You Are a Fish

According to Chinese proverb, if you want to know what water is, don't ask a fish. So immersed is it in its environment that the fish doesn't stop to consider the existence of water. Unless, of course, if it finds itself on dry land. Only at that point does the vital nature of water and its importance to the fish become obvious.

Just like the proverbial fish, we are all so immersed in brands that we barely notice their all-presence. The machines we use to make our morning coffee. The coffee we put into those machines. The cars we drive. Our banks. Our clothes. Our phone and pension providers. The companies that audit those providers. The regulators that oversee those auditors. The political parties that oversee the overseers. The newspapers that hold those political parties to account. The institutions that own those newspapers. And so on. All of these are branded and are brands. How did brands become such a pervasive aspect of modern life? What need (or needs) were they created to fulfil? Why to brands exist at all? This book starts at the beginning of branding, to provide the answers and an understanding of the presence of brands in our lives.