> You establish brand by making happy customers. That first requires a sale. In some cases, that may be right, but in general branding begins the first time so

> You establish brand by making happy customers. That first requires a sale. In some cases, that may be right, but in general branding begins the first time someone interacts with your product (or even your industry). If I notice your business name on Google SERPS, I am engaging with your brand. I didn't really use NewRelic for 2 years after I first heard of it, but I did keep seeing them and speaking to them at events, reading blog posts, etc. Eventually, I signed up and paid for the product. What convinced me to do that was the branding work they did before I became a customer. Even for freemium products, the business builds a brand to encourage people to invest the effort into signing up. Even government services (e.g. in the UK - the BBC, the NHS) do branding work. Branding doesn't start at the point the customer enters their credit card. Lovemarks is a good read on branding - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lovemarks-Effect-Winning-Consumer-Revolution/dp/157687267X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1437397249&sr=8-2&keywords=lovemarks http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lovemarks-Effect-Winning-Consumer-Re...