I'm fond of quoting Marty Neumeier's point that, "A brand isn't what you say it is. It's what they say it is."
And I suppose Marty's statement begs the question, "So what are they saying about your brand?" If you're not sure, my friend Noah Brier has launched Brand Tags, an interesting experiment that aims to present people's collective perceptions of hundreds of well known brands.
Since it's launch just a few days ago, Brand Tags has collected hundreds of thousands of suggested key words for brands ranging from ABC to Zune (visitors are shown a series of random logos and asked to provide a series one word responses along the lines of "what's the first thing that pops into your head"), all of which are presented tag cloud style.
It's fun to play but, more importantly, it's fascinating as a crowdsourcing experiment and (for better or for worse) bound to be eye opening for many marketers. It's also interesting, though not surprising, to see which parts of the corporate-driven brand essence stick (Budweiser for example is the "King of Beers") and which elements of the consumer-centered reality shine through (is is also "Piss".) The best part, of course, is that both tags are equally true -- because the people who experience the brand say they're true. Case closed.
I strongly suggest that you make the time to check it out, see what people are saying about your brands, and add some of your own tags for other brands you know and love.
Noah's post on the lessons he has learned from this project so far makes for interesting reading, as well.
