The Philosophy of Branding

Citation

Sevilla, E. (2008), "The Philosophy of Branding", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 58-58. https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420810856530

In The Philosophy of Branding, Thom Braun sets upon a whimsical challenge: to apply the central concepts of the greatest philosophers of all time to the modern‐day concepts of branding and marketing, and to do so in a manner that will “encourage the adoption of a quite literally more thoughtful approach to branding” (p. 183). Regrettably, his missive falls well wide of the mark.

Braun's central premise holds promise. “The broader point is this: that brands and branding are features of the way the modern (Western) mind thinks,” (p. 174). Therefore, Braun seems to posit, if we understand the evolution of Western thought – from Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato, through modern thinkers, such as Nietzsche and Wittgenstein – we can gain fundamental insights to help us grow and manage brands.

Yet, while the final product has appeal in concept, it fails in execution. First, Braun approaches the subject with a decided lack of rigor. Early on, he fails to clearly establish a conceptual bridge between philosophers and branding, and instead juxtaposes the two without identifying clear connections or relationships. “Western philosophy began with the ancient Greeks. So too did branding,” he intones in an early howler (p. 15).

To be more precise, several of the concepts we use today in the context of brands and branding were created by the great minds of the ancient world … (Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) made clear for the first time• the changing nature of the world in which brands have to exist, and• the importance of regularly questioning everything about a brand (p. 16).

It's a bit like a parlor game, where one plays by taking a philosopher's key thoughts and merely appends words that relate to “brand” and “branding” that nonetheless together have little meaning.

Braun's second exceptional challenge lies in tone. He attempts to boil down the essence of Western philosophy, one thinker at a time, and relays their central theses in a witty, conventional manner. He succeeds in gaining ease of reading but sacrifices depth of thinking, and the resulting tone is a marker which signals shallow intellectual waters.

Here is Braun channeling Aristotle on the concepts of structure and form:

He sees the form of the car as what constitutes the heart of the brand – and this is a good reminder that, in branding, we always need to keep our feet on the ground (p. 51).

The depth of Braun's prose recalls the wisdom of that other great philosopher, American Top Forty disc jockey Casey Kasem, who implored his nationally syndicated radio audience, over many a decade, to “keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.”

Braun deploys his astral reaching chronologically, with one chapter neatly dedicated to each philosopher who fits his construct. In Part I, “All Greek to Me,” he introduces Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Part II, “I Think, Therefore I Brand,” brings us Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz, Locke, and Hume. Part III, “Into the Deep,” presents Rousseau, Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche. Part IV, “Searching for Certainty,” concludes with Wittgenstein, the Existentialists, Popper, and Braun's musings on “The future – and the real role of philosophy in branding.” It's a veritable parade of greatest hits. Each chapter features a neat summary of the philosopher's “Top Tips,” and these are reprised in a summary that fills out the slim volume.

Here and there a few useful nuggets do emerge. Braun riffs on Leibniz: “When you talk about your brand it's very easy to lump together statements which are unquestionably “true” and statements which you'd like to be true” (p. 76). Marketers and senior management grapple with such discernment on a daily basis.

Braun on Hegel:

The Zeitgeist (meaning quite literally “the spirit of the time”) … will determine what you can and cannot do … What you can do, though, is work at the leading edge of the current Zeitgeist (p. 126).

This strategy has been a consistent source of new‐business success for every “hot” advertising agency, from DDB to Crispin Porter.

Braun on the twentieth century philosopher Karl Popper:

The desired mindset we should seek, therefore, is one of continuous problem‐solving – with the aim being less about building the perfect brand, and more about removing the bits of the brand that do not work as well as they might (pp. 170‐171, emphasis added in the original).

This echoes current thinking by marketers on experience‐based branding, and on the importance of linking internal organizational values, operations, and communications with the expectations and desires of customers and external constituencies.

It is a pity that Braun waits until the last chapter to unveil his views of “the real role of philosophy in branding,” for in the final analysis it appears that he really does have a point. “Philosophy has a role in branding – because branding is primarily about the way people think” (p. 182) he states. Finally, Braun reveals a foundational link between philosophy and branding that has been absent through most of the book.

“The primary role of the brand marketer,” he adds, “is to think about her or his brand, and to create models for action that will motivate others (colleagues, customers and consumers)” (p. 180, emphasis added in the original). At last, here is a meaty insight to chew upon. My own Hegelian antithesis is that the primary role of the brand marketer is to maximize the lifetime profitability of the brand, in balance with customers, stakeholders and society. Had Braun introduced these foundational concepts earlier in The Philosophy of Brands, perhaps the book would have been able to move on, in the vernacular of Hegel, to an appropriate synthesis.

Philosophy, as any chief academic officer at a college or university can tell you, is a pillar of a liberal arts education. Branding is similarly central to marketing, which itself is a cornerstone of applied learning in our twenty‐first century global economy. By combining philosophy and branding in a shallow manner, though, Thom Braun has accomplished a remarkable feat of reverse mathematics. He has made the whole less than the sum of its parts.