the.com/branding

means The practice of building a distinctive name, image, and reputation around a product or company so it's recognized and preferred over equivalent alternatives.

from From 'brand,' originally a burning piece of wood, from Old English 'brand' meaning fire or torch. The word shifted to mean a mark burned onto livestock or barrels with a hot iron to show ownership — hence 'branding iron.' By the 19th century, merchants applied the same idea to goods: a maker's mark burned or stamped onto crates signaled whose product it was. From there 'brand' slid into the abstract territory of reputation and identity, and 'branding' became the deliberate craft of making that mark mean something in people's minds.