Brand - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

American Marketing Association

The American Marketing Association is a professional association for marketers. As of 2008 it had approximately 40,000 members. There are 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States....

defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."

A brand can take many forms, including a name

Name

A name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name...

, sign, symbol

Symbol

A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...

, color combination

Color theory

In the visual arts, color theory is a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color combinations. Although color theory principles first appeared in the writings of Leone Battista Alberti and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci , a tradition of "colory theory"...

or slogan

Slogan

A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...

. For example, Coca Cola is the name of a brand make by a particular company. The word branding
Livestock branding
Livestock branding is a technique for marking livestock so as to identify the owner. Originally, livestock branding only referred to a hot brand for large stock, though the term is now also used to refer to other alternative techniques such as freeze branding...

began simply as a way to tell one person's cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp

Branding iron

A branding iron is a tool which uses the process of pressing a heated metal shape against an object or livestock with the intention of leaving a mark....

. The word brand has continued to evolve to encompass identity — it affects the personality of a product, company or service. It is defined by a perception, good or bad, that your customers or prospects have about you.

In the automotive industry, the terms marque or make are often used to denote a brand of motor vehicle

Motor vehicle

A motor vehicle or road vehicle is a self-propelled wheeled vehicle that does not operate on rails, such as trains or trolleys. The vehicle propulsion is provided by an engine or motor, usually by an internal combustion engine, or an electric motor, or some combination of the two, such as hybrid...

.

A concept brand is a brand that is associated with an abstract concept, like breast cancer awareness

Breast cancer awareness

Breast cancer awareness is an effort to raise awareness of breast cancer and reduce the disease's stigma by educating people about its symptoms and treatment options...

or environmentalism

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

, rather than a specific product, service, or business. A commodity brand is a brand associated with a commodity

Commodity

In economics, a commodity is the generic term for any marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services....

. Got milk?

Got Milk?

Got Milk? is an American advertising campaign encouraging the consumption of cow's milk, which was created by the advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993 and later licensed for use by milk processors and dairy farmers. It has been running...

is an example of a commodity brand.

Concepts

Brand is the personality

Personality

Personality is the particular combination of emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral response patterns of an individual.-Psychology:* Personality development, the concept that personality is affected by various sources* Personality disorder...

that identifies a product, service or company (name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them) and how it relates to key constituencies: customers, staff, partners, investors etc.

Some people distinguish the psychological aspect, brand associations like thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and so on that become linked to the brand, of a brand from the experiential aspect.

The experiential aspect consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand and is known as the brand experience. The brand experience is a brand's action perceived by a person. The psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct created within the minds of people, consisting of all the information and expectations associated with a product, service or the company(ies) providing them.

People engaged in branding seek to develop or align the expectations behind the brand experience, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain qualities or characteristics that make it special or unique. A brand is therefore one of the most valuable elements in an advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

theme, as it demonstrates what the brand owner is able to offer in the marketplace

Marketplace

A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...

. The art of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management

Brand management

Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand.The discipline of brand management was started at Procter & Gamble as a result of a famous memo by Neil H...

. Orientation of the whole organization towards its brand is called brand orientation

Brand orientation

Brand orientation is a deliberate approach to working with brands, both internally and externally. The most important driving force behind this increased interest in strong brands is the accelerating pace of globalization. This has resulted in an ever-tougher competitive situation on many markets....

. The brand orientation is developed in responsiveness to market intelligence.

Careful brand management seeks to make the product or services relevant to the target audience

Target audience

In marketing and advertising, a target audience, is a specific group of people within the target market at which the marketing message is aimed .....

. Brands should be seen as more than the difference between the actual cost of a product and its selling price - they represent the sum of all valuable qualities of a product to the consumer.

A brand which is widely known in the marketplace acquires brand recognition. When brand recognition builds up to a point where a brand enjoys a critical mass of positive sentiment in the marketplace, it is said to have achieved brand franchise. Brand recognition is most successful when people can state a brand without being explicitly exposed to the company's name, but rather through visual signifiers like logos, slogan's, and colors. For example, Disney

The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

has been successful at branding with their particular script font (originally created for Walt Disney's "signature" logo), which it used in the logo for go.com

Go.com

Go.com is a web portal first launched by Jeff Gold, and now operated by the Walt Disney Internet Group, which is a part of The Walt Disney Company. The portal includes content from ABC News, ESPN, and FamilyFun.com, all of which are associated with Disney and are hosted under a .go.com name...

.

Consumers may look on branding as an aspect of products or services, as it often serves to denote a certain attractive quality or characteristic (see also brand promise). From the perspective of brand owners, branded products or services also command higher prices. Where two products resemble each other, but one of the products has no associated branding (such as a generic

Generic brand

Generic brands of consumer products are distinguished by the absence of a brand name. It is often inaccurate to describe these products as "lacking a brand name", as they usually are branded, albeit with either the brand of the store in which they are sold or a lesser-known brand name which may...

, store-branded product), people may often select the more expensive branded product on the basis of the quality of the brand or the reputation of the brand owner.

Brand awareness

Brand awareness refers to customers' ability to recall and recognize the brand under different conditions and link to the brand name, logo, jingles and so on to certain associations in memory. It consists of both brand recognition and brand recall. It helps the customers to understand to which product or service category the particular brand belongs and what products and services are sold under the brand name. It also ensures that customers know which of their needs are satisfied by the brand through its products (Keller). Brand awareness is of critical importance since customers will not consider your brand if they are not aware of it.

There are various levels of brand awareness that require different levels and combinations of brand recognition and recall. Top-of-Mind is the goal of most companies. Top-of-Mind Awareness occurs when your brand is what pops into a consumers mind when asked to name brands in a product category. For example, when someone is asked to name a type of facial tissue, the common answer is “Kleenex,” which is a top-of-mind brand. Aided Awareness occurs when a consumer is shown or read a list of brands, and expresses familiarity with your brand only after they hear or see it as a type of memory aide. Strategic Awareness occurs when your brand is not only top-of-mind to consumers, but also has distinctive qualities that stick out to consumers as making it better than the other brands in your market. The distinctions that set your product apart from the competition is also known as the Unique Selling Point or USP.

Brand elements

Brands are spreadthrough various elements:

Name: The word or words used to identify the company, product, service, concept
Logo: The visual trademark that identifies the brand
Tagline or Catchphrase: "The Quicker Picker Upper" is associated with Bounty; "Can you hear me now" is an important part of the Verizon brand.
Shapes: The distinctive shape of the Coca-Cola bottle or the Volkswagen Beetle are trademarked elements of those brands.
Graphics: The dynamic ribbon is also a trademarked part of Coca-Cola's brand.
Color: Owens-Corning is the only brand of fiberglass insulation that can be pink.
Sounds: A unique tune or set of notes can "denote" a brand: NBC's chimes are one of the most famous examples.
Movement: Lamborghini has trademarked the upward motion of its car doors.
Smells: Scents, such as the rose-jasmine-musk of Chanel No. 5 is trademarked.
Taste: KFC has trademarked its special recipe of 11 herbs and spices for fried chicken.

Global brand

A global brand is one which is perceived to reflect the same set of values around the world. Global brands transcend their origins and create strong enduring relationships with consumers across countries and cultures. They are brands sold in international markets. Examples of global brands include Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

, Apple, Pepsi

Pepsi

Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...

, McDonald's

McDonald's

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...

, Mastercard

MasterCard

Mastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...

, Gap

Gap (clothing retailer)

The Gap, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and Doris F. Fisher. The company has five primary brands: the namesake Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. As of September 2008,...

, Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

and Nike

Nike, Inc.

Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...

. These brands are used to sell the same product across multiple markets and could be considered successful to the extent that the associated products are easily recognizable by the diverse set of consumers.

Benefits of global branding

In addition to taking advantage of the outstanding growth opportunities, the following drives the increasing interest in taking brands global:

Economies of scale (production and distribution)
Lower marketing costs
Laying the groundwork for future extensions worldwide
Maintaining consistent brand imagery
Quicker identification and integration of innovations (discovered worldwide)
Preempting international competitors from entering domestic markets or locking you out of other geographic markets
Increasing international media reach (especially with the explosion of the Internet) is an enabler
Increases in international business and tourism are also enablers

Global brand variables

The following elements may differ from country to country:

Corporate slogan
Products and services
Product names
Product features
Positionings
Marketing mixes (including pricing, distribution, media and advertising execution)

These differences will depend upon:

Language differences
Different styles of communication
Other cultural differences
Differences in category and brand development
Different consumption patterns
Different competitive sets and marketplace conditions
Different legal and regulatory environments
Different national approaches to marketing (media, pricing, distribution, etc.)

Local brand

A brand that is sold and marketed (distributed and promoted) in a relatively small and restricted geographical area. A local brand is a brand that can be found in only one country or region. It may be called a regional brand if the area encompasses more than one metropolitan market. It may also be a brand that is developed for a specific national market, however an interesting thing about local brand is that the local branding is more often done by consumers than by the producers. Examples of local brands in Sweden are Stomatol

Stomatol

Stomatol is a brand of toothpaste first sold in Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century. It was particularly notable as having been one of the first Swedish brands to recognize and to use the power of mass media. The brand was originally made by the soap manufacturer Grumme & Son, acquired...

, Skånemejerier

Skånemejerier

Skånemejerier, based in Skåne County, is a Swedish cooperative and Sweden's largest producers of dairy products after Arla Foods and Milko....

, etc.

Brand name

The brand name is quite often used interchangeably with "brand", although it is more correctly used to specifically denote written or spoken linguistic elements of any product. In this context a "brand name" constitutes a type of trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

, if the brand name exclusively identifies the brand owner as the commercial source of products or services. A brand owner may seek to protect proprietary rights

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

in relation to a brand name through trademark registration and such trademarks are called "Registered Trademarks". Advertising spokespersons have also become part of some brands, for example: Mr. Whipple

Mr. Whipple

Mr. George Whipple is a fictional supermarket manager featured in television commercials and print advertisements that ran in the United States and Canada from 1964 to 1985 for Charmin toilet paper...

of Charmin

Charmin

Charmin is a brand-name of toilet paper manufactured by Procter & Gamble.-History:The Charmin name was first created in 1928 by the Hoberg Paper Company in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 1950, Hoberg changed its name to Charmin Paper Company and continued to produce bath tissue, paper napkins, and other...

toilet tissue and Tony the Tiger

Tony the Tiger

Tony the Tiger is the advertising cartoon mascot for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes breakfast cereal, appearing on its packaging and advertising. More recently, Tony has also become the mascot for Tony's Cinnamon Krunchers and Tiger Power...

of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.
Local branding is usually done by the consumers rather than the producers.

Types of brand names

Brand names come in many styles.
A few include:

Acronym: A name made of initials such as UPS or IBM

Descriptive: Names that describe a product benefit or function like Whole Foods or Airbus

Alliteration and rhyme: Names that are fun to say and stick in the mind like Reese's Pieces or Dunkin' Donuts

Evocative: Names that evoke a relevant vivid image like Amazon or Crest

Neologisms: Completely made-up words like Wii or Kodak

Foreign word: Adoption of a word from another language like Volvo or Samsung

Founders' names: Using the names of real people,and founder's name like Hewlett-Packard or Disney

Geography: Many brands are named for regions and landmarks like Cisco and Fuji Film

Personification: Many brands take their names from myth like Nike or from the minds of ad execs like Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker AKA: batter witch is a cultural icon, as well as brand name and trademark of American Fortune 500 corporation General Mills. The name was first developed by the Washburn Crosby Company in 1921 as a way to give a personalized response to consumer product questions. The name Betty was...

The act of associating a product or service with a brand has become part of pop culture. Most products have some kind of brand identity, from common table salt

Edible salt

Salt, also known as table salt, or rock salt, is a mineral that is composed primarily of sodium chloride , a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of ionic salts. It is essential for animal life in small quantities, but is harmful to animals and plants in excess...

to designer jeans. A brandnomer is a brand name that has colloquially become a generic term for a product or service, such as Band-Aid

Band-Aid

Band-Aid is a brand name for Johnson & Johnson's line of adhesive bandages and related products. It has also become a genericized trademark for any adhesive bandage in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India and the United States....

or Kleenex

Kleenex

Kleenex is a brand name for a variety of toiletry paper-based products such as facial tissue, bathroom tissue, paper towels, and diapers. The name Kleenex is a registered trademark of Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc. Often used as a genericized trademark, especially in the United States, "Kleenex"...

, which are often used to describe any brand of adhesive bandage or any brand of facial tissue respectively.

Brand identity

The outward expression of a brand, including its name, trademark, communications, and visual appearance. Because the identity is assembled by the brand owner, it reflects how the owner wants the consumer to perceive the brand - and by extension the branded company, organization, product or service. This is in contrast to the brand image, which is a customer's mental picture of a brand. The brand owner will seek to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity.

Effective brand names build a connection between the brand personality as it is perceived by the target audience

Target audience

In marketing and advertising, a target audience, is a specific group of people within the target market at which the marketing message is aimed .....

and the actual product/service. The brand name should be conceptually on target with the product/service (what the company stands for). Furthermore, the brand name should be on target with the brand demographic. Typically, sustainable brand names are easy to remember, transcend trends and have positive connotations. Brand identity is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolizes the brand's differentiation from competitors.

Brand identity is what the owner wants to communicate to its potential consumers. However, over time, a product's brand identity may acquire (evolve), gaining new attributes from consumer perspective but not necessarily from the marketing communications an owner percolates to targeted consumers. Therefore, brand associations become handy to check the consumer's perception of the brand.

Brand identity needs to focus on authentic qualities - real characteristics of the value and brand promise being provided and sustained by organizational and/or production characteristics.

Visual brand identity

The recognition and perception of a brand is highly influenced by its visual presentation. A brand’s visual identity is the overall look of its communications. Effective visual brand identity is achieved by the consistent use of particular visual elements to create distinction, such as specific fonts, colors, and graphic elements. At the core of every brand identity is a brand mark, or logo

Logo

A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

. In the United States, brand identity and logo design naturally grew out of the Modernist movement in the 1950s and greatly drew on the principles of that movement – simplicity (Mies van der Rohe’s principle of "Less is more") and geometric abstraction. These principles can be observed in the work of the pioneers of the practice of visual brand identity design, such as Paul Rand

Paul Rand

Paul Rand Paul Rand Paul Rand (born Peretz Rosenbaum, (August 15, 1914 — November 26, 1996) was an American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Westinghouse, ABC, and Steve Jobs’ NeXT...

, Chermayeff & Geismar

Chermayeff & Geismar

Chermayeff & Geismar is a prominent New York-based branding and graphic design firm. It was founded in 1957 by Yale graduates Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar...

and Saul Bass

Saul Bass

Saul Bass was a Jewish-American graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences....

Brand parity

Brand parity is the perception of the customers that some brands are equivalent. This means that shoppers will purchase within a group of accepted brands rather than choosing one specific brand. When brand parity is present, quality is often not a major concern because consumers believe that only minor quality differences exist.

Expanding role of brand

it was meant to make identifying and differentiating a product easier. Over time, brands came to embrace a performance or benefit promise, for the product, certainly, but eventually also for the company behind the brand. Today, brand plays a much bigger role. Brands have been co-opted as powerful symbols in larger debates about economics, social issues, and politics. The power of brands to communicate a complex message quickly and with emotional impact and the ability of brands to attract media attention, make them ideal tools in the hands of activists.

Company name

Often, especially in the ine of the most powerful statements of branding: saying just before the company's downgrading, "No one ever got fired for buying IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

"). This approach has not worked as well for General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

, which recently overhauled how its corporate brand relates to the product brands. Exactly how the company name relates to product and services names is known as brand architecture

Brand architecture

Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organizational entity. It is the way in which the brands within a company’s portfolio are related to, and differentiated from, one another...

. Decisions about company names and product names and their relationship depends on more than a dozen strategic considerations.

In this case a strong brand name (or company name) is made the vehicle for a range of products (for example, Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...

or Black & Decker

Black & Decker

Black & Decker Corporation is a corporation based in Towson, Maryland, United States, that designs and imports power tools and accessories, hardware and home improvement products, and technology based fastening systems...

) or a range of subsidiary brands (such as Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Flake or Cadbury Fingers in the United States).

Individual branding

Each brand has a separate name (such as Seven-Up, Kool-Aid

Kool-Aid

Kool-Aid is a brand of flavored drink mix owned by the Kraft Foods Company.-History:Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins in Hastings, Nebraska, United States. All of his experiments took place in his mother's kitchen. Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack...

or Nivea

Nivea

Nivea is a global skin- and body-care brand that is owned by the German company Beiersdorf. The company was founded on March 28 1882 by pharmacist Carl Paul Beiersdorf. In 1900, the new owner Oskar Troplowitz developed a water-in-oil emulsion as a skin cream with Eucerit, the first stable emulsion...

Sun (Beiersdorf

Beiersdorf

Beiersdorf AG is a multinational corporation based in Hamburg, Germany, manufacturing personal care products. Its brands include Elastoplast, Eucerin , Labello, and Nivea....

)), which may compete against other brands from the same company (for example, Persil

Persil

Persil is a brand of laundry detergent currently and originally made by Henkel & Cie; but which is now also licensed for manufacture, distribution, and marketing in several countries by the Unilever Corporation. Henkel and Unilever both manufacture their own formulations...

, Omo, Surf and Lynx

Lynx

A lynx is any of the four Lynx genus species of medium-sized wildcats. The name "lynx" originated in Middle English via Latin from Greek word "λύγξ", derived from the Indo-European root "*leuk-", meaning "light, brightness", in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes...

are all owned by Unilever

Unilever

Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....

Attitude branding and iconic brands

Attitude branding is the choice to represent a larger feeling, which is not necessarily connected with the product or consumption

Consumption (economics)

Consumption is a common concept in economics, and gives rise to derived concepts such as consumer debt. Generally, consumption is defined in part by comparison to production. But the precise definition can vary because different schools of economists define production quite differently...

of the product at all. Marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

labeled as attitude branding include that of Nike

Nike, Inc.

, Starbucks

Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

, The Body Shop

The Body Shop

The Body Shop International plc, known as The Body Shop, has 2,400 stores in 61 countries, and is the second largest cosmetic franchise in the world, following O Boticario, a Brazilian company...

, Safeway

Safeway Inc.

Safeway Inc. , a Fortune 500 company, is North America's second largest supermarket chain after The Kroger Co., with, as of December 2010, 1,694 stores located throughout the western and central United States and western Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern...

, and Apple Inc.. In the 2000 book No Logo
No Logo
No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies is a book by Canadian author Naomi Klein. First published by Knopf Canada in January 2000, shortly after the 1999 WTO Ministerial Conference protests in Seattle had generated media attention around such issues, it became one of the most influential books...

, Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...

describes attitude branding as a "fetish strategy".

"A great brand raises the bar -- it adds a greater sense of purpose to the experience, whether it's the challenge to do your best in sports and fitness, or the affirmation that the cup of coffee you're drinking really matters." - Howard Schultz
Howard Schultz
Howard Schultz is an American business magnate. He is the best known as the chairman and CEO of Starbucks and a former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics...

(president, CEO, and chairman of Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

)

Iconic brands are defined as having aspects that contribute to consumer's self-expression and personal identity. Brands whose value to consumers comes primarily from having identity value are said to be "identity brands". Some of these brands have such a strong identity that they become more or less cultural icons which makes them "iconic brands". Examples are: Apple, Nike

Nike, Inc.

and Harley Davidson. Many iconic brands include almost ritual-like behaviour in purchasing or consuming the products.

There are four key elements to creating iconic brands (Holt 2004):

"Necessary conditions" - The performance of the product must at least be acceptable, preferably with a reputation of having good quality.
"Myth-making" - A meaningful storytelling fabricated by cultural insiders. These must be seen as legitimate and respected by consumers for stories to be accepted.
"Cultural contradictions" - Some kind of mismatch between prevailing ideology and emergent undercurrents in society. In other words a difference with the way consumers are and how they wish they were.
"The cultural brand management process" - Actively engaging in the myth-making process in making sure the brand maintains its position as an icon.

"No-brand" branding

Recently a number of companies have successfully pursued "no-brand" strategies by creating packaging that imitates generic brand

Generic brand

simplicity. Examples include the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese company Muji

MUJI

, or is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods.Muji is distinguished by its design minimalism, emphasis on recycling, avoidance of waste in production and packaging, and no-logo or "no-brand" policy....

, which means "No label" in English (from 無印良品 – "Mujirushi Ryohin" – literally, "No brand quality goods"), and the Florida company No-Ad Sunscreen. Although there is a distinct Muji brand, Muji products are not branded. This no-brand strategy means that little is spent on advertisement or classical marketing and Muji's success is attributed to the word-of-mouth, a simple shopping experience and the anti-brand movement.
"No brand" branding may be construed as a type of branding as the product is made conspicuous through the absence of a brand name.
"Tapa Amarilla" or "Yellow Cap" in Venezuela during the 80s is another good example of no-brand strategy. It was simply recognized by the color of the cap of this cleaning products company.

Derived brands

In this case the supplier of a key component, used by a number of suppliers of the end-product, may wish to guarantee its own position by promoting that component as a brand in its own right. The most frequently quoted example is Intel, which positions itself in the PC

Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

market with the slogan (and sticker) "Intel Inside".

Brand extension and brand dilution

The existing strong brand name can be used as a vehicle for new or modified products;
for example, many fashion

Fashion

Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...

and designer companies extended brands into fragrances, shoes and accessories

Fashion accessory

Fashion accessories are decorative items that supplement and complement clothes, such as jewelery, gloves, handbags, hats, belts, scarves, wigs, watches, sunglasses, pins, stockings, bow ties, hand fans, leg warmers, leggings, neckties, suspenders, and tights....

, home textile, home decor

Interior design

Interior design describes a group of various yet related projects that involve turning an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities are to take place there. An interior designer is someone who conducts such projects...

, luggage

Luggage

Baggage is any number of bags, cases and containers which hold a traveller's articles during transit.Luggage is more or less the same concept as "baggage", but is normally used in relation to the personal luggage of a specific person or persons Baggage is any number of bags, cases and containers...

, (sun-) glasses, furniture, hotels, etc.

Mars extended its brand to ice cream, Caterpillar

Caterpillar Inc.

Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...

to shoes and watches, Michelin

Michelin

Michelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal tyre brands...

to a restaurant guide, Adidas

Adidas

Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...

and Puma

PUMA AG

Puma SE, officially branded as PUMA, is a major German multinational company that produces high-end athletic shoes, lifestyle footwear and other sportswear. Formed in 1924 as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik by Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, relationships between the two brothers deteriorated until the two...

to personal hygiene. Dunlop

Dunlop (brands)

Dunlop was originally a brand of tyre produced by the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company at the end of the 19th century, taking its name from John Dunlop. The brand is now used for many other products either derived from rubber or with a looser connection to rubber.Ownership of the brand has become...

extended its brand from tires to other rubber products such as shoes, golf balls, tennis racquets and adhesives.

There is a difference between brand extension and line extension. A line extension is when a current brand name is used to enter a new market segment in the existing product class, with new varieties or flavors or sizes.
When Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...

launched "Diet Coke" and "Cherry Coke" they stayed within the originating product category: non-alcoholic carbonated beverages. Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....

(P&G) did likewise extending its strong lines (such as Fairy Soap) into neighboring products (Fairy Liquid and Fairy Automatic) within the same category, dish washing detergents.

The risk of over-extension is brand dilution where the brand loses its brand associations with a market segment, product area, or quality, price or cachet.

Multi-brands

Alternatively, in a market that is fragmented amongst a number of brands a supplier can choose deliberately to launch totally new brands in apparent competition with its own existing strong brand (and often with identical product characteristics); simply to soak up some of the share of the market which will in any case go to minor brands. The rationale is that having 3 out of 12 brands in such a market will give a greater overall share than having 1 out of 10 (even if much of the share of these new brands is taken from the existing one). In its most extreme manifestation, a supplier pioneering a new market which it believes will be particularly attractive may choose immediately to launch a second brand in competition with its first, in order to pre-empt others entering the market.

Individual brand names naturally allow greater flexibility by permitting a variety of different products, of differing quality, to be sold without confusing the consumer's perception of what
business the company is in or diluting higher quality products.

Once again, Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....

is a leading exponent of this philosophy, running as many as ten detergent brands in the US market. This also increases the total number of "facings" it receives on supermarket shelves. Sara Lee, on the other hand, uses it to keep the very different parts of the business separate — from Sara Lee cakes through Kiwi polishes to L'Eggs pantyhose. In the hotel business, Marriott

Marriott International

Marriott International, Inc. is a worldwide operator and franchisor of a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities. Founded by J. Willard Marriott, the company is now led by son J.W. Marriott, Jr...

uses the name Fairfield Inns

Fairfield Inn by Marriott

Fairfield Inn by Marriott is a lower cost brand of hotels that are franchised by Marriott International. The intended use is for guests requiring simply a place to sleep with fewer amenities. This allows Marriott to offer lower prices than would otherwise be possible...

for its budget chain (and Ramada

Ramada

Ramada is a hotel chain owned and operated by Wyndham Worldwide.- History :The lodging chain was founded in 1953 by longtime Chicago restaurateur Marion W...

uses Rodeway

Rodeway Inn

Rodeway Inn is a chain of economy-priced motels in the United States and Canada. Rodeway Inn is a brand of the Choice Hotels group. There are over 150 locations in North America. The hotels are often located in or near popular tourist destinations and are known for providing guests with attractive...

for its own cheaper hotels).

Cannibalization

Cannibalization of machine parts

Cannibalization of machine parts, in maintenance of mechanical or electronic systems with interchangeable parts, refers to the practice of removing parts or subsystems necessary for repair from another similar device, rather than from inventory, usually when resources become limited...

is a particular problem of a "multibrand" approach, in which the new brand takes business away from an established one which the organization also owns. This may be acceptable (indeed to be expected) if there is a net gain overall. Alternatively, it may be the price the organization is willing to pay for shifting its position in the market; the new product being one stage in this process.

Private labels

With the emergence of strong retailers, private label

Private label

Private label products or services are typically those manufactured or provided by one company for offer under another company's brand. Private label goods and services are available in a wide range of industries from food to cosmetics to web hosting...

brands, also called own brands, or store brand

Store brand

Store brands are a line of products sold by a retailer under a single marketing identity. They bear a similarity to the concept of House brands, Private label brands in the United States, own brands in the UK, and home brands in Australia and generic brands...

s, also emerged as a major factor in the marketplace. Where the retailer has a particularly strong identity (such as Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer

Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...

in the UK clothing sector) this "own brand" may be able to compete against even the strongest brand leaders, and may outperform those products that are not otherwise strongly branded.

Individual and organizational brands

There are kinds of branding that treat individuals and organizations as the products to be branded. Personal branding

Personal branding

Personal branding is, for some people, a description of the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands. It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from...

treats persons and their careers as brands. The term is thought to have been first used in a 1997 article by Tom Peters

Tom Peters

Thomas J. "Tom" Peters is an American writer on business management practices, best-known for In Search of Excellence .-Life and career:Peters was born in Baltimore, Maryland...

. Faith branding

Faith branding

Faith branding is the concept of branding religious organizations, leaders, or media programming, in the hope of penetrating a media-driven, consumer-oriented culture more effectively. Essentially, faith branding treats faith as a product and attempts to apply the principles of marketing in order...

treats religious figures and organizations as brands. Religious media expert Phil Cooke

Phil Cooke

Phil Cooke is a media consultant focused mainly on the Christian market, as well as a vocal critic of contemporary American and American-influenced Christian culture...

has written that faith branding handles the question of how to express faith in a media-dominated culture. Nation branding

Nation branding

Nation branding is a field of theory and practice which aims to measure, build and manage the reputation of countries . Some approaches applied, such as an increasing importance on the symbolic value of products, have led countries to emphasise their distinctive characteristics...

works with the perception and reputation of countries as brands.

Crowdsourcing Branding

These are brands that are created by the people for the business, which is opposite to the traditional method where the business create a brand. This type of method minimizes the risk of brand failure, since the people that might reject the brand in the traditional method are the ones who are participating in the branding process.

Nation Branding (Place Branding & Public diplomacy)

Nation branding

is a field of theory and practice which aims to measure, build and manage the reputation of countries (closely related to place branding

Place Branding

Place branding is a new umbrella term encompassing nation branding, region branding and city branding. Place branding is the process of image communication to a target market...

). Some approaches applied, such as an increasing importance on the symbolic value of products, have led countries to emphasise their distinctive characteristics. The branding and image of a nation-state "and the successful transference of this image to its exports - is just as important as what they actually produce and sell."

History

The word "brand" is derived from the Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

brandr meaning "to burn." It refers to the practice of producers burning their mark (or brand) onto their products.

The Italians were among the first to use brands, in the form of watermarks on paper in the 1200s.

Although connected with the history of trademark

Trademark

s and including earlier examples which could be deemed "protobrands" (such as the marketing puns of the "Vesuvinum" wine jars found at Pompeii

Pompeii

The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...

), brands in the field of mass-marketing originated in the 19th century with the advent of packaged goods. Industrialization moved the production of many household items, such as soap

Soap

In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid.IUPAC. "" Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. . Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford . XML on-line corrected version: created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN...

, from local communities to centralized factories

Factory

A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...

. When shipping their items, the factories would literally brand

Livestock branding

Livestock branding is a technique for marking livestock so as to identify the owner. Originally, livestock branding only referred to a hot brand for large stock, though the term is now also used to refer to other alternative techniques such as freeze branding...

their logo

Logo

A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

or insignia

Insignia

Insignia or insigne pl -nia or -nias : a symbol or token of personal power, status or office, or of an official body of government or jurisdiction...

on the barrels used, extending the meaning of "brand" to that of trademark.

Bass & Company

Bass (beer)

The Bass Brewery was founded as a brewery in 1777 by William Bass in Burton upon Trent, England. The main brand was Bass Pale Ale, which was once the highest selling beer in the UK...

, the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

brewery

Brewery

A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....

, claims their red triangle brand was the world's first trademark. Lyle’s Golden Syrup makes a similar claim, having been named as Britain's oldest brand, with its green and gold packaging having remained almost unchanged since 1885. Another example comes from Antiche Fornaci Giorgi in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, whose bricks are stamped or carved with the same proto-logo since 1731, as found in Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City

Vatican City

Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...

.

Cattle

Livestock branding

were branded long before this. The term "maverick," originally meaning an unbranded calf, comes from Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

rancher Samuel Augustus Maverick who, following the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, decided that since all other cattle were branded, his would be identified by having no markings at all. Even the signatures on paintings of famous artists like Leonardo Da Vinci can be viewed as an early branding tool.

Factories established during the Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

introduced mass-produced goods and needed to sell their products to a wider market, to customers previously familiar only with locally-produced goods. It quickly became apparent that a generic package of soap had difficulty competing with familiar, local products. The packaged goods manufacturers needed to convince the market that the public could place just as much trust in the non-local product. Campbell soup, Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola

, Juicy Fruit gum

Juicy Fruit

Juicy Fruit is a brand of chewing gum made by the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, a U.S. company that since 2008 has been a subsidiary of the privately-held Mars, Incorporated. It was introduced in 1893, and in the 21st century the brand name is recognized by 99 percent of Americans, with total sales in...

, Aunt Jemima

Aunt Jemima

Aunt Jemima is a trademark for pancake flour, syrup, and other breakfast foods currently owned by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago. The trademark dates to 1893, although Aunt Jemima pancake mix debuted in 1889. The Quaker Oats Company first registered the Aunt Jemima trademark in April 1937...

, and Quaker Oats were among the first products to be 'branded', in an effort to increase the consumer's familiarity with their products. Many brands of that era, such as Uncle Ben's

Uncle Ben's

Uncle Ben's is a brand name for parboiled rice and related food products. The brand was introduced by Converted Rice Inc., which was later bought by Mars, Inc....

rice and Kellogg's

Kellogg Company

Kellogg Company , is a producer of cereal and convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, fruit-flavored snacks, frozen waffles, and vegetarian foods...

breakfast cereal furnish illustrations of the problem.

Around 1900, James Walter Thompson

James Walter Thompson

James Walter Thompson was the namesake of the JWT advertising agency and a pioneer of many advertising techniques. He was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts....

published a house ad explaining trademark

Trademark

advertising. This was an early commercial explanation of what we now know as branding. Companies soon adopted slogan

Slogan

s, mascot

Mascot

The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...

s, and jingles that began to appear on radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

and early television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

. By the 1940s, manufacturers began to recognize the way in which consumers were developing relationships with their brands in a social/psychological/anthropological sense.

From there, manufacturers quickly learned to build their brand's identity and personality (see brand identity and brand personality), such as youthfulness, fun or luxury. This began the practice we now know as "branding" today, where the consumers buy "the brand" instead of the product. This trend continued to the 1980s, and is now quantified in concepts such as brand value and brand equity
Brand equity
Brand equity is the marketing effects and outcomes that accrue to a product with its brand name compared with those that would accrue if the same product did not have the brand name. Fact of the well-known brand name is that, the company can sometimes charge premium prices from the consumer . And,...

. Naomi Klein has described this development as "brand equity mania". In 1988, for example, Philip Morris

Altria Group

Altria Group, Inc. is based in Henrico County, Virginia, and is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. It is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations...

purchased Kraft

Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...

for six times what the company was worth on paper; it was felt that what they really purchased was its brand name.

Marlboro Friday

Marlboro Friday

Marlboro Friday refers to April 2, 1993, when Philip Morris announced a 20% price cut to their Marlboro cigarettes to fight back against generic competitors, which were increasingly eating into their market share....

:
April 2, 1993 - marked by some as the death of the brand - the day Philip Morris

Altria Group

declared that they were cutting the price of Marlboro cigarettes by 20% in order to compete with bargain cigarettes. Marlboro cigarettes were noted at the time for their heavy advertising

Advertising

campaigns and well-nuanced brand image. In response to the announcement Wall street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

stocks nose-dived for a large number of branded companies: Heinz

H. J. Heinz Company

The H. J. Heinz Company , commonly known as Heinz and famous for its "57 Varieties" slogan and its ketchup, is an American food company with world headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Perhaps best known for its ketchup, the H.J...

, Coca Cola, Quaker Oats, PepsiCo

PepsiCo

PepsiCo Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, with interests in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company...

. Many thought the event signalled the beginning of a trend towards "brand blindness" (Klein 13), questioning the power of "brand value."

Concepts

Brand awareness

Brand elements

Global brand

Benefits of global branding

Global brand variables

Local brand

Brand name

Types of brand names

Brand identity

Visual brand identity

Brand parity

Expanding role of brand

Company name

Individual branding

Attitude branding and iconic brands

"No-brand" branding

Derived brands

Brand extension and brand dilution

Multi-brands

Private labels

Individual and organizational brands

Crowdsourcing Branding

Nation Branding (Place Branding & Public diplomacy)

History

See also