Customer Relationship Marketing is the fourth significant post-war wave. While
marketers have long viewed brands as assets, the real asset is brand loyalty. A
brand is not an asset. Brand loyalty is the asset. Without the loyalty of its
customers, a brand is merely a trademark, an ownable, identifiable symbol
with little value. With the loyalty of its customers, a brand is more than a
trademark. A trademark identifies a product, a service, a corporation. A brand
identifies a promise. A strong brand is a trustworthy, relevant, distinctive
promise. It is more than a trademark. It is a trustmark of enormous value.
Creating and increasing brand loyalty results in a corresponding increase in the
value of the trustmark.