The term branding comes from the days when cattle ranchers needed a way to differentiate their cattle from the cattle of their competition — they did it by burning a unique brand into the cattle’s rear end. Nowadays, branding is basically the same: it is the art of creating the perception (through words, images, packaging, and positioning) that there is nothing quite like your organization or product in the world. Branding is based on the concept of uniqueness.
Too often, marketers want to skip immediately to selling. But when you do it correctly, branding will enable you to “pre-sell” your products by positioning your company in the mind of your prospect in a desirable way in advance.