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The Marketing Society has turned the clock back 50 years to illustrate the power of branding a product, so what is your favourite?

Will it be the iconic Mini? Will it be Hovis, Apple or M&S? Whatever it will be it will have to have made their impact after 1959 when the list begins.

But what is it that makes a great brand? Sir Keith Mills, the businessman behind such iconic brands as Air Miles and Nectar, writes in The Times, “There is a difference between the brand name or logo and what the brand means — and I think that is one of the big misunderstandings. People talk about name recognition or the design of the brand logo as opposed to really what it stands for — and what it stands for takes a long time to build and a lot of money.

“You can’t create a brand just with great adverts, that’s important but it is more than that, it is about the product, how it is packaged, it’s about the people that produce it, make it, distribute it. It’s about the customer service that goes behind it, it’s a whole combination of things that make up what people in the business call brand attributes.”

Sir Keith, who is deputy chairman of the London 2012 Olympic Games Organising Committee, believes that it takes five things to turn a brand from bronze to gold-medal status. “I think that a great brand needs a personality. I think you can look at brands like Levi or Smirnoff or Nike and they all have what I consider to be personalities.”

Next, a great brand has almost generic status “like asking for a Coke even when you want a Pepsi . . . Then, all great brands need to be great products — they need to deliver what they say on the tin.” Microsoft or easyJet are good examples, he believes. Great brands are also trusted by their customers — Shell or eBay, perhaps.

“Finally — and this is the real acid test — they need to have built a relationship with the consumer where the consumers are advocates of the brand, ie: they go and tell their friends about it. Apple and, probably, M&S are two examples where people will say quite proudly: ‘I got this in M&S or I’ve just got an Apple computer or an iPod.’ ”

And not on his list but equally important, Sir Keith said, the company has to “live” the brand. “So if you walk around the headquarters and talk to the people who work there, they understand what the brand means and are passionate about it and they really believe it — they live it.”

The list makes really interesting viewing. You cannot help but be familiar with all of the brands featured but on closer examination, considering what would be our favourite is a tough ask. It might have been Heinz if I wasn’t so uncomfortable with Beans becoming Beanz and it might have been BT, which from an aesthetic point of view is great but any dealings with them result in having to lie down in a darkened room for many hours.

So Lego it is, even though standing on a piece in barefoot hurts beyond belief!

www.50goldenbrands.com/vote-brands/

The other survey of perhaps more interest is where you can vote for your Marketing Hero…

Now that lot is food for thought!

www.50goldenbrands.com/vote-heroes/

How is it that with a four day week you always get to friday feeling like you have been hit by a truck?

Canu-land has been pretty frenetic this week, Rude Health are keeping us busy, as are Life Activation, Richmond Borough Council, Fekkai and others. All good though, projects are coming to fruitition so pop back soon to see the results.

New blackberries have just arrived and are looking lovely in their boxes on the side… we aren’t going to touch them until later… really… we are not…