What is the definition of brand?
- Eu Jeen Seah
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Brand consultants almost never agree on the definition of brand. Some have never even given it a second thought and has always gone with whatever is most popular at the moment.
“Mukadimah” – Malay. noun An introduction, preamble, or prologue.
Coming into this career as a brand strategist was never part of the plan. I stumbled upon the world of brand and design after spending two years slogging at Accenture as an SAP business analyst. After completing a project that required me to open 10 separate accounts for a client in the Middle East because their revenue exceeded SAP’s 13-digit limit, I decided there was more to life than this.
My first stint in a brand consultancy after my Accenture analyst days kickstarted something in me – a yearning for a career that blended the excitement of art, creativity, and design with the discipline and rigour of research and business strategy. Over the next decade, I dabbled in tech startup operations, market research, and martech enterprise solutions. The common thread during this period was a focus on brand building by my employers and clients alike.
In 2022, I had the privilege of pioneering the Brand, Culture & Design team in Deloitte Southeast Asia as the Brand Strategy Director. With a starting team of three, we laid the groundwork for what is today a growing 15-person team of brand strategists and creatives that serves clients across the Asia Pacific, led by Tania Tai.
Ironically, it was only after stepping down from that position that I gave proper attention to the most basic of questions: What is brand?
What is Brand?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary:
brand – noun
A type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name.
An identifying mark burned on livestock or (in former times) criminals or slaves with a branding iron.
For the general public, these definitions are sufficient. For the brand practitioner, however, this is just the beginning of a dizzying array of debated and divergent definitions.
These definitions show the evolution of the word, beginning with ‘brand’ as an identifying burn mark, and later, as a manufactured product.
Today, the word ‘brand’ is applied to far more than a mere product. From personal brands to national brands, from company brands to destination brands, it seems that any entity, material or immaterial, can have a ‘brand’.
Hence, there’s a growing need to update the common understanding of what a brand is. Prod around, and you’ll probably find two camps of definitions:
CAMP 1 – Brand Owner-Led Definitions
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as:
“A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or services as distinct from those of other sellers.”
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adds that a brand:
“is an intangible asset” intended to create “distinctive images and associations in the minds of stakeholders, thereby generating economic benefit/values.”
This is echoed by advertising great David Ogilvy :
“A brand is the intangible sum of a product’s attributes: its name, packaging and price, its history, reputation and the way it’s advertised.”
An alternative, refined and championed at Interbrand by Calin Hertioga and Johannes Frederik Christensen , defines a brand as:
“the sum of expressions by which an entity (person, organization, company, business unit, city, nation, etc.) intends to be recognized.”
These are what I consider brand owner-led definitions.
CAMP 2 – Brand Consumer-Led Definitions
Arguably, one of the most prominent names in modern-day branding is Marty Neumeier . In The Brand Gap, he defines a brand as:
“A person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.”
This definition puts the consumer front and center, emphasizing the emotional connection over the tangible identity or product.
Marketing luminary Seth Godin, in his blog, defined a brand as:
“The set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
These definitions seemingly remove agency from the brand owner and place the power to define a brand in the hands of the consumer.
Making Sense of the Two Camps
While I appreciate and lean more towards the owner-led camp, I can’t help but nod in agreement when I hear practitioners from the consumer-led camp speak.
Kevin Lane Keller, Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, outlines a useful framework in his Brand Equity Model. He speaks of:
Brand Identity and Brand Meaning — who you are and what you represent (aspects the brand owner can define: purpose, logo, tagline, desired associations).
Brand Response and Brand Resonance — the consumer’s reaction (perception, judgment, emotional attachment).
I see Brand Identity and Meaning as intent, and Brand Response and Resonance as outcomes.
Intent and outcomes together shape a brand’s reality. Intent is meant to elicit a desired outcome, while fully understanding the outcome requires context from the original intent. Reality isn’t shaped only by intent, and it can’t be judged solely on outcomes either.
In the same way, I believe that a brand is neither purely owner-led nor purely consumer-led.
Stephen King wrote 'On Writing'
"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right - as right as you can, anyway - it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it."
In this sense, writing stories and building brands are very similar.
Putting Together an Identity-Led Definition
According to Oxford, identity is “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.” To unpack this further, we can turn to social psychology.
The Handbook of Identity Theory and Research by Seth J. Schwartz, Koen Luyckx, and Vivian L. Vignoles doesn’t offer a simple definition, but instead lays out some principles:
Identity is complex and contextual: involving self-perception (qualities, narratives) and social categorization (roles, group membership).
Identity is multidimensional: personal, relational, moral, occupational, cultural, national, etc.
Identity is processual: it evolves over time through exploration, commitment, role transitions, and contextual demands.
Adding to that, in Conclusion: The Identity of Identity, Florian Coulmas posits that at the individual level, identity is a matter of negotiating and renegotiating one’s place, purpose, and presentation in everyday life.
I draw many parallels between these principles of identity and what I understand about brand.
Just like identities, brands are complex and contextual:
Brands have an element of self and individuality, led by the brand owner’s intent.
Brands are multidimensional, shaped by their positioning in the market and the perceptions of stakeholders.
Brands evolve and are negotiated through every touchpoint, every single day.
At this point, the simplest explanation I have is:
Brand = Identity
You shape your identity. Yet your identity is also constantly negotiated based on how others perceive you.
If you find this view reductive, allow me to borrow and tweak Interbrand’s more nuanced definition:
“A brand is the sum of expressions that exist within every stakeholder’s (owner, executor, audience) mind — by which an entity (person, organization, company, business unit, city, nation, etc.) is recognized.”
FAQ
What is brand?
Brand is identity. It is the sum of expressions that exist within every stakeholder's mind, by which an entity is recognized.
What is branding?
Branding is identity building. Branding is a deliberate act, approach, and discipline. Brand owners have full agency, accountability, and ownership of branding.
What is brand strategy?
Brand strategy is the building and weaponization of your brand to achieve your goals.
Brand is equal to identity!