Ann - branding is more than creating a logo, letterhead, and some sales literature. (That would be considered corporate identity.) It starts with things like how you are currently perceived in the marketplace and how you want to be perceived. For example, I used to work for a company that produces large-format computer-painted graphics for outdoor advertising. Before there was such a thing as large format printers, they invented these huge machines to output large images on vinyl. By holding focus groups, we discovered that our technology was perceived as being "old." Part of changing this image was to redesign our corporate identity. (Our logo didn't help; it looked very old-fashioned.) But that came only as a result of deciding how we wanted to be perceived.

Everything your company does "brands" you, whether you intend it to or not. For example, there is a page layout software used in the design industry and the company that created it has the reputation in my industry of being extremely difficult to work with. They've "branded" themselves as not caring about their customers, so much that, when their major competitor released a competing product, many designers couldn't wait to jump ship, not because the product was better (in fact, it wasn't), but because they hated the company so much.

Branding is really a business plan that is "customer-centric" rather than "product-centric". Companies that want to brand or re-brand themselves must look at every point of customer contact and evaluate what message they want to convey. So everything from your logo to how you treat your customers needs to be taken into account.

The most powerful branding is emotional -- it's based on desires, not needs. McDonald's excels at this, IMO. There was a commercial a while back where a five-year-old boy becomes sad over all the attention lavished on his new baby sister the day she comes home from the hospital. So Dad takes him to McDonald's for some "Father-Son" time and tells him that his little sister is going to need someone to "show her the ropes." The moment they share at McDonald's is the focal point of the commercial. Nowhere do they talk about hamburgers, fries or milk shakes. But the message they're trying to convey is crystal clear.

Hope that helps.