A brand is the symbol of an identity

The Origins of the Brand's Core Identity

The brand¹ is first and foremost the signature or seal of an author, an artist, an artisan, and therefore, by extension, of a company. Through it, the author asserts ownership (copyright, moral rights, and economic rights) over their works and, through them, expresses their identity. In other words, the author, artist, or artisan signs what constitutes the work of their life², through which they seek recognition and value. These works, forming their life’s work, are therefore an integral part of their identity.³
Conversely, this brand, this signature, this seal allows anyone to visually and reliably identify the works of the same author, artist, or artisan.⁴

Likewise, the author, artist, or artisan has designed and created each work for a specific type of person to whom it is particularly intended: themselves, a loved one, a commissioner, a recipient, and ultimately, a target customer.
Conversely, this recipient, if they admire the work as a connoisseur without truly knowing its author, will attempt to imagine them, forming a fantasized idea of the author’s identity based on their creations, their body of work.^{5, 6}
The same applies to those who, based on the offering they admire as a connoisseur, imagines the identity of the author of the offering in the form of a (allegorical) figure—more or less developed—to which they attribute a more or less detailed identity: a few traits, a blend of reality and fiction⁷, and sometimes even a collective persona (such as the Loves, the Games, or the Graces).

Thus, for the customer, the brand's core identity is the idealized perception they form of the author’s identity based on the work they admire as a connoisseur.⁸

1. The term mark, probably too close to market, whose etymology is unrelated, led Americans to prefer the term brand, derived from the verb to burn, referring to the branding of cattle.
2. A life’s work may consist of clay tiles paid per piece, katanas, paintings, feats of arms, etc.
3. It would be illogical for a person’s voluntary and notable actions not to be part of their identity.
4. Some rare authors do not need to sign their work, as their style and technique are immediately recognizable.
5. This is precisely the tragedy of Roxane (like many others!) in Cyrano de Bergerac.
6. Celebrities are well aware of this. Some suffer from it, others benefit from it.
7. In general, advertisers work from the identity of one of these three figures: the legal entity via one of its representatives, the target customer, or the allegorical figure.
8. In this context, 'appropriation by the customer community of the offer author's identity' refers to how a product brand detaches itself from any corporate parentage. It thus becomes a generic (identity) product for the customer community. The company can then outsource its production, turning the product brand into a corporate asset.