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The concept of brand ---------------brand names

q.1 meaning of brand , variables of brand, history, brand name,

expanding role of brand, and importance of brand?

Meaning of brand

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "name, term, design, symbol,or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark . A brand may identify one item, afamily of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferredterm is trade name."

A brand can take many forms, including a name,  sign,  symbol,  color combination  or

slogan. The word branding began simply as a way to tell one person's cattle from anotherby means of a hot iron stamp. The word brand has continued to evolve to encompassidentity — it affects the personality of a product, company or service.

A concept brand is a brand that is associated with an abstract concept, like breast cancerawareness  or environmentalism, rather than a specific product, service, or business. Acommodity brand is a brand associated with a commodity. Got milk? is an example of acommodity brand.

In the automotive industry, brands were originally called marques, and marque is stilloften used as a synonym for brand in reference to motor vehicles.

The word "brand" is sometimes used as a metonym, referring to a company that isstrongly identified with a brand.

Variables of brand

The following elements may differ from country to country:

  Corporate slogan  Products and services  Product names  Product features  Positionings  Marketing mixes (including pricing, distribution, media and advertising execution)

These differences will depend upon:

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  Language differences  Different styles of communication  Other cultural differences  Differences in category and brand development  Different consumption patterns  Different competitive sets and marketplace conditions  Different legal and regulatory environments  Different national approaches to marketing (media, pricing, distribution, etc.)

History

The word "brand" is derived from the Old Norse brandr meaning "to burn." It refers tothe practice of producers burning their mark (or brand) onto their products.

Although connected with the history of  trademarks and including earlier examples which

could be deemed "protobrands" (such as the marketing puns of the "Vesuvinum" wine jars found at Pompeii), brands in the field of mass-marketing originated in the 19thcentury 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 thebarrels used, extending the meaning of "brand" to that of trademark.

Bass & Company, the British  brewery, claims their red triangle brand was the world'sfirst trademark. Lyle‘s Golden Syrup makes a similar claim, having been named as

Britain's oldest brand, with its green and gold packaging having remained almost

unchanged since 1885. Another example comes from Antiche Fornaci Giorgi in Italy, whose bricks are stamped or carved with the same proto-logo since 1731, as found inSaint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. 

Cattle  were branded long before this. The term "maverick," originally meaning anunbranded calf, comes from Texas  rancher Samuel Augustus Maverick   who, followingthe American Civil War, decided that since all other cattle were branded, his would beidentified by having no markings at all. Even the signatures on paintings of famous artistslike Leonardo Da Vinci can be viewed as an early branding tool.

Factories established during the Industrial Revolution  introduced mass-produced goodsand needed to sell their products to a wider market, to customers previously familiar onlywith locally-produced goods. It quickly became apparent that a generic package of soaphad difficulty competing with familiar, local products. The packaged goodsmanufacturers needed to convince the market that the public could place just as muchtrust in the non-local product. Campbell soup, Coca-Cola, Juicy Fruit gum, Aunt Jemima, and Quaker Oats were among the first products to be 'branded', in an effort to increase the

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consumer's familiarity with their products. Many brands of that era, such as Uncle Ben's rice and Kellogg's breakfast cereal furnish illustrations of the problem.

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. Companies soon adopted slogans, mascots, and  jingles that began to appear onradio  and early television. By the 1940s, manufacturers began to recognize the way inwhich consumers were developing relationships with their brands in asocial/psychological/anthropological sense.

From there, manufacturers quickly learned to build their brand's identity and personality(see brand identity and brand personality), such as youthfulness, fun or luxury. Thisbegan the practice we now know as "branding" today, where the consumers buy "thebrand" instead of the product. This trend continued to the 1980s, and is now quantified inconcepts such as brand value and brand equity. Naomi Klein has described this

development as "brand equity mania".In 1988, for example, Philip Morris  purchasedKraft for six times what the company was worth on paper; it was felt that what they reallypurchased was its brand name.

Brand name

The brand name is quite often used interchangeably with "brand", although it is more

correctly used to specifically denote written or spoken linguistic elements of any product.

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 throughtrademark registration and such trademarks are called "Registered Trademarks".

Advertising spokespersons have also become part of some brands, for example: Mr.

Whipple of  Charmin toilet tissue and Tony the Tiger of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. Local

branding is usually done by the consumers rather than the producers.

Types of brand names

Brand names come in many styles. A few include:Acronym: A name made of initials such as UPS or IBMDescriptive: Names that describe a product benefit or function like Whole Foods orAirbusAlliteration and rhyme: Names that are fun to say and stick in the mind like Reese'sPieces or Dunkin' DonutsEvocative: Names that evoke a relevant vivid image like Amazon or CrestNeologisms: Completely made-up words like Wii or Kodak Foreign word: Adoption of a word from another language like Volvo or Samsung

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Founders' names: Using the names of real people,and founder's name like Hewlett-Packard or DisneyGeography: Many brands are named for regions and landmarks like Cisco and Fuji FilmPersonification: Many brands take their names from myth like Nike or from the minds of ad execs like Betty Crocker 

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

 jeans. A brandnomer is a brand name that has colloquially become a generic term for aproduct or service, such as Band-Aid or Kleenex, which are often used to describe anybrand of adhesive bandage or any brand of facial tissue respectively.

Expanding role of brand

it was meant to make identifying and differentiating a product easier. Over time, brands

came to embrace a performance or benefit promise, for the product, certainly, buteventually also for the company behind the brand. Today, brand plays a much biggerrole. Brands have been co-opted as powerful symbols in larger debates about economics,social issues, and politics. The power of brands to communicate a complex messagequickly and with emotional impact and the ability of brands to attract media attention,make them ideal tools in the hands of activists.

Importance of brand

branding is a very powerful component in business. The brand must have a logo to make

branding easier and more possible. The consumers decide if they will buy a product oruse a service based on how they view the brand. The brand itself tells us or let us imaginehow good or bad the product is even if we never tasted it before! All that brandpromotion and advertising really do tell us how great a brand can be (like Nike). Once acustomer likes your brand he/she will definitely come back for repeated services orproducts. The qualities of the product or services are ensured through the customersminds from the brand image.

Brand is not only convenient for businesses for repeated customer purchase but alsoeasier for customers to filter out the countless generic items. Brand gives consumers thereason to buy it and wastes less time for consumer to choose.

There are ways to improve a brand from advertising such as viral campaign (moretrustworthy), online ads, print ads and commercials. Another way is to improve yourproduct or services that will reinforce the brand. This is a good way to promote your

 brand by always being in the cutting edge or ―customer‘s first image‖. 

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The qualities of your products and services will reinforce the brand. Advertise as much as possible to spread that message and make it into a cult brand. Branding doesn‘t only

benefit the business but you as well (yes I mean it). The brand you choose reflects whoyou are and expresses yourself on what you like to do and be able to join the communityof like minded people. Branding is a win: win situation for both the businesses and the

loyal customers.

Brand Characteristics

The world is rapidly shrinking with the advent of faster communication, transportationand financial flows. Products developed in one country – Mont Blanc pens, McDonalds,BMW‘s – are finding enthusiastic acceptance in other countries.

A German businessman may wear an Armani suit to meet an English friend at an Indianrestaurant who later returns home to drink Russian vodka and watch an American soap on

a Korean television.

There are different aspects or levels of a brand, may it be of a product or service whichattract customers to build an image and an idea about that product or service. There maybe various viewpoints through which a person may perceive the brand in a particularway.

Let’s take Mercedes Benz for example: 

Attributes: Mercedes suggests expensive, well-built, well-engineered, durable, highprestige, high value, fast and so on. The company may use one or more of the attributesto advertise the car. For years, Mercedes advertised ―Engineered like no other car in the

world‖. This tagline served as a positioning platform for the car‘s other attributes. 

Benefits: Customers are not buying attributes, they are buying benefits. Attributes needto be translated into emotional and functional benefit, ―I am safe in case of an accident‖. 

Values: The brand also says something about the  producer‘s values. Thus Mercedes

stands for high performance, safety, prestige and so on. The brand marketer must figureout the specific groups of car buyers who are seeking these values.

Culture: The brand may represent a certain culture. The Mercedes represents Germanculture: organized, efficient, high quality.

Personality: The brand can also project a certain personality. If the brand were a person,an animal, or an object, what would come to mind? Mercedes may suggest a no-nonsenseboss (person), a reigning lion (animal), or an austere palace (object). Sometimes it mighttake on the personality of an actual well-known person or spokesperson.

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User: The brand suggests the kind of consumer who buys or uses the product. We wouldbe surprised to see a 20-year-old secretary driving a Mercedes. We would accept insteadto see a 55 year-old top executive behind the wheel. The users will be those who respectthe product‘s values, culture and personality. 

Types of brand

1. Manufacturer brands 

Manufacturer brands are created by producers and bear their chosen brand name. Theproducer is responsible for marketing the brand. The brand is owned by the producer.

By building their brand names, manufacturers can gain widespread distribution (forexample by retailers who want to sell the brand) and build customer loyalty (think aboutthe manufacturer brands that you feel ―loyal‖ to). 

2.Own label brands 

Own-label brands are created and owned by businesses that operate in the distributionchannel –  often referred to as ―distributors‖.

Often these distributors are retailers, but not exclusively. Sometimes the retailer‘s entire

product range will be own-label. However, more often, the distributor will mix own-labeland manufacturers brands. The major supermarkets (e.g. Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury‘s) are

excellent examples of this.

Own-label branding –  if well carried out  – can often offer the consumer excellent valuefor money and provide the distributor with additional bargaining power when it comes tonegotiating prices and terms with manufacturer brands.

3.Generic brands

of consumer products (often supermarket goods) are distinguished by the absence of abrand name. It is often inaccurate to describe these products as "lacking a brand name",as they usually are branded, albeit with either the brand of the store in which they are soldor a lesser-known brand name which may not be aggressively advertised to the public.

They are identified more by product characteristics.

They may be manufactured by less prominent companies, or manufactured on the sameproduction line  as a 'named' brand. Generic brands are usually priced below thoseproducts sold by supermarkets  under their own brand (frequently referred to as "storebrands" or "own brands"). Generally they imitate these more expensive brands,competing on price. Generic brand products are often of equal quality as a branded

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product; however, the quality may change suddenly in either direction with no change inthe packaging if the supplier for the product changes.

4.Private branding

is when a large distribution channel  member (usually a retailer), buys from amanufacturer in bulk and puts its own name on the product. This strategy is, with someexceptions, generally only practical when the retailer does very high levels of volume.The advantages to the retailer are:

  more freedom and flexibility in pricing   more control over product attributes and quality  higher margins (or lower selling price)  eliminates much of the manufacturer's promotional costs

The advantages to the manufacturer are:

  reduced promotional costs  stability of sales volume (at least while the contract is operative)

5.captive brand

Even though store brands have lost much of the stigma they held 10 or 20 years ago ascheap knock-offs, there is still a certain level of negativity surrounding them.Apparently, the negative brand impression was strong enough that companies like Wal-Mart, CVS and Walgreens are now calling them ―captive brands‖ in an attempt to make

them more palatable to a broader audience.

Retailers make more money selling their own brands then they do selling products fromother companies, so it makes sense that a push to rebrand store brands is a popular newtrend that‘s catching on quickly. Manufacturers are noticing that the rebranding effort isworking as captive brands slowly steal market share from brands that once controlled thevast majority of categories on retail shelves.

Of course, its the retailers who decide how much shelf space to give to each brand, so itmakes sense to create competitive captive branded products. If those captive brand

products are positioned well within a category in terms of brand messaging and image,then those products have a good chance of stealing market share from the competitiveproducts. Once customers make the switch, are satisfied after the switch and becomeloyal to a product within the captive brand line, chances are they‘ll try another and spread

the word.

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The ultimate goal for captive brands, as with any brand, is to create brand loyalists andbrand advocates who will influence others to try the brand as well thereby slowlychipping away at market share. As captive brand awareness, recognition, trial and repeatpurchase increases, the retailer naturally chooses to increase shelf space for the captivebrand at the expense of competitor brands. It‘s no wonder why companies like Wal-

Mart, CVS and Walgreens are investing time, money and resources in expanding captivebrand product lines.

The first categories to feel the pinch from captive brands are those that tend to beoverfilled with a myriad of brands and product choices such as health and beauty.Captive brands are taking shelf space not so much from the most popular brands at thispoint but from the smaller, less popular brands. Therefore, the number of brandedproducts is shrinking as much of the existing shelf space shifts to the captive brand froma variety of smaller brands.

Walgreens even went so far as to create a ―Brand Police‖ team who works to ensureevery captive brand-related product and initiative appropriately conveys the overall brandimage and drives ROI.

6.Family branding 

is a marketing strategy that involves selling several related products under one brandname. Family branding is also known as umbrella branding. It contrasts with individualproduct branding, in which each product in a portfolio is given a unique brand name andidentity.

There are often economies of scope associated with family branding since severalproducts can be efficiently promoted with a single advertisement or campaign. Familybranding facilitates new product introductions by evoking a familiar brand name, whichcan lead to trial purchase, product acceptance, or other advantages.

Family branding imposes on the brand owner a greater burden to maintain consistentquality. If the quality of one product in the brand family is compromised, it could impacton the reputation of all the others. For this reason family branding is generally limited toproduct lines that consist of products of similar quality.

7. Individual brands

Individual branding, also called individual product branding or multibranding, isthe marketing strategy of giving each product in a portfolio its own unique brand name. This contrasts with family branding, corporate branding, and umbrella branding in whichthe products in a product line are given a single overarching brand name. The advantageof individual branding is that each product has an image and identity that is unique. This

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facilitates the positioning  of each product, by allowing a firm to position its brandsdifferently.

Examples of individual product branding include Procter & Gamble, which marketsmultiple brands such as Pampers, and Unilever, which markets individual brands such as

Dove. 

Family branding vs. individual branding strategies

The greater a company's brand equity, the greater the probability that the company willuse a family branding strategy rather than an individual branding strategy. This is becausefamily branding allows them to leverage the equity accumulated in the core brand.Aspects of brand equity include: brand loyalty, awareness, association , and perception of quality.

Brand Name Development

What makes a winning brand name? 

A great brand name is one of the most powerful forces in branding, marketing andadvertising. It is at once the story about what makes you different from your competitorsand the emotional tug that connects you with your audience — all in one or a few words.

A brand name that wields that much power can only come through a powerful positioningstrategy — one that keys in on the kind of appeal that can touch the hearts and minds of 

your market in a way the world may have never seen. A great brand name can do this andown the talk of an industry. As you can see, there‘s quite bit in a brand name. 

Brand names have so much riding on them — way too much to leave to alreadyoverworked brains of a few employees, tossing around ideas at lunch or entering acontest, as many companies like to approach naming. Those people simply don‘t have

enough time to take into account the many things that must be considered whendeveloping a brand name, such as: comprehension, memorability, ease of pronunciation,negative and positive associations, competitors, trademarks and domain namepossibilities. These are just a few reasons smart companies that need a brand name turn to

naming professionals, like Brand Identity Guru Inc., for guidance.

Communicating brand strategy is key to a great brand name. 

Words project both meaning and feeling. Your brand name should communicate in a waythat fits your overall brand strategy, whether that‘s straightforward functionality

(PowerBook) or more emotional (Carnival Cruise lines and their ―FunShips‖). If it does,

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every time somebody mentions the name, it‘s an advertisement—one you didn‘t have to

pay for.

Great brand names roll off the tongue. 

The sound of the spoken name, regardless of what it means, is a big consideration forbrand names. An easy-to-understand pronunciation translates across languages and ismore likely to be remembered.

Like the last puzzle piece, a good brand name fits right in. 

Most established companies (not start-ups) have a set roster of corporate nomenclaturefor products, processes and services. Any good brand name is going to build on that―naming culture.‖ Not to do so would squander an opportunity to bring even more value

and strength to that ―culture‖ and the overall brand. 

A great brand name is the ambassador of your company. 

It introduces and characterizes a company to its customers and to the public at large. Italso helps differentiate a company‘s offerings from the competition‘s. As a registered

trademark, a great brand name will make these kinds of impressions an official part of acompany with actual value on a balance sheet.

How to pinpoint a good brand naming firm. 

The most mission-critical aspect of naming a company, product or brand is not the nameitself. It is the strategic positioning behind that name. Any professional brand namingcompany worth its salt knows this and practices it.

A good naming firm can tug heartstrings with their work. 

A company name is, in essence, a promise — a testament to what a customer can expectfrom the product or service behind the name. Isn‘t the point of any promise to establish a

connection of trust and loyalty from one entity to another? A great brand name can do just that.

Listening for quality and quality. 

There are two kinds of qualities a great brand name must have. It must be bothstrategically sound and linguistically appealing in all the right ways. In other words, themarket must gravitate to how the name said and what it says.

Creativity is not just important…it’s a necessity. 

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Creativity, unfortunately, gives way to practicality and feasibility. Consider this: over260,000 trademark applications were filed in the United States in 2003 and over 98

 percent of the dictionary is registered as a ―dot com.‖ What does that tell you? That allthe obvious names are taken, and that it‘s going to take some real creative muscle to

come up with something no one else has thought of.

A great naming firm should challenge a client. 

What the target market thinks of a name is way more important than the opinion of anymarketing, branding, advertising or naming guru (even us). That‘s why good naming

firms utilize cutting-edge research methodologies that give the market the final say on aname choice. We‘ve developed such research called the Brand-Aid?. The Brand-Aid? isdedicated to developing proper positioning in the marketplace; click here for the Brand-Aid? research.

 No naming project is ever identical. There‘s no set formula to arrive at a winner. Theonly thing you can really control is the kind of work you do to come up with a name. If you do the right kind of work, you‘ll likely come up that one special word or phrase.

Brand Identity Guru Inc. knows what ―the right kind of work‖ is and has the skills

necessary to follow through on that work . Hence, our motto, ―Pump Up Your Brand.‖ 

What’s in a brand name? Everything. 

When it comes to developing winning brand names, Brand Identity Guru Inc. has noequal. We‘re well versed in both the poetic and scientific side of the process. We start by

listening closely to our clients and analyzing every detail of their businesses, markets andcompetition. Then, we create a numerous list of candidates and take from that a smallhandful of possibilities we, and our clients, think have the ―it‖ factor. The resu lt hasconsistently been a hard-hitting, brand-driving solution that moves the hearts and mindsof a company‘s target audience. 

To give you an idea of how we‘d likely approach your brand name need— whether it befor a company, product or service —here‘s an outline of what‘s in our arsenal: 

  Analytical survey of the competition. We will completely comb through the entirerange of your competitors to determine which brand names and product names are

a hit with your market. This information will help the naming team determine thepositioning strategy of your brand name.

  Positioning. Here‘s where a great deal of the heavy lifting will happen. We‘ll help

you hone in on your brand‘s core values and create a foundation of understanding

and ideas from which a winning brand name will come.  Name conceptualization. Proper name development begins by taking the

positioning strategy and exploring it from multiple angles and analyzing how you

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intend to use it in your marketing, advertising and branding efforts. Then, we‘ll

start creating name options.  Trademark. If you‘d like we‘ll screen promising name possibilities through our 

trademark law firm to determine the feasibility of using them as brand names. Thisstep is to help you by preventing costly lost time that might occur if your company

warms up to a certain name only to find it can‘t be used when you try to register it.   Creative mockups. A standard component of our naming service is creating

conceptual marketing materials that feature promising name ideas. This couldinclude ad treatments, graphical layouts and stories to give you an idea of yourfuture with this brand name.

  Final deliverable. You‘ll get a short list of final, legally feasible names along with

an in-depth positioning strategy for each.

brand values

Definition The premium that accrues to a brand from customers who are willing to pay extra for it.

Brand Value: Who determines it and how?

Part 1: Introduction 

On a recent trip snowboarding, a friend told me that he thought marketing was an ill-reputed profession. Apparently, all we try to do is make people unhappy with theircurrent situation, and he could only understand that as being a very bad thing. It made methink, are we all really such bad, manipulative people? I think that my friend's ennui wasgetting the better of him; his glass was half-empty. In other words, he was taking anegative view of what happens between a company and a customer in a marketingsituation.

I eventually came to the realisation that each person in the market actually wants to forma relationship with a company, even if it is only a trivial purchase. That relationship isformed with what we call the brand, and different people will develop a different type of relationship with your brand. The market subconsciously assesses the value of your brandto them, and they will develop opinions about everything they experience related to that

brand.

Branding is all about making sure that your people will create a positive experience,backing them up with quality processes and technology, and then measuring the results -remembering that whatever gets measured, will be improved next time. It is easy tounderstand that this kind of seamless experience with your brand will produce goodresults, but you don't decide what a seamless experience consists of, the market does.

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We are not interested in formulating the brand here, what we want to do is state how youcan measure how the market interprets that brand experience. All you do is put yourbrand out there, and the market affirms, 'I believe what you tell me about yourself!'resulting in alignment with your brand. Otherwise, it is merely hypothesis, and you gainminimal benefit as a result.

We can compare the concept of having a strong or weak relationship between a personand a brand to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. As we progress up the pyramid, a strongerrelationship is created because of derived preference. That is, preference for your brand isderived from the experience that person creates in their mind.

What your brand actually is, is only a small part of the equation. You really need tounderstand how your brand is perceived, and address any discrepancies between the two.If someone expects to receive more value than they actually do, the chances are good thatthey will be disappointed in the purchase, and be left with a negative brand experience.

Needless to say, that is an outcome that is probably not desired by any company.

The lower levels of the needs pyramid let us measure the impact of the message usingtypical media measures such as reach and recall. These measures demonstrate the ability

of your agency to achieve the objectives that you set out for them, and should be used asa platform for moving onto achieve synergy with the minds of the market. As we try tomove further up the pyramid we have to start paying more attention to what ourcustomers believe, compared to what non-customers perceive.

Because we are now measuring market attitudes, the main driver of any marketingcommunications, or shift in marketing strategy, should be a response to solid evidencegained from measuring the value that the market is placing on our brand.

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Brands - How Much Are They Worth? Brand

values

We frequently refer to 'brand values' as if everyone knows what we mean. It is assumed

that there is a general understanding that a brand stands for something and what it stands

for must have a value. These values can be critically important or small inconsequential

things but above all they are the things which give the brand its worth and differentiate it

from all others. Through these brand values a product or service is enhanced beyond its

functional purpose. In this context the brand provides the consumer with more value and

this is why they are prepared to pay a premium to acquire it.

Brand Values and Cash Value

Various studies have been carried out in consumer markets to determine the premium thatpeople will pay for brands over and above a base line. Assessing the value of intangiblesby asking consumers to separate out the brand and place a monetary value on it isdifficult because this is not what we do in the real world. In fact, most consumers, whenasked to place a monetary value on brands, are in denial about paying a premium just forthe name. That is for all the other mugs, not for me.

That said, when people are asked to place a monetary value on a car (the same car is usedin the photographs but different badges are superimposed on the bonnet to suggest it is adifferent brand) the Volkswagen brand is seen to be worth more than that of Ford while

the Mercedes brand has a value above both. In each case, the brand is seen to be wortharound 10 per cent of the retail value of the car.

We now want to consider the value of brands in another context - that of a company‘s

monetary worth if sold on the open market and how this value can be estimated evenwhen disposal is not anticipated. At the outset it is important to draw a distinctionbetween individual brands owned by a company (e.g. Kit-Kat) and a brand which is alsothe a company name (eg Speedy Hire).

Goodwill and the Value of Brands

When a company is sold, it seeks to obtain a value over and beyond that of its tangibleassets. Historically this has been referred to as `goodwill' and was taken to mean thevalue of the loyalty of the firm's customers. This is an interesting concept as loyalty is animportant component of branding - so already it is clear that there is a strong link between goodwill and brands. After all, a good brand is one which customers insist on byname and for which they are prepared to pay a premium. This loyalty would have a value

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if the brand was ever sold.

Accountants are now refining their views of goodwill and accept that it extends beyondloyalty. On these grounds goodwill is taken to include other intangibles which enable acompany to earn `super profits' or those profits over and above what could be expected

from the tangible assets of the company alone. This concept of goodwill is important as itsignifies that it is an asset, namely something which an organisation controls and whichwill provide future benefits. The asset of goodwill can be realised by the sale of acompany but its very existence implies that it can also be assessed at any time and givenan internal valuation - this view departs from the traditional approach which crystallisedgoodwill only at the time of sale.

Firms have a collection of intangible assets in the form of people (key personnel such as askilled workforce, managers, scientists), special company procedures, distributionagreements (which keep the product in and the competition out) and patents (which give

a product protection over a finite number of years). All these intangible assets have avalue and in theory at least could be assessed within goodwill. In practice it is onlyaspects of goodwill such as patents that have been readily separated out for valuation. Butother intangibles can in theory be separated out and one of relevance to this discussion isbrands.

The recognition of brands as an asset to the company is not new to firms makingconsumer products but, hitherto, it has been largely ignored by industrial companies. Ineffect there has been a failure of industrial companies to recognise that brands do have avalue, including the possibility that they also have a value on the balance sheet. However,

as already mentioned, that the company name and brand are often one and the same inindustrial markets, presents additional difficulties.

Internal valuations of goodwill are the subject of some contention in accountancy circles.Conventionally, it has been accepted that goodwill is something which only arises when abusiness is sold and until this happens the value of goodwill is not included in balancesheet assets. In this view, goodwill is the difference between the price paid for thebusiness and the value of its net assets at that time.

This view recognises three components to goodwill. Two of them are of little importanceto us here. The first includes any benefits which the company possesses, perhaps because

it has a monopoly position or because it occupies a particular niche which others wouldfind difficult to enter for legal or technical reasons. The second component arises fromthe fact that accountants find it difficult to precisely value all the identifiable assets andso there will be some over or under valuation which enters into the equation. It is in thethird component of goodwill, the value of separately identifiable intangible assets, thatour interest lies as it is here that any value attached to brands would fit - but so too wouldany value that could be recognised in a company's distribution routes, key personnel or

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customer lists. Up to recently, all these things have been lumped together as it has beendeemed too difficult if not impossible to separate them from each other and the othercomponents of goodwill.

Assessing the Value of Brands

Over the last few years there have been many listings of the value of brands. One of themost famous is carried out by Interbrand for the journal, Business Week. This annualsurvey of the worlds top 100 brands assess brand values on a variety of issues such asstrategic brand management, marketing budget allocation, marketing ROI, portfoliomanagement, brand extensions, M&A, balance sheet recognition, licensing, transferpricing and investor relations. No one is surprised that Coca-Cola is a leader but it ismore difficult to see how Cisco has a brand value greater than Honda. I show the resultsfrom the 2009 survey in the table below.

The Top 20 World Brands From The Interbrand/Business Week Rankings For 2009 

Brand

Rank

2009

Brand Name

Brand

Value

($

billion)

1 Coca-Cola 69

2 IBM 60

3 Microsoft 57

4 GE 48

5 Nokia 45

6 McDonald's 32

7 Google 32

8 Toyota 31

9 Intel 31

10 Disney 28

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11 Hewlett-Packard 24

12 Mercedes-Benz 24

13 Gillette 23

14 Cisco 22

15 BMW 22

16 Louis Vuitton 21

17 Marlboro 19

18 Honda 18

19 Samsung 18

20 Apple 15

The reason the valuation of brands becomes contentious is that brands are increasinglybeing recognised as an asset and their value is being included in company balance sheets.In other words they were given special status and not treated as part of the goodwill.

Grand Metropolitan was one of the first companies to recognise this potential when, inAugust 1988, it arrived at an assessment of £565 million in respect of the brands, such asSmirnoff Vodka, it had acquired during the previous three years. This was followedshortly in November of that same year by Rank Hovis McDougall who capitalised itsinternally created brands, (ie not ones which had ever been purchased for cash) such asBisto, Hovis and Mr Kipling, placing a value on them of £678 million. The significanceof this act can be seen when it is set against the company's net assets at the time whichwere only around £300 million.

In the case of RHM or Cadbury Schweppes it is easy for us to see how one of the brands

could be spun off and sold to another company without any disturbance to customers. Aslong as the brand continues to deliver the same qualities in terms of the product and itssurround, most customers will not care who owns the factory. But what of a situationwhere the brand is the company, as in many business-to-business or industrial firms?Here the brand and the company are intertwined and because they are inseparable, onecannot easily be sold without the other.

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Problems of Capitalising the Value of Brands

Brands are vulnerable in being dependent on such intangibles as people's perceptions of them. Building these perceptions can take many years as reputations are earned by

repeated proof that a brand justifies its position. The perceptions can, however, bedestroyed overnight. Perrier's reputation took an embarrassing blow in 1990 when aNorth Carolina study reported having found benzene in the water. Source Perrier shiftedfrom explanation to explanation on the issue, finally stating that it was an isolatedincident of a worker having made a mistake in the filtering procedure and that the springitself was completely unpolluted. The incident was the cause of the recall of 160 millionbottles of Perrier. Imagine that you were in the process of buying Perrier at the time; itwould surely have caused you to want to knock a few pound of its price.

The capitalisation of a company's brand value on the balance sheet is thereforecontentious as it requires the brand to be separated out from the other intangibles and, as

in the case of the Perrier problem, the brand value can melt away quickly. So, whether ornot the value of a brand can be separately assessed realistically, remains a problem of confirming or reassessing its value each year. Similar problems face accountants in thevaluation of other assets such as property (whose value can also fluctuate). The differencein the case of brands is the lack of an efficient market for them. The procedures andpractices of valuation in this area are not yet agreed.

Keep Building the Brand - But it ay not be Time to Capitalise Yet

Brands clearly have a value to the companies which own them; the business is worthmore because of the position of the brand in its market. As we have seen, the value of abrand has traditionally been regarded as part of goodwill (the extra worth of a businessover and above the value of physical assets) and accountants have only valued this at thetime a business is sold - up to then it does not appear on the balance sheet - at least inbusiness-to-business or industrial companies.

In recent years some major consumer brands have been capitalised - a value has been puton the brand and included as a balance sheet asset of the company owning the brand.Various approaches to measuring brand value have developed but are not as yetstandardised. Problems remain, including that brand worth can fluctuate quickly (eg as

the result of some marketing disaster).

We have seen that in many industrial markets there is additional complication to valuingbrands; the brand and the company name are often the same. Although, arguably, the twocan be separated conceptually, how or whether this should be done in practice is as yetuncertain. It shouldn't however, stop us building those brands and keep adding value(whatever that may be).

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Brand Equity

A brand is a name or symbol used to identify the source of a product. When developing anew product, branding is an important decision. The brand can add significant valuewhen it is well recognized and has positive associations in the mind of the consumer.This concept is referred to as brand equity.

What is Brand Equity?

Brand equity is an intangible asset that depends on associations made by the consumer.

There are at least three perspectives from which to view brand equity:

  Financial - One way to measure brand equity is to determine the price premiumthat a brand commands over a generic product. For example, if consumers arewilling to pay $100 more for a branded television over the same unbrandedtelevision, this premium provides important information about the value of thebrand. However, expenses such as promotional costs must be taken into accountwhen using this method to measure brand equity.

  Brand extensions - A successful brand can be used as a platform to launch relatedproducts. The benefits of brand extensions are the leveraging of existing brand

awareness thus reducing advertising expenditures, and a lower risk from theperspective of the consumer. Furthermore, appropriate brand extensions canenhance the core brand. However, the value of brand extensions is more difficultto quantify than are direct financial measures of brand equity.

  Consumer-based - A strong brand increases the consumer's attitude strengthtoward the product associated with the brand. Attitude strength is built byexperience with a product. This importance of actual experience by the customerimplies that trial samples are more effective than advertising in the early stages of 

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building a strong brand. The consumer's awareness and associations lead toperceived quality, inferred attributes, and eventually, brand loyalty.

Strong brand equity provides the following benefits:

  Facilitates a more predictable income stream.  Increases cash flow by increasing market share, reducing promotional costs, and

allowing premium pricing.  Brand equity is an asset that can be sold or leased.

However, brand equity is not always positive in value. Some brands acquire a badreputation that results in negative brand equity. Negative brand equity can be measuredby surveys in which consumers indicate that a discount is needed to purchase the brandover a generic product.

Building and Managing Brand EquityIn his 1989 paper,  Managing Brand Equity, Peter H. Farquhar outlined the followingthree stages that are required in order to build a strong brand:

1.  Introduction - introduce a quality product with the strategy of using the brand asa platform from which to launch future products. A positive evaluation by theconsumer is important.

2.  Elaboration - make the brand easy to remember and develop repeat usage. Thereshould be accessible brand attitude, that is, the consumer should easily rememberhis or her positive evaluation of the brand.

3.  Fortification - the brand should carry a consistent image over time to reinforce itsplace in the consumer's mind and develop a special relationship with theconsumer. Brand extensions can further fortify the brand, but only with relatedproducts having a perceived fit in the mind of the consumer.

Alternative Means to Brand Equity

Building brand equity requires a significant effort, and some companies use alternativemeans of achieving the benefits of a strong brand. For example, brand equity can beborrowed by extending the brand name to a line of products in the same product categoryor even to other categories. In some cases, especially when there is a perceptualconnection between the products, such extensions are successful. In other cases, theextensions are unsuccessful and can dilute the original brand equity.

Brand equity also can be "bought" by licensing the use of a strong brand for a newproduct. As in line extensions by the same company, the success of brand licensing is notguaranteed and must be analyzed carefully for appropriateness.

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Managing Multiple Brands

Different companies have opted for different brand strategies for multiple products.These strategies are:

  Single brand identity - a separate brand for each product. For example, inlaundry detergents Procter & Gamble offers uniquely positioned brands such asTide, Cheer, Bold, etc.

  Umbrella - all products under the same brand. For example, Sony offers manydifferent product categories under its brand.

  Multi-brand categories - Different brands for different product categories.Campbell Soup Company uses Campbell's for soups, Pepperidge Farm for bakedgoods, and V8 for juices.

  Family of names - Different brands having a common name stem. Nestle usesNescafe, Nesquik, and Nestea for beverages.

Brand equity is an important factor in multi-product branding strategies.

Protecting Brand Equity

The marketing mix should focus on building and protecting brand equity. For example, if the brand is positioned as a premium product, the product quality should be consistentwith what consumers expect of the brand, low sale prices should not be used compete, thedistribution channels should be consistent with what is expected of a premium brand, andthe promotional campaign should build consistent associations.

Finally, potentially dilutive extensions that are inconsistent with the consumer'sperception of the brand should be avoided. Extensions also should be avoided if the corebrand is not yet sufficiently strong.

Brand equity

Brand equity is strategically crucial, but famously difficult to quantify. Many expertshave developed tools to analyze this asset, but there is no universally accepted way tomeasure it. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, only 26 percent

responded that they found the "brand equity" metric very useful.

Brand equity is the marketing effects and outcomes that accrue to a product with its brandname compared with those that would accrue if the same product did not have the brandname. Fact of the well-known brand name is that, the company can sometimes chargepremium prices from the consumer . And, at the root of these marketing effects isconsumers' knowledge. In other words, consumers' knowledge about a brand makesmanufacturers and advertisers respond differently or adopt appropriately adept measures

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for the marketing of the brand. The study of brand equity is increasingly popular as somemarketing researchers have concluded that brands are one of the most valuable assets acompany has. Brand equity is one of the factors which can increase the financial value of a brand to the brand owner, although not the only one. Elements that can be included inthe valuation of brand equity include (but not limited to): changing market share, profit

margins, consumer recognition of logos and other visual elements,  brand language associations made by consumers, consumers' perceptions of quality and other relevantbrand values.

Purpose

The purpose of brand equity metrics is to measure the value of a brand. A brandencompasses the name, logo, image, and perceptions that identify a product, service, orprovider in the minds of  customers. It takes shape in advertising, packaging, and othermarketing communications, and becomes a focus of the relationship with consumers. In

time, a brand comes to embody a promise about the goods it identifies — a promise aboutquality, performance, or other dimensions of value, which can influence consumers' choices among competing products. When consumers trust a brand and find it relevant,they may select the offerings associated with that brand over those of  competitors, evenat a premium price. When a brand's promise extends beyond a particular product, itsowner may leverage it to enter new markets. For all these reasons, a brand can holdtremendous value, known as brand equity.

Construction

In practice, brand equity is difficult to measure. Because brands are crucial assets,however, both marketers and academic researchers have devised means to contemplatetheir value. Some of these techniques are described in the "Methodologies" sectionbelow. 

Methodologies

brand Equity Ten (Aaker): David Aaker, a marketing professor and brand consultant,highlights ten attributes of a brand that can be used to assess its strength. These includeDifferentiation, Satisfaction or Loyalty, Perceived Quality, Leadership or Popularity,

Perceived Value, Brand Personality, Organizational Associations, Brand Awareness,Market Share, and Market Price and Distribution Coverage. Aaker doesn't weight theattributes or combine them in an overall score, as he believes any weighting would bearbitrary and would vary among brands and categories. Rather he recommends trackingeach attribute separately.

Brand Equity Index (Moran): Marketing executive Bill Moran has derived an index of brand equity as the product of three factors:

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  Effective Market Share is a weighted average. It represents the sum of a brand'smarket shares in all segments in which it competes, weighted by each segment'sproportion of that brand's total sales.

  Relative Price is a ratio. It represents the price of goods sold under a given brand,divided by the average price of comparable goods in the market.

  Durability is a measure of customer retention or loyalty. It represents thepercentage of a brand's customers who will continue to buy goods under that brandin the following year.

Brand Asset Valuator (Young & Rubicam):  Young & Rubicam, a marketingcommunications agency, has developed the Brand Asset Valuator, a tool to diagnose thepower and value of a brand. In using it, the agency surveys consumers' perspectives alongfour dimensions:

  Differentiation: The defining characteristics of the brand and its distinctiveness

relative to competitors.  Relevance: The appropriateness and connection of the brand to a given consumer.  Esteem: Consumers' respect for and attraction to the brand.  Knowledge: Consumers' awareness of the brand and understanding of what it

represents.

Brand Valuation Model (Interbrand): Interbrand, a brand strategy agency, draws uponfinancial results and projections in its own model for brand valuation. It reviews acompany's financial statements, analyzes its market dynamics and the role of brand inincome generation, and separates those earnings attributable to tangible assets (capital,product, packaging, and so on) from the residual that can be ascribed to a brand. It thenforecasts future earnings and discounts these on the basis of brand strength and risk. Theagency estimates brand value on this basis and tabulates a yearly list of the 100 mostvaluable global brands.

Conjoint Analysis: Marketers use conjoint analysis  to measure consumers' preferencefor various attributes of a product, service, or provider, such as features, design, price, orlocation. By including brand and price as two of the attributes under consideration, theycan gain insight into consumers' valuation of a brand — that is, their willingness to pay apremium for it.

Measurement 

There are many ways to measure a brand. Some measurements approaches are at the firmlevel, some at the product level, and still others are at the consumer level.

 Firm Level : Firm level approaches measure the brand as a financial asset. In short, acalculation is made regarding how much the brand is worth as an intangible asset. For

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example, if you were to take the value of the firm, as derived by its marketcapitalization — and then subtract tangible assets and "measurable" intangible assets — theresidual would be the brand equity. One high-profile firm level approach is by theconsulting firm Interbrand. To do its calculation, Interbrand estimates brand value on thebasis of projected profits discounted to a present value. The discount rate is a subjective

rate determined by Interbrand and Wall Street equity specialists and reflects the risk profile, market leadership, stability and global reach of the brand.

 Product Level : The classic product level brand measurement example is to compare theprice of a no-name or private label product to an "equivalent" branded product. Thedifference in price, assuming all things equal, is due to the brand. More recently arevenue premium approach has been advocated.

Consumer Level : This approach seeks to map the mind of the consumer to find out whatassociations with the brand the consumer has. This approach seeks to measure the

awareness (recall and recognition) and brand image (the overall associations that thebrand has). Free association tests and projective techniques are commonly used touncover the tangible and intangible attributes, attitudes, and intentions about a brand.Brands with high levels of awareness and strong, favorable and unique associations arehigh equity brands.

All of these calculations are, at best, approximations. A more complete understanding of the brand can occur if multiple measures are used.

Positive brand equity vs. negative brand equity

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. 

Brand equity is the positive effect of the brand on the difference between the prices thatthe consumer accepts to pay when the brand known compared to the value of the benefitreceived.

There are two schools of thought regarding the existence of negative brand equity. Oneperspective states brand equity cannot be negative, hypothesizing only positive brandequity is created by marketing activities such as advertising, PR, and promotion. Asecond perspective is that negative equity can exist, due to catastrophic events to thebrand, such as a wide product recall or continued negative press attention (Blackwater orHalliburton, for example).

Colloquially, the term "negative brand equity" may be used to describe a product orservice where a brand has a negligible effect on a product level when compared to a no-name or private label product.

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Examples 

In the early 2000s in North America, the Ford Motor Company made a strategic decisionto brand all new or redesigned cars with names starting with "F." This aligned with theprevious tradition of naming all sport utility vehicles since the Ford Explorer  with the

letter "E." The Toronto Star quoted an analyst who warned that changing the name of thewell known Windstar  to the Freestar  would cause confusion and discard brand equitybuilt up, while a marketing manager believed that a name change would highlight thenew redesign. The aging Taurus, which became one of the most significant cars inAmerican auto history, would be abandoned in favor of three entirely new names, allstarting with "F," the Five Hundred,  Freestar, and Fusion. By 2007, the Freestar wasdiscontinued without a replacement. The Five Hundred name was thrown out and Tauruswas brought back for the next generation of that car in a surprise move by Alan Mulally. 

Having this information is a necessary springboard for responding to attitudes. If we can

understand and influence attitudes, we can successfully alter behaviour.

Measuring the value that the market places on the brand is not a new concept; the benefits

of Customer Value Management and Analysis have been well stated in many books and

articles.

Brand equity model

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Brand image

The impression in the consumers' mind of a brand's total personality (real and imaginaryqualities  and shortcomings). Brand image is developed  over time through advertisingcampaigns  with a consistent  theme, and is authenticated through the consumers' direct experience. See also corporate image. 

Like brand personality, brand image is not something you have or you don't! A brand isunlikely to have one brand image, but several, though one or two may predominate. Thekey in brand image research is to identify or develop the most powerful images andreinforce them through subsequent brand communications. The term "brand image"gained popularity as evidence began to grow that the feelings and images associated with

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a brand were powerful purchase influencers, though brand recognition, recall and brandidentity. It is based on the proposition that consumers buy not only a product(commodity), but also the image associations of the product, such as power, wealth,sophistication, and most importantly identification and association with other users of thebrand. In a consumer led world, people tend to define themselves and their Jungian

"persona" by their possessions. According to Sigmund Freud, the ego and superego control to a large extent the image and personality that people would like others to haveof them.

Good brand images are instantly evoked, are positive, and are almost always uniqueamong competitive brands.

Brand image can be reinforced by brand communications such as packaging, advertising,promotion, customer service, word-of-mouth and other aspects of the brand experience.

Brand images are usually evoked by asking consumers the first words/images that cometo their mind when a certain brand is mentioned (sometimes called "top of mind"). Whenresponses are highly variable, non-forthcoming, or refer to non-image attributes such ascost, it is an indicator of a weak brand image.

A logo is not your brand, nor is it your identity. Logo design, identity design andbranding all have different roles, that together, form a perceived image for a business orproduct.

There has been some recent discussion on the web about this topic, about your logo notbeing your brand. Although this may be true, I haven‘t seen any clarification of the

differences between ‗brand‘, ‗identity‘ and ‗logo‘. I wish to rectify this. 

What is brand?   –  The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole.What is identity?   –  The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.What is a logo?  – A logo identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark 

or icon.

What is branding? 

Branding  is certainly not a light topic  – whole publications & hundreds of books have been written on the topic, however to put it in a nutshell you could describe a ‗brand‘ as

an organisation, service or product with a ‗personality‘ that is shaped by the perceptions

of the audience. On that note, it should also be stated that a designer cannot ―make‖ a

brand – only the audience can do this. A designer forms the foundation of the brand.

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Many people believe a brand only consists of a few elements – some colours, some fonts,a logo, a slogan and maybe some music added in too. In reality, it is much morecomplicated than that. You might say that a brand is a ‗corporate image‘. 

The fundamental idea and core concept behind having a ‗corporate image‘ is that

everything a company does, everything it owns and everything it produces should reflectthe values and aims of the business as a whole.

It is the consistency of this core idea that makes up the company, driving it, showingwhat it stands for, what it believes in and why they exist. It is not purely some colours,some typefaces, a logo and a slogan.

As an example, let‘s look at the well known IT company, Apple. Apple as a company,

projects a humanistic corporate culture and a strong corporate ethic, one which ischaracterised by volunteerism, support of good causes & involvement in the community.

These values of the business are evident throughout everything they do, from theirinnovative products and advertising, right through to their customer service. Apple is anemotionally humanist brand that really connects with people  – when people buy or usetheir products or services; they feel part of the brand, like a tribe even. It is this emotionalconnection that creates their brand – not purely their products and a bite sized logo.

What is identity design? 

One major role in the ‗brand‘ or ‗corporate image‘ of a company is its identity. 

In most cases, identity design is based around the visual devices used within a company,usually assembled within a set of guidelines. These guidelines that make up an identityusually administer how the identity is applied throughout a variety of mediums, usingapproved colour palettes, fonts, layouts, measurements and so forth. These guidelinesensure that the identity of the company is kept coherent, which in turn, allows the brandas a whole, to be recognisable.

The identity or ‘image’ of a company is made up of many visual devices: 

  A Logo (The symbol of the entire identity & brand)  Stationery (Letterhead + business card + envelopes, etc.)  Marketing Collateral (Flyers, brochures, books, websites, etc.)  Products & Packaging (Products sold and the packaging in which they come in)  Apparel Design (Tangible clothing items that are worn by employees)  Signage (Interior & exterior design)  Messages & Actions (Messages conveyed via indirect or direct modes of 

communication)  Other Communication (Audio, smell, touch, etc.)

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  Anything visual that represents the business.

All of these things make up an identity and should support the brand as a whole. The logohowever, is the corporate identity and brand all wrapped up into one identifiable mark.This mark is the avatar and symbol of the business as a whole.

What is a logo? 

To understand what a logo is, we must first understand what it is for.

A logo is for… identification.

A logo identifies a company or product via the use of a mark, flag, symbol or signature.A logo does not sell the company directly nor rarely does it describe a business. Logo‘s

derive their meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolises, not the other way around

 –  logos are there to identity, not to explain. In a nutshell, what a logo means is moreimportant than what it looks like.

To illustrate this concept, think of logos like people. We prefer to be called by our names –  James, Dorothy, John  –  rather than by the confusing and forgettable description of ourselves such as ―the guy who always wears pink and has blonde hair‖. In this same

way, a logo should not literally describe what the business does but rather, identify thebusiness in a way that is recognisable and memorable.

It is also important to note that only after a logo becomes familiar, does it function the

way it is intended to do much alike how we much must learn people‘s names to identifythem.

The logo identifies a business or product in its simplest form.

Diffrence b/w brand image and idientity

It is important to distinguish between corporate identity, brand identity, and brand image.Corporate identity is concerned with the visual aspects of a company's presence. Whencompanies undertake corporate identity exercises, they are usually modernizing their

visual image in terms of logo, design, and collaterals. Such efforts do not normally entaila change in brand values so that the heart of the brand remains the same - what it standsfor, or its personality. Unfortunately, many companies do not realize this fallacy, as theyare sometimes led to believe by agencies and consultancy companies that the visualchanges will change the brand image. But changes to logos, signage, and even outletdesign do not always change consumer perceptions of quality, service, and the intangibleassociations that come to the fore when the brand name is seen or heard.

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The best that such changes can do is to reassure consumers that the company isconcerned about how it looks. Brands do have to maintain a modern look, and the visualidentity needs to change over time. But the key to successfully effecting a new look isevolution, not revolution. Totally changing the brand visuals can give rise to consumerconcerns about changes of ownership, or possible changes in brand values, or even

unjustified extravagance. If there is a strong brand personality to which consumers areattracted, then substantial changes may destroy emotional attachments to the brand.People do not expect or like wild swings in the personality behavior of other people, andthey are just as concerned when the brands to which they have grown used exhibit similar"schizophrenic" changes.

On the other hand, if the intention is to substantially improve the standing of the brand,then corporate identity changes can be accompanied by widespread changes toorganizational culture, quality, and service standards. If done well, and if consumersexperience a great new or improved experience, then the changes will, over the longer

term, have a corresponding positive effect on brand image. If you are spending a vastamount of money on corporate identity, it is as well to remember this.

Brand identity is the total proposition that a company makes to consumers - the promiseit makes. It may consist of features and attributes, benefits, performance, quality, servicesupport, and the values that the brand possesses. The brand can be viewed as a product, apersonality, a set of values, and a position it occupies in people's minds. Brand identity iseverything the company wants the brand to be seen as.

Brand image, on the other hand, is the totality of consumer perceptions about the brand,or how they see it, which may not coincide with the brand identity. Companies have towork hard on the consumer experience to make sure that what customers see and think iswhat they want them to.

Brand identity

The outward expression of a brand, including its name, trademark,

communications, and visual appearance. Because the identity is assembled by the

brand owner, it reflects how the owner wants the consumer to perceive the brand -

and by extension the branded company, organization, product or service. This is in

contrast to the brand image, which is a customer's mental picture of a brand. Thebrand owner will seek to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand

identity.

Effective brand names build a connection between the brand personality as it is perceivedby the target audience  and the actual product/service. The brand name should beconceptually on target with the product/service (what the company stands for).

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Furthermore, the brand name should be on target with the brand demographic. Typically,sustainable brand names are easy to remember, transcend trends and have positiveconnotations. Brand identity is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolizes thebrand's differentiation from competitors.

Brand identity is what the owner wants to communicate to its potential consumers.However, over time, a product's brand identity may acquire (evolve), gaining newattributes from consumer perspective but not necessarily from the marketingcommunications an owner percolates to targeted consumers. Therefore, brandassociations become handy to check the consumer's perception of the brand.

Brand identity needs to focus on authentic qualities - real characteristics of the value andbrand promise being provided and sustained by organizational and/or productioncharacteristics.

What is Branding and How Important is it to Your Marketing Strategy?

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign,symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.

Therefore it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your targetmarket to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to seeyou as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.

The objectives that a good brand will achieve include:

  Delivers the message clearly  Confirms your credibility  Connects your target prospects emotionally  Motivates the buyer  Concretes User Loyalty

To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your customers andprospects. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your company atevery point of public contact.

Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It isthe sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, andsome that you cannot.

A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It'simportant to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After

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all your brand is the source of a promise to your consumer. It's a foundational piece inyour marketing communication and one you do not want to be without.

What does branding mean to your company's marketing strategy

What is Branding?

To understand branding, it is important to know what brands are. A brand is the idea orimage of a specific product or service that consumers connect with, by identifying thename, logo, slogan, or design of the company who owns the idea or image. Branding iswhen that idea or image is marketed so that it is recognizable by more and more people,and identified with a certain service or product when there are many other companiesoffering the same service or product. Advertising professionals work on branding notonly to build brand recognition, but also to build good reputations and a set of standardsto which the company should strive to maintain or surpass. Branding is an important part

of Internet commerce, as branding allows companies to build their reputations as well asexpand beyond the original product and service, and add to the revenue generated by theoriginal brand.

When working on branding, or building a brand, companies that are using web pages andsearch engine optimization have a few details to work out before being able to build asuccessful brand. Coordinating domain names and brand names are an important part of finding and keeping visitors and clients, as well as branding a new company.Coordination of a domain name and brand names lends identification to the idea or imageof a specific product or service, which in turn lets visitors easily discovery the new brand.

Branding is also a way to build an important company asset, which is a good reputation.Whether a company has no reputation, or a less than stellar reputation, branding can helpchange that. Branding can build an expectation about the company services or products,and can encourage the company to maintain that expectation, or exceed them, bringing

better products and services to the market place.

 Evolution of brand 

Companies, especially those that largely depend on brand recognition and customer

loyalty, need to perform brand evaluation from time to time in order to assess theeffectiveness of their marketing campaigns.

Brands are names, designs, terms or symbols that are considered as ownership labels.

These allow consumers to distinguish a product or service from all the others. Marketing

strategists use these labels to their advantage by successfully aiding consumers to come

up with characteristics or qualities associated to the product or service that they are

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promoting. Because of this, brand names become the central element for all advertising

efforts. The science of creating and managing these brand names is called brand

management.

Given the importance of brand names in virtually all marketing campaigns, it is importantfor companies to handle the process of choosing and evaluating brand names carefully.

Foremost, it should be possible to provide legal protection to a particular brand name so

as to prevent competitors from capitalizing on them. It should likewise be easy to

associate products or services to brand names so company image will be reinforced

through these labels. In addition, names or words that are easy to remember, easy to

pronounce and popular would make good brand names. A brand selection process

typically involves numerous brand suggestions before a final brand name is decided.

Other companies opt to conduct qualitative research and use chain associations in line

with brand selection.

The concept of brand management hinges on the use of marketing techniques that would

optimize brand recognition. These include activities designed to increase the perceived

value of brand names to target customers. With efficient brand management, an increase

in branch equity and branch franchise can be expected. Brand equity is commonly

defined as an asset that is dependent on the mind associations of consumers. It can be

measured through financial data, through brand extension and consumer-based attitudes.

Brand equity can be measured financially by determining how much a customer is

willing to pay for a particular product or service. It may also be measured through brandextension or the use of the same brand name for a product or service that can be classified

in another category. Lastly, brand equity can be assessed based on the general attitude of 

consumers toward a particular brand name. As can be vouched by many companies,

strong brand equity leads to a more stable income stream and increased cash flow. Once a

brand has already gained widespread recognition, companies can benefit from reduced

promotional costs and larger market shares.

Brand evaluation is crucial in effective brand management. This process enables

marketers to obtain a more accurate idea about how powerful a brand name is. In turn,this will help marketers decide what their future marketing strategy would be. Some of 

the more common metrics used in measuring a brand are brand perception, brand

financial value and brand performance. Metrics used for evaluation may differ from

company to company but generally, these performance measures are mainly sensitive to

consumer perception and consumer attitude.

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