Why The Word Brand Is Kinda Cringe

Today we got off the phone with a potential client. They had a common concern surrounding the word "Brand." Branding, the very service they seek—although an incredibly powerful agent that turns heads and agendas is too often fraught with negative undertones and connotations.

Let's find out why!

Brandr; To Brand. A Micro History

The etymology of the word Brand stems back nearly 6,000 years. We* would argue that Branding is in our DNA; it has helped us define human history across symbolism, semantics, systems, and value.

To Brand ourselves — to adorn our being in jewelry, clothing, masks... the things that make us different; to identify livestock from one neighboring village to the next, to commemorate the dead, or to create identifiable books in unorganized dusty library—branding has been a part of our history since the dawn of fire. Brandr literally means to burn with fire.

Digging deeper still, Branding historically shows up when our ancestors wanted to cram a long, often value-driven story into a short, concise pictograph (icon) or set of symbols. These symbols hold importance far beyond a hand-drawn picture or set of letters, alone. The identification aspect of Brand Identity is a core element. How quickly our ancestors could identify a Brand holds impact into economic symbolism, class hierarchy, weaponry, literary dominance, agriculture, and war. Identifying Brands is baked into human history.

Thinking about Branding in a slightly more contemporary sense—to sell one single product that boast the same aesthetics and effectiveness no matter how received; Lyle's Golden Syrup is technically the first Brand, born in 1883. Personally, we*ve never heard of Lyle, or his syrup, so we're gonna stick with the first Brand we learned about; Bass Beer.

Although founded in 1777—it took Bass a number of years to become established. That sounds familiar, as startups often take 5-10 years to become known (and trusted). By the mid 1800's Bass was a highly distributed product who sought a simple way to identify itself. Bass used a simple red triangle and script lettering to identify their beer as this symbol was easy to identify in a sea of rounded objects and dark, dusty corners.

What this proves to us is that Branding thrives when it is easy to identify. Branding is as much about creating simple product labelling as it is about upholding a products effectiveness to deliver. It's one thing to Brandr your cows; it's another thing if your cows produce the best meat in the land.

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Fast Forward To 2023

Branding has taken over. Today, culture and hierarchal status is defined by Branding. What you wear, drive, ingest, and rap about is Brand-driven. Increasingly, people have become Brands. Platforms like Youtube, Instagram, and Tik-Tok have made sure that each and everyone has a voice. Eventually, we* believe, that who we are will hold the greatest value of all through new forms of Brand Matter technologies like digital wallets, avatars, and privacy.

Being in the industry of Identity— this is both a cause for concern, and an area of study at *Dot Agency. In fact, that's why we began placing effort into *Saga development.

How we treat Brands is shifting. After a century of being spoken to—people are after more personable tones of voice that speak with them. Increasingly, and especially in the era of data-driven decision-making, how we* speak with our* customers is mission critical.

The technology that surrounds data-driven decision-making is growing, fast. Artificial Intelligence has begun to take-off and despite being in its infancy, AI has the power to blend the gaps between data-based Ad/Marketing and deeper forms of privacy like intent. Working with two AI clients—we* see the power of AI, first-hand. How it continue to inform decision-making both on & off of our personal digital spaces will have a massive impact into who we are within these spaces.

And yet, despite all of these incredible advancements—the word Brand is still kinda cringe. As markets become saturated, trends naturally shift. The great difference between industry trend and language trend is that the word Brand operates as an outside force. Perhaps this is the most wonderful thing about Branding; it makes up what is represented in the present, the past, and the future; Branding both is and is not. As Nike expresses "brands live in our heads."

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How Do We* Solve Branding Being Cringe?

Honestly, for us, as a Brand-focused *Agency... we prefer to lean into crisis. Encouraging challenging conversations, we* understand that the best growth (and recovery) stems from when we force ourselves to dig deeper. When Creative pipelines aren't increasing revenue—we ask why? We* hold meetings with executives and VP's of Product, Marketing, and Business to learn who those decision-makers are, what they're talking about, and how we* can finely tune our communication to fix the issue.

Often times, these fixes appear to be quite simple. Just as a red triangle for Bass Beer is perhaps an obvious answer—someone had to create that concept, sell it, and mass-produce it. We* believe the answer is often sitting right there, just out of reach. Our* job is to simply uncover it. Give it a voice. Identify it. Then burn it in so we can all identify it.