Personal Statement : I Love Cake

A brand is what can either attract people to you or make people avoid you; people would identify you by the brand you portray. One can communicate their brand through actions and words. “It is essential to understand that wherever we are, in whatever we do, we are all building our brand”.

Treat our customers with sincerity, kindness, and respect, and think of new ways to impress, delight, and surprise them.

Customers want quality goods for low prices, they basically want to feel like they got more than their moneys worth

According to Holt (2004), a brand can be defined as a term, name or a design that distinguishes product or service of one manufacturer from others. Brands are normally utilized in advertising, business and marketing. In accounting terms, brand is an intangible asset which is present within every organization. It is most valuable asset that is outlined in the balance sheet of a company. Brands owners need to effectively manage their brands in order to enhance shareholder value. Brand valuation is an important technique that associates money with a brand. Effective branding often results into high sales volumes of a particular product. A customer who prefers a brand is more likely to choose other products which are offered by the same brand. Brand can be stated as a personality that facilitates identification of a company, product or service. It even encompasses relation with other constituents like customers, partners, investors, staff, etc. Individuals distinguish psychological aspect of a brand from experimental

Today’s sellers are struggling to control the sales process, a phenomenon that gradually raised the last years as buyers have become highly demanding. Buyers have access on the web, seeking for information before they take a purchasing decision and they expect sellers to follow them in all stages – where they have been, what they saw, how long they stayed and what channel they used.

Lederer and Hill’s Brand Portfolio Molecule analyzes an organization’s brand in a multidimensional view. Every organization should have a brand portfolio which categorizes how the organization identifies its goods and services in order to distinguish their product offerings from the competitors (Fortenberry, 2010, p. 76).

Customers want to get exactly what they need, even if they have to pay a higher cost or wait a little longer. Companies which serve these types of customers are committed to improving “customer intimacy”. For example, Honda, British Airways.

Providing a branding platform to deliver creative storytelling, and a clear strategy to elevate your clients service or product.

Brand strategy is of upmost importance when it comes to customer visualizing a company. Branding is critical to the company as well as the product. The company brand embodies what the company is about,including the product (Hatline, M.D. & Ferrel, O.C., 2014). Branding provides the company with leverage when it tries to enter new markets Whether that be new locations or new product offerings (Douglas, S. P., Craig, C. S., & Nijssen, E. J., 2001).

We realize that customers are really important. Our expectations that customers are satisfied with our

Brand extensions afford many companies the ability to introduce new products backed by a brands affluence, quality, or popularity. This greatly reduces launch costs, as new brand launches can reach astronomical costs. Ultimately, once a strong customer loyalty is established with one particular brand, consumers tend to purchase these new products as well (Kotler & Keller, 2016, pg. 325).

In the theory, it defines a brand as a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate the offering from those of other competitors. Simply put, branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B, which is the promise to customers and tells them what they can expect from the products and services. (Lake, 2015) (Williams, 2014) Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand.

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is a “name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition”. However, as Keller highlights, a brand is also “something that has actually created a certain amount of awareness, reputation, prominence, and so on in the marketplace”. Therefore, a brand is an identity created to differentiate itself from the competitors and to be remembered in consumer’s mind.

Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.

And as I have learned from our Marketing class discussion, managing and establishing a good branding of your products are of great importance when entering into the realm of business. But, despite its known importance, many people may still have linked the meaning of brand to just the name or label of a business. Here, we must know that it is definitely more than just that.