In our business, we frequently meet people who feel that their company or product brand doesn't fit them. Sometimes the brand used to fit, and sometimes it never did. Bad brands are almost always the result of failing to spend a small amount of money at the beginning. And, now they are facing spending much more money to correct the problems. The question is, what risks are present in re-branding?

Good marketing and branding challenges, pushes, and cajoles companies into action and growth. And this is why companies buy work in marketing and branding in the first place: they want to achieve growth. What most companies don't realize is that operating at this level is much harder than they thought.

Over on his blog, Todd Miechiels wrote an interesting post questioning whether b2b branding is relevant anymore. He says that micro-brands and one-to-one communication make brands unimportant.

There is lots of talk about brand equity. It's an important concept that is little understood. Today, we'll talk about it in the context of your overall brand strategy.

Most B2B companies want to increase their revenue. And most of them do it by increasing sales effort. This can take the form of adding staff or increasing advertising. The question is whether this is the best approach.

I believe that the value of marketing and branding extends through the entire enterprise. At every stage of the value chain, marketing and branding have a crucial role to play.

As a marketer and brander, I support good branding and argue for it when I can. One of the counterarguments is that branding doesn't make any sales. I think this is true as far as it goes. Very few people will make a purchase solely on the basis of good branding. But, this isn't the reason to do branding.

Seth points out that great logos are about the meaning derived, not from the logo itself, but from the company behind it. While that's certainly true, it underestimates the role of design in a good logo.