Let us call a spade a brand

Brand is the new new name for spades; never mind the old maxim.

like all other fads (I know. Some will have my scalp for calling branding a fad) that dominate our enterprise lexicon for a time, Branding will someday go the way of the rest; it will no longer be a unique selling proposition, but merely a common feature of enterprises.

More effort seems to go into creating better brands these days than creating better products or services yet when Omo became the generic name for detergents, it wasn't as much about creating a brand as it was creating a product. Here is a test; if I say 'detergent', you'd probably think Omo. How about if I say 'happiness', I doubt that Coca Cola sprang into your mind just as quickly. Why then is Coca Cola branding as open happiness?

The first thing that used to come to mind when you say branding was hot iron, pungent air, mooing cattle - and a mark that distinguishes mine from yours. Branding used to be putting a mark on cattle so that we can tell which belongs to who. Now if you put your sign on a sick looking cow - all bones on wobbly legs, that wasn't going to make me buy it, just because I recognize your sign.

Much of today's branding effort is not about identifying/differentiating the product but creating an impression. It works for a while but people are not iredeemably stupid, they catch on after a while. This was what Jesus referred to as Whited Sepulchres (Manicured grave plots, grass clipped and flowers bright, but six feet down, it is all rotten bones and worm eaten flesh.)

Worse than being a fraud, it is possible to brand yourself out of existence; when your branding effort leans towards creating an image that consumers can not relate to your product easily, you are branding yourself out of reckoning. As much as you may want to believe that people are buying image, the reality is that majority of people are buying products and services. If I am thirsty, what I want is water not open happiness ( what is that by the way).