These are the brands that built America. Each one of them was established with its basic product before 1925. Each one is still totally recognizable all these years later.

The term "brand" originally derived from the stamping or marking of cattle or sheep for identification purposes. Outside of that use, branding usually had a negative connotation. Slaves, criminals, and adulterers were branded or tattooed to indelibly mark their disgraces. To wear the mark of Cain or be branded a liar instantly attached a whole catalog of incrimination and innuendo to any individual so named.

Today brands get just as strong a reaction from us, but generally on a far more benign level. To us branding involves attaching a name or reputation to something. Over time, with enough exposure and constant reinforcement, the reality of a brand becomes what happens when someone sees an image and forms associations, values, and a kind of internal relationship with that brand.

Is there any manufacturer who doesn't want their product to have a strong brand with an unclouded image? The stronger the image projected, the stronger the relationship forged between brand and customer. Let me show you how deep this branding goes, and how every one of you here this morning associates a certain reputation with a particular brand, and trusts that brand to always deliver on that reputation.