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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.