A brand is not a logo or a colorscheme; it's the gut feeling a person has about your company. That person could be a customer, the CEO, a brand new hire, or anyone at all. Brand management is the process of building an identity for your company. A good brand is a strong sense of character that permeates everything the company ever does. It allows people to relate to companies more like they relate to other people: by how it makes them feel.

The book hammers home the point that a brand is not what you say it is, it's what they say it is. In other words, you have a brand whether you like it or not - is it the brand you want? If not, you probably need to focus your message. Keep communication short and simple - your company only gets a tiny bit of real estate in a person's head, so make sure the most important message is what will occupy that space.

Historically brands were about the product's features. In recent times it's about who the person will be if they buy your product. Branding is a tribal affiliation: when I buy a Hummer H2 I'm joining a different tribe than if I buy a Toyota Prius. Even something as simple as Coke vs. Sprite is a tribal affiliation. Define your tribe, hone your message to appeal to people that want to be in that tribe, and exclude everyone else. Or as the book puts it: "Survival of the fittingest."