“If you can build a powerful brand, you will have a powerful marketing program. If you CAN’T then all the advertising, fancy packaging, sales promotion and public relations in the world won’t help you achieve your objective.”
Al Ries and Laura Ries
"World Class Brands” in Executive Excellence, March 1999

“Branding is the hottest concept in marketing today, and it’s an idea that is not just for the deep-pocketed, highly glossed Coca-Colas and Nikes of the world. An increasing number of independent-business owners are embracing branding as the guiding philosophy for building their companies.”
Nation’s Business

"Your personal brand is a promise to your clients... a promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability."
Jason Hartman

"When most people think of a brand, they visualize a slogan, a logo, campaign, a promise, or a product. A brand is much more. Your company's brand is a powerful relationship fueled by a loyal belief system and knotted to the principle of providing exceptional value."
Karl Speak

"In fact, in these times of economic uncertainty, a solid CEO Brand is, perhaps, more important than ever."
AdWeek

"Even individuals need to develop a brand for themselves .... Whatever your area of expertise, you can take steps to make people think of YOU when they think of your field."
Accelepoint Webzine

“In a competitive world, organizations are realizing that only people can
brand products or services effectively – that we are not just selling a
branded product but a mass of branded people who support and deliver it.”
Helena Rubinstein, The Lab

"If you can, be first. If you can't be first, create a new category
in which you can be first."
Al Ries & Jack Trout, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

“A great brand taps into emotions. Emotions drive most, if not all, of our decisions. A brand reaches out with a powerful connecting experience. It’s an emotional connecting point that transcends the product.”
Scott Bedbury/Nike, Starbucks

"It's clear that today's celebrities are becoming Brands unto themselves. But now even middle managers can get into the act. So if you see your VP of finance in the gossip pages next to J. Lo, don't be surprised."
Fortune

"Branding gives you an exceptionally effective way to broadcast who you are to your target market quickly and efficiently."
MultiChannel News

"Today, brands are everything, and all kinds of products and services - from
accounting firms to sneaker makers to restaurants are figuring out how to
become a brand surrounded by a Tommy Hilfiger-like buzz."
Tom Peters

"Branding adds spirit and a soul to what would otherwise be a robotic, automated, generic price-value proposition. If branding is ultimately about the creation of human meaning, it follows logically that it is the humans who must ultimately provide it."
David Aaker

“A great brand is a story that’s never completely told. A brand is a metaphorical story that connects with something very deep – a fundamental appreciation of mythology. Stories create the emotional context people need to locate themselves in a larger experience.”
Scott Bedbury/Nike, Starbucks

"Well orchestrated brands have depth and richness. They are like personalities, in that the best of them are made interesting and beautiful by a unique blend of interesting and beautiful component parts. It is only in the harmony of the whole that the brand lives."
Steve Yastrow, author Brand Harmony and host of the brand café at www.tompeters.com

"A brand's strength is built upon its determination to promote
its own distinctive values and mission."
Professor Jean-Noel Kapferer, (Re)Inventing the Brand (2001)

"Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual re-invention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful."
Sir Richard Branson, CEO Virgin.

"Organizations in the future will manage feelings, beliefs, perceptions and values - the asset of emotional capital - as the hidden resources with the power to translate
people's knowledge into positive action."
Kevin Thomson, author Emotional
Capital (1998)

"Your brand is a gateway to your true work. You know you are here to do something - to create something or help others in some way. The question is, how can you set up your life and work so that you can do it? The answer lies in your brand. When you create a compelling brand you attract people who want the promise of your brand - which you deliver."
Dave Buck