When did branding become so unnecessarily complex? It seems like the concept of a “brand” has been dissected and redefined until it’s a thousand different things, when really, it should be simple. Over and over, I find myself having to explain what a brand actually means to people, and the fact that it’s still misunderstood baffles me. To me, a brand is your business. That’s it. So why don’t we just call it that?
Well, here’s the issue. When we talk about business, we tend to talk in terms of dollars—revenue, profit, growth metrics. It’s almost as if the word “business” demands that there be a dollar value attached to every conversation. But that’s where we get stuck. A brand is more than the money it makes. And while we know money is important, it’s not the whole story. A brand is, at its core, an emotional connection that people have with your business. And here’s the kicker: you can’t just buy everyone’s feelings. You have to earn them.
This is where it gets tricky, and why so many brands struggle to move beyond the status of being a “challenger brand.” You can’t purchase emotions; they are cultivated over time through meaningful exchange. The relationship between a brand and its audience isn’t transactional—it’s relational. You have to offer something of real value to the person on the other side. It could be trust, inspiration, authenticity, or just the sense that you truly “get” them.
But this understanding is often where brands falter. They confuse branding with sales, and that’s where they lose the plot. Sales drive revenue today, but brand builds your business for tomorrow. Brand is culture. It’s identity. It’s a long-term game. And here’s the thing: it’s hard work. It requires commitment, and a deep discipline to stick with it, even when the path is unclear, and the results aren’t immediate. It’s about knowing who you are as a company and staying true to that identity consistently, across every touchpoint. It’s about ensuring that your employees believe in that identity, so they can embody it in the customer experience. It’s about being patient enough to let those emotional connections with customers develop over time.
But the problem is, in today’s world of instant gratification, few brands have the patience or the discipline for this long game. They want quick wins, immediate ROI. So they chase after the next big sales tactic, or the latest marketing trend, and in the process, they dilute their brand. They forget that a brand is not a strategy you can change every quarter—it’s the essence of who you are. And that essence needs to be nurtured, cultivated, and protected.
The brands that do succeed in this game are the ones that understand that brand isn’t just about short-term success. It’s about creating a lasting impression, one that people carry with them long after the initial interaction. These are the brands that aren’t afraid to play the long game, knowing that the emotional connection they build today will be their greatest asset tomorrow. And it’s this understanding that separates the brands that are remembered from those that are forgotten.
