Brand is the unique, ownable identity of a business, enterprise, company, or undertaking. It includes the name of the entity and its logo type or any identifying design by which the enterprise is known and recognized, and it conveys what the enterprise stands for, its products and services, and ultimately its role and significance for the customer, consumer, user, or perceiver in its respective society, culture, or civilization. Increasingly, a brand is any carefully articulated identity.
During the late 20th century, corporate brands rose to a level of strategic significance within the world of modern business and enterprise. Growing from their humble origins as an indicator of ownership or a source of goods, brands became the primary tool used to create and orchestrate enterprise identity, a major factor in setting corporate strategy, and an important asset in developing enterprise value and creating wealth. As such, brands became the most important and the most strategic and monetarily valuable asset in successful organizations, be it a commercial enterprise, a nonprofit organization, a governmental agency, a nation, or even an international body.
Concurrent with this rise to previously unprecedented social and economic power, brands, with their ability to determine perception, drive behavior, and influence public markets, have become the focus of a number of ethical debates regarding the nature of capitalism, consumerism, and corporate social responsibility.