What is in a Brand?

According to the American Marketing Association, 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’.

The word brand is derived from the old Norse word ‘brandr’, which mean ‘to burn’ as brands were originally and still are used as a method that owners could mark their animals in order to identify ownership (Keller, 2003). Similarly today, companies add their brand is order to identify ownership and differentiate from competitors.

A well-recognised brand could help a company withstand the impact of increased competition. It also adds value to both the firm and to the customer. It increases loyalty, as discussed in the brand equity literature and creates a strong identity (Doyle, 1990; Keller 1993). It is more expensive (6 times) to win new customers than to keep existing ones (Peters, 1986) and brand loyalty plays a vital role in retaining existing valuable customers. Strong and established brands can be used as a platform for growth via brand extensions, as well as being able to command a premium price over weaker competitors – this premium can be 20% more than discount brands. Another function of a brand is used to make the decision processes simpler and more efficient for a consumer. In a typical situation, whether it be a retail unit or an online store, a consumer is faced with been bombarded with many forms of information, therefore purchasing brands that have proved satisfactory in the past are usually selected; this is more probable for low involvement products (Doyle, 1990). A strong brand furthermore acts as a source of differentiation thorough its name, symbol or personality which are very difficult to emulate (Doyle, 1990; Aaker, 1996; Aaker, 1997).

David Penn (2006) has written a good summary of the current state of advertising research, in which he shows how the earlier conscious rational models of advertising have been challenged, in the last two decades, by neuroscience. He summarises the neuroscience learning as follows: ‘the most important brand response is emotional’, ‘Most of our decisions are unconscious’ and ‘ultimately, brand response is more important than ad response’. Also, David Smith (2006) says, ‘in a straight choice between emotion and reason, emotion wins’. This shows the importance of associating your brand with strong positive emotions.

Thus, the symbolic value of brands may be used by consumers to establish membership of social groups, to signal aspirations of group membership, or to point toward differentiation from other consumers. Many contemporary brands have achieved iconic status (Holt, 2004), such as Redbull, Guiness, Ferrari, Lego.

In his book “How Brands Become Icons”, Oxford University Professor Douglas Holt proposes these three principles.

• Iconic brands address acute contradictions in society. By tapping into a collective desire or anxiety, iconic brands develop a status that transcends functional benefits. They challenge people, either directly or subtly, to reconsider accepted thinking and behaviour.

• Iconic brands develop identity myths that address these desires and anxieties. By creating imaginary worlds, they offer escape from everyday reality.

• Over time, the brand comes to embody the myth.

Patterson (1999, p. 419) defines brand personality as ‘the consumer’s emotional response to a brand through which brand attributes are personified and used to differentiate between competing offerings’. Given the fact that consumers infuse brands with personalities, it is largely held that as a result consumer personalities; and brand personalities should reflect one another. This is not necessarily the case, but there may be some degree of fit between the two if, as Lannon (1992, p. 12) states ‘brand choice is the direct manifestation of a set of personal values’. Brand personalities, therefore, are emotional projections used to simplify brand choice decisions across a range of product categories. (Patterson and O’Malley 2006)

References

Doyle, Peter (1990). “Building Successful Brands: The Strategic Options.” The Journal of Consumer Marketing. 7 (Spring), 5-20.

“Strategic Brand Management” by Kevin Lane Keller 2003

Aaker, David A. (1996), “Measuring Brand Equity Across Products And Markets,” California Management Review, 38 (3), 102-120.

Aaker, Jennifer (1997), “Dimensions of Brand Personality”, Journal of Marketing Research, 34 (3), 347-356.

Smith, D.V.L. (2006) The Role of Creativity in Market Research. Los Angeles: CASRO.

Penn, D. (2006) Looking for the emotional unconscious in advertising. International Journal of Market Research, 48, 5, pp. 515–525.

Holt, D. (2004), How Brands Become Icons, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

Patterson, M. (1999) ‘Re-appraising the concept of brand image’, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 409-26.

Lannon, J. (1992), ‘Asking the right questions: what do people do with advertising?’, Admap, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 11—16.

Maurice Patterson & Lisa O’Malley, “Brands, Consumers and Relationships: A Review” 2006 Irish Marketing review