Branding Theory Essay

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”.

A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller 's good or service

Branding is about establishing an image of how you would like to be seen and thought of by others. In business, for instance, those people are usually consumers. In other words, companies want clients to think of them in a positive light so they purchase their products.

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

Aaker (1996) states brand is a product, an organization, and a symbol. This is where individuals differentiate themselves and stand out by having a unique value. A personal brand is the actual perception of others. When a person creates a personal brand, then they will stand out easily.

Brand is a name, term, design, image, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those other sellers.[4].

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.

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.

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.

In society today, everything has a name for it. If the product doesn’t have a well-known name, it goes by name that a well-known product that is similar goes by. Branding has made its impact on society and it’s never going to go away. In this situation, all we can do from here is analyze more and more until we fully understand its presence in society and its effects. Branding has its biggest effects on consumerism, which makes us question consumerisms power in society. Has our society become one big, replicated consumer or can a consumer or even a person still be unique and individual? Branding creates competition amongst companies throughout the world and creates a competition for the consumers. Not only, it also creates issues, creates

Basically, branding is a philosophical expression of the human condition. It is about belonging/attachment. Belonging to a tribe, to a religion, to a family and to a product. The Branding establishes a sense of attachment. It has this function for both the people who are part of the same group and also for the people who don’t belong. The origins of branding are basically related to the nature of the human condition. A tribe is a brand—religion is a brand. When it shows itself in a modern, fashionable form, you are expected statingbranding that began in the 19th century. It was basically affiliation with fast-moving consumer goods. But that is a distortion of what branding is. That type of branding is a manifestation of differentiation. It’s a differentiation of onefast-moving consumer product from another. Brands are a direct consequence of the strategy of market segmentation and differentiation.

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “A name, term, sign, symbol or design or a mixture of them, intended to identify the

Although brands do not solely refer to businesses and their products or services (e.g. charities, countries, celebrities), this essay will discuss their relevance to profits with regards to business operations unless specified. Where most companies must at some point make a decision (consciously or unconsciously) whether to brand their company or not, that question is often rhetorical. Brands are established whether the marketing manager says they should or not. The decision really is whether to implement conscious brand management within the business or not. That is the difference between a strong brands and weak brands. Where

McCarthy, Perreault and Quester define branding as "the use of a name, symbol, design or combination of the three to identify a product" and more particularly a brand name as "a word, letter, or group of words or letters used to identify a product" (Basic Marketing, a managerial approach; 1997).

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