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Before studying the contemporary nature of the concept of a brand, it is useful to consider the origin of brands. The brand is a perennial tool for trade. Whatever the reasons for the use of a brand, it has always been used to indicate an origin and a source. In the Middle Ages, craftsmen “marked” or “branded” their products in order to identify their production. It is therefore a simple transition from “branding” to “brand” (or, in the French, “marquage” or “marking” to “marque”), and thus legislators were able to take into account the property associated with brands.

The first laws that clarified brand ownership appeared in the 18th Century. Thus, these laws highlighted the rights of individuals and companies in terms of industrial property. The first nation to understand this need and recognize this right was the United States, enacting a law in 1790. It was quickly followed by France, which followed suit on January 7, 1791, enacting a law signed by King Louis XVI. The use of a brand attached to the product by entrepreneurs was clear. Entrepreneurs, for their part, very quickly understood that the brand could give them an advantage, which today would be described as “competitive”.

Brand use indirectly accompanied industrial development, as entrepreneurs indirectly felt the need to develop by being recognized by their brand. This evolution leads us to understand that, contemporarily, the brand allows companies to develop by creating value.

Farjaudon (2007) distinguishes two categories of brand value, weak brands and strong brands. Awareness of brand value makes it possible to dissociate the category the brand belongs to from the brand itself. The strong/weak association is defined in relation to the market shares that can be conquered by the brand. The strategy implemented by the manager in charge of brand development will depend on this categorization. Thus, it has been shown that when the brand is strong, the consumer becomes more important than the distributor in terms of the attention paid by the managers. The attention is then directed towards marketing, but not only that. Indeed, in the case of strong brands, which are recorded as assets on balance sheets, the shareholder becomes an essential player.

In this book, we will focus on brands accounted for by all types of companies. Brands are not just a name on the product; the nature of strength is a central point in determining their value to both the consumer and the shareholder. The measurement of brand awareness, the mental evocations associated with it, the perceived quality and the ability to build loyalty are the four most commonly accepted criteria for defining brand strength (Aaker 1994). This approach is based on an understanding of consumer behavior and suggests that creating a strong brand requires creating a strong emotional bond with the consumer, building consumer loyalty and promoting the distribution of products through a distinctive sign capable of winning them over. However, when certain brands become too strong, they become synonymous with the goods adjacent to them. Thus, for example, “Google” for search engines, “Caddie” for shopping carts and “Kleenex” for paper tissues. In short, whether they are strong or weak, it is necessary to understand how brands appear and how they evolve.

We will follow this evolution in this first chapter, which aims to define the different foundations of the “brand” concept. We emphasize that the brand is a complex concept whose materiality is composite and that, once created, it acquires an economic role. However, it is also not easy to create, it requires imagination, and this gestation leads to the acquisition of a right that must be legally protected. On the basis of these observations, we will examine the fundamental characteristics of the brand and the possible links between the historical, economic and legal character that the brand encompasses.