Social Identity Theory And Brand Identification

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

As Fombrun and van Riel (2004) have proved, favourable reputations of brands bring higher financial returns. Accordingly, perceptions of trust, memories,

Brand equity is an important key to produce customer loyalty. It is a powerful factor in winning market share. It helps an organization or a brand to grow and defend market share. A brand with strong and positive image and productivity has the ability in driving stable customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is the combination of consistently positive consumption experience, perceived value of experience and also physical satisfaction towards products and services. Consumers always have a positive view on the brand they are supporting the most. Customer is a major key for a brand to success, therefore

The social theory perspective that intrigues me is the second process known as identification. After one finds a specific category/group identify with, the person adopts the identify of the group as their own. These identifications then become tied to the person’s emotional being as well as self-esteem. Moreover, if the identity of a person is compromised or threatened, positive and negative responses are likely to occur.

Primarily the loyalty is based on perception, not tangible evidence. Here we can see how important brand equity and positioning can be to a product that is otherwise probably on par with many of its competitors, but the message conveyed by the brand is quite different.

Now moving on to social identity, it is important because it is an ingredient for social discrimination. In order for people to discriminate they have to belong to a group. Social identity theory suggests that people "remain loyal when they feel that their organizations have same values and appreciate them" (Tyler, 1999, p. 235). However, social identity theory maintains that when people feel that their organization values and appreciates them, it is a sign of organizational respect for them or of their high status within the organization (Tyler). High status is likely to increase people's organizational commitment because it enhances their social identity (Tyler). Therefore, social identity is reflected in people's self-esteem (Chattopadhyay, 1999).

The term “social identity” is very complex. It stems off of the term “personal identity”. I believe that the most clear-cut way to explain social identity is that it’s the x in the phrase “I am an x”. The stipulation to that phrase is that the x cannot change during the time in which you are changing, meaning it must stay the same over time.

Social identity theory, it is a person’s sense that is based around the group they are in, either by their personal identity or with different kinds of social identities. That is, people will try to improve their own image of themselves. The theory was proposed by Henri Tajfel. People can increase their self-esteem by both their own achievement and interaction with a successful group of people. This shows the importance of social belonging. This theory is based around three mental processes, social categorization, social identification and social comparison.

The value given to the brand by the consumer is the brand’s equity. The brand obtains its

Perceived value is depended on extrinsic and intrinsic characteristic directly as two journals that studied on the effects of extrinsic perceived cues consumer perception of quality, sacrifice and value (R. Kenneth Teas, and Sanjeev Agarwal 2000). Cross- National applicability of a perceived quality model (Sanjeev Agarwal and R. Kenneth Teas 2002) explained extrinsic attribute as Brand Name and store Name. The two characteristic are positively direct to perceived value. The redemption effort is likely to have a negative influence on perceptions of the value (Jeanne Lauren Munger; Dhruv Grewal 2001), perceived quality, value perception, price acceptability are positively associate purchase intentions. (Sanjeev Agarwal and R. Kenneth Teas 2004) investigation the generalizability of a model that predicts consumers’ perception of value based upon extrinsic cues – such as brand name, price, retailer reputation, location and country of origin – and their perceptions of quality, sacrifice, and

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

The dynamics of the brand reputation helped build better businesses, and the role of the brand which consider as a barometer of value has sustained growth.

A color is a powerful marketing tool to branding. Color establishes brand recognition and reflects brand’s personality or image. As Color has immense psychological influences on consumer 's purchases behavior, the studies have proved the purchase is based on the first impression of how they perceive the brand. 93% of shoppers will look at the visual appearance of your company’s logo, website, brochures, or catalogs and then decide to make a purchase. 85% of consumers decide to buy products based on color alone. Moreover, Studies suggest that when a group of people was shown 3-second advertisement. 62% recognized the brand based on purely the color they saw. These statistics clearly show how important for the marketers and designer to comprehend the psychology of color in order to use it effectively.

As the development of communication technology and global market, the concept of Brand Community was fist defined as ‘a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand’ by two social scientists, Albert M. Muniz, JR and Thomas C. O’Guinn (2001). This essay will firstly give a brief overview of brand community, and then point out three main characteristics and further discuss these features of brand community based on the article by Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) using the supporters of Manchester United Football Club as an example.

During research the author found out that perceived brand associations such as brand attitudes, brand image and perceived quality together considered as brand associations may influence the perceptions of consumers towards brands. Further, Aaker in 1991 suggested that these brand associations are the means through which consumers’ memory towards a brand is developed. Aaker has studied these three concept’s relations theoretically and empirically and as such the author of this thesis finds the information regarding these three concepts to be important factors that influence the consumers’ perceptions.