On our recent RV trip, we spent some time interviewing locals from small Texas towns such as Glen Rose, Hico, and Comanche. One thing we talked to them about was branding. When we first planned to ask them what branding is, we thought we'd get funny responses from locals confusing cattle branding with 'real' branding. We definitely underestimated the relevancy of their responses.
A lot of locals did identify cattle branding as the first thing they thought of. They described branding as a way to show ownership of livestock so that nobody would confuse your cattle with another's. This definition, although it was given specifically for cattle branding, really does apply to the kind of branding we do as well. We seek to create a brand that is unmistakably yours -- a name, symbol, color, or story that you own and nobody else can imitate. A brand is a mark of ownership, whether on a cow or a consumer product.
We learned a lot on the RV trip -- where to find good pancakes, how to drive an RV, what kind of movies we like -- but we never expected to get a tried and true branding lesson from the locals. It was great to get a fresh definition of branding from a completely different perspective. That's what these RV trips are all about!