“In marketing you must choose between boredom, shouting and seduction. Which do you want?” — Roy H. Williams

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” — Peter Drucker

Building a brand is all about enhancing the name of your retail offering. When you do this very, very well you are either a marketing ninja or a talented innovator. The end goal is always greater profits, which are always more important than just sales.

Apple has an excellent consumer name. The iPhone is a popular product priced just out of range of the average consumer deliberately. This Cupertino, CA-based corporation has mastered the use of influencers among us to exploit their word-of-mouth for increased profits.

Remember! Profits! Apple doesn’t have the number one sales in cell phones — I believe Samsung beats them out on that with products like the Galaxy — but it does own the profits in that market.

Free cash flow… free money… it is the holy grail of business.

It is possible to piss on your name. Stephen King used to (in the Eighties) have an excellent brand name, but then he released a mountain of shit on his gold and debased the gold to nothing.

Whether you’re a consumer products company or an author, you’re only as good as your accumulated reputation points, positive or negative. Samsung will never match Apple because its products lack the allure of the bigger American company. Superficially, you could argue that Asians just aren’t cool and have to hide their nationality behind names like Lexus, the luxury sports car division of Toyota.

Brands are so important that large corporations have professionals assigned to grooming the brand reputations and maintaining them in the face of potential disaster. When Tylenol aspirin bottles were tampered with in the last century, an emergency response was made by the corporation to quiet the marketplace, which stampedes easily. Their measures proved effective, and Tylenol remains a potent brand to this day.

Umberto Eco released a book called The Name of the Rose. That could well be the subtitle to today’s Dark Sport article. The roses in question are the products that we use and love every month, from McDonald’s to a good local internet cafe like the one I use.

When business does a serviceable job, and toots its own horn appropriately, it reaps the rewards. Advertising is nothing more than a reminder that you’re still alive and kicking, and worth checking out. The name you’re building is a lifesaver for thousands of high-priced talent who depend on you for their livelihoods, not to mention the shareholders and loans institutions involved. They deserve the very best of brands no less than the consumer deserves the best of brands.

Big business must be careful with things like planned obsolescence and antitrust collusions. Microsoft got big by quashing its competitors illegally, and then was dragged into court by the attorneys-general of two dozen states. It was allowed to be intact and survive, its brands unbesmirched, but the price was its powering founder, Bill Gates, being driven from the throne. In terms of planned obsolesence, Gillette makes its razors so they get worn out quickly, but if it prices this cheap junk too high, it will lose market share. There is a delicate balancing act involved.

Capitalism is great, but it’s no panacea. Government is necessary both to ensure safety and to regulate bullying and also to provide a measure of protection for the average consumer who is helpless before the ranks of corporate titans intent on inflating their profits every successive fiscal quarter for all eternity.

In a world of limited resources, the value of a name should reflect how well it adheres to sustainability practices that benefit the whole Earth. This eco-beneficial action set is important to everyone. Let’s hope for a wiser, more mature, less shortsighted capitalism in the future than that we have known heretofore.