Importance of Branding

Introduction

Over the past years, there has been an increasing corporate fascination with branding. With the present expansive promotional undertakings in numerous media outlets, it is plausible that business establishments of varied sizes have unrelentingly accepted brand establishment as critical business management element. The present marketing undertakings entails array of sophisticated brands that fight to gain superiority over competitors in the backdrop of an increasingly volatile global marketplace. Developing a brand and the subsequent establishment of an enormous loyal clientele base flanks varied corporate marketing strategies. Evidently, the increasingly multifaceted brand promotional outlets are a testimony to the present fascination with brand development. Furthermore, the corporate craze about brand implies an inherent significance of branding to the contemporary business community.

This essay is an exploratory study of branding within the contemporary commercial environment. It discusses the significance of branding in ensuring a successful business undertaking, its role in attracting a significant clientele base; how it affects the varied business undertakings as well as the effect of good and bad branding. Similarly, the essay explores the varied procedures involved in brand establishment and its subsequent entrenchment as a significant marketing force. In this regard, the essay investigates varied suitable brand development criterions. Furthermore, the paper discusses impracticable branding criterions that lead to business failures. Moreover, it covers such areas as technological and aesthetic aspects of brands. It establishes  relationship between two critical branding attributes as well as the brand functionality and the expected aesthetic values. Finally, the essay culminates by suggesting professional procedures for the realization of a good logo.

Significance of Branding in the Success of an Enterprise

According to Walliser (2006, p. 6), branding stemmed from widely practiced activity of marking animals for identification purposes. While this continues to be a widely practiced activity by cattle farmers, over the years it has found divergent applications extending to the present designation of merchandises as well as the naming of the various product outlets. Agreeably, with the emergence of manufactured products and the subsequent centralization of production facilities, manufactures assumed branding as a means of identifying their merchandises amid a host of competing products in both remote and localized markets.  Observably, in the subsequent years, branding has been evolved into its present contextual significance. Noticeably, its present usage within the corporate environment conveys more than the product designation.

Walliser (2006, p. 6) suggests that the present brands are  representation of both the corporate and its associated values that endears it to the intended market. They are legal patents, trademarks, designs and copyrights that flank their products and services. Clifton & Ahmed (2009, p. 112) suggest that over the years the concept has evolved from product description to institutional branding. Evidently, present promotional activities attempts at creating both corporate and  institutional familiarization to the target audience.

Schatte (2009, p. 72) defines branding as means of accordance of  product or a corporate association with the description or  identification and it is aimed at establishing a distinguishing characteristic amid  assortment of dissimilar entities.  In light of this, a brand is essentially the corporate or product identity that defines it to the target client base. Various clients will describe the specific product, service or corporate organization through their established brand names. Evidently, this definition takes into consideration both product and corporate branding as the present branding encompasses merchandise as well as organizational descriptions. Schatte (2009, p. 72) suggests that the establishment and subsequent management of any brand surpasses the legal protection of the varied services and merchandises offered by the said corporation.  This statement culminates the varied significances of branding. It asserts the central role played by branding within the present corporate society.

Schmitt & Rogers (2008, p. 21) observe that a brand is significant in establishing certain perceptions and attitudes about the intended merchandise. Observably, such mindsets in regard to target merchandise are imperative  influencing on a positive buying behavior. Evidently, given constructive perceptions regarding a certain product offering, a consumer will tend to be loyal to the product despite the presence of other superior brands. Agreeably, Schmitt & Rogers (2008, p. 21) suggest that the power of any brand at given marketplace is measurable by its effects on the target regulars. From daily observations, it is evident that influential brands have the consequence of effecting dismal consumer purchases in the absence of the preferred brand. Given this enlightenment, it plausible to culminate that a brand is increasingly significant in determining both clients’ loyalty and the expanse of marketplace commanded by the specific brand.  

According to Soto (2008, p. 12), a brand exerts a number of elements to a target marketplace. Amid these assortment of elements is the personality aspect, which is the subsequently established relations between the brand and the client. Additionally, it creates a culture amid its target clients. Every brand has an associated social attribute from the client perspective. The instance of Mercedes is such a typical brand with an established social view as  product emanating from an excellent engineering undertaking. Similarly, a brand is significant in instituting self-image to a client. Soto (2008, p. 12) suggests that a client’s perception of how a brand enhances his self-image is significant in influencing on a buyer.  This is evident in relation to self-image of individual driving two dissimilar cars such as a Ford and a Mercedes Benz. They will automatically express dissimilar self-image.

Other significances aspects of brand in establishing the success of an enterprise are its physical attributes which conjures its ability to establish craving perceptions in a client. This is imperative in the persuasion of client to buy the target product. Similarly, a brand externally exhibits a reflective attribute, which is imperative in establishing a relationship with its varied users, (Soto, 2008). Evidently, a brand must possess inherent relations with the target clients to influence on sales. In light of this, it is clear that these essential elements culminate in the establishment of  stronger brand loyalty amid clients. In agreement with this assertion is the analysis in Floor (2006, p. 27), which suggests that over the past decades, only products with stronger brand names have remained competitive within the volatile consumers’ environment. Noticeably, despite the competitiveness of the contemporary marketplace, such brand as Hershey’s chocolates and the Coca Cola merchandises remains strong brands with enormous marketplace shares. Evidently, this is the result of their increasingly stronger brands and patents across the globe.

Kapferer (2012, p. 156) observes that the worth of any established brand is the extent of the client’s loyalty that  commands within the target marketplace. Reportedly, higher indexes of client’s loyalty have the implication of extreme interest in the product characterized by dismal concerns with price increments. This affords corporations with a platform for price increments that enables the realization of a desired profit margin. Additionally, it affords the corporation a competitive advantage over rivals, as they are able to attain the desired profit levels.  Evidently, the capacity to control the corporate profit margins through price adjustment without altering the sale volumes is increasingly significant. Apart from its ability to influence on corporate profitability, it provides the organization with a platform on which there are introduced newer products. A good instance is the case of Coca Cola, (Kapferer, 2012). Following its well-established Coca Cola brand, the corporation has introduced newer product lines with dissimilar names but riding on similar platforms as the exceptional Coca Cola brand.

The Role of Branding in our Lives and Businesses

In light of the present trends within the consumer industry, branding is arguably one of the key factors that have increasingly shaped the buying characteristics of numerous clients. Apart from its reported benefits in regard to intensifying corporate profitability, the trend is reputable for massive influence on consumer selections, product loyalty and overall lifestyle. Kotler, & Pfoertsch (2010, p. 42) suggest that brand influences on consumer’s life in dissimilar ways. Reportedly, apart from the obvious provision of a variety of choice, brands offer individuals a social cultural functionality of self-identity. Furthermore, brand asserts a collective identity to client groupings through brand ensembles. Kotler, & Pfoertsch (2010, p. 42) observe that obsession with certain brands has been culminated in the complete social cultural integration of the brands into the consumers’ lifestyle. Evidently, this makes it increasingly difficult to dissociate the consumer with certain brands, as they possess that are perfectly fitted to the client lifestyle. The upshot is an inexorable brand loyalty and disproportionate price increments at the expenses of an unsuspecting clientele base.

In spite of such blind client brand constancy, certain brands have managed to coexist amid divergent fiscal and social cultural backdrops. Such global brands like Coca Cola posses a multicultural attribute as they are widely accepted across  assortment of cultures across the globe. Kotler & Pfoertsch (2010, p. 42) argue that in the backdrop where brands are critical vessels for social cultural interactions, clients widen their knowledge and subsequently adopt newer trends that are increasingly imperative in the distinguishing amid  variety of brands. Evidently, this implies increased brand literacy amid the target consumers.

This is evident in the definition presented by Pike (2011, p. 129) who suggests that brand literacy comprise the capacity of the client to discriminate amid the various disguising techniques used by enterprises in designing, formulating and presenting the varied corporate brands, images and other significant patents.  Romaniuk, Sharp & Ehrenberg (2007, p. 2) observes that brand literacy is the capacity of a client completely to comprehend the varied factors surrounding the given brand. It characterizes the understanding the varied factors that flanks the establishment introduction and sustenance of a particular brand.

Romaniuk, Sharp & Ehrenberg (2007, p. 3) suggest that contrary to the present beliefs, the rationale behind the establishment of brands be aimed at ensuring an excellent client protection from illegal and unbranded merchandises. However, while strong brands persist to afford such security through insistence on quality, other factors have come into play. Evidently, in a bid to sustain already established client bases, numerous corporate brands present brands that claim to afford the desired quality as well as newer and unexplored benefits. With the present incessant pressure from media outlets as well as competitors, numerous corporate organizations are resorted to the adoption of quality brands. Unmistakably, this is a win for both the clients and the corporate organizations. While clients benefit from quality offers, the corporate organizations will enjoy higher share prices driven by the established superior brands. Romaniuk, Sharp & Ehrenberg (2007, p. 3) agree that superior brands have the benefit of establishing share price appreciation.

Fieldler & Kircheorg (2007, p. 177) argue that brands are significant drivers of competitiveness within the increasingly globalised economy. Evidently, the competitiveness of a particular brand is momentous in ensuring comparable demands and supplies. Furthermore, the dissimilar brands facilitate comparison thereby hastening the choice amid the varied offered brands by the prospective consumers. Additionally, Fieldler & Kircheorg (2007, p. 178) suggest that brands are critical in the eventual adaptability and overall fiscal expansion of any economic setup. This is ensured  through the extension of corporate brands to businesses across varied geographical as well as dissimilar social cultural divides. Fieldler & Kircheorg (2007, p. 178) suggest that brands are beneficial to both the prospective client and the concerned corporate organizations. They ensure accountability within the business environment as well as the facilitation of a knowledge based fiscal augmentation within the corporate environment.

The Varied Information Conveyed by both good and bad Branding

From the forgone discussions, it is clear that establishing a brand loyalty amid a given pool of clients is imperative in ensuring continued corporate profitability. However, for one to establish such long lasting relations, the information conveyed by the brand must be both attractive and must have a direct relations with the utility derived from the product utilization. Stankovic & Djukic (2006, p. 125) call the varied information conveying properties of brands as brand elements. Reportedly, these elements are the critical attributes that pass critical information to prospective clients.

Furthermore, they differentiate the specific brand from other brands. They include such identities as the specific names, particular URLs, signs and cryptogram utilized in the product, catchphrases as well as packaging and other information on the product.  Stankovic & Djukic (2006, p. 125) suggest that varied information contained in brands are descriptions aimed at performing certain functionalities in brands. Reportedly, from the design level to implementation one, brand functionality should be very clear. Evidently, such directness is imperative in the realization of the ultimate corporate goal.

In his analysis, Stankovic & Djukic (2006, p. 127) suggest that a good brand should have such elements as ease to memorize and an inherent meaningfulness. Evidently, in oredr to create a lasting impression and corresponding lasting client relations, the essential brand elements should be easily memorable. Furthermore, they should convey information that has meaning and other attributes that facilitates ease of comprehension. Similarly, a brand should be likable and transferable. Stankovic & Djukic (2006, p. 125) propose that a brand should convey information that has an inherent appeal to the target clients while remaining easily transferable across dissimilar social cultural backdrops. The instance of Coca Cola brand is perfect for this attribute, as the product has attained the overall transferability across a multifaceted social cultural backdrop as well as an expansive geographical divide.  Additionally, it is easily defensible in varied competitive environments. In contrast to this, bad brands underperform and remain localized with dismal penetration to the global marketplace.