Origin of Branding

Where / when did brand management begin? We will see wide variety of answers for this question. Even the text books differ on this.

The term ‘Brand Equity’ came to vocabulary of academicians during mid-eighties. The usage of word ‘brand’ started during the process of differentiating one individual’s herd of cattle from other. What about the practice of brand management. Most of them define the above described as the origin of brand management. But if we think about the process of brand management is this conclusion accurate?

What is a brand? For a common man brand is a name, term, design or symbol that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. An expert would define these as an outward manifestation of the concept or an abstract thought called brand, it goes quite deeper than all these. It’s like a considering an idol in a temple, as the god or considering a person as mere mass made of flesh and bones. Brand more than the logo, it’s just an expression of a larger intangible asset or personality of the product or service. Brand is like a soul to the human being, which helps flesh and bones to become a human being.

If we consider the above described thoughts, branding is older than human beings and it is innate in the nature. A bird develops better colors and tries to sing better to get his mate. A lion develops a brand identity through his signature roar and scent marking. A tree tries to brand itself with a better packaging, beautiful flowers, to attract the TG, the pollinators. Eggs marks themselves with hormones which attract their TG, the sperms for fertilization. In short the branding is there everywhere in the universe and it was there much before human beings evolved. We just have to keep our eyes open to see better branding examples in this universe and adapt the same to our commercial branding.