Building and protecting your BRAND is a key facet of creating business success at all levels.  Whether you are the manager of a multi-national corporation, a middle-market B-to-B company, a creative professional or an emerging entrepreneur, your BRAND is a key to success.

So what is a BRAND?  The popular view is that a brand is merely a name or logo on a tube of toothpaste, a pack of chewing gum or a can of cola.  But the popular view is too small.

The concept of BRAND that concerns us here is far bigger, the symbol of all of the aspects that make your business valuable in the minds of clients, customers and consumers.  In this sense, the BRAND is the public incarnation of your knowledge, products, services, culture, employees, ideas, intellectual property and innovation. 

One commentator puts it this way:  "Brands have become the most valuable asset within many enterprises, capturing the knowledge, the art, the science and the work of each person in each work day, making them the ultimate symbol of the companies for which they speak.  This is the business reality of the 21st Century." (Dr. Lindsay Moore).

To help you think about your BRAND, focus on five key concepts tied to the letters of the word:

B - your Business

R - your Reputation

A - your intellectual Assets

N - your kNowledge

D - your Definition

(OK, no one has every accused me of being an excellent speller.  During a spelling quiz in fourth grade, my teacher passed down the aisle, glanced at my paper and whispered in my ear - "Don't worry, Mark, President Kennedy couldn't spell either."  Obviously, I know that "Knowledge" begins with a K and am only playing.  But I digress . . . )

Your challenge as a corporate business leader, entrepreneur or creative professional is this: take action every day to build your BRAND.

There are five steps to do this, again tied to the letters of the word:

B - build and create

R - register and protect

A - adjust and align

N - negotiate and exploit

D - defend and police

In future posts, we'll explore these steps in more detail.  For now we will end with the key characteristics that give your BRAND value.  Your BRAND has value as symbol in the market because and to the extent that your B.R.A.N.D is original, unique and distinctive.  Otherwise you and your business become a commodity, leaving you, like all commodities, to compete on price in a field of similar commodities.  If you seek something more, focus on building your B.R.A.N.D.

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Mark Partridge works with companies that want to protect their brand and with business leaders who want to use IP to increase the value of their business.  For more information and free resources visit www.GuidingRights.com.