What is "branding?"

In the old west, open range cattle were branded so that there ownership could be legally established. However, today, marketing people speak of "branding," but what does the term mean.

On March 15, BusinessWeek columnist, Christopher Kenton attempted and failed to explain "branding." On March 29, he attempted on the BusinessWeek website to defend his previous article and merely ended up compounding his error.

When today's marketing campaign place the hot branding iron on the object that is to be branded, what is the object which is branded. The branding iron is applied to the audience's mind.

Apple computer company has succeeded in convincing many computer owners to refer to themselves as "Macintosh Users." These people view their use of a Macintosh as part of their identity. Apple has branded their minds.

Many small business owners think that branding consists of logos, visual identity and marketing slogans, but that is a big mistake. It is also the mistake which Christopher Kenton makes in his article.

Although those things are beneficial to the effort to brand your customers mind, if that is all you have then the branding iron is not hot enough to burn a favorable brand on your customer's mind. Mr Kenton says that the brand is the Company Name, The Logo, The "burning scar" across your product. But that is wrong. It is not the product which is branded, it is the mind of the customer.

Branding the mind of your customer requires a lot of work and a lot of consistency. Logos, visual identities and marketing slogans may create the shape of the branding iron, but they don't heat the iron. The sales experience, the service experience, the product usage experience, the prolonged relationship and consistency go far towards making the iron red-hot.

When you successfully convince a customer to mentally identify himself as a user of your product, when that is part of his self-image, you have branded that customer.