Brands aren't built with advertising.

Brand awareness is. Specials are announced, rebates exclaimed, images and reputations somewhat formed. Pricing updated. New models introduced. Mostly, it is just noise.

Brands built? No.

Building a brand is not a pro-bono poster or a bus wrap or 15" TV spot. These are tactics. They need to be well executed, creative, impactful, simple, powerful...all that stuff...but that's not where the brand lives or is built. It's just branding and branding is the most overused, misunderstood term in marketing. Everybody hangs their hat on the term, and hardly anybody knows what it means.

The real secret, and the one that marketers have ignored for way too long, is the proper discovery and development of the brand...the essence, if you will and then the complete adoption of the brand promise throughout the organization - both internally and externally.

You can produce the most beautiful, most powerful, most memorable TV spot in the world and the moment that the brand that's advertised doesn't deliver on its brand promise...that investment is totally wasted.

So before you rush off to some award-winning, creative ad shop for the next best tactical execution, stop.

Develop your brand first. Internalize and operationalize it and then broadcast the promise. You'll see and feel the difference.

The difference doesn't shine in the lobby display case...it shines on the bottom line.