Tom Asacker writes about brands as filigree.

A brand is filigree work as well. I recently purchased a Jackson Browne CD after watching a 60 minutes segment on the songwriter. Then a friend told me that Browne was a woman-beater (he allegedly hit, his then girlfriend, Darryl Hannah). That bit of "information" made me want to toss his CD out of the car window. Then I read that the story wasn't true. All of which left me ambivalent and somewhat emotionally distant from the Jackson Browne brand.

Here's the insight: a brand is nothing more than a bundle of emotions, loosely held together by trust and reputation.

Yes, brands are fragile. It's a shame that so much marketing effort goes into creating pretend strength. For me, deeply satisfying human connection is made possible by the willingness to acknowledge vulnerability. I like Tom's post - in fact I like Tom - because he's willing to share the slightly frenzied quality of his relationship with the Jackson Brown brand. He's willing to show a bit of vulnerability, that makes him so much more interesting than brand gurus that just say, ah yes, well here the three infallible rules for selling CDs.