Products are an expression of brand, not the other way around.

Do you want to know one thing most people get wrong about brands? It's this:

Products are an expression of brand, not the other way around.

People think you develop a product or suite of products, and then you create a brand to wrap around it. But that's really not how iconic brands do it.

I have several different ideas for brands I want to start at any given time. Whenever I tell people about one of them, they always ask me what kind of brand it'll be, by which they mean what category or what the products will be.

Oh, I don't know, I say. I'll decide later. Maybe we'll have fragrances or accessories. Or something related to the hospitality and lifestyle industries.

They usually look at me like I'm insane. How can you start a brand without knowing what products or services you're going to sell?

Because people don't buy products and services, I say. They buy stories. 😎

If you're the average consumer, you may think you bought a Volkswagen because they made the car with the features you wanted in your price range. But if you're a founder or brand director, you should really understand that you bought that car because the idea of accessible, European-style engineering, easy mobility, and a fun driving experience appealed to you and aligned with your lifestyle and values—and that VW designed a car that perfectly captured that spirit. All of VW's iconic models—Beetle, Golf, Jetta, Passat, Atlas, even the new ID.4—are just different ways of delivering on its core promise.

Lots of brands do start with one idea, a hero product or service. Maybe it's something that exists already and they're making a different version, or a cheaper version, or a cooler version.

Or maybe they've invented something entirely new.

Congratulations to them. But even they, in developing that product, are telling a story. There is a reason why they made it and a relationship between what it is or how it's made and the people who might want to buy it. If that story is unclear or difficult to articulate, it's going to be a hard sell, even if the product is exemplary.

Because, like I said, nobody really buys a product.