In general, it can be said that branding seeks to influence how people see the branded entity relative to its competitors positioned in a competitive landscape.
But this purpose can be accomplished in quite different ways.
Normal branding tends to accepts a conventional view of a market as given, and works on how the branded entity is perceived when seen from this view. It tends to position products by looking for unoccupied areas in the landscape and marking territory there, and “owning that space” by identifying the brand with certain desirable characteristics. It then builds the brand on that space by emphasizing those differences, messaging the importance of the differences, aestheticizing the differences in order to make them as appealing as possible.
A different approach to branding attempts to influence how people see the market, by showing a different angle from which it can be viewed — one that reveals the branded entity at its best angle and the competitors at their worst. In this approach, the branded entity shows the customer its own activities, needs, desires and pain-points in a new way that the branded entity is uniquely suited to address. The component parts of the shift — which are not to be seen as discrete pieces to craft bit by but, but rather as parts of a whole to be developed together — are simultaneously factual, practical, ethical and emotional — and form an ethos that is inhabited and participated in.
Another way to characterize the two approaches: the former treats brands as 3rd person (an object of sight), and the latter treats brands as 1st person (a way of seeing). The 3rd person brand is passive in respect to the viewer, and concentrates all its efforts on presenting itself as compellingly as possible. The 1st person brand invites the viewer to join it in looking at things from a fresher and more productive angle. And that angle reflects the 1st person brand in the best light, at the best angle so the brand doesn’t even have to preen or present. It is just naturally the best choice.