You’ve heard of Batman, right? Orphaned son of Thomas and Martha Wayne? Billionaire playboy by day? Caped crime fighter by night? World’s greatest detective? Butler named Alfred? Protégé named Robin?

That guy.

How do you know all that stuff? How do you know that the local insane asylum is Arkham? That Batman’s nemesis is a clown called Joker? That he drives a Batmobile? Lives in Gotham City? There’s a good chance you even know the name of the Police Commissioner.

There’s more. Small stuff, but just as important: Batman never uses a gun. He protects his identity to protect those he loves. His super power is discipline. And he’s motivated by a need to shield others from the senseless violence that ruined his own life.

He’s in comics, movies, TV shows, cartoons, action figures, playing cards, lunch boxes, Halloween costumes, fine art, pulp fiction and roller coasters.

Batman is a one-man, multi-billion-dollar industry. And he’s one of branding’s all-time greatest success stories.

How does he do it?

He started with a compelling story.
Batman’s tragic origin story contains a fundamental human insight: we’re all afraid of losing those closest to us. Nearly all of the great Batman stories make at least passing reference to the killing of Bruce Wayne’s parents by a common thug. That’s rich narrative terrain. And it provides a dependable platform for brand growth.

He’s surrounded by well-structured brand elements.
The core elements of the Batman universe have back-stories nearly as robust as his own. The Joker: a failed standup comedian involved in a botched robbery and driven insane by a toxic chemical dunk. Alfred: the loyal butler sworn to support the Wayne orphan any way he can. Gotham City: a crime-ridden metropolis on the edge of chaos. These are highly articulated brand elements – as important to the Batman franchise as the looping cursive typeface is to Coca-Cola’s.

He never underestimates his audience.
OK. This isn’t entirely true. There’s plenty of bad Batman out there. But more than most brands of its ilk, Batman reaches for the highest common denominator. The Batman library’s masterpieces – including Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight – ask much of their audience. But not too much. It’s a fine line, and at his best, Batman treads it fearlessly.

He never breaks his own rules.
Batman lives by a strict code of conduct – as do all the characters in his world. Gotham is always in danger. The Joker is always crazy. The Riddler always speaks in riddles. That consistency provides comfort for consumers. But it also provides parameters, at the edges of which big ideas are born. In other words, good Batman stories test the limits of the brand rules while simultaneously reinforcing them. When you have a strong set of rules, you empower your brand and its practitioners to play at the edges without getting lost in the wilderness.

He knows the difference between pictures and words.
This is a lesson from comics: The picture tells some of the story. The words tell some of the story. And together they are greater than the sum of their parts. It’s also an advertising fundamental. And good Batman easily stands among the ad industry’s best picture-headline work. Check out Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo’s Joker for proof.

There’s more. Much more. Much too much to get into here. Suffice to say, as marketers we’d all do well to worship at the altar of the Dark Knight.

I mention all of this not because I’ve mastered the lessons – far from it – but because Batman has. We ignore them at our brands’ peril.