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A brand is a collection of images and ideas representing an economic producer; more specifically, it refers to the concrete symbols such as a brand-name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary. A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service. A brand serves to create associations and expectations among products made by a producer. A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, sound which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality.

The brand, and "branding" and brand equity have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as "cultural accessories and personal philosophies".

The term brand name is often used interchangeably with "brand", although it is more correctly used to specifically denote written or spoken linguistic elements of a brand. In this context a "brand name" constitutes a type of trademark, if the brand name exclusively identifies the brand owner as the commercial source of products or services. A brand owner may seek to protect proprietary rights in relation to a brand name through trademark registration.

In economic terms the "brand" is, in effect, a device to create a "monopoly" - or at least some form of "imperfect competition" - so that the brand owner can obtain some of the benefits which accrue to a monopoly, particularly those related to decreased price competition. In this context, most "branding" is established by promotional means. However, there is also a legal dimension, for it is essential that the brand names and trademarks are protected by all means available. The monopoly may also be extended, or even created, by patent, copyright, trade secret (e.g. secret recipe), and other sui generis intellectual property regimes (e.g.: Plant Varieties Act, Design Act).

In all these contexts, retailers' "own label" brands can be just as powerful. The "brand", whatever its derivation, is a very important investment for any organization. RHM (Rank Hovis McDougall), for example, have valued their international brands at anything up to twenty times their annual earnings.

Company name

Often, especially in the industrial sector, it is just the company's brand name which is promoted (leading to one of the most powerful statements of "branding"; the saying, before the company's downgrading, "No-one ever got fired for buying IBM").

In this case a very strong brand name (or company name) is made the vehicle for a range of products (for example, Mercedes or Black & Decker) or even a range of subsidiary brands (such as Cadbury's Dairy Milk, Cadbury's Flake or Cadbury's Fingers in the United States).

Individual brand names naturally allow greater flexibility by permitting a variety of different products, of differing quality, to be sold without confusing the consumer's perception of what business the company is in or diluting higher quality products.

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International Brand-Name

Companies spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars launching a product with a brand-name which is so obviously wrong that it would have been flagged as inappropriate immediately had they undertaken proper checking. The cost of checking is tiny compared to the damage caused by not doing so.

In today's international marketplace, getting brand-names right is vital. It was the famous publicist PJ Barnum who said in 1855 "I do not care what people say about me but get my name right".
Marketers and brand managers are becoming more and more concerned that their newly created brand-name will be inappropriate in their target markets.

We've all seen middle-aged marketing executives embarrass themselves when trying to appear trendy to the youth market but things get even worse when attacking overseas markets. What many people don't realize is that innocuous English product names often do not travel well. So called, 'bad' brand-names, names which embarrass, offend or are just plain unsuitable, are profligate.

Bad products names, bad brand-names and even bad company titles, are continuously spawned and the headlong drive towards globalization has given unwelcome publicity to all of them. There are many instances of where things have gone awry, most of them too rude to mention.

It's not just names, which need careful attention; strap lines can go just as wrong. Take for example, Electrolux, the Swedish white goods company, who used the strap line "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux" to great effect when promoting a vacuum cleaner across Europe. Unfortunately, when they used the same line for the US launch they became a laughing stock as 'sucks' means something is 'very bad' in America.

Bad translations on apparel can also convey the wrong message. Take the slogan "I saw the potato", instead of the correct Spanish translation of "I saw the Pope," used on promotional T-Shirts for the Pope's visit to Miami.
The cost of such a damaging event cannot easily be counted. The very fact that a product might have to be hurriedly withdrawn, or quickly re-badged can have a catastrophic effect on the image, position and value of the brand and, of course its owner.

How can one put a value on that? The cost can be enormous, with the repercussions leaving careers in tatters. It seems almost ridiculous to many outside the marketing business that there are still organizations that undertake no due diligence and take a chance on it being 'alright on the night'.
Most sensible people take out insurance to cover them for almost every event and occasion, yet when instances of such obvious potential devastation occur, it is always too late to do anything about it.

Traditional remedies such as expecting your advertising agency to provide such a service is, with some exceptions, a waste of time. It's like asking your dentist to give you a diagnosis in respect of a pain in your toe. You might expect your translation agency to offer this service but, unless they are very experienced and have regularly handled the needs and demands of checking words worldwide, again you could be wasting your money. Proper checking involves much more than whether the word means something contentious or just risible in a foreign language.

So, what can be done to reduce the risks of things going wrong? Fortunately, there are a few simple but highly effective precautions, which can be taken:

1. Remember brand-names change with speech
There's a world of difference between the written and spoken word. Accents and dialects play havoc with the pronunciation of English words and vice versa. Most of have had an experience of the way our own language is treated by foreigners. We sound similarly strange to foreigners when we try to speak in a language, which isn't our own. Before deciding on a brand-name, simply ask a native speaker of the target language if it sounds OK to them.

2. Avoid brand-names that can't be pronounced easily, or at all
Although this sounds like another blatantly obvious point, it's something which many people forget completely. Many languages have an alphabet and a way of speaking which makes the reading of English words difficult or, in some extreme cases, practically impossible. For instance, all words in Japanese end in either a vowel or the letter 'n' so it makes sense to chose a name which follows this convention. By doing this, you can be confident that your Japanese customers will be able to pronounce it without difficulty or embarrassment.

3. Avoid brand-names that confuse
A brand-name may meet every other criteria but due to culture, product qualities or its position in the market place, it may still confuse its intended consumer. This fault will seriously endanger product positioning and so clarity must be established.

Many years ago the then President of the USA, John F Kennedy was making a speech close to the Berlin Wall. He finished off in an effort to try to identify himself with the long-suffering inhabitants by announcing to his audience "Ich bin ein Berliner". Unfortunately, and unknown, to the President he was telling everyone that he was a doughnut; a Berliner being the popular name for a local pastry.

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