Branding

A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design intended to indentify goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. All organisations and their products can be considered brands only that these brands differ success- some brands are better known and respected than others, even though this success is not a permanent feature. Marketing communication aims at developing and delivering messages on different objects like products, services, stores, events or even people. All these objects can be described as brands. A well known and respected brand is an asset. The brand enables an organisation to enjoy economies of scale , creates barriers to entry for competitors, and differentiates a companys products from those of competitors. From a consumers point of view, brands offer an assurance of consistent performance, and provides signals of benefits whatever benefits (such as prestige and status) for users that consumers seek when buying such a product. Brand Equity A brand posses equity to the extent that consumers are familiar with the brand and have stored in their memory favourable, strong, and unique brand associations. From this consumer perspective brand equity consists of two forms of brand knowledge; brand awareness and brand image. i. Brand awareness; This is the extent to which a brand name comes to the mind of consumers when consumers think about a particular product category and the ease with which the name is evoked. For example if you stop reading and consider the names of toothpastes that quickly come to your mind, you will be ranking brands! A brand has no equity unless the consumer is aware of it, therefore achieving brand awareness is the initial challenge for building news brands, while maintaining high brand awareness is a challenge faced by established brands.

Brand awareness can further be subdivided into brand recognition and brand recall. Brand recognition is a relatively superficial level of awareness, whereas brand recall is a deeper form of awareness. Recall is the deep level of awareness that every marketer aims at, at this level majority of persons with normal intelligence should be able to recall the brand without reminders or cues, e.g. the Coca-Cola brand. ii. Brand image

Brand image is types of associations that come to the consumers mind when contemplating a particular brand. They are particular thoughts or images that a consumer has about a brand, much in the same fashion that we have thoughts about other people. Just like people brand associations can be conceptualised in terms of their type, favourability, strength and uniqueness. The types of brand association can further be subdivided into attributes (nonproduct-related attributed like price, packaging, usage imagery; product-related attributes like colour, size, design features), benefits (functional, symbolic and experiential), and overall evaluation (attitude) Managing Brand Concept Brand must be strategically managed in a continuous effort to enhance equity and to increase consumer loyalty. Managing a brand concept can be accomplished by appealing to any of the three categories of basic consumer needs (benefits); functional, symbolic, or experiential. Consumer needs are they are the needsatisfying features provided by brand. i. Functional Needs: attempt to provide solutions to consumers current consumption-related problems or potential problems by communicating that the brand possesses specific benefits capable of solving this problems. Eg advertisements appealing to consumers functional needs of higher quality products, faster delivery time, betters services, safety, convenience, good health, cleanliness etc. ii. Symbolic Needs: Brands can also be communicated through psychological needs including those directed at the consumers desire for self enhancement, group membership, affiliation, acceptance among other symbolic needs. Advertisers of tobacco, alcoholic drinks, beverages, and 2

jewellery often use symbolic needs to associate these products with desired group roles, self image, and lifestyle among other desires. iii. Experiential needs (psychological needs): Represent consumers desires for products that provide sensory pleasure, variety, and cognitive stimulation. This strategy promote brands by creating them as out of ordinary sensory experience (looking elegant, feeling wonderful, tasting great), with potential for cognitive stimulation