the receiving end of this branding circus?