The WHYs and HOWs of brand building

After spending considerable amount of time and energy on my company's branding initiatives, interacting with a few agencies and getting the list of activities for branding, I understood that any smart guy can come up with 125 activities for brand building. But that doesn't solve the FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM.

I realized the importance of the WHYs of branding over the HOWs

• WHY we want to build the brand is very unique, while the HOW to do it is very generic
• Unless we are clear on the WHYs, all the 125 HOW to dos doesn't make much sense
• All the HOW to dos can be validated and prioritized if the WHYs are clearly defined
• We can invent/ create new ways of HOW to dos, when the WHYs are clear

So I think one should first fix the WHYs of branding before looking at the HOWs.