The issue lies far deeper than only commercial concerns.

It should come as no surprise that business is more aware of Brand than ever before. Everything a business does describes its brand. Brand and branding are unavoidable.

Any discrete identity can be usefully handled as a brand. What varies between identities is scope, depth and complexity of value. The more articulated an identity the more effortlessly it can be handled (and the richer and more successful it is likely to be). This holds for tangible, intangible, animate and inanimate identities, and includes all possible experiences. Implicit in this notion is perception, which makes the experience of everything to be grasped by this proposition, subjective. Consequently, every thing can be usefully held as an opinion.

Brand = Opinion.

All we can ever hope to handle is opinion. Firing a rocket, driving a car, having a thought, splitting an atom, mapping genomes, eating food, holding hands, banking online or buying shares is the same as handling opinion. What varies between opinion is the effectiveness of the intervention. Some opinions are just more credible, compelling and safer from failure than others. The underlying principle is the same, managing opinion is the same as managing Brand. And vice versa.

Branding is inescapable. Brands enable us to make our way in the world. Everything in existence is subject to branding. The only real issue is how best to manage Brand towards greater efficacy. For many people this only means one thing. Making money.