What is Branding?

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WHAT IS BRAND

Brands are everywhere. Brands is not a logo, corporate entity, Advertising or marketing. Brand means setting up of confidence, Passion, Belonging, Action, Security and set of unique values in the mind of customer about product or services

HISTORY OF BRANDING

History of branding dates back to 1650, to denote ownership of property, at first cattle were branded with paint or pine tar; later, unfortunately, cattle and sheep were branded with hot irons. Humans were also branded for various reasons. Slaves were branded to mark ownership; criminals were branded with disgrace. During World War II, victims of Nazi persecution who were interned in concentration camps were branded with numbers. Then brands are used for Red Wine to guarantee source and quality of it.

BRANDS AS BIG BUSINESS

Brands are always big business. In 2010, Coca Cola was valued at 7045 crore dollars which is more than the total GDP of Bolivia, Kenya and Bahrain. In 1886 only 9 bottles of Coke were sold, but in 2010 more than 160 crore bottles of Coke were sold that is enough for every person of London to drink 206 bottles each day.

WHAT CAN BE BRANDED?
 Products: Ford and Apple are major examples
 Services: American Express, Manchester United etc.
People: Lady Gaga, Messy etc.
Places: Underground, I love NY etc.
 Religions: Buddhism (laughing Buddha), Christianity (Cross) etc.

WHAT CAN BRANDS DO?

Brands can take your company and Products to different places

Example: Virgin as a brand in different parts of world.

Virgin Australia, Virgin America, Virgin Drinks, Air Nigeria, Air Asia, Virgin Megastore, Virgin Banks, Virgin Active, Virgin Trains, Virgin Records, Virgin Radio, Virgin mobile, Virgin Blue holdings Ltd, Virgin Media, Virgin V Festival, Virgin Charter Mobile, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic

BRANDS AND THEIR INFLUENCE

Brands influence customers in large extent that they use them as verb. Example: Google it, Skype your family, Photoshop the picture, Hoover the Carpet etc.

Brands guarantee quality, evoke the desire and help customers to make them feel belong to them.

BRANDS IN PRESENT SCENARIO

Brands work in different way in a ways that never could be used before. These brands say use me to customer for their needs. Examples: Finding info – Google info, Sharing film – YouTube film, Selling stuff – EBay stuff, Making friends – Facebook friends, Adding to Knowledge – Adding to Wikipedia etc.

BRANDS: TO WHOOM THEY BELONG?

Brands from past belong to farmers, manufacturers, advertisers, organisations etc. Presently Brands belong to everyone, Brands can be made and unmade by everyone. They mean what an individual want to say. Now Brands are everyone’s property and creation and destruction is in hands of everyone.

MACRO PERSPECTIVE OF MARKET: BRANDING

The evolution of product from simple extraction to higher level can be seen in the following table. The definitions of commodities, Goods and Brands are explained.

Time period	Definition of product	Remark
Starting Days	Extractions
Olden Days	Extractions+Value	Commodities (Improved Extractions)
Later  Days	Extractions+Value+Refinement	Goods(Improved Commodities)
Modern Days	Extractions+Value+Refinement+Subjective Benefits	Brands
Present Days	Extractions+Value+Refinement+Subjective+Benefits Buying Experience	Environment
Future Days	Extractions+Value+Refinement+Subjective+Benefits Buying Experience+ Higher Level needs	Higher level

BRANDS ASSOCIATION and VALUE:

Blindfold test is conducted to find the association of brands with customers. A blindfold test of cool drinks showed that when customers are blindfolded they preferred local cool drinks but, when customers are allowed to see the product then they preferred the major brands.  This shows the extent of associations brands produce on people by their perception .

Brand value is the price which customer wants to pay more for the product compared to other similar products available in market.