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.

The truth is the best brands, like the most interesting people, have a keen sense of self.

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

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.

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.

Every brand builder will face a million temptations to obscure, dilute, or confuse his or her brand message. These temptations fall under two general headings: boredom and the desire for growth.

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.