Branding: A Historical Perspective

Branding: A History

• Branding is an ancient practice. Hunters used weapons of a specific brand in the stone age. Other examples include Chinese porcelain, pottery jars from Greece and Rome, and goods from India dating back to 1300 BC.
  • Branding was already used before the 20th century.
• Mass marketing led to national manufacturer branding. This can be witnessed by the use of branding by companies like Procter & Gamble.

What Is A Brand?

• A brand is more than a product. It has dimensions that differentiate it from other products.
• A brand is a sign of recognition. It identifies a product, its quality, and reduces consumer risk and search costs.
• Blind taste tests demonstrate the influence of branding on consumer perception. Consumers were not able to recognize their usual beers in a blind tasting, but their loyalty towards the brands increased with the presence of labels. Labels can affect our taste perception.
  • The presence of a label can influence taste.
• Brand recognition is the ability to identify a brand that has been seen or heard before.
• Brand recall measures a consumer’s ability to retrieve a brand from memory. It can be aided, unaided, or unaware.
• A brand is a physical manifestation. It is represented by a brand sign, which may be abstract or symbolic.

Branding Components

• Brands can be represented in many dimensions. These can include:
  • Name: e.g. Coca Cola, Apple, Samsung
  • Logo: e.g. Nike swoosh, McDonald's arches
  • Slogan: e.g. "Just Do It," "I'm Lovin' It"
  • Packaging: e.g. distinctive color, shape, font
  • Other: e.g. sound, smell, taste
• Brand success relies on various factors. According to Keller (2008), these include:
  • Brand performance.
  • Brand imagery.
  • Consumer judgments.
  • Consumer feelings.
  • Brand resonance.

Brand Imagery

• Brand imagery involves a product or service attempting to meet a customer’s psychological or social needs.
• Brand imagery encompasses several aspects. These include:
  • User profiles: Perceived type of person or organization that uses the brand.
  • Personality and values: The brand's personality and values.
  • Purchase and usage situations: Situations under which the brand is typically bought and used.
  • Brand credibility: The extent to which the brand is seen as:
    • Expert: (competent, innovative, market leader...)
    • Trustworthy: (dependable, keeping customer interests in mind)
    • Likeability: (fun, interesting, worth spending time with)

Consumer Feelings

• Consumer feelings refer to emotional responses and reactions to a brand. They can influence how a brand affects customers’ feelings about themselves and their relationships.
• Emotional responses: How does the brand make a consumer feel? Is it associated with pleasure, security, comfort, excitement, or something else?
• Brand salience: How memorable is the brand? Does it hold a prominent position in consumers' minds?

Customer-Based Brand Equity

• Customer-Based Brand Equity is focused on consumer perception and the impact it has on buying behavior.
• Brand Equity is developed in stages based on how consumers think and feel about a brand
• The stages of brand development are Salience, Performance, Imagery, Judgements, Feelings, and Resonance
• Salience is the likelihood a brand element comes to mind.
  • Ease of recognition and recall
  • Strength and clarity of category membership
• Performance relates to how well a brand fulfills customer needs
• Imagery relates to how a brand attempts to meet customer psychological or social needs
  • User profiles
  • Personality and Values
  • Purchase and Usage Situations
  • Brand Credibility
  • Brand Consideration
  • Brand Superiority
• Judgements are customer perceptions of a brand's quality
• Feelings are customer emotional responses to a brand
  • Active customer engagement
• Resonance focuses on a customer's relationship with a brand.
  • Intensive and active customer relationships
  • Positive and accessible responses
  • Strong, favorable and unique brand associations
  • Deep and broad brand awareness

Blind Beer Test Experiment

• Participants were able to recognize their usual beers when the labels were present, but not when the labels were removed
• This experiment demonstrates that branding can influence our perception of taste
• The impact of brand identity on consumer evaluations can be significant.

Brand Definition

• A brand is more than a product
• It can have characteristics that differentiate it from similar products
• Brand characteristics include:
  • Sign of recognition
  • Identification
  • Quality
  • Risk and search-cost reducer
  • Physical manifestation
  • Style and design
  • Pricing policy

Brand Imagery

• Imagery is how a brand attempts to meet customer psychological and social needs.
• The brand image is influenced by:
  • User profiles
  • Personality and values
  • Purchase and usage situations
  • Brand credibility
  • Brand consideration
  • Brand Superiority

Consumer Feelings

• Feelings are customer emotional responses to a brand
• Consumer feelings relate to:
  • Active customer engagement

IKEA Brand Equity

• IKEA is a brand which has built strong brand equity
• To improve brand equity, create questions and metrics for every stage of the brand development process

Developing Brand Equity

• To build brand equity, consider its impact across every stage of brand development.
• For each stage, formulate questions and metrics to analyze its effectiveness.

Explore the rich history of branding, from its origins in ancient practices to its role in modern marketing. Understand the significance of brands as more than just products and their impact on consumer perception and loyalty. This quiz delves into the evolution of branding and its importance in the marketplace.