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Imagine for a minute – you are the owner of a business. You’ve created a product, but you know you need to be more than just a company selling a product. There are many companies out there that sell similar products and do pretty much the same thing as you. No, it is not enough for people to buy a product from you – they have to want to buy your product. You need a brand.

What will move your company from selling a product to becoming a brand? Of course, you need to be identifiable – being recognized is vital. But if people know it’s you, what will they know you for? To have a brand, you have to mean something in your audience’s minds. Now, I’m not referring to social causes here – I’m referring to the need to mean something to people beyond the functional uses of your product. Take cars as an example. Basically, a car will take you from A to B whenever you want. All cars do this (admittedly, some do better or faster than others), but we know that not all cars are created equal. Different brands of automakers mean different things. Volvos are safe, Toyotas are reliable, Ferraris are Flash, and Teslas are … well, I’m not sure what they really are.

My point is, what makes a company from a product to a brand is meaning.

But it goes further because the meaning is complicated. The meaning is contextual, relational and often individual. What something means to me may not be what it means to you. And that is the heart of the brand concept. Because it’s not enough to say that a brand is about meaning. If something meant something different to everyone, then it’s just not a brand. If I thought Volvos were safe but the next person thought they were fast and the next person thought they were rebellious, what is the Volvo brand? There would be none.

The simple thing is that the concept of a brand can only exist through “shared meaning”.

For a brand to exist there has to be some degree of correspondence about what it means and represents – between the company and the people, but also between the people themselves. If there is no agreement, there is no brand.

Jeff Bezos is often quoted as saying, “Your brand is what others say about you when you are not in the room” (I don’t think he ever said this, but let’s not ruin a good story) . There is some truth in this statement. Word of mouth has always played a role in branding, especially now in the connected and social online world. What this statement omits (or at least minimizes) is the company’s role in defining the brand. The company continues to be the main actor in defining the brand and its meaning. It doesn’t matter how much we talk about “brand communities” and the like. The fact is, the company is by far the most involved, loudest, and most interested player in what their brand means and what the company says about their brand remains the most influential.

However, this has one major limitation. It doesn’t matter how many times you say your business means a certain thing. If people don’t believe you, it doesn’t mean your brand. You could spend millions and millions communicating a meaning of your brand, but if anyone’s experience doesn’t match what you’re saying, you’re wasting every penny.

I could tell anyone that I’m the greatest soccer player the world has ever seen. I could spend millions getting this message across all the time. But if I’ve never done anything to show that I’m the greatest soccer player in the world, then I won’t be the greatest soccer player in the world.

That point is that the company can define what the brand means, but it only really means that once people agree. The brand only exists when there is a common meaning.

So let’s go back to the beginning – you are the owner of a business. You need people who want to buy your product (not your products) and so you need to build a brand. You do this by promoting “shared meaning,” but how can you do that?

In recent years there has been a well-reported move in marketing towards spending more on direct response or one-on-one targeted communication. Budgets and focus are increasingly geared towards “personalization” – hyper-targeted, tightly focused, individual communication. Often online, but let’s not call all online communication personalized as we know very well that it is not. Well, I’m not saying that there is no place for that type of communication, of course there is. However, if you focus too much on hyper-personalized communications, or spend it to the detriment of mass marketing, you will never build a brand of any value. Neither for business nor for people.

I’ll say that again just in case I wasn’t clear enough before – The value of a brand lies in its shared meaning.

The only way to create a common meaning is through mass marketing – the definition and communication of a core value proposition for the brand that is delivered over and over again. Delivered in an attention grabbing, memorable and creative way. Delivered in a way that people will sit up and notice and may even share with their friends or networks. Delivered in a way that can be different each time – from channels to content types to messaging. But delivered to the point where everyone you aspire to (when I say mass marketing doesn’t mean you can’t target specific audience segments) comes to a general agreement on what your brand means.

People generally need to agree on what you are famous for.

One last thing. Note that I have always been referring to having a brand and not being a brand. The business is not the brand. They are inextricably linked, but they are not one and the same. For me, the brand is what is continuous through the interaction of companies and people (and ideas and things, but more at a different point in time) and the “common meaning” that arises from these ongoing interactions and the context they contain what they happen is co-created. (This is my take on the brand, others will disagree and that’s great).

So back to the beginning. You have a business. You want a brand. Become famous for a common meaning.

Your brand is not what you say – it’s what people will agree with.

Contribution to Branding Strategy Insider by: Paul Bailey, Strategy Director at Halo

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Brand Strategy Insider is a service from The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in brand research, brand strategy, brand growth and branding

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