Brand Real: How Smart Companies Live Their Brand Promise and Inspire Fierce Customer Loyalty

CHAPTER EIGHTNAMING AND IDENTITYDEVELOPMENT

At the start of this book, I described the difference between brand behavior and brand identity. With each new chapter, I have attempted to persuade you that a brand’s behavior should always be guided by a credible promise that results in a consistently strong experience. Brand identity allows brands to get credit for such an experience by giving them a signature. In the same way that you look to the bottom of a painting to identify the artist, a brand identity helps us connect an experience to a brand.

Identity is not only the sexiest part of branding, it’s also the most accessible aspect of the discipline. You might have a hard time getting people to debate the finer points of a brand’s promise, but ...