Branding is one of those terms that people don’t always understand. They hear “brand” and they think “logo” or “company,” but a brand is far more than that. It encompasses the cumulative experience one has of something—sometimes over a lifetime—and can even go beyond one person (e.g., ”My father always bought Buicks and so do I.”). In his most excellent book, “The Brand Gap,” Marty Neumeier defines a brand as “a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization.” The key word here is “feeling.” People’s feelings can be influenced, but in the end, they are just that, people’s feelings. An example I have involves cilantro—“the leaf of the young coriander plant; an herb in the parsley family, often used in Mexican and Middle Eastern cooking.”

When I was pregnant with our first baby, I had never consciously encountered cilantro. One day, while my husband was whipping up some homemade salsa, I got a whiff of something awful. Being pregnant, I had a low tolerance for loathsome smells and quickly reached my threshold. “What is that smell?” I demanded. “There must be something rotting in the kitchen. We HAVE to find it NOW and get rid of it!” We both searched in the regular places for rotting food—the fridge, the sink, the corners of the unwashed floor—but could not find anything. Finally, distressed and frantic, I turned slowly and suspiciously to the counter, full of fresh vegetables and herbs. I sniffed and . . . GWAAAK! There it was! That little pile of green leaves! “What IS that?” I screamed. Cilantro.

Since that time the cilantro brand has been mud for me. I cannot stand the smell, the look, the thought of cilantro, but most of my fury springs from that one, pregnancy-influenced moment. It would take a lot of healing for me to voluntarily invite cilantro into my home again (although my husband and three sons love it and have it over quite often). The point of this insightful story is that one really bad or really good experience can have a profound effect on a brand because brands rest solidly on people’s emotions. “The Brand Gap” gives readers tremendous insight into branding and all its nuances through entertaining, intelligent copy and interesting, thought-provoking design. The book may shift some people’s paradigms a little too fast, giving them a headache (think about which painkiller you would use—branding). This is because Marty is walking his own talk—he is making people take notice by rocking their boats as well as really making them FEEL, through words and images, what he is trying to say.

If you would like to learn more about Marty’s ideas and his company, Neutron, LLC, visit their Web site at www.neutronllc.com. They offer a tremendous amount of information for free, and you can sign up to receive monthly tools to support your brand-building efforts. Marty has written a number of other great books including “Zag,” which introduces readers to the idea of radical differentiation. Any of Marty’s books you choose to explore are definitely worth the time and effort you take, and I highly recommend them all.