What Great Brands Do

They're what I like to call "impassioned environmentalists" with their brands. They don't let very many people touch them in the way of design or positioning or communication -- verbal or non-verbal. It's all done internally.

8. A great brand is relevant.

A lot of brands are trying to position themselves as "cool." More often than not, brands that try to be cool fail. They're trying to find a way to throw off the right cues -- they know the current vernacular, they know the current music. But very quickly they find themselves in trouble. It's dangerous if your only goal is to be cool. There's not enough there to sustain a brand.

The larger idea is for a brand to be relevant. It meets what people want, it performs the way people want it to. In the last couple of decades there's been a lot of hype about brands. A lot of propositions and promises were made and broken about how brands were positioned, how they performed, what the company's real values were. Consumers are looking for something that has lasting value. There's a quest for quality, not quantity.

Alan M. Webber (awebber@fastcompany.com), a founding editor of Fast Company, favors gold coast blend and maple-oatmeal scones. Scott Bedbury is a Sumatra man (hot or cold).