Good branding creates an understanding of the essence of the company. Just as a writers characterization allows the reader to grasp the true essence of the individual (whether fictional or nonfictional), the brander must establish the true nature of the company. This nature is then used by the executors of the brand. Drawing from this understanding, they create materials, designs, and even operations. In this way, the brand is used as a touchstone—keeping the company on track. The hardest part of this process is establishing the brand. Many companies attempt this, usually calling themselves branding companies. To establish a new brand is no great difficulty. It's easy to create a "character" that has no reality (yet). Far harder is to establish the brand of an existing company. And harder yet is to help a company determine what its brand should be. Most branders take a simple approach. Through a prescribed methodology, they ask questions internal to, and external to, the company. This gives the brander a general understanding of the company's brand. The general is arrived at through the accumulation of data and the averaging of it. This yields a general understanding—an understanding of the average. But, the average is not the essential. It is an approximation of the essence. Imagine a product market where one product costs $1.00 and another $2.00. The average price is $1.50. But, there is no product with that price. To say that this is a $1.50 market is to fail to understand the market. And most branding is the same way. Simply accumulating and averaging data will yield only an average understanding of the company. What, then, should branders be doing? We will address this topic next time.