The great lesson of the Internet revolution is not that people never want personal service, just that they won't pay for personal service that does not add real value to the transaction.

While the importance of a strong brand is widely understood, nothing is as misunderstood in American business as the question of how to use it.

Do not allow your enemy to define you. Because if you allow yourself to be defined negatively, nothing positive you say about yourself will register.

Finding an excuse not to buy a brand can be just as enjoyable as finding an excuse to buy one. That, too, is human nature.

It is not easy to build a great brand. It takes leadership to persuade the rest of the company to follow your vision. It takes an artistic sense of proportion and timing. It takes a ruthless willingness to distinguish yourself from competing brands and, hopefully, bury them in the process.

Good brands do three things for highly stressed out consumers: 1. They save time. 2. They project the right message. 3. They provide an identity.

Brand is everything, the stuff you want to communicate to consumers and the stuff you communicate despite yourself.