Know-How Exchange : Branding

It's the process of developing a product, service, company, organization with it's own personality, it's own identity, it's own reputation, reconizable through logo or symbol or name encompassing every internal and external communication and every encounter a customer or potential customer has with it. It's the development of a relationship between the product/service and the customer/potential customer.

Marketing-Riot

Adding to Marketing-Riot's answer, which is great by the way, here are some examples.

你开一个广告牌通过耐克西南oosh on it. You immediately know however, just by the swoosh that it is Nike, and seeing that symbol generates some sort of feelings, emotions and thoughts in you. That is branding.

If you drive passed a McDonald's that is being built, but the building does not have anything obvious that suggests it is a McDonald's, you will more than likely know that it is a McDonald's by the shape of the building. At least in my part of the United States, almost every single McDonald's looks the same. That is also branding. The shape of the building identifies the business, and also generates a reaction.

Branding is about symbols, primarily the actual logo and/or company name, reminding you of an experience.

Don't confuse having a brand(like the Old West cattle brands, which is essentially a logo) and branding. One can have a brand/logo and never have branded their business.