ZAG: The Number-One Strategy of High-Performance Brands

The New Definition of Brand

What exactly is a brand? Hint: It’s not a company’s logo or advertising. Those things are controlled by the company. Instead, a brand is a customer’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. People create brands to bring order out of clutter. If the word BRAND didn’t exist, we’d have to invent a new one, because no other word captures the complexity and richness of this concept. The only word that comes close is “reputation.” Your personal reputation, like a company’s brand, lies outside your control. It’s not what YOU say it is—it’s what THEY say it is. The best you can do is influence it.

If a brand is a customer’s gut feeling, then what’s the definition of branding? Briefly, it’s a company’s effort to build ...