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

A business based on brand is, very simply, a business primed for success.

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

The real lesson Orville (Redenbacher) taught me was the power of a good brand to trump all rhyme or reason in the marketplace.

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.

A strong brand is the only thing that can tip the balance of power between distributors and a manufacturer back into the manufacturer's favor.

It's not fair, but it's not entirely wrong to presume that the more capable people will come from the better brand.