First, let's discuss what branding is not. 

Branding is not awareness.  Awareness is just that...awareness.  We're all aware of certain deadly diseases, aren't we?  Does that mean we want to run out and get them?  No.  Likewise, if people know about you -  who you are, where you are and what you sell, does it mean they want you?  No, it simply means they're aware of you.  Nothing more, nothing less. 

Branding is not advertising and a sustainable brand is not the result of advertising.  Don't get me wrong.  I owned a national advertising and marketing agency for twenty years and I believe in advertising, or as we in the ad business like to call "brand awareness."   I also understand the process, limitations and function of advertising and brand awareness.  If the awareness - the advertising message is compelling enough, it should cause your target audience to investigate what you do and what you can do for them.  But that's as far as it will go.  Making them curious about you doesn't mean they will buy from you, and continue to buy from you.  As I said, Advertising is Awareness and it is a very small part of the brand building process.  Unfortunately, too many people rely on the advertising - the awareness - as the magic bullet to build their business and their brand.  Please understand that creating awareness with a clever promise, blasting that promise over the airwaves, or printing that promise in magazines, newspapers and billboards, is not building your brand.  It's building an expectation of what your brand will do.  How you deliver on that promise and how you manage that expectation is the beginning of the brand building process. 

Branding is not marketing.  Marketing involves, among other things, research for gathering and analyzing data about customer demographics, customer perceptions, market size, strategies for developing and positioning a brand in the marketplace, the channel of distribution arrangement and management, and management of the sales force.  In brief, marketing is a sort of social institution, a systematic way of bringing customers and businesses together to facilitate a sale.   

So then, if awareness, advertising and marketing are not branding, then what is?  Before answering this question, it's important to understand just what a brand is.  A brand, or at least a successful, powerful brand is a feeling.  It's an emotion.  Personally and professionally, you are a brand.  The question is how powerful is your brand.  In other words, when someone mentions your name, what emotion is triggered?  What feelings do people get?  Or, is there any emotion at all attached to your name - to your brand?  When your name comes up, is it simply attached to a logo, a phone number and a selection of commodity items?  If so, how do you move from being known, to being desired?  How do you turn a typical customer into a raving, lunatic, loyal evangelist for life?  And, how do you move from building awareness to creating a powerful, desireable, sustainable brand? 

How do you create a powerful, emotional, sustainable brand?  Quite simply, by creating unique, emotional, relevant, one of a kind experiences for those around you.  From customers to employees to suppliers to employer to family and friends - the way in which you interact with these people and the experiences you create for them will dictate the power, desirability and sustainability of your brand.  But just how do you create these experiences?