Wally Olins obituary

From the 1960s onwards, Wally Olins, who has died aged 83, was Britain's most articulate and effective proselytiser for the new commercial religion of branding, and for the profession of branding consultant, something to be distinguished from the familiar "marketing communications" trades such as advertising, PR and even design.

Branding, as Olins argued it, was an altogether higher-order, more holistic concern, nothing less than an organising principle for practically everything a business or organisation did. Brands, as he pointed out, were far more than memorable names for modest little things in tins and packets, advertised in traditional mass media. Brand thinking and reputation management could be applied to companies, NGOs, arts institutions, countries and individuals.