To say brand communities are selective is an understatement itself. They place their emphasis more on symbolism than substance. Therefore, the importance of branding is a critical component used by marketers to leverage and lure consumers towards building a cohesive identity (Solomon et al.,2016). A visible brand identity, brings about a set of positive and negative aspects of brand communities for marketers. These communities have the capacity to resurrect and/or promote the brand. Having a loyal base has its pros and cons, especially for marketers who need to handle issues posed, delicately and competently to avoid any damages to the brand’s image and influence. An effective product positioning strategy is heavily relied by brands to establish their brand position and differentiate itself, producing a strong competitive advantage. This exclusivity would increase sales and strengthen the long-term position of the brand (Clow and Baack,2014).
2.Branding’s Relevance A distinctive brand-identity is relevant, differentiated and well-esteemed which influences consumers’ perception. Brand’s respect stems from establishing a positive connection, resulting in a strong brand equity. This allows brands to attain consumers’ loyalty, commercial success, product awareness, power and value universally (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014). Upkeeping an image consistent over the years is built upon a set of associative networks which foster strong relations and satisfaction (Whalley,2010).
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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
Remembering that a brand is more than simply a logo, this guide is offered to help you understand and develop not merely a symbolic brand, but rather a living brand that is
Brand image has developed the propensity among consumers regarding brand preference and brand loyalty, which are becoming the deciding factor of consumer buying decisions. Furthermore, Companies with the help of advertisement, promotional events, research and development, and using popular faces as their brand ambassadors are targeting to create their brand image which directly stimulates the buying decision of customers.
Brand equity is an important key to produce customer loyalty. It is a powerful factor in winning market share. It helps an organization or a brand to grow and defend market share. A brand with strong and positive image and productivity has the ability in driving stable customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is the combination of consistently positive consumption experience, perceived value of experience and also physical satisfaction towards products and services. Consumers always have a positive view on the brand they are supporting the most. Customer is a major key for a brand to success, therefore
The brand must be distinct and stand out in ways that relevance to consumers’ needs so as to be chosen by the consumers among thousands of brands in the market. However, before consumers respond to the brand’s communication efforts, the brand must be understood and understood correctly. That familiarity leads to a strong, positive consumer-brand connection.
A brand is an organisation, product or service which has created an emotional connection with their consumers in order for them to favour their brand over their competitors. It is incredibly important for brands to keep up their image and one little thing could change the global perception of a business. It takes a lot to maintain a brand image that has been built up over a long period of time and even more to regain it if that reputation is lost. Brands are created through various different aspects such as their visuals, tone of voice, advertising, actions and reputation. The combination of these will leave their consumers with long lasting emotions and perceptions of a particular brand and will effect whether they support a business or not and whether they would favour or avoid it. When a brand looses their image it can cost a lot of money and time to rebrand to prevent complete failure of the product or service.
With personal branding becoming a huge success in today’s generation, many students have taken their chances and have stood up for themselves by showcasing their names as a brand. Many of today’s youth have also showcased their personalities on various social media sites and media platforms. One such user is me, I have made many accounts on social media apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. I have created an identity that will help me evolve into a better person, I really feel like the mainstream audience should pay more attention to middle class kids as we all are the same and deserve equal respect. Having an identity puts you in a new place within civilization, this is important to note because it means that you are different from others and might have the potential to do something that could make people remember who you are. These social media sites have had a great influence on me and maybe many others. Using the benefits these companies have provided I looked for ways where I could step up my game and tell the world that a person named Harshpreet Singh exists. Some things I do that separates me from the others is how I always work hard to improve my vocabulary and make it as diverse as possible. Another reason that makes me stand out is the way I approach others, people around the globe should feel the honesty one is trying to showcase and I believe that this is the way everyone should communicate in order to win others hearts. I speak two
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.
Lush Ltd. is a cosmetics retailer headquartered in Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom. The company was founded by Mark Constantine, a trichologist and Liz Weir, a beauty therapist. They met in a hair and beauty salon in Poole, England. A few years later, they decided to branch out and start their own business selling natural hair and beauty products.
Holt (2004, 2006) tells that brands are cultural symbol expressing the identity (rituals, language and iconic activities) of consumers. Brand is described by a symbol or name that people use to discuss about particular service or product. Brand symbol is very significant for giving a unique image to any type of brand. The author recommended the classification of brand community as very difficult and complex fact. This makes the whole article more complicated to understand. Schau et al. (2009) have defined 12 practices related with brand communities. These practices are distinguished into impression management, community engagement, brand use and social networking. However, It is not easy task to separate the brand communities from other communities because of their broadness and complexity in characteristics. The authors have written about one characteristic that make brand community different from other type of community- to make a brand as the surpassing all other association. Firstly, “brand” is a central point of brand community which is shown by symbol (linguistic marker, visual marker and
In society today, everything has a name for it. If the product doesn’t have a well-known name, it goes by name that a well-known product that is similar goes by. Branding has made its impact on society and it’s never going to go away. In this situation, all we can do from here is analyze more and more until we fully understand its presence in society and its effects. Branding has its biggest effects on consumerism, which makes us question consumerisms power in society. Has our society become one big, replicated consumer or can a consumer or even a person still be unique and individual? Branding creates competition amongst companies throughout the world and creates a competition for the consumers. Not only, it also creates issues, creates
Earlier companies use to concentrate on making a brand image is to only entice new customers but these days theories have turned around. Maintaining the brand has become one of the prime targets’ for marketing professionals in order to gratify existing customers.
Brand Community plays an important role too. As stated in the case study, Brand Communities eliminates the role of company’s marketing team and various agents. This might not be correct every time because even if the customer is not in the brand community then too he can get knowledge of brand through various kinds of marketing techniques such as advertisements. Brands are more important as compared to the Brand Communities. Brand Communities are secondary while the Brands are primary. The reason is, it is the Brand through which customer will be able to recognize a particular product and buy it. After buying that product if the customer is satisfied with it, he/she will be willing to buy that product again. It is then, when the customer will become a part of that particular Brand Community. For example, if we consider Apple, people are first attracted towards it due to its innovative thinking, its brand name and due to the designs of their products. But after they buy their products, for example iPhone, they are willing to buy iPhone every time when its new version is released. So, they will become the part of their Brand
Brand community is a customer-customer-brand triad. It reflects on a collection of brand-centric social group