ABSTRACT
The brand is not a product but rather a means of representing and identifying a product or range of products. Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for a product and the system of cues that make it recognizable to its customers. Branding creates this cuing system that consumers use to identify, recall, and select a company's product or service. Branding also identifies the source or maker of the product, as the Jack Daniel's story explains. Jack Daniel's advertising and promotion do not demonstrate brilliant creative insight because there is nothing to create; everything is very real and very ordinary, demonstrating the brand's down-home identity. The concept of brand identity lies at the heart of the systems schism between managers and customers. Brand identity as projected by the manager may or may not match the external reality of the brand identity as perceived by the consumer.
