Branding refers to the concrete symbols such as a name, logo, slogan, design, fonts, color scheme, symbols and sound for easy identification of the product. It helps to differentiate one product from another. The American Marketing Association defines a Brand as “A name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods and services as distinct from those of the other sellers”. The various concepts of Branding are classified as under: –
1. BRAND MANAGEMENT: – It is an art of creating and maintaining a brand. “A Brand that captures your mind gains behavior. A brand that captures your heart gains commitment” – Scott Talgo.
2. BRAND RECOGNITION: – If a brand is widely known in the market and minds of the consumer it is termed as Brand Recognition. let me state an anecdotes : – A lady sitting next to Raymond Heowy at dinner, stuck up a conversation
“Why”, she asked “did you put two x’s in Exxon”,
“Why ask”, he asked
“Because”, she said, “I couldn’t help noticing”,
“Well”, he responded, “that’s the answer”.
Source: – Alan Fletcher, the art of looking sideways.
3. BRAND FRANCHISE: – When Brand Recognition builds up to a point where a brand enjoys a critical mass of positive sentiments in the marketplace, it is said to have achieved Brand Franchise. As righty said by Martin Lindstorm that a global brand building strategy is in reality, a local plan for every market.
4. BRAND EQUITY: – It measures the total value of the brand to the brand owner and reflects the extent of brand franchise. According to Christopher Betzer, “Brand Equity is the sum of all the hearts and mind of every single person that comes into contact with your company.”
5. BRAND IDENTITY: – How a company wants the consumer to perceive the product or the brand is referred as Brand Equity. Features such as color, design, logo type, name, symbol etc identifies as well as distinguishes one brand form another in the mind of the buyer. Lexicom once rightly said that a brand name is more than a word. It is the beginning of a conversation.
6. BRAND PROMISE: – If the company commits anything to do for its customers it is recognized as Brand Promise. Stuart Agres believed that a brand is a set of differentiating promises that link a product to its customers.
7. BRAND POSITIONING: -This concept is clearly explained by the famous words of Jack Trout, “Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the minds of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the minds of the prospect”.
8. BRAND DEVELOPMENT: – It measures the infiltration of product sales, usually per thousand populations. For e.g.:- if out of 1000 people, 100 buy a product, the product has a Brand Development of 10%. “A house of brands is like a family, each needs a role and relationship to others” – Jeffery Sinclair.
9. BRAND EXTENSION: – An existing strong brand name can be used as a vehicle for new or modified products. Over 80% of all new products are categories as Brand Extensions, emphasizing the importance of their success. Ahuwalia’s finding says, “Stretching a brand makes it important to target an audience that will be able to process and understand the relationship of a brand to the new product. Getting it right the first time is crucial, because early success with a target audience can help with future extensions. And the broader a brand gets, the easier it is to stretch next time”.
10. BRAND MARKETING: – It focuses on communicating the brand message to drive awareness and affect attitude. Stephen King feels that a product is something that is brought by the customer. A product can be copied by a competitor, a brand is unique. A product can be quickly outdated, a successful brand is timeless.
11. ATTITUDE BRANDING: – It is the choice to represent a large feeling which is not necessarily connected with the product or consumption of the product at all. “Products are made in a factory, but brand is created in the mind” – Walton Landor.
12. INDIVIDUAL BRANDING: – It is assigning a unique/separate name to each product in the organization, which may even compete against other brand of the same company.
13. MULTI BRANDING: – It is when the company has more than one product competing with each other in a given market. According to George Bull, “Well managed brands live on- only bad brand managers die.”
14. PERSONAL BRANDING: – It is righty explained as a process whereby people and their careers are marked as brand. It involves the application of one’s name to various products.