ABSTRACT
The first branding papers appeared in the literature during the 1950s (see, for example, Banks, 1950; Gardner & Levy, 1955). Gardner and Levy dis cussed stereotypes that had emerged in advertising which failed to differ entiate competitive products. They espoused the importance of considering a brand as representing a personality (p. 35):
… a brand name is more than the label employed to differentiate among the manufacturers of a product. It is a complex symbol that represents a variety of ideas and attributes. It tells the consumers many things, not only by the way it sounds (and its literal meaning if it has one) but, more important, via the body of associations it has built up and acquired as a public object over a period of time … The net result is a public image, a character or personality that may be more important for the overall status (and sales) of the brand than many technical facts about the product.
