"A brand is?"

Jon, at Business Evolutionist points us towards A penny for... where they are asking:

"What is your definition of a Brand? 25 words or less."

Okay, here's a stab:

Ideals --> Bonds --> Communities. Another word for community is Brand.

[9 words, 2 arrows.]

A brand's job is mobilizing affinity, and assuming leadership of that community--sometimes benignly, sometimes forcefully, but always in service of the shared ideals of the group--company and consumer.

[30 more words.]

In this way, the most effective brands do have an almost visionary quality about them. They mirror back to consumers and employees and even competitors an imagined ideal future they often can't enunciate themselves. They guide. They imprint. And that's gold.

[41 more words.]

80 words and 2 arrows. One hopes the first 9 give me permission to offer the next thirty. And then, those 39 have opened the gate to 41 more. If I do the rest right, I may have just found a new friend. Another relationship based on shared ideals—a brand—may have begun.

Now, I have to grow both of us.

Hey, it's me typing here. No way I could have stopped at 25. Go give them your answer, could be a very cool discussion.

[update: Moveable Type squirrelliness? Seems the comments counter is not operational and a script message comes up when you hit "post", but it does work.]