Click on any self-respecting marketing research or consulting web site these days and you will be assailed with a Philosophy of Branding. There are almost as many ways to approach branding as there are companies seeking to measure it.

The producers of goods and services, those folks who actually create and use brands as business tools, likewise take a very varied selection of attitudes to this phenomenon, ranging from the practical valuation ('The brand's worth over $2 billion') to more esoteric attempts at brand control ('The guardian of the brand soul'). The reality of branding is very broad, thus there are many ways to study it.

And then there's the consumer, who actually pays for all of this.

Our pov with regards to branding research is simple:

• These are slippery, organic entities, but they need to be studied in great detail for the important learning to become apparent

• Start with, and end with, the consumer, because they're the ones who pay for brands

We try hard not to be dogmatic about our approach to branding work.

A brand's reach is proportional to the category in which it operates, so study the category, what do consumers expect from this? (For example, consumers want wine brands to do a particular set of things for them, but they want automotive brands to do a very different set of things.)

Unless, of course, it's a truly great brand, because those are the ones that will exceed category expectations, and change their category in the process.