Re: What makes a brand work?

Bouncing off of Erin's post, I wanted to research branding from an agency's perspective. Lippincott, one of the world's most well-known branding agencies in New York, has designed logos for the many of the Forbe's Top 100 Brands.  To name a few: Starbucks, WalMart, American Express, and Coca-Cola. 

Lippincott released this article, "Positioning a brand in the marketplace," which gives a good understanding not only about branding in today's world, but an insight to their strategy. Some key points from the article are:

• "Critical to any brand's success is its ability to make all the various factors align-to “make sense” when subconsciously associated and brought together to form the big picture of the brand. We call this impression “brand image” or “brand reputation,” and it can be positive or negative-or somewhere in between."
• "the three components essential to developing a clear brand definition are vision, meaning and parameters of relevance."

The article then gives examples of companies that have successfully branded themselves by following the previously mentioned 3 components: Disney, Nike, and Ralph Lauren. It also touches on the point about extensions (which could be helpful when thinking about your ancillary brand): "The experiences of Disney, Nike and Ralph Lauren underscore the point that you can successfully extend a brand into new areas provided you do not lose sight of what the brand means and what its parameters of relevance are."