What is a brand anyway A brand isn’t just a logo on a shirt or an ice-cream van. It’s much more than that. To be successful a brand has to have rational characteristics—(101)ie, it has to be competitive on price or quality or service, and it has to have a “personality” that charms and seduces. It is a mix of emotional factors,such as “Do I like it” and “Is it me” and rational factors such as,“Is it cheaper or better or quicker”(102) Getting things in balance is tricky,and that’s why so many brands don’t succeed. Just let’s look at all the ways brands can fail. Brands are vulnerable to fashion. Fizzy drinks such as Coke and Pepsi are now being attacked by stimulation drinks such as Red Bull. Fast food brands are threatened by salads and other “lite” foods. McDonald’s has recently been in real trouble. Brands are also vulnerable because they get cocky,arrogant and out of touch. They think they know best and don’t change with the market—like the Gap, Levi’s and Marks & Spencer brands who learnt their lesson the hard way. (103) In fact, even the people who create brands can’t really control them or even predict how people will use them. Not one single mobile phone company anywhere in the world anticipated the growth of texting.The companies involved in the new 3G phone technology are still holding their breath because they don’t know whether it will take off or not. And if it does take off, they won’t know how and in what direction until the market tells them. It’s a huge gamble.Range Rover was the first Sport Utility Vehicle, but Land Rover never completely understood the concept that it had inspired. Range Rover has spent much of its life span trying to catch up with the trend that it serendipitously created. (104) Organic foods are a great success, but not one single major manufacturer or retailer originally promoted them. Little companies started the trend and we consumers just decided we didn’t want our food mucked around with. So at first slowly, hesitantly and ponderously, the retailers and the manufacturers followed. They did what we asked. (105) In other words, brands are nothing like as powerful as they look. The people who manage them often get things wrong, muck things up, look in the wrong direction and generally act just like most organisations directed by human beings—messily. So despite all the huffing and puffing, the reality is that brands are more or less completely in our power. When we like them we buy them, when we don’t, we just buy something else. And what’s more, as customers we’re unpredictable. We can be loyal or fickle, extravagant or stingy, serially or simultaneously.