UC Course - Marketing Communication Theory

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UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA

Division of Communication and


Education School of Professional
Communication

MARKETING
COMMUNICATION
THEORY M
Essay on

BrandFunctions
Brands perform many functions that benefit the consumer and
the organization, the simplest being that of an identifier. Describe
two other functions you believe are most important and explain why

Lecturer: Raveena Singh


Presented by: Kraivich Kraisintu ID3003196
Submission date: 26th May 2006

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Over the years, we have shifted away from mass production to mass customization,
which has led to an era of virtually limitless choices for consumers. The democratization
of information, coupled with globalization and cutting-edge technology, has generously
empowered consumers. Not only word-of-mount but also word-of-web has greatly
influenced consumers in making purchase decision. As a result, doing everything faster
seems to be the new standard, product development cycles and product life cycles have
become shorter than ever before. Therefore, there has been an inevitable calling for
branding, which provides a virtually inestimable value to the organization as a mark of
trust and quality for consumers

Before describing the two other functions of brands, I must first make two things quite
clear, the first is the definition of brand so that we will see the same picture of this topic
of discussion; the second is whether the simplest function of brand in an identifier or not.

The Dictionary of Business and Management defines brand as A name, sign or symbol
used to identify items or services of the seller(s) and to differentiate them from goods of
competitors. It is true that signs and symbols are part of what a brand is, but to us, as a
marketing communication practitioner, this is a very incomplete definition. Walter
Landor, one of the big names in our industry, stated that Simply put, a brand is a
promise. By identifying and authenticating a product or service it delivers a pledge of
satisfaction and quality. David Aaker suggests that the brand is a mental box in his
book Building Strong Brands. After considering many definitions by the industrys
famous names, I chose the definition of brand by Peter Matthews, Managing Director of
brand agency Nucleus, stating that A brand represents a collection of perceptions
that exist in the mind of the consumer. This definition makes it absolutely clear that a
brand is very different from a product or service. A Brand is intangible and exists in the
mind of the consumer. More importantly, this definition makes it clear how to build a
brand. A brand is build not only through top-notch communications or appealing,
beautiful logos. A brand is build through the total experience that it offers. Matthewss
definition is also supported by Shelly Lazarus, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide,
who stated that:

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Brand is not just what you say it is. Its the totality of what people
experience. From quality, to taste, to packaging, to the retail
environment, to your showroom, design and color, to corporate
reputation, to the delivery truck, to word-of-mouth, to telemarketing
script and receptionists style, to overreaching prejudices and social
attitudes, to the way you answer telephone, to collective and individual
memories, to history. Scraps and straws that add up to the most
valuable asset a company has. Its a 360 degree involvement

I could not agree more that the simplest function of brand is undoubtedly identifier;
however, making brand an identifier is not at all an easy task. Todays brands are no
longer a simple trademark, logo with a little tagline underneath it. Hyper-competition and
information clutter have made it more difficult for the target audience to remember the
brand. According to Pashlers theory of attention, known as controlled parallel
processing. People have the ability to restrict their attention only to one object but are
capable of selecting visual stimuli in one part of space and auditory stimuli in another
part (Penhallurick & Wills 2002:62). An auditory sensory storage system called echoic
memory holds information much longer than iconic memory, which is a visual sensory
memory (The latter only lasts for several hundred milliseconds the first lasts for two to
three seconds). As a result, the more we are able to trigger senses, the more likely the
brand is to be remembered.

Martin Lindstrom has proposed five brand senses involving in recalling and identifying
brands, namely Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight and Sound. Many brands in Fortune Top 100
were able to use other elements than sight as an identifier for the brand. For instance,
intel microprocessors, the five-note jingle has been an identifier for the company for a
decade, people could immediately identify the brand just when they hear the jingle.
Dove liquid soap used touch as an identifier even more than sight; people tend to
remember Dove by its unique creamy feeling rather than how the bottle looks like.

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However, I would like to argue that, in a freedom of information era, brand may no
longer function as a corporate identifier as many sources of information still suggested,
for instance, the definition by the dictionary of business and management which stats that
A name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller(s). I believe that
brand is more likely to function as an individual identifier. The thought that brand is a
corporate identifier could be true if we apply the massive effects theory which states that
the media present messages to the members of the mass society who perceive them more
or less uniformly (Penhallurick & Wills 2002:16), the stimuli lead individuals to respond
in a somewhat uniform manner, creating changes in thought and action that are like those
changes in other persons. Therefore, the belief that brand is a corporate identifier is likely
to support the massive effects theory, which was generally totally discredited. John
Penhallurick & Wills (2002: 17) stated When empirical research demonstrated that the
theory of massive, uniform media effects was rubbish, it was assumed that media effects
were mediated by various factors.

As a result, I would like to propose that brand is an individual identifier. According to


Selective Influence theories, the first version of this theory is selective influences based
on individual differences, which states that the media present messages to the members
of mass society but those messages are received and interpreted selectively, based upon
the variations of the habits of perception among members of society. Thus, the effects of
the media are not uniform. Their influences are selective and limited by individual
psychological differences (Lowery & De Fleur 1988).

Because of the individual psychological differences, there might be no such thing as the
universal identifier. In other words, it greatly depends upon how each individual
perceives. For instance, the reason why iPod has been a market hit was probably not
because iPod successfully used brand to identify itself, but individuals who bought it used
iPod to communicate themselves differently. They may want to be perceived as being a
trendsetter, the other group may want to be perceived as being wealthy (especially in
Thailand, not everyone could afford iPod when it first came out) so iPod could as well be
an identifier of their social status. And because of this, it has become even more popular,

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according to the Social Learning Theory human beings learn by modeling the behavior
of others, which takes place in a sequence (Singh 2002:32),: we notice behavior (the
wealthy, the trend setter uses it), we admire the behavior and wish to emulate it (we love
being a trend setter or a wealthy so we want one too) and we finally emulate it.

The above example illustrates how brand functions as an individual identifier which
varies upon different individuals. To sum, I believe that the simplest function of brand is
an identifier. However, it is no longer a corporate identifier. The companies cannot just
uniformly program the intended perceptions towards their brands into consumers
brains, hoping that everybody will think the same.

The rest of this essay will be dedicated to proposing two functions of brands that I believe
are the most important. Before proposing the two functions of brands, please note that
some small details of the two functions that I am going to propose may be overlapped due
to the fact that they are both considerably broad. However, the two main functions are
very different and should be able to cover many aspects of the brands from the
viewpoints of consumers as well as marketing communication practitioner.

The first function of brand that I would like to propose is Consumers Decision
Companion. Brands offer guidance, convey an expectation of quality and offer help and
support to those making purchase decisions. Moreover, they minimize the perceived
purchasing risk, which in turn helps cultivate a trust-based relationship. Therefore,
brand is more than a guarantor of experience or a mark of trust and quality; it
means everything, rationally or irrationally, emotionally or unemotionally. To sum,
it (1) simplifies and (2) motivates consumers decisions.

The major reason why I am proposing this function is because it is a function that is
looked through the consumers point of view, in other words, I first put customers at the
center and see what brand can do to make their life easier, and that is why this function is
chosen out of a hundred functions from different angles, different viewpoints.

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How brand simplifies decision can be described by the standard four-step decisionprocess model by Lawson et al. (1996:13), which assumes that consumers are rational
beings going through a series of logical steps aimed at producing the best possible
decision in the circumstances. The four steps are 1) Problem (or need) recognition 2)
Information search and evaluation 3) Purchase 4) Post-purchase. In fact, brand helps
simplify decision in many steps at every type of decision situations, namely high
involvement & planned, high involvement & on-the-spot, low involvement & planned
and low involvement & on-the-spot.

In the first stage, problem (or need) recognition the brand helps activate problem
recognition both by influencing the consumers desired state and/or perceptions of the
actual state. For example, AMD, known for its power and speed, released the worlds
fastest processor called AMD Athlon64FX-62. Consumers might not realize their
problems or need before; they did not want a superpower processor until the new AMD
came out and stress the utilitarian benefits. The great new product with the famous name
like AMD make it easier for consumers to realize their problems or needs and proceed to
the next stage, information search and evaluation.

In the second stage, the stage of information search and evaluation is where brands shine.
Brands help reduce perceived risk and thus simplify the decision. The literature shows
how individuals will pay a premium to avoid uncertain outcomes (Beatty & Smith, 1987;
Dowling & Staelin, 1994; Shimp & Bearden, 1982). A faulty or inappropriate product not
only fails to provide satisfaction but may involve time-consuming visits to the original
retailer to rectify the situation. Consumers, in many cases, prefer to pay a little extra for a
trusted brand rather than accept the risk of poor quality or rectification problems, such as
in the case of Pampers, for example. That many others seem to be buying the brand
provides reassurance in itself and ensures that the product will continue to exist and will
be able to afford service backup and product improvements (Aaker, 1991).

Consumers have various search activities to go through before making final decisions,
namely pre-purchase search, ongoing search, internal search and external search. Brands

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play an important role in internal search, which is a recall of information stored in
memory. For instance, there are currently hundreds of MP3 players on the shelf, but only
a few of them really stand out from the crowd, Apple iPod and Sony Walkman Connect.
The features of both iPod and Walkman Connect are sometimes outperformed by Chinese
brands, but what sells them is not only product features or attributes, but brand.

In the third stage, purchase, brands also play an important role in simplifying decisions
especially for impulse purchasing. According to Stern, H (1962: 59), there are four
types of impulse purchasing, namely 1) Pure Impulse, 2) Suggestion Impulse, 3)
Reminder Impulse and 4) Planned Impulse.

I believe that brands will play a major role in making purchasing in the first three types of
impulse purchasing, Type 1 and 2 are totally impulse, which means that a shopper has no
previous knowledge of a product before, s/he sees the product for the first time and then
visualizes the need for it. In such a case, the perceived risk could be very high, so brands
will help minimize this risk which makes consumers decide a lot easier. Type 3 and 4
may not be quite impulse, but still they are, because the problem recognition stage
happens so fast. With this type of impulse purchasing, a shopper sees an item and is
reminded that the stock at home is running out or enters a store already with the
expectation and intention of making some purchases. Therefore, they already consider
which one(s) to buy, but not yet decide. In this planned impulse decision, brands would
help in terms of quality assurance, which happens fast during the stage of quick planning
in the impulse decision, as stated by Quelch & Harding (1996) Brand names exist
because consumers still require an assurance of quality when they do not have the
opportunity, time or ability to inspect alternatives at the point of sale.

In the last stage, Post Purchase, the purchase made is evaluation, the information for
use in future purchases are stored. A study of metrosexual consumer behavior by
Boonyoo Korpornprasert (2005) revealed that metrosexual, which is a new, emerging
segment with the growth rate of as high as 6% from the year 2004 to 2005, may forgive
the brand that they have long been using and is very familiar with if it makes them feel

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dissatisfied. But if it is the first purchase, that particular consumer is most likely not to
purchase that brand again, the chance to be forgiven is much lower than that of the repeat
purchase brand.

To sum, brands help simplify decisions in every stage of the standard four-step decisionprocess model, especially in the second and third stage where perceived risk reaches its
peak, consumers need something to reduce such risk and simplify their decisions and
thats the reasons for brands to be there.

Aside from being a decision simplifier, the other function under consumers decision
companion is the motivator of consumers decision. Philip Kotler (2003) defines
motivation as the drive to satisfy needs and wants, both physiological and psychological,
through the purchase and use of products and services. Looking through the viewpoint
of consumers, motivation helps them make decisions. Sometimes they do not know what
they want, they thus need something to stimulate and that is motivation. From the
viewpoint of marcom practitioners, motivation leads to involvement, more motivation
implies more involvement, which finally leads to action (purchasing, switching and
loyalty). In todays fierce competition and media clutter, customers are now less involved
with products and services, brand is thus a key to motivate consumers and make them
feel involved.

According to Locke & Henne (1986), there are five stages of the motivation process,
namely Latent Need, Drive, Wants or Desires, Goal and behavior. The first stage, latent
need, is a hidden demand or wants that customers have inside until such demand is
stimulated by the motivation. The second stage, drive, is the motivation that triggers
needs and wants, and here is where brands work. Brands help us get noticed and trusted
out of the hundreds of brands on the shelf. This stage is quite similar to the problem
recognition stage in the standard four-step decision-process model. The next stage is
wants or desires where consumer demands for products, then they set goal, which is a
set of expectations, and here is also where brands play an important role. Brand is a
promise which guarantees some certain quality of product, for instance, the one

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interesting in buying a Ferrari is most likely to expect that his car will go faster than a
Toyota or a Honda without really test driving a Ferrari or studying the specifications of
the engine and that is all because of brand. Therefore, brands help motivate consumers
to make decisions. The last stage is behavior, where consumers search for more
information or go straight and buy product, is considerably similar to the second and third
stage in the standard four-step decision process model, Information search and
evaluation and Purchase respectively, which have already been discussed earlier.

In order to better illustrate how brands motivate purchase decision, lets now look at
Abraham Maslows hierarchy of needs along with Sigmund Freuds concept of drives.
The first theory states that one must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing on
to meet higher level growth needs. Once these needs have been adequately satisfied, one
may be able to reach the highest-level called self-actualization.

However, even though everyone is capable and has the desire to move up the hierarchy
toward a level of self-actualization, an individual may fluctuate between levels of the
hierarchy if s/he has unfavorable life experiences. The five needs in Maslows hierarchy
are briefly physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem or status, and self-actualization
needs.

The latter (Freuds hierarchy of needs) states that the human psyche is broadly divided
into the conscious (ego) and unconscious (id). A third structure (superego) represented
the conventional ideas and values of society. We will now use these two theories to see
what brands can do at a certain stage of needs and drives.

Starting with the first stage, the psychological needs, which are all the essentials such as
foods, water, sleep, sex and etc, this stage could be driven by both ego and id, which
are the conscious mind and the unconscious part of mind representing biological needs
respectively. Brands that possess top-of-mind awareness will very much aid consumers in
making decisions at this stage. For example, when we feel thirsty and we need something
to quench the thirst, what has the top-of-mind awareness first pops up in our mind.

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Without having to think, we may go for Coke just because it is on the top of the head.
Another example is when you drive and you feel asleep so you want to stop somewhere
you may stop by JET Gas station because there is a place to park, clean toilets and coffee
to sell. In fact, every gas station has all of those but what pops up in the mind of
consumers first simply wins.

The second stage of needs, safety, driven by ego, is the next stage after the psychological
needs have been fulfilled. Many brands have successfully positioned themselves around
such needs, for example, insurance company like AIA, or cars like VOLVO. The third
stage of needs, belongingness, driven by superego, represents affection and acceptance as
part of a family or group. For example, 100 pipers, a whisky brand, has been using
belongingness to motivate consumers, by communicating to the audience that 100 pipers
is a whisky for the acceptance of socials and friends and this communication strategy
seems to work well over the years because it is exactly the reason why their targets in
Thailand drink whisky.

The fourth stage of needs, self-esteem, driven by super ego (Pre-conscious part of minds
developed through both society and self concept), represents the higher needs of humans,
the needs for power, achievement and status. There are a large number of brands that
motivate consumers at this stage, for example, Lamborghini; customers did not buy such
beautiful sports cars only for the incredibly high top speed. They bought it because the
brand communicates their social status and taste, which is a great motivation for them to
make purchase decisions.

The fifth stage of needs, self actualization, driven by super ego, represents the need to
realize ones own potential, to achieve dreams and ambitions; hunger for knowledge and
understanding; to do things for the sake of doing them. Although this might seem hard for
marcom practitioners to motivate such needs. I believe that if we are able to grow with
them as they pass through various stages of needs, starting from psychological needs to
the higher needs, consumers should then feel more involved as they are constantly
motivated, which finally leads to action.

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The second function of brand that I would like to propose continues from the argument
on the simplest form of brand. I argued that brand is an individual identifier rather than
corporate identifier and briefly explained how. So the second function of brand that I
believe is most important is an expression of individual and social identities. Unlike
the argument on brand as an individual identifier, this function of brand considers
individual and social identities, which are both personally and socially oriented motives.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines identity as the distinguishing character or


personality of an individual, in the sense of brand, brands help individuals express their
unique, distinguishing characters or personalities, serve as a social business card that
expresses member and are tools of identify formation for consumers (by opting for
particular brands, a consumer demonstrates that he or she embraces particular values).

The growing needs for consumers to express their own identities might be proven by the
growth rate of luxury brands, which could be considered as a kind of social identity (the
brand is deemed a common icon for certain social groups, so it helps the consumer who
uses it to strengthen his/her membership in those groups), lets take Britain for example.
Spending on luxury goods has grown by 50% in the last decade, compared to a rise of 7%
on basics (Keane & McMillan 2004). Due to the needs for consumers to express their
identities, luxury brands that feature premium prices and prestigious name play an
increasingly important role in profit generation, which is why there has to be Lexus for
Toyota, Maybach for Mercedes-Benz and the Mont Blanc pens for Richemont.

We will first look at Maslows hierarchy of needs and Freuds concept of drives in order
to give a basic explanation on this function. Individual identity starts from the fourth
stage (self-esteem) to the fifth stage of needs (self-actualization). In the fourth stage,
brands play an important role in expressing how an individual wants to be seen,
impressed, respected or appreciated by others. For instance, Louis Vuitton customers did
not only want a high-quality, genuine leather or man-made wallet because there are a lot
of brands that feature all those attributes and sell for much less but do not deliver the

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experience that Louis Vuitton does. What they want is to be appreciated that they are rich
enough to buy such a wallet and to feel confident and of course being wealthy can be
an identity that one wants to communicate to people around him. At this stage, one is
most likely driven by his/her superego, which is the ultimate stage of the personality.
The feeling of confidence delivered by a brand depicted in the above example is not the
only benefit of expressing individual identity for the consumer. According to Wong and
Ahuvia (1998) the benefits of brands towards individual identity include: (1)
personally affective benefits, under this benefit, the brand provides hedonic pleasure for
the self and serves as a self-giving gift (2) personally symbolic benefit, here is where the
brand facilitates the expression of the consumer's internal self and (3) personally
utilitarian benefit, which is a benefit when brand matches with the consumer's individual
attitudes and tastes for quality.
Unlike individual identity, driven by super ego, social identity starts from the stage of
belongingness (the third stage) to the top stage, self actualization, in the hierarchy of
needs. According to the theory of impression management, which emphasizes that
consumers are highly affected by the internal drive to create a favorable social image
from the outcome of their purchase behavior (Eagly & Chaiken 1993; Mandrik 1996;
Sallot 2002), the two effects in this theory are (1) Social Salience, here the brand serves
as a symbol of prominence and tastefulness for consumer and (2) social identification,
under this, the brand is deemed a common icon for certain social groups so it helps the
one who uses it to strengthen his/her membership in those groups.
How brands help express individual and social identities can also be explained by the
Social Identity theory. The theory is formed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner to
understand the psychological basis of intergroup discrimination; it composes of three
elements, namely (1) Categorization, (2) Identification and (3) Comparision.
The first element refers to the categorization of objects, which states that we often
categorize objects in order to understand them, in a similar way that we categorize people
(including ourselves) in order to understand the social environment. Many times we use

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social categories like Muslim, black, white, Japanese, students and pilots because they are
useful. If we can assign people to a category then that tells us things about those people.
Likewise, we find out things about ourselves by knowing what categories we belong to.
We define appropriate behavior by referencing to the norms of groups we belong to.
The implications of brands towards categorization are very obvious, in many cases;
brands categorize people, which might be called segmentation in marketing term.
Consumers seem to understand and accept such categorization as it makes them more
conveniently know who are the same and who are not, which also represents their
identity. For instance, in Thailand, Nissan currently has 4 sub-brands in its brand
portfolio for consumer vehicles, namely Teana, Sunny-Neo, Frontier and X-Trail for
different lifestyles of the consumers. Different Lifestyles are what Nissan used to
categorize the target. Therefore, in the viewpoint of Teana owners, they may perceive
other Teana owners as middle level managers having moderately high income and living
luxurious lifestyle, which may not be all true such perception is caused by
categorization, as consumers categorize themselves into a particular group; they believe
that members of the group should have the same or similar characteristics. Therefore,
brands can categorize consumers, and consumers belonging to the same category are
likely to have similar or same identity that they want to communicate to other people in
the same and other categories.
The second element of the Social Identity theory, Identification, states that we identify
with groups that we perceive ourselves to belong to. Identification carries two meanings.
The first meaning implies that who we are is made up of our group memberships.
Sometimes we think of ourselves as group members and at other times we think of
ourselves as unique individuals. The first is referred to as social identity and the latter is
referred to as personal identity. The other meaning implied by the concept of identity is
the idea that we are similar or identical to the other people. When we say that we are the
same, we mean that for some purposes we treat members of our groups as being similar
to ourselves in some relevant way.

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Aside from categorizing people, brands also tell which groups that consumers should
belong because brands tell them that they are the same or different from other consumers.
For instance, a group of Harley Davidson riders, when they go on caravan, they share
foods, they share shelter, they share drinks among the members of their groups because
they think the other members are similar to themselves in some way. So the way they
treat their group members and members of other groups will not be the same.
The last element of the Social Identity theory, Comparison, states that group members
compare their group with others in order to define their group as positive, and therefore
by implication, see themselves in a positive way. That is, people choose to compare their
groups with other groups in ways that reflect positively on themselves. There are two
ideas within this element, one is positive distinctiveness, which is the idea the people are
motivated to see their own group as relatively better than similar (but inferior) groups.
The other idea is negative distinctiveness, which states that groups tend to minimize the
differences between the groups so that their own group is seen favorably.
At this stage, brands help protect individual identify and build up confidence to members
of the same category. For example, the owners of Toyota Camry knew that it is no match
for Mercedes-Benz S Class. However, they might regard their Camry as inferior to the
Mercedes S Class only in terms of the badge but might regard the performance,
comfort, maintenance cost and etc as being superior to those of the Mercedes.
To sum, brands help express individual and social identities, and they way they express
such identities start from categorization to comparison. At the stage of categorization,
brands categorize consumers, so they know who shares the common characteristics and
who does not. At the second stage, brands tell which groups that consumers should
belong because brands tell them that they are the same or different from other consumers,
and at the last stage, comparison, brands help protect identity and build up confidence.

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Conclusion
Brand, in the simplest form, is undoubtedly an identifier; however, it is not at all an easy
task to successfully make brand a good identifier. Therefore, according to Pashler's
theory of attention and five brand senses by Martin Lindstrom, I then suggested that, to
be effectively identified, marcom practitioners should no longer solely rely on sight, but
also the other four senses, including touch, taste, smell and sound because the iconic and
echoic sensory memories can be processed simultaneously which enhance the chance to
be stored at the long term memory.

I would like to argue that brand may no longer function as a corporate identifier, but
individual identifier. We no longer believe in the Massive Effects theory so there are no
such things like uniform perceptions, uniform manners. Therefore, according to the first
version of the Selective Influence theories which is based on individual differences, we
can come to the conclusion that brand is more likely to be an individual identifier rather
than a uniform corporate identifier.

The first function that I believe to be the most important is "Consumer's Decision
Companion", which is more than a guarantor of experience or a mark of trust and quality.
In order to be consumer's decision companion, it simplifies or motivates consumer's
decision. Using the standard four-step decision process model by Lawson et al. Brands
help simplify decisions in every stage of the process, starting from Problem or need
recognition, information search and evaluation, purchase and post purchase. Aside from
being a decision simplifier, brands also help if consumers do not know exactly what they
want, they thus need something to stimulate and that is motivation.

Brands motivate consumers in many stages of the five stages of the motivation process by
Locke & Henne (1986), namely Latent Need, Drive, Wants or Desires, Goal and behavior.
Besides, looking through Maslows hierarchy of needs along with Freuds concepts of
drives, brands also drive needs at different stages from psychological needs to self
actualization. Because brands are motivators and simplifiers of decisions, I thus named it
Consumers Decision Companion.

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The second function that I propose is an expression of individual and social identities.
This function of brand considers both individual and social identities, which are both
personally and socially oriented motives. The social identity theory was used to separate
the components of identity and analyze each of its elements individually. To conclude,
brands help express individual and social identities, starting from categorizing consumers,
telling which group they belong, and protect identity & build up confidence in their
identity.

In the age of hyper-competition, information clutter, globalization and democratization of


information, the brand an organization is vital to its success. I believe that the two
proposed functions, a consumers decision companion and an expression of individual
and social identities, may in some ways be beneficial to marketing communication
practitioners. My intention towards proposing the two functions is that I want them to be
very customer-centered. Therefore, instead of looking at how we, as a marcom
practitioner, benefit from a brand. I started the other way around, by first putting
consumers at the center, and see what can be done to benefit them by means of brands.

Last but not least, the company must make a very strong commitment to its branding
efforts. The payoff may be years to come, so everyone must be in it for the long term.
This philosophy works only by making a deep, sincere and consistent commitment to the
brand- and the results will follow.

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Thai References
Korpornpasert, B 2005, Brand Literacy. Thailand: Matichon Press
Kotler, P, Jain, D & Maesincee, S 2002, Marketing Moves. Thailand: Manager

19
Lindstrom, M 2006, Brand Sense. Thailand: Tipping Point Press
Lohthongkam, T 2002, IMC in Action. Thailand: Tipping Point Press
Neumeier, M 2004, The Brand Gap. Thailand: Expernet
Phongsataporn, S 2003, Practical IMC. Thailand: Nut Republic
Puntawee, R, Nitateeranon, K, Sorat, R & Pornpakkarm, P 2006. Big Brand Grand Idea.
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Sirijantanan, P 2003, Brand Building 2. Thailand: Tipping Point Press

20

Appendix
Theories Used

Page

Pashlers theory of attention

Lindstrom's Five Sense of Brand

The Massive Effects Theory

Selective Influence Theories

Social Learning Theories

The standard four-step decision-process

model by Lawson et al.


The four types of impulse purchasing

The five stages of the motivation process

Maslows hierarchy of needs

Freuds concept of drives

The theory of Impression Management

12

Social Identity Theory

12

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