I haven't talked a lot about "branding" - a concept important to effective marketing.

You see the golden arches, you know there's a McDonald's there. But you also know a bunch of other things. You know what is going to be on the menu (mostly; in Europe they serve beer), that it will be low priced. You know with minor variations what things are going to taste like (the McDonald's in Sweden use more ketchup on the burgers).

That's branding.

If you are going to build a brand you have to decide what your company or product is and what it means, and you then have to be consistent in communicating that.

BMW has been "the ultimate driving machine" for over 30 years.

There are several elements to effective branding. We'll take them up in some detail over the next couple of days.