![]() Bricks often included quarry marks, which indicated where the stones came from. This helped distinguish their work from that of other masons and ensured they were fairly paid. In Ancient Egypt, masons engraved symbols-called stonecutters' signs-on the bricks they produced for the pyramids and other Pharaoh-led construction projects. Potters weren't the only artisans to brand their work. Archaeologists have also identified roughly 1,000 unique potters' marks in use during the first three centuries of the Roman Empire. Some of the earliest known marked Chinese pottery dates back 4,000 to 5,000 years. Pottery makers from China, India, Greece, Rome, and Mesopotamia (now Iraq) used different engravings to identify not only who made ceramic goods but also what types of materials were used and where the goods were produced. Egyptian funeral monuments, approximately 4,000 years old, depict branded cattle.ĭuring this time, brands were also used to identify goods. By 2000 BC, livestock owners switched to a more permanent method: burning. Cave paintings from the Stone Age suggest that early man might have marked cattle with symbols drawn in paint and tar. The practice of branding livestock is much older than the word. It wasn't used as a verb until late Middle English, when it came to mean "mark permanently with a hot iron." By the seventeenth century, it referred to a mark of ownership made by branding. Brand originally referred to a piece of burning wood. The word brand dates back to Old Norse, the ancient North Germanic language from which modern Scandinavian languages derived. What can modern marketers learn from the history of branding? The Origins of Branding If anything, branding might be more important today than ever. Still, like superheroes and soap opera villains, it never stays dead for long. More than once, experts have declared branding dead. It's determined by who makes the greatest emotional connections.Īs marketing leaders continue to wrap their heads around how branding works in the digital age, many brands are in trouble. Success is no longer determined by who has the biggest advertising budget or the most recognizable logo. Unless companies can offer far superior products or far lower prices than the competition, it's hard to stand out in the crowded marketplace. These days, consumers have more information and more choices than ever. Top Hacks to Becoming a World-Class Brand Storyteller It's about owning what your company values and represents, owning up to your shortcomings, and earning customer trust and loyalty through your words, your actions, and your stories. But branding in the twenty-first century is still about taking ownership, and not just for property and products. What we brand, how we brand it, and why we brand it has changed. Of course, branding has evolved over the centuries-from farmers claiming their property, to artisans claiming credit for their work, to factories claiming their products, to companies claiming their products were better than others. The term derives from the Old Norse word brandr or "to burn," and refers to the practice of branding livestock, which dates back more than 4,000 years to the Indus Valley. If you don't already know the answer, it will seem pretty obvious. ![]() But what is branding? Not what do we mean by branding, but what does the word actually mean? As marketers, we talk a lot about branding-branding websites, branding content, branding research studies, branding events. ![]()
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