Online Advertising
Brand
McDonald's, represented by the Golden Arches, is one of the world's most famous brands
In marketing, a brand is the
symbolic embodiment of all the information connected with a company, product or
service. A brand typically includes a name, logo, and other visual elements such
as images, fonts, color schemes, or symbols. It also encompasses the set of
expectations associated with a product or service which typically arise in the
minds of people. Such people include employees of the brand owner, people
involved with distribution, sale or supply of the product or service, and
ultimately consumers.
In other contexts the term "brand" may be used where the legal term
trademark
is more appropriate.
Concepts
Some marketers distinguish the psychological aspect of a brand from the
experiential aspect. The experiential aspect consists of the sum of all points
of contact with the brand and is known as the brand experience. The
psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a
symbolic construct created within the minds of people and consists of all the
information and expectations associated with a product or service. The unicist
approach to brand building considers the conceptual structure of brands,
businesses and people.
Marketers seek to develop or align the expectations comprising the brand
experience through branding, so that a brand carries the "promise" that a
product or service has a certain quality or characteristic which make it special
or unique. A brand image may be developed by attributing a "personality" to or
associating an "image" with a product or service, whereby the personality or
image is "branded" into the consciousness of consumers. A brand is therefore one
of the most valuable elements in an
advertising theme, as it demonstrates what the brand owner is able to offer
in the
marketplace. The art of creating and maintaining a brand is called
brand management. You're creating the story.
A brand which is widely known in the marketplace acquires brand
recognition. Where brand recognition builds up to a point where a brand
enjoys a mass of positive sentiment in the marketplace, it is said to have
achieved brand franchise. One goal in brand recognition is the
identification of a brand without the name of the company present.
Disney has been successful at branding with their particular script font
(originally Walt Disney's signature, but later translated to go.com).
Brand equity measures the total value of the brand to the brand owner,
and reflects the extent of brand franchise. The term brand name is often
used interchangeably with "brand", although it is more correctly used to
specifically denote written or spoken linguistic elements of a brand. In this
context a "brand name" constitutes a type of
trademark, if the brand name exclusively identifies the brand owner as the
commercial source of products or services. A brand owner may seek to protect
proprietary rights in relation to a brand name through trademark
registration.
The act of associating a product or service with a brand has become part of
pop culture. Most products have some kind of brand identity, from common table
salt to designer clothes. In non-commercial contexts, the marketing of entities
which supply ideas or promises rather than product and services (eg. political
parties or religious organizations) may also be known as
"branding".
Consumers may look on branding as an important value added aspect of products
or services, as it often serves to denote a certain attractive quality or
characteristic. From the perspective of brand owners, branded products or
services also command higher prices. Where two products resemble each other, but
one of the products has no associated branding (such as a generic, store-branded product), people may often select the more expensive
branded product on the basis of the quality of the brand or the reputation of
the brand owner.
Advertising spokespersons have also become part of some brands, for example:
Mr. Whipple of Charmin toilet tissue and Tony the Tiger of Kellogg’s.
History
Brands in the field of marketing originated in the 19th century with the
advent of packaged goods. Industrialization moved the production of many
household items, such as soap, from local communities to centralized factories.
When shipping their items, the factories would literally brand their logo or insignia on the barrels used, which is where the term
comes from.
These factories, generating mass-produced goods, needed to sell their
products to 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.
Around 1900, James Walter Thompson published a house ad explaining trademark advertising.
This was an early commercial explanation of what we now know as branding.
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.
Modern branding practices are studied and analyzed at research institutes
such as the
Zyman Institute of Brand Science at the Goizueta Business School at Emory
University.
Examples of well known brand names
Business Week magazine publishes an annual "brand scorecard" of the
top 100 most valuable brands worldwide. Some results from the
2005 survey, which
contained 53 American, 37 European, 7 Japanese, and 3 South Korean brands, are
listed below.
The European breakdown is as follows: 9 German, 8 French, 5 Swiss, 4.5
British, 4 Italian, 3.5 Dutch, 1 Finnish, 1 Spanish, and 1 Swedish
United States Of America
American Express (credit card)
Apple (computer)
Citi (banking)
Coca-Cola (soft drink)
Disney (entertainment)
Ford Motor Company (automobiles)
GE (household appliances)
Global Gillette (shaving accessories)
Google (internet)
Harley Davidson (motorcycles)
Heinz (food)
IBM (computer)
Intel (computer)
KFC (fast food restaurant)
Levi's (clothing retailer)
Marlboro (tobacco)
McDonald's (fast food restaurant)
Microsoft (software)
Nike (footwear)
Pepsi (soft drink)
Starbucks (coffee)
Europe
BMW (automobile—Germany)
Volkswagen (automobile—Germany)
Mercedes-Benz (automobile—Germany)
UBS (banking—Switzerland)
HSBC (banking—UK)
Philips (electronics—Netherlands)
Nestlé (food—Switzerland)
Alessi (Home Accessories—Italy)
IKEA (furniture—Sweden)
Louis Vuitton (leather goods and luxury apparel—France)
Chanel (luxury apparel—France)
Gucci (luxury apparel—Italy)
Nokia (mobile phones—Finland)
BP (petrol—UK)
SAP (software—Germany)
Diesel (Apparel—Italy)
Giorgio Armani (luxury apparel—Italy)
Barilla (food—Italy)
Japan
Canon (photography)
Honda (automobiles)
Nintendo (video games)
Nissan (automobiles)
Sony (electronics)
Toyota (automobiles)
South Korea
Hyundai (automobiles)
LG (electronics)
Samsung (electronics and mobile phones)
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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