| This article is about brands in marketing. For other uses, see Brand (disambiguation)
A brand represents the holistic sum of all information about a product or group of products. This symbolic construct
typically consists of a name, identifying mark, logo, visual images or symbols, or mental concepts which distinguishes the product or service. It is useful for the marketer to
think of this as a set of aligned expectations in the mind of its stakeholders -- from its consumers, to its distribution
channels, to the people and companies who supply the products and services that make up the brand experience. A brand often
carries connotations of a product's "promise", the product or service’s point of difference among its competitors which
makes it special and unique. Marketers attempt through a brand to give a product a "personality" or an "image". Thus, they hope
to "brand", or burn, the image into the consumer's mind; that is, associate the image with the product's quality. Because of
this, a brand can form an important element of an advertising theme: it
serves as a quick way to show and tell consumers what a supplier has offered to the market.
Well known products acquire brand recognition. When a brand has accumulated a mass of positive sentiment among consumers, marketers say that its owner has acquired brand equity or brand franchise. Brand equity measures the brand's value to the marketer. It is
an assessment of the investment a company has made in a brand. Brand franchise measures the effect of this investment on the
target market. When enough brand equity is created that the brand has the
ability to draw buyers (even without further advertising), it is said to have brand franchise. A brand name comprises that
part of a brand consisting of words or letters that humans can verbalize. A brand name that has acquired legal protection becomes
a trademark.
Branding has become part of pop culture. Numerous products have a brand
identity: from common table salt to designer clothes. Non-commercially, branding can also apply to the marketing of entities which supply ideas or
promises rather than goods and services -- such as political parties
or religious organizations.
Consumers as a group may look on the brand as an important aspect of a product, and it can also add value to a product or
service. It carries the reputation of a product or company. A branded laundry detergent may sell twice as much product as a
store-brand detergent. Although the two products may resemble each other closely in almost every other respect, people have
learned to regard the branded product as superior. In some cases they believe that because it costs more it offers better
quality.
Advertising spokespersons have also became part of some brands, for example: Mr. Whipple of Charmin toilet tissue and Tony the Tiger of Kellogg’s.
History
Brands originated with the 19th-century advent of packaged goods. Industrialization moved the
production of many household items, such as soap, from local communities to centralized factories. These factories, cursed with mass-produced goods, needed to sell their products in a wider market, to a
customer base familiar only with local goods. It quickly became apparent that a generic package of soap had difficulty competing
with familiar, local products. The packaged goods manufacturers needed to convince the market that the public could place just as
much trust in the non-local product.
Many brands of that era, such as Uncle Ben's rice and Kellogg's breakfast cereal
furnish illustrations of the problem. The manufacturers wanted their products to appear and feel as familiar as the local
farmers' produce. From there, with the help of advertising, manufacturers quickly learned to associate other kinds of brand
values, such as youthfulness, fun or luxury, with their products. This kickstarted the practice we now know as "branding".
Examples of prominent brand names
The 2001 ranking of the 100 most valuable brands worldwide by Business Week magazine contained 62 American, 30 European, and 6 Japanese
brands.
United States
European
Japanese
Australian
Criticisms of branding
Criticism has been leveled against the concept and implementation of brands, much of it associated with the "antiglobalization" movement. One of the better known criticisms of
branding is found in Naomi Klein's book, No Logo. The book claims that corporations' brands serve as structures for corporations to hide behind, and
that such global problems as sweatshop labor and environmental degradation have been permitted and exacerbated by branding.
Criticism of branding also comes from within corporations, with some employees becoming frustrated by being limited by overall
brand strategies that restrict what they can say, how they say it, and what Pantone
colour to say it in. Some shareholders also have concerns about the amount of money invested in branding.
Bibliography
- Miller & Muir (2004) The Business of Brands, ISBN: 0470862599 - Examines how brands can create value for
businesses
- Olins, W (2003) On Brand', London: Thames and Hudson, ISBN: 0500511454
- Schmidt, Klaus; Ludlow,Chris (2002) "Inclusive Branding: The why and how of a holistic approach to brands", Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN: 0333980794
- Wernick, Andrew (1991) "Promotional Culture: Advertising, Ideology and Symbolic Expression (Theory, Culture & Society
S.)", London: Sage Publications Ltd, ISBN: 0803983905
External links
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