This document discusses the importance of brands and living the brand. It notes that a brand consists of the central idea, product, environment, behavior, and communications. The pursuit of added value through these elements is central to brand building. Customers buy into the combination of the brand inside the organization and the brand outside through the customer experience. Living the brand means ensuring consistency across the central idea, product, environment, behavior, and communications. Strategic errors that can undermine a brand include confusing brands and logos, lacking a relevant central idea, poor customer experience, overreliance on advertising, overstretching the brand, forgetting the brand internally, and incongruence between internal and external messaging. The key is for customers to truly