Key:brand - OpenStreetMap Wiki
Key:brand
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Key:brand
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brand
Description
The identity of a specific product, service, or business. Often trademarks
Group:
properties
Used on these
elements
Documented values:
11
Useful combination
brand:short
=*
brand:wikidata
=*
brand:wikipedia
=*
brand:website
=*
branch
=*
See also
nobrand
=*
branch
=*
operator
=*
network
=*
manufacturer
=*
model
=*
Status:
de facto
brand
More details at tag
info
Tools for this tag
taginfo
AD
AT
BE
BR
BY
CH
CN
CZ
DE
DK
FI
FR
GB
GR
HU
IE (N+S)
IN
IR
IT
LI
LU
JP
KP
KR
NL
NO
PL
PT
RU
ES
AR
MX
CO
BO
CL
EC
PY
PE
UY
VE
TW
UA
US
VN
overpass-turbo
QLever
Postpass via overpass-turbo
OSM Tag History
The
brand
=*
tag is used to describe
either
the principal brand of goods or services that are sold in an outlet (notably petrol/gas stations
amenity
fuel
and new car salerooms
shop
car
or
represents a common identity for individually owned-and-operated stores (usually convenience stores
shop
convenience
, but the Intersport brand is common in Europe on
shop
sports
).
Typically, this tag is used where the name of the brand is more recognisable (and therefore of more interest to data users) than the name of the outlet.
Contents
Distinguishing between brand, name, operator, etc.
Buying group brands
Examples
3.1
Example hotel
3.2
Example gas station
3.3
Example motorcycle shop
Further details
Brand of feature vs brands on sale / service / repair / rental
Note
Possible tagging mistakes
QA - Quality assurance
See also
Distinguishing between brand, name, operator, etc.
brand
=*
allows data users to identify where a well-known brand of goods are sold. It can be used for outlets that are dedicated to a single brand of goods. It is of most value where the name of the outlet is less well-known than the brand itself. Often the brand name will dominate signage making this the strongest visual element.
Typical examples include motor traders who sell a particular brand of vehicle, or petrol stations dedicated to a particular brand of fuel. In these cases,
name
=*
would be used for the name of the outlet, and
brand
=*
for the brand of the goods.
As the name tag is much older than competing tags and is supported by almost any application, it is still common that brand names get added only into the name tag, where the individual store name or the business name is not known or is identical. This situation may occur with large fast-food chains, where the outlet and the goods share the same name. Here there might be little value in adding
brand
=*
as well as
name
=*
, but this is for the data contributor to decide.
Globally operating brands are usually operating through businesses registered in the local jurisdiction or distributing under sophisticated franchising arrangements, where the name of the company which operates the facility is different from the name of the outlet and the brand under which they are trading. Where contributors feel it is necessary to make this distinction, then different values can be supplied for
name
=*
brand
=*
and
operator
=*
. Examples include many fast-food
amenity
fast_food
outlets in chains such as Dominos, KFC, McDonald's, Burger King and Subway but also companies like Apple.
Depending on a particular brand's branding practices,
name
=*
may consist of
brand
=*
and
branch
=*
in some order.
Buying group brands
Buying groups (or symbol groups) represent organisations which buy goods in bulk on the behalf of their members. They often provide a distinct identity both for shops and for some products. Historically, these were often co-operative enterprises, but more recently many are now owned by major wholesalers. Examples, mainly from the convenience store sector (and with a British bias): SPAR, Premier (owned by Booker), Londis, Happy Shopper.
Examples
Name, brand and operator may differ:
Example hotel
tourism
hotel
brand
Sheepy Suites
name
Sheepy Suites at Longmeadow
– the name as it appears on signs;
official_name
=*
can be used if the name filed with government regulators, for example, is different
In some cases, the name and the brand will be the same.
ref
844
– this would be Sheepy Suites location #844
operator
Black Mutton Enterprises
– the local franchisee that operates the individual hotel
Name and brand may differ:
Example gas station
amenity
fuel
brand
BP
– Brand of the gas station
operator
Max Müller
– operating company / individual
name
Tankstelle Rheinfall
– Only if the specific gas station has an individual name)
Often several brands offered :
Example motorcycle shop
shop
motorcycle
name
Moto Mania
operator
Joe Miller
brand
KTM
Harley-Davidson
Moto Guzzi;
Zero
In case of several brands use a
semicolon
as separator (without space).
Further details
There are a couple of common subkeys used to add further detail about the brand. These should be used instead of the not prefixed ones if the information given belongs to the brand, but not to the object itself.
Key
Description
Usage count
Charts
brand:<
language code
=*
The name of the brand in another language or script. Use only if necessary, don't translate brand names. See description in
Multilingual_names
brand:short
=*
The shortened name of the brand, similar to
short_name
=*
brand:wikipedia
=*
The wikipedia entry of the brand
brand:wikidata
=*
The wikidata ID of the brand
brand:website
=*
Website of the brand
brand:<
contact
=*
Options to contact the main brand office. Uses the same subkeys as detailed in
Key:contact:*
, e.g.
brand:phone
=*
or
brand:email
=*
Brand of feature vs brands on sale / service / repair / rental
The
brand
=*
should refer to the brand the POI belongs to. E.g. car dealers might belong to the network of brand CBA and sell only CBA cars. There might also be independent dealers that do not belong to brand CBA, but sell only their cars.
There was some discussion in 2025/07 (
related forum discussion
). It was suggested to use subkeys to distinguish the brand of the POI itself from brands they sell, service or buy.
As of 2025/11 these tags are used albeit quite rarely:
Key
Description
Usage count
Charts
brand
=*
The brand the POI belongs to
brand:sales
=*
The brand of products the POI sells
brand:service
=*
The brands that can be serviced, e.g. a
shop
car_repair
brand:repair
=*
The brands that can be repaired
brand:rental
=*
The brands that can be rented, e.g. equipment on rental at a
shop
photo
brand:second_hand
=*
The brands that are sold second hand, e.g. a branded car dealer might offer used cars from other brands
Please note that these tags should only be used if the POI is dedicated to one or more brands. It should not be misused as a place to store all the brands available for sale e.g. in a supermarket.
Note
Note that
operator
=*
is often used for the brand, but this is technically wrong unless the parent corporation operates the individual locations. For example, McDonald's fast food chain is a global franchise with many operators (franchisees), so McDonald's would be specified as the brand rather than the operator.
Possible tagging mistakes
brand
independent
More details at tag
info
More details at tag
info
brand=independent
‒ Should not be used unless "independent" is the actual name of the brand, consider using
nobrand
yes
instead.
If you know
places with this tag
, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are
strongly discouraged
unless
you really know what you are doing
brand
Independent
More details at tag
info
More details at tag
info
brand=Independent
‒ Should not be used unless "Independent" is the actual name of the brand, consider using
nobrand
yes
instead.
If you know
places with this tag
, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are
strongly discouraged
unless
you really know what you are doing
brand
yes
More details at tag
info
More details at tag
info
brand=yes
‒ Should not be used unless "yes" is the name of the brand
If you know
places with this tag
, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are
strongly discouraged
unless
you really know what you are doing
QA - Quality assurance
There are implemented checks/validations for name and brands for the
iD
-Editor, which are based on the
Name Suggestion Index
(NSI).
See also
nobrand
yes
— Explicitly marks a feature as having no brand at all (e.g., independent shops, etc.).
branch
=*
— Identifies which branch of a brand or chain this object represents, or controversially the name of a branch railway.
brand:remarketed
=*
— The brand or brands which are re-marketed under a new common brand.
manufacturer
=*
— The manufacturer of a (man-made) object, e.g. wind generator, elevator, etc.
operator
=*
— The entity in charge of the current operation of a map object.
Name Suggestion Index
— (NSI) is a collection of tagging presets that represent: brick-and-mortar brands, public_transport networks and common flags.
Retrieved from "
Categories
Key descriptions for group "properties"
Key descriptions
Key descriptions with status "de facto"
Properties
Tagging Mistakes
Hidden categories:
Pages unavailable in Italian
Pages unavailable in Dutch
Item with no description in language FI
Item with no description in language NL
Item with no description in language HU
Item with no description in language ZH-HANS
Item with no description in language ZH-HANT
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