Brand Distinction: The New York Yankees clearly have it.

Alright, I am admittedly a diehard Yankee fan. Yes, that was me you could hear all the way from the left coast screaming as they won their 27th World Series Championship.

The Yankees are indisputably the greatest and most successful sports franchise—EVER!

That, my friends is not the ranting of a crank fan after a few too many brews before the 7th inning cut off…it’s your friendly neighborhood certified brand strategist stating a fact…and a claim of distinction that no other team can make. In fact, no other team, EVEN comes close.

The Yankees’ 27th championship is over twice as many as the next team in MLB history. Who is that? The St. Louis Cardinals with 10. (Sorry Red Sox fans, you have a long way to go with your 6.) In the NBA, the Celtics recently won their 17th Championship—now 10 behind the Yankees. And in hockey, Les Habitants, the Montreal Canadiens, have 24 Stanley Cups. Sadly for the Montreal fans, their team hasn’t been close to Lord Stanley’s cup in decades.

The point here is that as a raving fan I have a great brand to root for and an irrefutable brand distinction to hang my hat and build my argument/strategy on: More than any other major sports franchise in history. In the same sense, however, Montreal also has a great brand distinction in their own universe of the National Hockey League. They have won 26% of all Stanley Cups ever contested. The Celtics in the NBA are the only original franchise to have won as many championships—17. The Lakers of LA started in Minneapolis. Try to make the connection that winning in Minneapolis is as pressure packed as L.A.? I don’t think so.

Brand Distinction is what it’s all about. It what separates the men from the boys, the boys from the girls, and the true brands from those products who blend into the woodwork like so much bad wallpaper. Brand Distinction is what companies many times want but fail to deliver upon. They fail to deliver on the wish list and promises kept which require that brand distinction to be adopted and embraced all the way through the organization. The CEO is the person who must understand and articulate just what that brand distinction is…in this case it was George Steinbrenner—The Boss, who accepted no other win as a victory unless it was a World Championship. He invested, and does to this day, millions on talent to do nothing other than win the World Series. And, like him or not—he has relentlessly pounded that notion, that belief, that brand distinction into every person in his organization.

Now it doesn’t take Steinbrenner’s billions to do that. Any company can be just as successful—once they’ve gone through the Brand Development process and identified those elements, the distinctions that will assure greatness. The real challenge is the backbone, the fortitude and the unswerving willingness to see it through—year after year, decade after decade.

Congratulations to The Boss—no matter your opinion. His distinction and place in business and baseball history is assured.