What is a brand?

Venture capitalist Will Price recently gave a good definition. He said it has five components:

1. A promise
2. A customer
3. Quality
4. An image
5. A differentiation

I prefer to think of brands as a word association game. For example, when you think Google, what do you think? I think search. I also think applications that are simple, intuitive, and powerful.

When you think Microsoft, what do you think?

My mind goes blank. (I think Microsoft has some great capabilities, but I also think they have some serious branding issues).

When you think Kid Mercury, what do you think?

Maybe you think crazy kook who spends too much time online. Hopefully, though, you think what the header graphic says: a guide to Internet business in the post 9/11 world. The Internet business part explains the promise and the target customer; the 9/11 part explains the quality (i.e. the experience), the image, and the differentiation.

For customer-relations businesses (i.e. B2C), the challenge is to leverage the brand across niches to increase share of customer wallet.

It is with this in mind that I've launched my own fashion line, MessageWear. MessageWear is simply a collection of shirts I've created that contain quotes from high ranking government officials who know that, at bare minimum, a coverup of the Truth is going on (anyone who has studied 9/11 knows that all the evidence points to a total inside job). On the flip side is a message encouraging people to stop watching the garbage on television and to get their news from real news sites like PrisonPlanet.com. Normally I would put the URL to my site to reinforce the brand, but I want to wear the shirts to 9/11 Truth street actions, and I didn't want my fellow Truthers to think I'm all about my ego (I'm not, I'm just having some fun with the whole Kid Mercury thing, and trying to illustrate what I believe is the future of branding -- i.e. world making).

The other point is that the next step in the web is to add human value to commoditized technology. Accordingly, I do believe that brand-building in web 2.0 will be about using various forms of cheap/free software and web services to create a singular message -- one that helps convey a brand, and one that helps consumer-facing businesses extrapolate a greater share of their customer's wallet.

So, in closing, get yourself some MessageWear and rock it at your local street action (if you don't have one, be a leader and start one). Use MessageWear to be the hero who uses the Truth to set your brothers and sisters free.