Marketing assignment essay help: Academic essay on branding

According to the American Marketing Association, the brand is a “term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers”. Drawing on academic literature, critically examine the accuracy of this definition and indicate whether you think there is a need to alter or complement it.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction. 3

1.1Definition of Brand. 4

1.1.1Symbol versus Brand. 5

1.2Aspects of Brand. 5

1.3Components of Branding. 6

1.3Social and Cultural Issues Related to Branding. 7

2. Basic Branding and Communications Concepts. 9

2.1 Brand Positioning. 9

4. Role of Branding in Developing and Managing Products and Corporate Brands. 10

4.1Corporate Branding. 10

4.2 Dimensions of Corporate Branding. 11

5. Conclusion. 12

Bibliography. 13

 1. Introduction

 The definition of branding as given by American marketing Association clearly indicates that branding is not  all about tapping the target market so that the product or service gets chosen over the competition, rather it is making your prospects see your product or your services  as the only or the best solution to the prospective customers needs. Therefore a good brand needs to achieve the following objectives like:

• Delivery of the message associated with product or service in clear manner.
• Developing a connection with your target prospects in an emotional manner
•  Concretes the Customer Loyalty with your brand
• Confirms the credibility of organization as well as product
•  Motivates the buyer or customer (Lake, 2012)

 The word ‘Brand’ arises from Germanic root or Old Norse which means “burn”. This word is used with its literal meaning whenever we want to brand an animal or an amphora of wine in order to indicate the owner. We mean the word figuratively when we talk about all the major attributes related to a product which make a lasting impression on the mind of the customer (Healey, 2008).

 The three distinct things which a brand can be are defined as (Barwise, 2004):

•  A brand can be a named product or service like BBC News or Ivory Soap (here it refers to the branded product itself).
• A brand can be a trademark like Bass or Panasonic (here it refers to the symbol or name in abstract sense).
• A brand can be customer’s belief related to the service or the product which has been epitomized by phrases like “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM’ (The economic value which is accrued from this kind of implicit trust in the brand is called Brand Equity).

Thus brand is something which can be possessed by anyone even you me, organization, products, services, places and people. It is the promise of satisfaction.

 1.1Definition of Brand

“A Brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company.”

Marty Neumeier- The Brand Gap (Ehret, 2009).

 Brand is the emotional and psychological association which you have with your customers. This is the reason why the strong brands always illicit emotions, opinions and sometime physiological responses from their customers. Below in the figure1 you will find the logos of some famous brands and just by looking at them an emotional response is being elicited. After looking at these brand logos the customers start having some feelings and thoughts related to that particular company. Like for example when you look at the Alflac logo you will probably hear the sound of the duck in your mind saying ‘Ah Flack’.

Figure 1:  Logos of famous companies Source: (Ehret, 2009)

That is why it is said that an “A brand is not a brand to you until it develops an emotional connection with you”. – Daryl Travis, Emotional Branding. But you should not get confused with logos, because logos are considered to be brands; they are simply the representation of brands. Logos are the entry points to the customers mind as a shortcut for the brands to enter in the minds of prospects. Therefore it can be said that brands are not supposed to be concrete, they are simply the thoughts, psychological relationships and feelings which exist between the customer and the business. The brand developed by any company is supposed to be the foundations stone for the company for all its marketing activities.

“Brands speak to the mind and heart” Alina Wheeler- Designing Brand Identity

 It is said that the first stone while constructing a solid structure is the cornerstone as it is the vital stone for any masonary structure as all other stones will be set inference to this cornerstone only. In the same manner the brand of the company is supposed to be the blueprint of the customers experience design. It adds flavor to the conversation about your product and helps in aligning the promotional activity as well as advertising.

1.1.1Symbol versus Brand

 The story, emotional connections and visual context helps in distinguishing the brands from symbols.

1.2Aspects of Brand

Once the product is launched successfully in the market and is capable enough to bring required profits the marketers need to study the branding aspects of the product like the Brand Image, Brand Equity, Brand loyalty, Brand Positioning etc. This is very vital because even if the product gets divested from the market its brand still stays alive for years to come and that is why this definition is apt for conveying all the aspects of brand (Swan and RInk, 1982).

 For example from 1922 to 1970 The Tinplate Company of India Ltd. Marketed their ‘Tata Tinplate’ brand through the product ‘Hot-dip Tinplate’. After some time this product became obsolete and was replaced by ‘Electrolytic Tinplate’ which was also marketed under the same brand name ‘Tata Tinplate’ and still enjoys the largest share in the market. This clearly indicates that the brands outlive products. The brand equity developed over a period of time can be used for supporting another fresh and new product of the company (Anandan, 2009).

 Branding helps in providing both internal as well as external benefits. Externally the company creates an identity with the help of branding which resonates in the mind of customers. That is why the company forms an emotional relationship with customer. Creating an external relation is important because many customers buy a product by taking emotional decisions rather than logical decisions (Kumar, 2009).

Within any business the brand serves as a focal point. That is why if the company is able to brand its business clearly this suggests that they have better understanding of their product. This means that the company has self awareness which is dictating their actions. Thus all the decisions taken by a company and not just marketing is being aligned with brand and helps in building strong business identity. This is what even the definition given by American Marketing associations suggests that brand is the term, design, symbol or feature which helps in identification of one seller’s products or services to be distinct from the others. This is what branding does.

Therefore in order to be successful brand one needs to understand the needs and requirements of their prospects as well as the customers. This can be best done by integrating the branding strategies through the company at each and every point of public contacts.

1.3Components of Branding

As branding is practiced today it has five essential components which are:

• Positioning
•  Storytelling
• Design
•  Price
• Customer Relationship

Positioning is the concept which was first found by Jack Torut and Al Ries back in 1980 which meant that defining in the minds of the customers what the brand is standing for and how it can be compared with its competitor brands at the same time. It is very important for the seller to keep focus on what does the customer think and should respond to that too. This makes branding a two-way process (Ries, Trout and Kotler, 2000).

Storytelling is related to the human actions taken by people for millennia (Fog, Budtz and Munch, 2010). It is human instinct to be drawn towards emotional story and they want to listen to the best ones time and again. Whenever we buy any brand we participate in this story telling process like when we buy a Maruti Suzuki car we participate in the story of getting the best mileage amongst all the cars.

Design talks about the visual aspect or how the product is being crafted (Budelmann, Kim and Wozniak, 2010). Thus design can be the liquid in the bottle of Coke as well as the label of coke on the bottle or it can be the nuts and bolts in Sony Television, the self as well as the surface of the Sony television. SO when the companies talk about rebranding it simply means redesigning (Budelmann, Kim and Wozniak, 2010).

Price is supposed to be not much obvious yet very important aspect of brand. Like you will find two similar cheeses with same smell and taste which are available in the supermarket manufactured by two different companies, like Warrnambool Cheese or Blue Cow Cheese, but the customers will buy the one which is more expensive. As this has been proven as basic human nature and this is what is being utilized many companies and is called price jockeying. It is very crucial in brand competition (Ehret, 2009). The short-term price cutting techniques help the companies to have very devastating long-term impact on the brand image (Healey, 2008).

Customer Relationship Management involves the quixotic efforts which are being practiced by companies to make the customers feel special (Pepper and Rogers, 2010). This is very important for example your phone company says Telstra provides services and has millions of customers, but it makes you and every other customer whom it has, feel special and that is a bit difficult and it does through branding (Holt, 2002). Thus branding can do several useful things to ensure success for the product or service like (Barwise, 2004):

• Reinforce good reputation
•  Assure quality
• A sense of affirmation is granted to buyer and he/she enters an imaginary community which has shared values
•  Encourages loyalty
•  Conveys a perception which has more worth which permits the good to be priced higher

1.3Social and Cultural Issues Related to Branding

In the global popular culture brands have become very ubiquous. Myriad responses have been seen triggered by the Nike swoosh or the Coca-Cola logo and they really arouse the customers passion as well as cognitive salience. When people try to demonstrate the inequities of globalization, the corporate brands like the McDonald’s and Nike are used as symbols of corporate excess (Holt, 2002).

 Therefore defining brands as simple cultural forms helps in examination of branding in social, geographical and historical context. The academic literature and managerial reviews have depicted branding as a universal technique and they feel that the principles for building strong brands are the same across all the cultures (Keller, 1993).

 I the arena of branding there are many evidence supporting the fact which suggest  the national myths are the specific tools  which help in developing iconic brands (Holt, 2004) (Lewi, 2003).

 The approach towards global branding issues is more related  towards eth diverse efforts which are being taken  to develop culturally and historically relative analysis of brand (Schroeder and Salzer-Morling, 2006).A cultural approach towards branding is very much assertive towards the fact that branding is neither supportive of modernity nor globalised market-mediated nor capitalistic society.

Rather it is noticed that commodity branding is a long-term feature existing in human economies. Like in China the usage of commodity labeling for advertising can be traced back to the beginning of the Sung dynasty which existed in the 10^th century (Hamilton and Lai, 1989). Even  the standardized containers and the ceramic seals which referenced particular institutions, deities, offices , or goods in the  5-3^rd century B.C. in Mesopotamia were somewhat found to be same as  the private label brands (Wengrow, 2008).

 Therefore a brand to be a true global brand has to be consistent not just in its name, but also in its position which it offers (Reibstein, 2005).  Same way the branding consultant Interbrand (Interbrand, 2007) suggests that the best brands always carry high degree of consistency which is not just visual rather it is tactile, auditory as well as verbal identity all across the geographies.

 Thus to develop strong brands across the globes the companies must follow the models which have been developed by Western companies like Coca-Cola, Harley Davidson or Apple. This assumption can be well understood from the quote or comments given by Shelly Lazarus, Chairman of Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide regarding Chinese Brands (Wang, 2008):

“Is Lenovo a Brand? No. Is Haier a brand? No. They are brand names which aspire to be brands. But they (their Chinese owners) have to understand that branding is about relationship with people both intellectually and emotionally. They have to have a consistent proposition they put in front of people.”

 This remark clearly suggests that there is persistent belief amongst the Western branding professional brands that The Asian cousins along with the Chinese brands are not authentic brands. They suggest that eth Asian brand slack emotional connect which the Western brands are able to establish in better manner with their consumers. Due to this inferior trait in Asian brand the Western branding models and d frameworks becomes easier to be sold in to Asian marketers in much more effectual manner (Temporal, 2001).

2. Basic Branding and Communications Concepts

In order to be successful in the current price driven market, product differentiation can be best achieved by establishing the product in the mind of customer and this can be best done by giving it a distinctive name,  symbol or design and this process is known as branding (Chitale, n.d.).

 Brand equity attached to any brand like Cadbury, Ford, and Coke etc. comes from effective marketing communication and mainly advertising. One of the most effectual method is brand Positioning

 2.1 Brand Positioning

It is the most effective ‘supercommunication’ technique which helps in telling what the brand is, who it is meant for and what does it offer. It reflects the relationship which exists between the two main communications effects that are brand attitude and brand awareness with brand positioning. Marketing communication should be used for effectively for creating and sustaining strong brand awareness. Brand Salience can effectively be built and maintained through advertising and marketing communication (Hansen and Christensen, 2003).

 The brand attitude is not easy to develop because the role of benefits in effectual positioning in case of communication is very essential. Like “ Hush puppies makes great shoes” is an attitude which connects eth brand Hush Puppies with an emotional motive to the customers by giving them a sensory motive to purchase. Thus the brand attitude which is also considered to be a ‘superbelief’ does not come from anywhere but it is the result of effective communication of the super benefits of the brand which the customer thinks the brand has in order to support their overall attitude. Therefore an effective communication strategy should develop an understanding of the belief structure and how it can build brand attitude.

4. Role of Branding in Developing and Managing Products and Corporate Brands

 With the industries turning very much hostile, strong brand-building skills are very much required to survive and prosper in the market. That is why managers have discovered that the brand stands as an important tool for strategic asset for any company. It also helps as a primary source for gaining competitive advantage for the company (Aaker, 2011).

4.1Corporate Branding

A cross-disciplinary and strategic tool which helps in rethinking the questions related to direction, purpose and identity through seeking new answers is called corporate branding (Schultz, 2005). Corporate branding is the process through which the company or organizations is able to ask itself universal identity questions which helps it in moving ahead as an innovative and competitive organization (Morley, 2009). It is more about finding a distinct path in this dynamically ever changing age which requires the corporate to change so that the organization not juts develops but also becomes capable enough to hold its identity in this corporate arena.

 The first wave of corporate branding mainly focuses on visuality and tactics and that is why it has been carried forwards as campaign driven and marketing approach. The result of this first wave of corporate branding is that branding became an important function attached to marketing (Heath, 2010). Many organizations gained huge experience through corporate branding and International brand measuring systems like Interbrand and Business Week’s annual survey: the best global Brands have confirmed the positive impact time and again of corporate brands on the financial performance of the companies. The ideal corporate brands tag has been ascribed by them to these corporate brands as per their surveys like Coca-Cola, Nike, McDonalds, and Disney (Megginson and Smart, 2008).

 Since the leaders of these organizations had broad amount of public exposures and charisma the strength possessed by these brands was portrayed as universal symbols or icons, and that is how such corporate brands became practical examples of practices and characteristics to be possessed by first wave of corporate branding (Gregory, 2003).

4.2 Dimensions of Corporate Branding

• Creation and development of symbols, experiences and names which are very unique for any organizations and helps in giving recognition and repetition to organization (Gregory, 2003).
• Single organization which can represent and stand behind all the services, products and other behaviours (Gregory, 2003).
• Central ideas of the organization which are capable of reaching to both external as well as internal stakeholders (Gregory, 2003).
• The process of creation and recreation by creating a substantial distinction in relation to the ‘other’ in the eyes of stakeholders (Schultz, 2005).
• The method of showing substance, experience, distinct quality or style which arises by having interaction with the organization (Schultz, 2005).

Thus we can say that corporate branding helps organizations and companies to come forward and to show their distinct identity as well as their heritage which exists towards various stakeholders. At the same time corporate branding also involves these stakeholders to make this difference quite engaging as well as relevant (Ormeño, 2007).

Corporate branding has laid emphasis on creating link between who they are and how they respond to the ever growing demand of social legitimacy (Schultz, 2005). All these demands of all stakeholders are capable of addressing all the issues ranging from corporate governance to enhanced documentation procedure of corporate behaviour in vital areas like environment and social responsibility (Balmer and Greyser, 2003). This can be seen clearly in the growth of social and environmental reporting like Tripple Bottom Line applied by Novo Nordisk. A closer look at the websites of the major global leaders show that they realise the importance of communicating who they are, through the vision , mission ,  and values of organizations. Many of the high-risk operating companies of petrochemical industry or pharmaceutical industry have started stakeholder communication for example Shell, BP, Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson etc. The returns of such efforts can be seen in the form of their rising positions in the international rankings and receipt of many global awards for example the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Gregory, 2003).

5. Conclusion

Thus from the above explanations and reviews it is clear that the definition of ‘Brand’ as suggested by American Marketing Association is true to the core as the brand really is the term, symbol or design which helps in identifying one company’s products in the minds of the customer from the others and thus helping to develop an emotional connect with their customers. Brand helps in creating brand loyalty through customer connect and corporate branding has been the new concept which has evolved in the marketing communications which helps the firms in doing so effectively.

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