Logos and brands: the sizzle and the steak

A friend of mine a few months back mentioned in passing that the new ''Airtel brand'' was very modern but looked confusingly like Vodafone. On probing realized that he was of course referring to the new Airtel ''logo'' and not any new Airtel ''brand''.

Wondering if this confusion was more endemic, I Googled the terms, and found these definitions that I thought most pertinent:

LOGO: Noun: A symbol or other small design adopted by an organization to identify its products, uniform, vehicles, etc

BRAND: Noun: A brand is the essence or promise that a product, service or company will deliver or be experienced by a buyer.

In simple terms, the Logo is just a visual identification of a brand/company or service. It is only over a period of time when consumers' get a clear idea od what the ''dna'' of the brand or service is; what it offers stands for and delivers that the Logo may be linked to a ''brand'' for recall purposes.

Let's take a look at some examples:
This logo except for a few techies would be nothing more than a nice piece of design for us mere mortals. This is the most basic stage of a ''logo'' – where even identification of the brand is not delivered.