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No way!

Yet hundreds of companies have blown through more than a billion dollars on TV ads during the Super Bowl and other major events trying to build a brand image.

I attended a top-level seminar on branding and a venture capitalist on the panel said a consumer company must spend $50 million dollars to build a brand identity today.

However, in my seminar on branding at Stanford, I asked the participants - all brand managers at major companies, to name 10 search engines, 10 consumer web sites, 3 pet supplies sites and 10 business-to-business web sites.

No one could!

And these are the very people who are in the industry, and are exposed to the millions of dollars of advertising to create brands!

What does this mean?

Buying your way to brand awareness does not work!

The net is littered with those failures: Dr. Koop, Priceline's grocery service and Boo.com stand out as highly publicized failures.

So, as a small company, you don't have to worry about not have a treasure chest full of cash to buy a reputation - because it doesn't work!

How do you create a great brand? That's where brand assets come in to play. Brand assets are your slogans, advertising, publicity, promotions, characters, spokes people, as well as your customer service and sales people! These tools help create a meaningful identity that creates an emotional bond with your audience that compels them to take action - and provides the logic that justifies their choices.

The Internet has a treasure chest of tools to create brand awareness, brand identity and brand loyalty including your e-mail address, website name, signature file. You also need to transmit your own personality and identity to create trust.

When you build trust, you build a great brand. If you can do that, then you will build sales and create customers for life!