I just inspired myself after that last post to look back through some old notes, and got onto the topic of “brands” and how they relate to story-systems (ie, religions). I found a nice quote I liked on somebody else’s blog about branding:

“A brand is a story. And the customer puts him or herself in the role of the hero or heroine.

Actually, that’s apparently written by somebody named Evelyn Rodriguez, who has their own blog here.
I like this other snippet from a blog called business evolutionist:

A brand has to form a “whole” around a set of meanings and/or attributes. This “whole” provides an interface that a consumer can use to emotionally associate that “whole” with their life - their needs/desires.

Also this from another reader’s comments on that site:

Brands are far more spiritual than Feature>Advantage>Benefit, and they are far more about the consumers than they are the product. Brands are enablers to bigger and better things, not ends in themselves If they meet that requirement, they then matter.

This definition is from some branding company, and is especially interesting if you think of the brand as Christianity and its trademark as the Crucifix:

A brand is a mixture of attributes, tangible and intangible, symbolised in a trademark, which, if managed properly, creates value and influence.