Defining brand

Today's New York Times Magazine is full of great marketing articles. We'll start with Brand, a great article written by Willian Safire on what branding really is about. Just the beginning will draw you in:

When the New Yorker reporter Jeffrey Goldberg asked Senator John Kerry whether the Democrats had a credibility problem on defense controversies, the party's titular leader replied without equivocation, ''Look, the answer is, we have to do an unbranding.'' As Kerry saw it, the political problem had to do with salesmanship: ''We have to brand more effectively. It's marketing.'' An editor on the linguistic qui vive titled Goldberg's article about the Democrats' need to shuck off the appearance of weakness ''The Unbranding.''

The hot word in the field of sales -- indeed, pervading the world of perfect pitching -- is brand.