The idea of brand is marketing's love child. It is still the most prestigious aspect of marketing, above and beyond mere activation, tactics and even communications. Brand, however, is not the answer to all questions and certainly not an end in and of itself. It is, like all marketing, a mere means to deliver return on investment. So in order to understand why anyone would need brands, it makes sense to develop an understanding of how brands can actually drive growth.
The old understanding of brands is that the magic ingredient is consistency. Since Stephen King's writings, it has been...