A brand is a set of attributes that people associate with a business. These attributes can be positive, such as trustworthy, innovative, dependable, or easy to deal with, or they can be negative, such as cheap, unreliable, sloppy, or difficult to deal with.

The customer loyalty a company creates through its brand is one of its most valuable assets. This sentiment is affirmed by Russell Hanlin, the CEO of Sunkist Growers, who said, “An orange is an orange...is an orange. Unless...that orange happens to be a Sunkist, a name 80 percent of consumers know and trust.”^[1] By putting its name on an orange, Sunkist is making a promise to its customers that the orange will be wholesome and fresh. Other ways of thinking about the meaning of a brand are as follows:

Start-ups must build a brand from scratch, which starts with selecting the company’s name. One of the keys to effective branding is to create a strong personality for a business, designed to appeal to the chosen target market.^[2] Southwest Airlines, for example, has created a brand that denotes fun. This is a good fit for its target market: people traveling for pleasure rather than for business. Similarly, Starbucks has created a brand that denotes an experience framed around warmth and hospitality, encouraging people to linger and buy additional products. A business ultimately wants its customers to strongly identify with it—to see themselves as “Southwest Airlines flyers” or “Starbucks coffee drinkers.” People won’t do this, however, unless they see a company as being different from competitors in ways that are significant to them.

The customer loyalty a company creates through its brand is one of its most valuable assets.

So how does a new business develop a brand? On a philosophical level, a business must have meaning in its customers’ lives. It must create value—something that customers are willing to pay for. Imagine a father shopping for airline tickets so that he can take his three kids to see their grandparents for Christmas. If Southwest Airlines can get his family to their destination for $75 per ticket cheaper than its competitors, Southwest has real meaning in the father’s life. Similarly, if a young couple buys a Cranium board game, and playing the game with other couples results in lasting friendships, Cranium will have a special place in their hearts. Businesses that create meaning in their customers’ lives stand for something in terms of benefits, whether it is low prices, fun, fashion, improved health, or something else.

On a more practical level, brands are built through a number of techniques, including advertising, public relations, sponsorships, support of social causes, and good performance. A business’s name, logo, Web site design, and even its letterhead are part of its brand. A new business needs to think about the brand it plans to develop before it picks its logo and initiates other marketing-related activities. The first impression a business makes with its potential customers should convey the essence of how it wants to be viewed and seen.

A business’s name, logo, Web site design, and even its letterhead are part of its brand.

Affirming all these points, Dan Byrne, the CEO of Byrne Specialty Gases, a company that provides specialized gases to laboratories, sums up what his company has done to build a strong brand during its 20 years of existence: