Is branding too trendy?

Funny thing about politics. Once you start considering them you begin to realize you want to steer clear of them.

At this point in time I thought I'd start a discussion about the Republican convention and how George W. Bush performed as a brand but due to lack of response about Kerry and the Dem's convention, I decided to forget about politics (aren't we all here in the US just sick of it already?) and talk about something else.

Is it just me or is everyone in business talking about branding these days? I'd like to think that branding has finally been accepted as a legitimate marketing science and that business leaders are finally embracing it as more than just voodoo, but I can't help but think that too many people are simply hopping on the band wagon. The brandwagon, so to speak.

Experiential marketing, living the brand, bleeding the brand, dying the brand, fusion branding, emotional banding, personal branding, etc. etc. What is going on here?

I have had a great interest in and a passion for brand marketing for many years and have tried promoting it as a science for years. Lately, however, it seems as though *everyone* has an interest in it but very few actually offer tangible, actionable, fundamental tools for people to go about building strong brands for their products, services, and organizations.

Has branding gotten so trendy as a business topic that "talk about the topic" has become as important as the topic itself?

I launched this site partly in reaction to what I see as a startling trend. There are too many so-called experts out there providing flash-in-the-pan advice that might actually be hurtful to brands.

Is branding currently too trendy for its own good?

Dave