Chapter 1 - Brands

In chapter 1, Professor Featherman briefs the reader on a few marketing basics before dividing into the rest of course. One of these basic topics included branding an the benefits of having a clear, recognizable brand. Featherman defines a brand as "a name, term, symbol that identifies one company's product(s) and sets it apart from their competition. The thing that turns a commodity into a specialty, and allows you to charge triple what the product is worth and 10x what it costs to make." In this picture, there are several popular brands that, no doubt, could be easily dechipered and linked to the companies they represent. Nike, McDonalds, Mercedes and Microsoft Windows have proved to have easily recognizable brands and its hard not to associate them with their corresponding companies, who (given their past success) can simply post their brand name and successfully market themselves without much effort.