What is a Brand? Explain the importance and scope of Branding.

Brand forms an important part of product strategy. Brands can convey several meanings to buyers. For example, Nike stands for trendy, quality and well-engineered products.
Brand is something that resides in the minds of consumers. It is important to convey to the customers to buy a product by giving it a name and using brand elements to help identify it. Identity is important to help make customers make a choice from among offerings in the market. For example, a customer can make a choice from a number of washing powders in the market like Tide, Ariel, etc.

Definitions of Brand-
• A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combinations of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. – American Marketing Association.

• A brand is a product that adds dimensions to differentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same need.

• Brand is a broad term encompassing most ways of identifying a product, such as its name, design, or symbol.

Below are several terms associated with Branding-
Brand Name – the part of the brand that can be vocalised. For example – Apple, Samsung, Coca-Cola.

Brand Mark – the part of the brand that cannot be vocalised, such as symbol, design, colouring, or lettering. It is a part that can be recognised but cannot be vocalised. For example, the golden arch associated with McDonald’s, a bit taken out of an apple is associated with Apple brand mark

Trademark – a brand becomes a trademark when it is registered and legalised. The organisation gets a legal right to use a brand name or brand mark.

Copyright – it is the sole legal right to reproduce and sell a literary or artistic expression.

Brand Extension – involves utilizing an existing brand name or brand mark for a new product category.

Importance and scope of Branding-
There are many important reasons for branding products from the firm’s perspective –

1) Means of identification – Branding helps position a product in terms of price, quality, status, etc. Customers look for certain brands basis its value and prestige. The branding done on cartons (packaging) helps simplify handling and tracing as well.

2) Trademark – It also protects company’s efforts for which huge expenditures have be made in promotional activities. A brand serves as a source of a company’s image, and by legalising it, brand protects the image. Competitors cannot copy the same brand image or name once it is patented or trademarked.

3) Easy launching of new products or product lines – An organisation with a successful brand image in a market can rely heavily on its brand for launching new products or entering new markets.

4) Customers influence demand of successful brands – Customers do influence distributors by inquiring about a successful brand. This helps the manufacturers as distributors are asked to deliver brands with high demand. This strengthens company’s influence in the distribution network to a large extent.

5) Customer loyalty – Branding becomes a means of creating customer loyalty. A customer impressed with a product from a brand, will be inclined to buy a different product from the same brand.

6) Competitive advantage – A successful brand in the market poses a big challenge for competitors to capture its market share. It also serves as a deterrent for new entrants in the market.

7) Helps in segmenting the market – for example, different detergent brands are marketed for different segments.

Customer’s perspective- acustomer benefits in the following ways –
1) Identification of the source of the product.

2) Symbol of quality – Mercedes is associated with well-built and engineered vehicle of highest quality.

3) Easy comparison among same kind of products from different manufacturers.

4) Assignment of responsibility to the manufacturer – warranties, guarantees, after sales service, returns.

5) Status symbol – various psychographic variables influence a person’s buying of certain brands. Customers many times choose a brand that serves as an extension to their personality, status in the society. For most of the customers, buying a Jaguar car not only serves the need of travelling but also a status symbol in the society. Buying a Royal Enfield or a Harley Davidson fulfils the macho and rugged image of buyers.

The scope of branding extends to-
1) Physical goods – commodities, high-tech products, etc.

2) Services – Hilton hotels, British airways, etc.

3) Distributors (brick mortar – Distributors with physical location – as well as e-commerce) – Walmart, Shoppers Stop, Big Bazaar, Amazon, Flipkart, etc.

4) Places – tourist spots, destinations. For example, countries like Australia, Indonesia have their own tag lines and promotion strategies to attract tourists.

5) People – Roger Federer, Sharapova, Messi, etc.

6) Ideas and causes– red cross, UNICEF, etc.

7) Sports, events, arts and entertainment – English Premier League, Disney parks, Miss Universe, etc.