• Functional: the brand as promise. The old view of brand, still legitimate in the majority of cases.
• Communal: the brand as emblem of group-identity.
• Personal: the brand as affirmation of moral-aesthetic priorities. (or to put it more flakily and precisely: resonance with spiritual ideals.)

These meanings are manifested in the product, practice and symbology of the brand.

For a while there I was thinking brands fell into categories corresponding with these dimensions, but now I think all three are present to some degree in every brand.