According to Rohan Agarwal Brand Management, elements of branding are studied under following four key concepts:
1. Brand identity.
2. Brand image.
3. Brand position.
4. Brand equity.
2.1.3.1. Brand Identity:
Aaker defines brand identity as “a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers from the organization members”.
Brand identity can be said to be an insider’s perception of the brand manager’s decisions of what he wants to communicate to its actual and potential customers. However, in a long while, a product’s brand identity may require, generating new attributes from consumer’s perceptions and not necessarily from the company’s marketing communication it provide
…show more content…
Brand Image:
Brand image echoes the perceptions that customers have about a brand of product or service. Brand image sums up the total impression created brand in the minds of the target market or consumers. It is based on the concept that consumers do not only buy a product but also the bundle of associations it comes with, such as; wealth, power, sophistication, and others.
Brand image can be toughened by the use of brand communications such as; packaging, customer service, promotion, advertising, word-of-mouth and many others. A brand image can either lead a brand upwards or downwards. Alexander proposed that types of brand associations can be hard and soft and brand images consist of three elements: image of provider, image of product and image of user.
Brand images are mostly induced by questioning consumers on the first words or images that comes into mind when a particular brand of product is mentioned. In the case where the responses to the questions are similar and quick, and also describe the product or service in some way, the image of the brand can be seen as strong but when the opposite happens, then the brand is weak.
2.1.3.3. Brand
A brand is what can either attract people to you or make people avoid you; people would identify you by the brand you portray. One can communicate their brand through actions and words. “It is essential to understand that wherever we are, in whatever we do, we are all building our brand”.
The brand image is the brand's total personality impression in the consumer’s mind (real and imaginary qualities and shortcomings). It is developed through advertising campaigns over time with a consistent theme. Talbot and his team conducted social media research and there objective was to: -
A brand is a portfolio of qualities associated with a name, which in turn invokes certain images to individuals and hold values beyond the benefits of a product (Iacobucci, 2018). Brand association occurs when customers make a cognitive or emotional association with a particular brand. For instance, when a customer sees a certain color, symbol, logo, or name they automatically can make a connection to a particular brand. Brands start with a name that conveys information, suggest their benefits, or can even be named after their founders (Iacobucci, 2018). In the marketing perspective marketers can control the brand which they are marketing by using catching logos, colors, slogans, or even the products shape and appearance. In marketing a marketer can control the message they are trying to convey but cannot really have control over an individual’s association with that particular brand. Once a customer has an association with a particular brand they may favor the brand based on a past experience or even that individual’s sense of style or they may dislike a brand because of an association they
According to Holt (2004), a brand can be defined as a term, name or a design that distinguishes product or service of one manufacturer from others. Brands are normally utilized in advertising, business and marketing. In accounting terms, brand is an intangible asset which is present within every organization. It is most valuable asset that is outlined in the balance sheet of a company. Brands owners need to effectively manage their brands in order to enhance shareholder value. Brand valuation is an important technique that associates money with a brand. Effective branding often results into high sales volumes of a particular product. A customer who prefers a brand is more likely to choose other products which are offered by the same brand. Brand can be stated as a personality that facilitates identification of a company, product or service. It even encompasses relation with other constituents like customers, partners, investors, staff, etc. Individuals distinguish psychological aspect of a brand from experimental
There are, all, the company must create a brand identity for the brand, as a person, as an organization, as a product, as a symbol etc. Aaker (1996)
Manras (Brand and its Importance, 2011) defines brand as a sign, symbol, name, term or design or a mixture of them, which is designed to recognize the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from the competitors. Do not stop at tangible aspects, a brand also implies emotional one, such as personality, value, attitude and a story behind the brand.
A brand is an organisation, product or service which has created an emotional connection with their consumers in order for them to favour their brand over their competitors. It is incredibly important for brands to keep up their image and one little thing could change the global perception of a business. It takes a lot to maintain a brand image that has been built up over a long period of time and even more to regain it if that reputation is lost. Brands are created through various different aspects such as their visuals, tone of voice, advertising, actions and reputation. The combination of these will leave their consumers with long lasting emotions and perceptions of a particular brand and will effect whether they support a business or not and whether they would favour or avoid it. When a brand looses their image it can cost a lot of money and time to rebrand to prevent complete failure of the product or service.
In the theory, it 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 the offering from those of other competitors. Simply put, branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B, which is the promise to customers and tells them what they can expect from the products and services. (Lake, 2015) (Williams, 2014) Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand.
According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is 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 competition”. However, as Keller highlights, a brand is also “something that has actually created a certain amount of awareness, reputation, prominence, and so on in the marketplace”. Therefore, a brand is an identity created to differentiate itself from the competitors and to be remembered in consumer’s mind.
Brand identity is an important action to branding. It is what the consumers are expected to perceive a company’s product and its brand. With Brand identity, Burt’s Bees could distinguish it from other competitors, and highlight its brand and products characteristic to create and maintain the competitive advantage.
Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.
4. (Boyle, 2007)Brand image is seen as one the most noteworthy components of branding whereby customers are equipped for staying alert that a brand is accessible and existed in the market. At whatever point an association is competent to effectively separate its brand from the opposition ,all things considered it is unquestionably impressively less demanding to fabricate its brand image. It is the impression of a specific product which is held by potential or genuine consumers.
According to Keller (2012) state that brand identity and image as two key vital tools to manage brands effectively, Furthermore, as shown Figure 2, Brand identity at the sender side, to deliver such as brand meaning, aim. Also, it exist the other source: firstly, company might consider the mimicry situation and marketing area; second, Stella create hers company exactly based on hers lifelong vegetarian faith. Message side shows the nature factors of brand, the product Stella mainly provide, target markets, stores located and the communication with customers Like Stella target their customer as 20-50 years old people with higher income; Good fashion awareness; prefer design and high quality clothing; Eco-friendly, conscious women (Drexler, 2014). In this process, it exist competition such as Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood which has similar sustaining operation background (Cronin, 2014). At final stage, brand image as Receiver side, customer receive Stella particular image. For instance, Point-of-Difference (POD’S) attribute stand out Eco-fashion, vegetarian image, environmentally and sustainability conscious (Stella McCartney, 2015).
In recent times, branding has played a pivotal role in some brands’ success. This has been made possible through the ability of some marketers to capture the essence and minds of people (consumers), and put the trends and characteristics into the personality of a brand. Customers have always found ways to identify themselves with certain products, and on several occasions, branding campaigns
This essay is written based on knowledge of brand management. Building a successful brand cannot without people’s attention; generating awareness, communicating brand values and building customer loyalty, and these demands need to take a long time to achieve. Thus, it is an extremely challenging marketing task(Fahy, J. and Jobber, D. 2012). In the other words, if a company want to be successful, it have to build a successful brand equity and created its brand identity, and expand its brand in the market.