To show how a brand identity is built. In an Argentine graduation thesis on service brands, Reche sums up brand identity as the set of values or benefits a company offers to the people it addresses. It is the answer to the question "What is the brand?" (Reche, 2010, p. 11). Wilensky introduced the word anatomy for the structure of this identity, the position of its parts and the relations between them. Together they give the identity its shape (Reche, 2010, p. 12). For Wilensky, identity is how a brand becomes visible to the market. It takes concrete form in the brand's discourse (Pawlusiak, 2009, p. 43), that is, in all that the brand communicates, above all in its advertising (Reche, 2010, p. 6). As with a person, identity does not arise consciously. It grows out of a complex and unconscious process of give and take, shaped by the company's history and experience (Pawlusiak, 2009, p. 43).

Because identity rests on difference. There is no identity without difference. Only a brand that stands out strongly from its competitors builds an identity that people clearly recognise (Reche, 2010, p. 11; Federico, 2005, p. 37). Wilensky explains this with an image from human life. People can only think of themselves by seeing how they are like others and how they differ, and brands follow the same logic (Pawlusiak, 2009, p. 96). So identity has a double task. It sets the brand apart from competitors by linking signs to the company. It also carries meaning (Pawlusiak, 2009, p. 44). In Wilensky's words, the brand "gives material form to the company's will to leave the anonymity of the product category and to its strategic decision to stand apart from the competition" (Wilensky, 2005, p. 22, as cited in Reche, 2010, p. 10, translated).

Because brands work on desire, not only on needs. Wilensky draws a clear line between products and brands. "While products work in the physical and limited order of needs, brands work in the symbolic and infinite order of desire" (Wilensky, 2003, p. 22, as cited in Pawlusiak, 2009, p. 55, translated). Desire, he argues, "slides from object to object without ever being satisfied" (Wilensky, 2003, p. 34, as cited in Pawlusiak, 2009, p. 55, translated). For him, a brand is only completed in the mind of the consumer, who links it with their own anxieties and fantasies, values and experiences (Reche, 2010, p. 6). Two of the three areas of the anatomy carry this emotional side. The essence, the brand's lasting core, is made of human values and adds an emotional value to the brand. The appeal, what the brand offers, includes emotional benefits next to functional ones (Reche, 2010, p. 13).

The model looks at brand identity the way anatomy looks at a body. It names the parts and shows how they relate. Every brand has three distinct areas. The essence is its lasting core, the appeal is what it offers, and the distinctive features are the signs and values by which people recognise it (Reche, 2010, pp. 12–14; Pawlusiak, 2009, pp. 51–53).

• A lasting core: the essence is "eternal". It stays the same while the brand's symbols, personality and positioning adapt to new times (Reche, 2010, p. 13, translated).
• Distinctive features must reinforce the rest: it is not enough for them to be coherent. They must also strengthen the appeal and the essence (Reche, 2010, p. 14). When all three areas work closely together, Reche reads this as a strategy for building the brand. In her words, the three then "go hand in hand", and each adds to or strengthens the others (Reche, 2010, pp. 14–15, 89, translated).
• Four scenarios shape the identity: identity comes out of four settings working together, which Wilensky calls scenarios (Reche, 2010, p. 11). The supply scenario is the company's side. It holds the company's vision and mission, its culture, its goals and the positioning it builds through the marketing mix of product, price, place and promotion. The demand scenario is the consumers' side, with their habits, attitudes, expectations, fantasies and fears. In the cultural scenario, broad social trends shape how the market behaves and how a brand's identity takes form. The cultural values of the day decide how the market reads each positioning. In the competitive scenario, what matters is rival brands and what they say to the market, because identity comes from difference (Reche, 2010, pp. 11–12; Pawlusiak, 2009, pp. 45–47).
• Identity grows out of the product: a brand's identity is shaped by the product it stands for. Wilensky calls this the genesis of identity, meaning where it comes from. Pawlusiak, in a graduation thesis on the guitar maker Fender, names the product's category, its physical and symbolic features, its added services and the quality people perceive. The situations of use and the type of client also count, as do the brand's origin, the company behind it and its personality (Pawlusiak, 2009, pp. 47–50, 87). Perceived quality is a key factor. If the product fails to meet consumers' expectations of quality once they have used it, nothing the company tells them will outweigh their own experience. The moment of use, when product and consumer meet with no ads, signs or packaging in between, is decisive (Pawlusiak, 2009, p. 48). Origin counts too. In Wilensky's words, "the place of origin or the country of production influence the identity that a brand finally acquires" (Wilensky, 2003, p. 114, as cited in Pawlusiak, 2009, p. 49, translated).
• Personality widens the identity: Wilensky writes that "a brand built on certain personality traits develops a broader identity than one that arises only from the product's functions" (Wilensky, 2003, p. 115, as cited in Pawlusiak, 2009, pp. 50–51, translated).

In Wilensky's book, identity is one of six linked variables that together make up a brand. The others are the name, the symbols, the discourse, the positioning and the brand character (Federico, 2005, pp. 14–15). The discourse "is made up of various elements that communicate and build identity, character and positioning" (Wilensky, 2005, p. 190, as cited in Reche, 2010, p. 6, translated). Federico, in a graduation thesis on Lucky Strike, also describes four conditions of identity. They are legitimacy, credibility, an emotional bond with consumers and self-affirmation. Next to these, he describes three semiotic levels, that is, levels at which a brand's meaning is made. They run from a few deep core values (the axiological level) through stories (the narrative level) to concrete characters and objects (the surface level) (Federico, 2005, pp. 38–42). Federico's text names David Aaker as the source of the conditions, but his footnotes name Andrea Semprini for both the conditions and the levels. The footnotes also name David Arnold for his section on the anatomy, although its definitions match those that Reche and Pawlusiak take from Wilensky (Federico, 2005, pp. 38–40, 65).

The anatomy is worked through step by step. After the essence and the appeal, the brand's main distinctive features are analysed (Reche, 2010, p. 14). In all three theses, the anatomy comes after an analysis of what shapes the identity, using the four scenarios, the genesis or both (Pawlusiak, 2009, pp. 79–87; Reche, 2010, pp. 47–48; Federico, 2005, pp. 38–40).

Pawlusiak applies what she calls Wilensky's method to the guitar maker Fender. Only a deep knowledge of the parent brand's identity, she argues, makes it possible to create a sub-brand that complements and strengthens it without changing its essence and core values (Pawlusiak, 2009, p. 12). She works through the scenarios, the genesis and the anatomy and finds Fender's essence in its tradition and passion for music (Pawlusiak, 2009, pp. 79–87). On this basis she proposes Phanton by Fender, a sub-brand for amplifiers. It is meant to bring modernity and innovation to the parent brand while respecting its essence (Pawlusiak, 2009, p. 89).

Reche uses the scenarios and the anatomy to study commercials by four Argentine banks from 2006 to 2008. The banks are Santander Río, Banco Credicoop, Banco de Córdoba and Banco Francés (Reche, 2010, pp. 5, 39, 47–85). In the cases studied, she finds that essence, appeal and distinctive features work closely together, which she reads as a strategy for building the brand (Reche, 2010, p. 89).

Federico's study of Lucky Strike has one chapter for each of the six variables in Wilensky's book. In the chapter on identity, he applies the genesis and the anatomy to Lucky Strike, in the same order of essence, appeal and distinctive features (Federico, 2005, pp. 3–4, 14–15, 38–40).