Brand

The association a consumer has with a company, product, and/or service, usually taking a visual, verbal, or audible form.

Think: Golden Arches (McDonald’s), “Make America Great Again” (Donald Trump), or “da-da-da; da-da-da” (SportsCenter).

In extreme cases, brands can become synonymous with concepts or the products themselves. For example, the brand, “Kleenex” has become interchangeable with the product, “tissue,” much the way that Congress’ brand is synonymous with the concepts of inaction and incompetence.