Brands Are Machines for Delivering Quality Earnings at High Margins

A brand is what can either attract people to you or make people avoid you; people would identify you by the brand you portray. One can communicate their brand through actions and words. “It is essential to understand that wherever we are, in whatever we do, we are all building our brand”.

I do not agree with the theorem that the successful brands are build on the successful products. It has been deliberate that the successful brands are built on the beliefs and not on the products. The most of the individuals don’t contemplate about underpinning the brand they develop but they necessitate offering a good product and earn a good income through selling it in the marketplace.

Catherine, W., Tat Pui, L. and Henrik, U. (2011) The Roles of Branding for a Brand Entering

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), 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”. However, as Keller highlights, a brand is also “something that has actually created a certain amount of awareness, reputation, prominence, and so on in the marketplace”. Therefore, a brand is an identity created to differentiate itself from the competitors and to be remembered in consumer’s mind.

First of all, a strong brand can be seen as the condition for organisations to expand products, offer more service, and introduce new products (Chernatony and McDonald, 2003). Secondly, a strong brand can lead to growth marketing communication effectiveness (Keller, 2009). ‘To build a strong brand, the right knowledge structures must exist in the minds of actual or prospective customers so that they respond positively to marketing activities and programs in these different ways.’(Keller, 2003, p. 140) Furthermore, Kay (2005) asserted that the strong brand can be seen as a resource of management, which make brand extension easier and useful to build distribution network. Companies are not treated by the intermediaries (Chernatony and McDonald, 2003). Moreover, companies are comparatively easier to change price if they have strong brands. As Henderson, et al (2003) said, a strong brand can allow for premium pricing even still remain loyalty customers, which help companies to survive in the intensive competitive market.

A corporate brand is like a good soup; when properly prepared it is far more than the sum of its parts. A magnificent soup starts with wholesome ingredients, but in time those ingredients harmonize and create a cacophony of flavors. With a successful brand, a similar process occurs. A company starts off with some guidelines and a few product ideas. Then, some magical happens; the company discovers it has opinions and stands for something – it has a set of values. These values enable the company to create an avatar of beliefs; a brand. Through this brand, customers are able to learn what values they share with that company. Customers that believe in the brand integrate it into their lifestyle and let it become part of

Although brands do not solely refer to businesses and their products or services (e.g. charities, countries, celebrities), this essay will discuss their relevance to profits with regards to business operations unless specified. Where most companies must at some point make a decision (consciously or unconsciously) whether to brand their company or not, that question is often rhetorical. Brands are established whether the marketing manager says they should or not. The decision really is whether to implement conscious brand management within the business or not. That is the difference between a strong brands and weak brands. Where

“This ranking has elevated the importance of building brands among some of the world’s most successful companies,” says Millward Brown Global CEO Eileen Campbell, Global. “CEOs and CFOs around the world should be asking their brand and marketing teams how they can leverage brand to both protect and grow the business.”

Long before now has branding been considered as one of the peripheral aspects of business. Manufacturers, investors and other key players focused on the product without paying much attention to the consumer. But as the business landscape got tougher, marketing became not just an integral part of business but one of the fundamental principles of success.

Your brand is more than your logo, name, or slogan – it’s the entire experience your prospects and customers have with your company, product, or service. Branding does not end with coming up with a good name, an even better logo, and slapping both on flyers, brochures and advertisements that you release to your target market. Your business’ brand strategy is not something that you should take lightly, if you want your brand to have meaning for your customers.

Most of the previous studies are carried by marketing scholars since branding is an extract of marketing discipline, conceptualization of product branding is purely outside-in thinking and stakeholders are consumers and customers only. The paper tries to describe the movement towards corporate branding from product branding and can be best quoted as ‘shift from classic branding to corporate branding’. Furthermore, branding literature argues that CB

The economic base over the past fifty years has undergone a major shift from being production centric to consumption centric as consumers have made a transition from the sphere of rationality to the realm of desire and wants. This shift has contributed significantly towards the birth of an economy driven by people, making it resoundingly lucid that customers are now in the seat of power, compelling industries to treat ‘customers as king’ by offering them their desired products at the demanded place and time. In such markets where industries are producing homogenous products and competing against each other to satisfy the needs of ever demanding customers, branding plays an imperative role (Lafferty B,2001). It is branding that provides companies the competitive advantage by contributing towards image creation, creating differentiation and customer recognition thereby highlighting that branding in present day is paramount (Shipley D; Howard P ,1993)

Creating and managing a brand is a fascinating process. A brand is not really a ‘thing’ in the conventional sense. This is an abstract concept that really is a collection of principles, values, images and products; but together this branding manages to completely define your business and the way you’re seen by the general public and your potential audience.

A strong brand identity is one thing that no one can ever take away from a business. Great ideas and products can be improved, patents eventually expire, and technology is always changing- but a brand with loyal customers can continue to thrive, and can even be the most valuable part of a company. (building your brand) Branding creates awareness for a business and can be the main way a

“A successful brand is an identifiable product, service, person or place, augmented in such a way that the buyer or user perceives relevant, unique added values which match their needs more closely. Furthermore, its success results from being able to sustain those added values in the face of competition.” (DeChernatony, L. McDonald, M. 1998)