The Creation of Brand Meaning as a Central Question for Contemporary Brand Management - Coursework Example

BRANDING Introduction Branding refers to the steps taken by a firm to make its products more meaningful to consumers through naming, positioning, targeting as well as communicating the benefits of the product to consumers. The process of branding mostly aims at creating uniqueness that will help differentiate the product from other products either within a range of products in the organization or similar products produced by other players. In building a strong brand with greater equity, the management of an organization seeks various benefits including higher consumer loyalty, gaining competitive advantage over the rivals in the market as well gaining constructive consumer responses in terms of increase or decrease in prices. This paper examines the concept of branding and how it is practiced in business in order to enhance their competitive advantages in the business. Branding According to the customer-based brand equity model, the creation of a strong brand entails the establishment of the proper identity of the brand that in turn involves creating full awareness of the brand to all the different parties both within the organization and to consumers. Secondly, it involves creating the most suitable meaning through well-built, favorable as well as establishing unique associations of the brand. Thirdly, it involves the elicitation of good and accessible responses for the brand. Finally, it involves forging of brand interactions with consumers that means achieving very high customer loyalty (Keller 2001, 9). Importance of Branding to Consumers In order to achieve the four steps described above, the organization must consider other factors recognized as the brand building blocks. Brand salience deals with the level of consumer awareness about the brand. This provides answers on the degree at which customers recognize the brand and always remember it. Apart from just the name of the brand and the fact that consumers are aware of the existence of the product in the market, brand salience goes deeper into connecting the brand name, the logo, the symbol and other brand features with the various associations in the memory. This means ensuring that the customers clearly understand the category of the product within which it competes with other products. The consumers also need to be aware of the exact need that the product addresses from their numerous needs. Conclusively, salience describes the functions of the product and its ability to satisfy consumer needs (Brown, Robert & John 2003, 21). Brand performance and imagery are the key factors in creating the meaning of the brand to consumers. Brand performance is the major determinant of what the consumers will experience from the brand, what consumers can hear from other consumers who have tested or used the product and what exactly the organization can tell consumers during advertisement. Offering high quality products that satisfy consumer needs is the main objective of every firm in order to perform better in the market. To achieve customer loyalty, therefore, the firm must design a product that meets and if possible surpasses the expectations of consumers in the market. The ability of the brand to meet consumers’ functional needs should not add to high costs to consumers if proper brand loyalty from consumers is the greatest objective (Yoo & Naveen D. 2001, 8). The measurement of brand performance basis on both the primary characteristics such as low, medium or high and other secondary characteristics that supports the primary characteristics. Reliability of the brand describes the level of consistency of the brand from time to time while durability describes the economic life of the brand. In case the product requires repair, serviceability explains the ease of repairing the product. Consumers can also measure the performance of the brand based on the style and design. Aesthetic considerations such as the size, color, smell and shape can play a very significant role in shaping consumer attitudes towards the brand (Verhoef 2009, 37). Another factor that defines the meaning of the brand is the imagery. This relates to the extrinsic characteristics of the product or service in the manner that the brand addresses both the psychological and social requirements of the consumers. These are therefore the intangible aspects of the brand and may include the user profiles that describe the class of the organization or the individuals who uses the brand. The imagery may also base on the brand personality such as the sincerity as well as the values. Above all other factors, an important determinant of the image of the brand is the life history of the brand, which either can act in favor of the brand or can have negative effects on the brand (Lassar, Banwari & Sharma 1995, 13). Importance of brand meaning Influences Consumer Behavior In the modern world, consumers in every industry have a variety of choices about any particular product due to the presence of many players. Firms have the burden of influencing consumers to prefer their products from the wide range of products available in the market (Cai 2002, 723). Branding therefore acts as a perfect tool in influencing consumers to choose a given product. By insisting on the emotional features that are appealing, the consumers will recognize the brand and therefore purchase it. This is because the customers can easily understand the purpose and the functionality of a well-branded product than other products supplied ordinarily into the market. Creates Consumer Loyalty Competitors are always looking for means of expanding their market shares by influencing other buyers to buy their products. To retain its share the organization has to ensure that customers continue to be loyal to its products. Branding is therefore a strong tool for creating greater customer loyalty and advocacy (Washburn, J, H & Richard P, E. 2002, 53). This is because branding goes beyond into creating an emotional bonding between the customer and the product. The customer develops a feeling of not wanting any other product except the brand he or she has been consuming and in this condition; it is very difficult to divert him into buying another product (Batey 2012, 35). Enables Businesses to acquire Price premiums Due to a number of factors, the cost of producing a given product may vary from one organization to another. For example, a firm may be obtaining a given raw material relatively at a lower cost than other players may. This makes its cost of production to be lower and in turn, the organization may decide to sell its products at a very low price relative to the others. While the other firms cannot lower their prices due to high production cost, they have to look for means of selling their products at a favorable price. Branding will therefore assist such organizations in commanding a given price premium. Branding tends to make the product appear unique and different from other products. The customers will therefore become less sensitive to price and are always willing to buy the product at a higher price than the price offered by the competitors. A strong brand will influence customers to feel more special, fashionable and clever and hence continue buying the product (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson 2012, 28). Gives a Business Competitive Advantage of its Rivals In case the product or service is widely offered by many players in the industry, branding provides a significant differentiator. This is mostly relevant when other players (Krishnan 1996, 395) can copy the product or service the firm is offering easily. In this case branding is the only tool to ensure that the product will look different from the others since the other players are able to imitate and offer a similar product with the aim of benefiting from the good image created by the original firm. Branding is therefore a perfect tool used in expelling parasites from benefiting what a given firm has invented and offered into the market. This approach is most significant in the organizations that produce consumer electronics and provide internet services due to the high similarity of the products offered into the market. Branding is acquiring more meaning because it is now being the foundation for expansion and growth. Whenever a business organization expands its operations, the recognition of what a brand stands for will help to reflect to new products. The customers are therefore able to understand the product more easily than it would be if the firm had to start teaching consumers from scratch. This approach has acquired more significance due to the ongoing process of globalization in which firms are working hard to expand and operate in many countries around the world (Kaplan & Norton 1996, 49). In order to survive competition the firm may decide to focus on a particular group of consumers or a given geographical area in the market. This means that the targeted consumers must be aware of the existence of the product and that the product specifically targets them. This means that the firm must add characteristics or specific features that will influence customers to accept the product as belonging to them. This is only achievable through branding, as the firm is capable of creating the strongest brand since it is going to focus on what it can produce well at the lowest cost (Grant 2010, 52). Enables Business Organisations to Monitor their Products Some organizations offer a wide range of products into the market. This means that different products will sell at different prices and perform differently in the market. By branding the products, the firm can thus easily monitor the performance of the each product in the market. A product promotional campaign can thus aim at improving the demand of a chosen particular brand whose performance is low. Branding in this case builds competition between the products produced by the same organization thus helping to build morale for innovation. Branding in this case helps reduce the cost of product promotion, as the firm is capable of dividing the process according to the behavior of each brand in the market and come up with a good marketing strategy. The organization can also use the characteristics of a well performing brand to boost the demand of a less performing brand by imparting similar characteristics on the less performing brand (Stremersch & Tellis 2002, 57). In addition, the different brands will also assist in marketing each other since the good image created by a high quality brand will help customers to trust and have confidence in the other brands offered by the same organization. This explains why the large organizations that offer a wide range of products continue to dominate the market and offer a barrier to the growth of small organizations in the various industries. For example, in the beer industry in the United States, only a few organizations like Millers dominate the market and continue to inhibit the growth of other small brewers in the industry (Michael, Chitrabhan & Thomas 2005, 574). Finally, branding is a perfect tool for measuring the performance of the organization relative to other competitors. The firm can easily notice the brands that can well compete with the other products produced by the close rivals. This is because it is easier to identify the features of the product that is posing the highest challenge to ones organization based on the brand characteristics created and take the necessary changes in order to deal with the situation. Branding continues to acquire more significance daily due to the increasing competition in the marketing of products in the current business environment (Ryan & Huimin 2008, 385). 1.4 Implications of the brand theory The theory suggests that in order to successfully come up with a strong brand and achieve all the benefits of good branding then the firm must follow the various important steps. The firm must construct a suitable identity for the brand that will assist the customers to easily, recognize the product from the wide range of products available in the market. The firm must also create the appropriate meaning of the brand in order to effectively, bring out the uniqueness of the product to the consumers. The firms must involve in eliciting the right responses of the brand and forge a strong, active relationship for the brand. A firm has to specifically, establish breadth as well as depth in the awareness of the brand to build full understanding in the minds of consumers. The firm must also come up with the appropriate means of creating a tough, encouraging and exceptional brand association in order to make his brand appear differently from the other brands available in the market (Pritchard & Nigel 1998). A strong brand will therefore outclass in all these areas and go through all the important steps in establishing the brand. The most significant factor in building the brand, resonance, comes into play when all the other factors align with needs and desires of consumers. It thus creates the connection between the brand and the consumers. Through a real brand meaning, the customers will have a high level of loyalty and establish a good relationship with the brand to the extent of sharing their experiences with other customers and thus widening the market for the brand. The firm that has successfully built resonance will therefore enjoy many benefits that include earning greater price premium as well as efficient marketing strategies (Hall 1999, 232). The most serious foundation of the branding idea is that the real indication of the strength of any particular brand will depend on the belief of consumers about the brand, feelings as well as their actions regarding the brand. To achieve brand meaning, according to Keller (1993) the firm has to extract the suitable cognitive assessments and feelings of consumers towards the brand. This on the other hand involves creating an identity for the brand as well as establishing the correct meaning concerning both the performance and image of the brand. Customer confidence will thus be high in the brand that has the real identity as well as meaning to the customers reflecting directly on their needs and preferences. If customers start talking openly about the suitability of the brand and are always eager to share their experiences with others then that is a clear sign that the brand is strong (Kokemuller 2014, 73). The most important point to note is that the brand strength and its highest value to the organization is in the control of consumers. The firm will harvest the fruits of brand equity after consumers have interacted and learnt about the brand and act in favor of the brand. Despite the fact that firms must design and produce the most effective brand to comply with the market demands, the accomplishment of those brands in the market will eventually depend on the response from consumers. However, the response will depend on the knowledge induced into their brains about the brand (McDivitt 2003, 15). Conclusion Branding is one of the most important strategies that firms are using to fight competition in the modern business environment. The firm can safeguard its market share and build confidence in customers by making its product different from other products through branding. A firm that has successfully managed to build a strong brand can even sell its products at a higher price despite the existence of many similar products in the market. Additionally, the successful brands in the company are essential in influencing consumer behavior. Across various industries, most consumers prefer buying products and services that are famous. The information about famous brands is often derived from the promotional activities that create awareness for companies’ products. They also get to know these products from their research, which sometimes largely influenced the views and product reviews from fellow consumers that has use those products in the past. In this case, marketers have a responsibility to ensure that they brand their products and the company effectively to enhance its market position and competitive advantage in the market. Bibliography Batey, M. 2012. Brand meaning. Psychology Press, New York. Brown, S, Robert, K. V. & John, F. 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Yoo, B., & Naveen D. 2001. ‘Developing and validating a multidimensional consumer-based brand equity scale’, Journal of business research, Vol. 52, No. 1, 1-14. Read More