Branding means so many things to different people that it has become nebulous. It’s called the “secret sauce” of marketing, but what does that mean? “Secret sauce” might mean sriracha to some, Tabasco to others, or the intangible and often unidentifiable ingredient that we all seek and/or covet.

You can find branding all around you – it’s often expressed as the slogan, the tagline, the “Just Do It” of Nike and the “Find Your Strong” of Saucony. It’s the spirit of Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign. It’s the Chick-fil-A cows plastering graffiti on billboards. It’s Apple’s packaging.

But if branding is at once concrete and abstract, contrived and uncontrollable, the logo and not, the slogan and the customer experience – how can you create a memorable and meaningful brand?