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A brand is much more than the name per se or the creation of an external indication that the product or service has received an organization’s imprint or its mark.
A Brand Aims to Segment the Market – Brand building is part of a strategy aimed at differentiating the offering companies try to better fulfill the expectations of specific groups of customers. They do so by consistently and repeatedly providing combination of attributes-tangible, practical and symbolic, visible and invisible value-under conditions that are economically viable for the company. The company wants to leave its mark on a given field, and sets its imprint on the particular offering.
A Brand starts with a Big Idea – The first task in branding – defining just what the brand infuses into the product or service. Branding, however, is not based on what goes on, but what goes in. the result is an augmented product or service which must be indicated in one way or the other if it is to be noticed by potential buyers and if the company is to reap the fruits of its efforts before it is copied by others.
A Brand has an Enduring Value
If a brand is merely a label, then such a product would lose its value as soon as it loses its sign of brand identification. Instead, it continues to incarnate the brand – the brand’s passing presence has transformed the product. This explains the value of Lux soap when it carries HLL label for the past 75 years; similarly, Adidas shoes, stripped of its name, will hardly see much consumer pull. They are worth more than counterfeit imitations because the brand image is present even when it cannot be seen. In contrast, though the brand level may appear on an imitation, it will actually miss the undercurrent of consumer’s personal attachment with the offering.
A Brand tries to Protect Your Innovation – Brands become known through the products they create and bring on to the market. Whenever a brand innovates, it generates ‘me-too-ism’. Any progress made quickly becomes the standard to which buyers become accustomed to. Competing brands most often follow through and at times bring out improved versions as they do not want to fall beneath the market expectations. For a short time, an innovative brand enjoys monopoly, but it will be a fragile one unless the innovation is patented or patentable. In other words, the role of brand name is to protect the innovation-it creates a “mental” patent. This is nothing other than the just reward for innovation, making an effort, and taking risks. A snapshot of a given market will often show similar products. A dynamic vision, however, reveals who has innovated and pulled the competition along in the wake of its success.
A Product may Die But the Brand will Sustain – A brand protects the innovator, granting momentary exclusiveness and rewarding the willingness to take risks. Brands cannot be reduced to a symbol or a product or a merely graphic and cosmetic exercise. A brand is the signature on a constantly renewed, creative process. Products are introduced, they live and disappear, but the inner or core value of the original brand endures. This consistency of creative action is what gives the brand its meaning, its content and its character. Creating a brand requires time to build up that identity.
A Brand is a Living Memory – The spirit of the brand can only be inferred through its products and its advertising. The content of the brand grows out of the cumulative memory of various acts, provided they are governed by a set of unifying ideas or guidelines. The importance of memory in encompassing a brand explains why its image can vary structurally from generation to generation.
