A brand is a person's perception. Of course, it makes marketers nervous to think that marketing is out of their control, but that's why the discipline of branding has emerged.

Without design thinking, the only sane response to a problem is to make a smaller, "safer" move. Smaller moves don't get you very far. They key is to let out the leash on imagination, but not take it off the leash. Imagination is the only path to innovation. It's a good example of something that humans do better than machines.

I see "demand creation" as a 20th-century construct that's bound up with advertising. It's an outmoded view of marketing that says, "First, we build a product or service, then we advertise it into people's lives." Embedded this view is the belief that companies control brands. This is a myth. My message all along has been that brands are actually created by customers, not companies. Companies only provide the raw materials - the products, messaging, behaviors - that people use these to create brands.

The most innovative designers consciously reject the standard option box and cultivate an appetite for thinking wrong.

Design can also be used to invent strategic futures, make complex decisions, and craft a bold corporate vision. We need to move design up the ladder of influence.

Brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.

When enough individuals arrive at the same gut feeling, a company can be said to have a brand.