Brands are one of the first thing that associates a person with a company. When you think of a luxury car people recognize Lexus or BMW as a brand of luxury. When a mom buys diapers she thinks of Huggies, Pampers, Luvs. The brand is like an image for a company as a whole and from that brand comes the products associated with them. It is said that a brand is a major asset of a company (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014).
Brands
Brands are created to make the consumer feel a certain way about a product or service (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014). From brands comes brand equality which is the ability of a company to capture a customers loyalty to that one differentiated brand. When there is high brand equity the company has a competitive advantage over similar products. Brands emerge through a chain that has four steps.
Step 1 Brand Positioning
Brand positioning is established on three levels as shown below.
1. Product Attributes – like for diapers leak protection, comfort, durability
2. Benefit- this is the next step so extending attributes to adding skin benefits from dryness if we are talking about diapers
3. Beliefs and Values- making the brand a product that is concerned about a customers well being
Step 2 Brand name Selection
This is where a company chooses a name which is linked to success. The name should suggest something about benefits and qualities of a product. It also needs to be easy to pronounce and remember. The name must also prove to show distinction and be extendable. It also needs to translate into foreign languages and have legal protection.
Step 3 Brand Sponsorship
There are four ways a brand can be sponsored. The first two are similar and they are either classified as national or private brand. A national brand is under the companies own name. A private brand comes from a manufacturer selling the brand then it being given a new name by the buyer. There is also licensing, where companies take previously used symbols or characters to show a brand name (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014). Lastly, there is co-branding which involves two companies merging their names onto one product.
Step 4 Brand development
Companies have four choices when they decide to develop a brand. The first is a line extension, which means a company extends existing brand to have new colors, flavors, or sizes. Next is a brand extension which extends a product to be modified into a new category which allows for instant recognition. Third there is multibranding where a brand has numerous products under one name, for example Pepsi products (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014). Lastly, there is new brands which creates a whole new brand name and product which happens when an existing brand is falling.
Applied Learning
Branding can be found under the practicum presentation link in the (applied work) tab. For my practicum presentation we examined the brand of the surface compared to other brands like the I-Pad to see how it’s name was differentiated in the market.
Sources
Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2014). Principles of Marketing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Journey through Marketing 