The aim of branding is to conquer its category. For example, for a person to say: "I feel like a Coke," instead of: "I feel like a soft drink" is an incredible brand statement.

A brand may never have the ownership over its category like Coke does, but branding is the signpost that leads consumers to products and services. And with proper care, branding builds a customer relationship that can continue for years to come.

The backbone of a successful campaign is effective communication. Branding is created from a process of paring down complexities into a single statement of intent, and driving this single coherent brand message past the clutter and firmly into the mind of the consumer.

There's no mistaking a powerful brand in advertising and marketing; its very logo alerts the consumer instantly to what the brand is about.

Branding identification carries an important message to the consumer: what a product or service means in relation to them. The more meaningful the message, the more successful the brand.

If a brand stands for nothing, it means nothing to the person on the street.

A Brand Needs a Reason for Being
A successful brand has a passionate ethos behind it. Some brands even shift away from the product itself and just leave the ethos behind. For example, The Body Shop would not be as successful as it is today, if it didn't advocate for humanitarian causes.

Humanitarian brands are different to brands with human qualities. Apple stands for individuality. Its human qualities are expressed in the product's design that appeals to human needs like ease of use, and to human senses like touch, feel, and see. If a Mac computer looked and functioned the same as a PC, it would have no identity, and price would be the only qualifier.

It's the brand identity or personality that communicates a brand's ethos. When the consumer identifies with the personality of the brand, they feel proud of the association. The most successful brands are the people's choice.

Branding says More about the Buyer than its Maker
It's the responsibility of branding to match the ideals of the target market to the brand offering. A brand can't be all things to all people: a well-defined brand strategy communicates to whom is most likely going to respond to it. If you try to be everything to everyone, your message loses its crispness, and so, its power.

Companies lose market position because they don't move with the times. Culture is forever changing and affects people's daily lives: the unpredictable shift in consumer trends, or the fast pace of changing technology. A brand strategy is ongoing: it re-evaluates the brand's strengths and weaknesses in relation to the market and its culture.

A brand of longevity is about its cultural relevance. A successful brand is consistent in its message, but changeable to global happenings by its organically geared nature.

If there is no awareness of the culture in which you sell, competition arises fast, and a well-prepared a competitor can dominate its industry at any time.

A Brand Thrives with Competition
A competitor adds credibility to an industry, broadens its scope, and brings more attention to it.

In Tibetan Buddhism, a competitor is a teacher - they can enlighten the way.

A strong competitor makes it easier for a brand to position its product or service as different to their opponent's, and this gives a brand the spark it needs to pale the competitor in comparison.

Branding is the one element that differentiates one product from another. This is why big brands purposely position themselves in second place instead of going head-to-head with a powerful leader like Pepsi did with Coke, like Apple did with IBM, read my article, Brands that Take it Personally. It takes courage, strong ideas, and a vision for the future.

A brand needs time to build - it grows from a well-thought out strategy focused on long term outcomes, not quick fixes. For instance, Nokia invested heavily in building and maintaining their brand worldwide. Their aim was to differentiate their brand from their rivals. And they succeeded by advertising the human-like features of their products with simple messages: 'Talk to me,' 'Hold me,' and 'I'm with you.'

Since 1865, Nokia has been up for the challenge of competitors. Like most successful brands, Nokia has taken off slowly, and stood the test of time through perseverance.

Sell Truth
Effective advertising sells ideals, but its message is firmly rooted in reality. Even when it's over-the-top advertising like the cheeky Diesel advertising. Their latest Global Warming campaign (YouTubed above) has Diesel models carrying on with life in the extremes of climate change. Like Homer Simpson says: "It's funny because it's true." It may be a stretch of the truth, but nonetheless Freud said all jokes are a way of telling the truth.

Powerful advertising tells the truth. A brand is not just selling a product or service, it sells an industry and a culture - good and bad. Everything needs to be considered in carefully planned communications.

Consumers want to know what they're buying. The more an advertiser unveils in their advertising, the more the brand builds trust. This must be done to interest the reader, and done so in simple terms.

Before Intel, the market didn't know what a micro-chip was. Intel described in their advertising the technology of their computers in simple terms, the same technology of any computer, but since it was expressed by the Intel brand, this technology was related to them specifically. And Intel took ownership of their category.