Connections.

According to the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, arguably the top marketing master program in the nation, the textbook definition of a “brand” is “the psycho-cultural associations linked to a name, mark, or symbol associated with a product or service.”

Seth Godin, American Marketing Association Marketing Hall of Famer, says, “A brand is 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.”

Simply put – a brand is just a connection a person or people have with a business, product, or service.         

Brand = Connection.

If we simplify the concept of brand to connection, then brand strategy is easier to understand; it is about shaping what we want that connection to be, marketing strategy is about how we will create more connections, and insights can be understanding the existing connections to the brand or category.

What do you think? How do you define brand? Is this too simple?