When Totems Beget Clans : A Case Of The Brand Symbol As The Defining Marker Of Brand Communities

According to Holt (2004), a brand can be defined as a term, name or a design that distinguishes product or service of one manufacturer from others. Brands are normally utilized in advertising, business and marketing. In accounting terms, brand is an intangible asset which is present within every organization. It is most valuable asset that is outlined in the balance sheet of a company. Brands owners need to effectively manage their brands in order to enhance shareholder value. Brand valuation is an important technique that associates money with a brand. Effective branding often results into high sales volumes of a particular product. A customer who prefers a brand is more likely to choose other products which are offered by the same brand. Brand can be stated as a personality that facilitates identification of a company, product or service. It even encompasses relation with other constituents like customers, partners, investors, staff, etc. Individuals distinguish psychological aspect of a brand from experimental

A brand is a portfolio of qualities associated with a name, which in turn invokes certain images to individuals and hold values beyond the benefits of a product (Iacobucci, 2018). Brand association occurs when customers make a cognitive or emotional association with a particular brand. For instance, when a customer sees a certain color, symbol, logo, or name they automatically can make a connection to a particular brand. Brands start with a name that conveys information, suggest their benefits, or can even be named after their founders (Iacobucci, 2018). In the marketing perspective marketers can control the brand which they are marketing by using catching logos, colors, slogans, or even the products shape and appearance. In marketing a marketer can control the message they are trying to convey but cannot really have control over an individual’s association with that particular brand. Once a customer has an association with a particular brand they may favor the brand based on a past experience or even that individual’s sense of style or they may dislike a brand because of an association they

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.

• “A brand community can be defined as an enduring self-selected group of actors sharing a system of values, standards and representations (a culture) and recognizing bonds of membership with each other and with the whole.” (Wikipedia 2009) This was the case originally; as seen from the entities continuous growth, popularity and identification with its consumers.

Symbols mark their existence from the early man’s era. Used as a mode of expression and communication, symbols have educated the modern man a lot, which has eventually led to evolution with time. With those symbols causing evolutions, the concept of symbols itself has evolved with time. Symbols are now brought into play by organizations, to express the idea of a business and to communicate about it with the market. These evolved symbols are known as logos. Today every organization needs a logo and with time the importance of this need has risen and still continues to rise. There is a reason why a thoughtful logo is important for a company, and how it affects any company’s image. A logo in technical terms might just be a graphic, but

Basically, branding is a philosophical expression of the human condition. It is about belonging/attachment. Belonging to a tribe, to a religion, to a family and to a product. The Branding establishes a sense of attachment. It has this function for both the people who are part of the same group and also for the people who don’t belong. The origins of branding are basically related to the nature of the human condition. A tribe is a brand—religion is a brand. When it shows itself in a modern, fashionable form, you are expected statingbranding that began in the 19th century. It was basically affiliation with fast-moving consumer goods. But that is a distortion of what branding is. That type of branding is a manifestation of differentiation. It’s a differentiation of onefast-moving consumer product from another. Brands are a direct consequence of the strategy of market segmentation and differentiation.

The paper introduces a model of brand community development that is extended to the nonprofit sector; a sector that has just recently begun to embrace relationship marketing. It is believed that brand communities represent a unique form of relationship marketing, with benefits that are particularly compelling for nonprofits. Indeed, the paper reveals that many of the characteristics of brand communities already exist to some extent within the culture and/or fundraising efforts of charitable organizations. The article offers a number of research propositions for research into the influence of brand community markers and mechanisms

As the development of communication technology and global market, the concept of Brand Community was fist defined as ‘a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand’ by two social scientists, Albert M. Muniz, JR and Thomas C. O’Guinn (2001). This essay will firstly give a brief overview of brand community, and then point out three main characteristics and further discuss these features of brand community based on the article by Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) using the supporters of Manchester United Football Club as an example.

Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.

This book has significant research that supports finding an effective and non-exploitive way of marketing the modern church through strategic branding and the repackaging of religion, which are key components of my proposal. It helps churches determine, "who are we? Why are we that? How do we get people to want to be a part of this?" Ultimately allowing me to unravel the bigger of question of, how does one properly market their church? This source is crucial because “argues that in order to compete effectively faiths have had to become brands – easily recognizable symbols and spokespeople with whom religious prospects can make immediate

In the article “totem begets clan: the brand symbol as the definer marker of brand community” the writer Greg Stratton and Jeremy Northcote explained about the brand symbol, popularity of brand communities including traditional communities, social communities and postmodern communities. Development of technology and mass media has given rise to different brand communities. Brand community is a period used to describe similar- minded users. These users share important traits including rituals (characteristic of a particular religion), sense of responsibility (an awareness of your obligations), and traditions (beliefs from tradition to tradition) and identify special brand (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). In the abstract the author specified the

When consumers hear the word personal branding, they will automatically associated personal branding with corporate branding (Gail (2010), When a company has established a good reputation and have endurance longevity, customers will keep that company on their mind and not concern with a particular product.  For

The article, “When totems beget clans: The brand symbol as the defining marker of brand communities” by Greg Stratton and Jeremy Northcote discussed the differences of brand community with other type of communities. The next important thing is brand symbol which leads the reputation of brand community is not including just in totemic fashion and it raise the number of consumers. It also shows the brands and branded products’ market with new social trends. It is claimed that there are some precise features which set boundaries for a brand community to make it apart from other community structures and it has also a unique set of dynamics. The authors of totem beget clan paper discussed in it, about brand community’s expansion, characteristics, implications and marketing strategies. They explained it with some other writers’ views (Muniz O’Guinn (2001), Anthony Cohen (1985), O’Reilly (2012), Carlson (2008), Cova and Pace (2006), Burgh Govan (2007), Schau (2009), Holt (2004-2006)) and a number of examples such as Apple, BMW and Harley Davidson motorcycles which clearly defines all the views. In conclusion, they raise its importance and overlap it with other social figurations.

In recent times, branding has played a pivotal role in some brands’ success. This has been made possible through the ability of some marketers to capture the essence and minds of people (consumers), and put the trends and characteristics into the personality of a brand. Customers have always found ways to identify themselves with certain products, and on several occasions, branding campaigns

Brand Community plays an important role too. As stated in the case study, Brand Communities eliminates the role of company’s marketing team and various agents. This might not be correct every time because even if the customer is not in the brand community then too he can get knowledge of brand through various kinds of marketing techniques such as advertisements. Brands are more important as compared to the Brand Communities. Brand Communities are secondary while the Brands are primary. The reason is, it is the Brand through which customer will be able to recognize a particular product and buy it. After buying that product if the customer is satisfied with it, he/she will be willing to buy that product again. It is then, when the customer will become a part of that particular Brand Community. For example, if we consider Apple, people are first attracted towards it due to its innovative thinking, its brand name and due to the designs of their products. But after they buy their products, for example iPhone, they are willing to buy iPhone every time when its new version is released. So, they will become the part of their Brand