The School of Life's The Book of Life looks at the most substantial things in life: your relationships, your income, your career, your anxieties. Under the theme of capitalism they explore what is a good brand: 

Essentially a brand is a constellation of qualities, it is a personality in the material realm. It presents a vision of life in a hugely condensed manner via physical objects and services. The bad associations around brand spring from the way that often this vision of life is a little fake, exaggerated or plain daft.
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But a brand doesn’t only symbolise a set of ideas. It makes these ideas reproducible and universal. Brands allow particular qualities to multiply across the world.
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Brands invite the recognition that great things are not usually (actually, practically never) done by individuals acting in heroic isolation. At some point every good idea, every important insight should go through the process of becoming a brand. Because this just means that it should widen its power in the world. And it means other people can join in. The world is in great need of better brands.

This reminds me of a recent post on advertising & the great and wicked troubles of our day.