What Is Branding Really? 1

Brands are more than semiotics used to differentiate one company’s product from another company’s. They are a complex form of thoughts and feelings or association that people (consumers, employees and other stakeholders) of a company have in relation to the brand. According to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon: “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

So Brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they (your audience) say it is.

This means that a brand is much more than a logo, an identity or even the product itself. When I talk about a product I am referring to anything that can be offered to a market in order to satisfy a need or want. This can include;

Physical goods like Cars, phones (example: Toyota cars, Samsung smart phones) 

Services like Airlines, Banks, Mobile networks; (example: Airpeace Airline, GTbank, Airtel )

Events like Yearly programs; (example: The Platform, The Experience)

Persons like artists, politicians;( example: Davido, Muhamadu Buhari, Atiku)

Experiences like movie premiere and product exhibition; (example: LionHeart premiere at Ikeja house, Coke studio)

Places like geographic location; example: Chibok, Fela shrine, VGC

Organizations like companies and non for profit; (example: MTN, Daystar Christian Centre)  

Information, concepts, ideas and causes (example: Bring back Our Girls (BBOG))

So anything can possibly be a brand.

Branding involves all that goes into making a brand. All forms of marketing, PR, customer service, in-store experience and so on help build a brand. At its core, branding is all about giving a product an identity.

In today’s markets, the competition is fierce with so much noise making it more difficult to decide on which brands to go with. This is where branding comes in. Sometime last year, I decided to get a new refrigerator. Ofcourse, I went to the store with a particular brand in mind and that was Haier Thermocool. I saw so many brands like LG, Samsung and another brand that seems new to me, HiSense. Though the newer brand HiSense was relatively cheaper, I still went for the Haier Thermocool because I have had lovely experience with the brand. That’s the power of branding.