Marketing Case Study : ' When Totems Beget Clans '

A brand is a portfolio of qualities associated with a name, which in turn invokes certain images to individuals and hold values beyond the benefits of a product (Iacobucci, 2018). Brand association occurs when customers make a cognitive or emotional association with a particular brand. For instance, when a customer sees a certain color, symbol, logo, or name they automatically can make a connection to a particular brand. Brands start with a name that conveys information, suggest their benefits, or can even be named after their founders (Iacobucci, 2018). In the marketing perspective marketers can control the brand which they are marketing by using catching logos, colors, slogans, or even the products shape and appearance. In marketing a marketer can control the message they are trying to convey but cannot really have control over an individual’s association with that particular brand. Once a customer has an association with a particular brand they may favor the brand based on a past experience or even that individual’s sense of style or they may dislike a brand because of an association they

The second element to a community is shared rituals and traditions which represent important social processes by which the meaning of the community is reproduced and transmitted within and beyond community (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001, p. 412; Brodie et al. 2013). Through these social processes consumers create their own interpretations of their individual community experience and use this to relate back to the brand. The consumers will then transmit these experiences within and beyond the borders of the community (Casaló, Flavián, & Guinalíu, 2008).  A ritual that has been adopted amongst the Saab brand community can be seen through this discussion:

Brand community culture play very important roles when people purchase products. People tend to buy brands that they know they can trust and brands that they know won’t disappoint them. Brand communities such as Holden car users versus Ford car users bring together an awareness to other

In lean economic time nowadays, only a few firms comprehend and execute approaches to stir customer loyalty towards a brand, achieve marketing efficiency, and brand credibility provided by that solid communities (Fournier and Lee, 2009). For whisky communities play critical roles in local whisky industry, new approaches for increasing their impacts are suggested.

Store brands saw a rise during the recession, but many consumers continue to buy them. With the recession over, consumers purchase store brands for different reasons other than cost savings. Store brands are now competing with national brands. Both, store and national brands, need to focus on what they can do for their consumers and offer them value plus brand promises. How is this accomplished? This paper explains the causes behind the rise of store brands and how national and store brands create brand loyalty by focusing on consumer needs as they compete for consumers, along with how brands achieve success.

In a society where corporations are constantly competing for business, branding has become the ultimate way for companies to win over customers. Defining exactly what a brand is, however, is a challenging task. ‘Brand’ has become something of a buzzword over the past decade, though this is not without reason, given the functional purpose of branding in building a competitive business. Branding is much more than a buzzword - it is, in a sense, a company’s promise to its consumers. When a product, service, or company is well branded, consumers know exactly what they’re going to get when they invest. In another sense, branding is the outward projection of what a business hopes to associate with its name. A brand includes not

It has now been established that brand communities are a privileged link between companies and consumers. Their impact on brand commitment, loyalty and equity has also been widely documented (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001; Fournier & Lee, 2009). Mc Alexander, Schouten & Koenig (2002) even argue that consumer’s relationships with, and attitudes towards the brand are highly influenced by the social interactions between community members. Moreover, the online version of brand communities has existed and been examined in numerous articles (Rothaermel & Sugiyama, 2001; Sicilia & Palazon, 2008; Hagel and Armstrong, 1997; Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001; Fournier & Lee, 2009; McAlexander et al., 2002). Still, recently, new forms of online brand communities have emerged due to the rise of the Web 2.0, and they call for more oriented research.

The field of marketing has experienced a paradigm shift because of the fact that the principles of relationships have nearly substituted short-term exchange notions. While the relationship perspective has received increased acceptance and relevance, it has been hugely under-realized in many marketing literature. According to the findings of research, customers generally want brands to listen and respond to them. Consequently, brands that involve and engage customers in relationships that are mutually beneficial stand to gain the most. This is primarily because customers are willing to demonstrate huge support to brands they regard as favorite. The support is mainly demonstrated through buying more of the product or service, convincing other people to become customers of the product or service, and positive word of mouth. Notably, the main link to the relationship between customers and brands is the desire for brands to listen and respond to customers rather than seeking to sell the products or services at the cheapest prices.

The main aim of this study was to investigate the ways brands gain successful exposure in the market, and the way they build relationships with consumers. Upon researching, it was found that there are certain brands that do not necessarily follow the current advised procedures for this practice. One of these brands is Apple Inc., and being one of the most cherished brands of all times, it was decided that an investigation on its consumers’ behaviour would possibly shed light over the research question: “Are there exceptions to the current rules in the practice of brand communications and exposure?”. To be able to raise the hypothesis of the exception, the current procedures for successful brand exposure and communications, were examined and analysed, and then compared to the survey’s results on Apple’s consumers’ opinions.

There has been debates on the meaning of corporate identity, to name a few, seven schools of thought on corporate identity (Balmer, 1995), three perspectives on the meaning of corporate identity (van Riel & Balmer, 1997) and so on. Although there is difference, those meanings on corporate identity share some similarities, namely visual elements, behaviors and communications. In van Riel and Balmer’s (1997) graphic design paradigm, visuals are used to convey messages about the corporate mission, vision, philosophy and so on to various stakeholders. Visuals can be the corporate logo, its font types, its slogans, etc. which will be diffused in print ads, video ads, brochures, presentations, annual reports… As mentioned earlier, symbolism has a semantic interpretation—symbols/signifiers and their signified. Here, symbols are used interchangeably with logo or the brand name. The symbols serve as a representation of the brand and the design of symbols is infused with brand identity and symbolic meanings of the brand. Given that customers make their purchase decision without actually receiving any tangible service in service brands, symbols are often used as surrogate “evaluation variables” (Hansen, 1972).

The evolving nature of the engagement between brands and consumers will be a subtopic I will try to elaborate on. Further, I will attempt to give an insight on how the presence of brand communities nave nurtured brand engagement, co-creation and perceived value.

A brand is a way for customers to identify goods and/or services that a company is providing and helps differentiate them from competitors, and their experience of the company and the products will reflect their brand equity (Kotler, Bowen, & Makens, 2014; Bailey & Ball, 2006). There are two definitions of a brand; the first is the product plus definition, where a brand is seen as an identifier for the product (Ambler & Styles, 1996). The second definition, which more relevant to today’s environment is the holistic view, where the brand includes all elements of the marketing mix and is not solely based on the product (Ambler & Styles, 1996). Keller defines brand equity as “the differential effect that consumer brand knowledge has on their response to marketing activity” (1999). A brand aims for positive brand equity so that consumers will choose their products/services over the competition and therefore increase their market share (Kotler et al., 2014; Rangaswamy, Burke, & Oliva, 1992).

For example, company Apple produces own devices from high-quality components, as a result consumers often can forgive them for a bit higher price products. Another component of brand loyalty is service quality that is a kind of personal selling when salesmen and potential buyers create direct communication. In fact, consumers like to shop so where they are satisfied with the service and receive a small privileges. Good relationship between buyer and seller ultimately leads to the construction of communication, and as a result in the future consumer is bound to a particular brand. Moreover a personal approach to customers impacts on their experience and service’s evaluation and additionally, influence on the loyalty to the brand (To and Leung, 2001, as cited in Yee & Sidek, 2008). In the context of brand loyalty, it is also a very important concept of word of mouth. This is a peer to peer communication that consumers use it to express their attitude towards a particular product or service. Also it is very important that consumers can express their opinion about it in a positive and negative way (Rehman, Zia-ur-Rehman & Dr. Akhtar, n.d). Public forums are a great example of the concept word of mouth. On this platform people can communicate with each other and ask or express opinion about some products or services.

Brand strategy plays an important role in making a brand strong. For example, ‘brand strategy decisions involve brand positioning, brand name selection, brand sponsorship and brand development’ (Kotler, Brown, Adam, Burton, Armstrong, 2007). With strong brands, their brand is positioned on ‘strong beliefs and values’ (Kotler, Brown, Adam, Burton, Armstrong, 2007). These strong brands arouse different emotions, for example, the brand Nike might make the consumer think that wearing Nike will give them a ‘cool look’. Another example of this is that using Colgate toothpaste will give consumers ‘healthy, beautiful smiles for life’ (Kotler, Brown, Adam, Burton, Armstrong, 2007). The importance of a brand is also important in a strong brand as it influences the types of brands that consumers will buy. In a study conducted by Swedish students, they found that consumer lifecycle stages affect how they view different brands. For example, when a person is single they seek to ‘define their self-identity’ (Sääksjärvi, Kedzior, 2006, p2). Therefore, the importance of a strong brand is that consumers can find the right brand for

The site ‘offers a place that caters to a specific population, thus creating a community many are unable to find outside of an online setting.’ (Gallion, 2014, p.g 2)