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A TEORATİCAL APROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF BRAND

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Contemporary Marketing Review Vol. 1(3) pp. 01 – 05, May, 2011 ISSN: 2047 – 041X
Available online at http://wwww.businessjournalz.org/cmr

A TEORATİCAL APROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF BRAND

Assist. Prof. Dr. Durmaz Yakup

Vice-Dean of Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
Adıyaman University
Email: ydurmaz@adiyaman.edu.tr,yakupdu@hotmail.com

Zengin Sevil
Master Student by Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
Email: sevil.zengin@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

In today’s competitive conditions, beyond a name, brand is a business asset which adds an identity and
personality on products, takes shape with consumer perceptions, guides consumers about product preferences.
Brand is a tool that forms and shapes relations between consumer/buyer and business. A brand is not a physical
product or an intangible service offering. The importance of branding has increased recent decades. The brand is
today more important than previously and this is especially true for the global fashion industry where marketers
market the brand rather than the traditional products. In this study, theoretical explanations about brand and
brand management, which became pretty important topic in today’s business world, are made, and studies in the
related literature about brand are discussed. In this study, how brand factor affect consumer behaviors in Turkey
with the participation of 1286 people in the provinces through interviews.

Key Words: Brand, branding, brand image, brand identity

1. INTRODUCTION

As a result of recent changes in the global socio-economic environment and technological advances, managers
of many firms see an opportunity for creating a strong brand name and increased their brand power.Digital
media technologies have opened many new channels of communication and information, giving companies the
opportunity to develop much closer relationships between their brands and their consumers.

People pay more for brand-name products than they do for essentially identical products lacking brand
identity.Competition is a potential predicament faced by firms in a variety of industries at various stages of their
existence. Brandscome in many shapes and sizes. Therefore, the creation of a sustainable competitive advantage
is at heart of brand strategy. In today’s globalized and competitive environment,businesses who want to survive
and to be successful in the long run trying to get more market share and to be differentiated from its competitors.
However, as well as the effects of this intense competitive environment, in recent years because of the fast-
growing and widespread technology, products in terms of their features became standard. Therefore, the only
way to increased market share for businesses is to be a brand. At this point, businesses can gain a competitive
advantage through the brand name.

Brands can give information about the firms or manufacturers to their current and potential
customers.Businesses and their role in society are subject to more intense scrutiny than ever.Today’s brand war,
creating a brand and adding value to brand is based on the long process of planning. Any special name can be

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Contemporary Marketing Review Vol. 1(3) pp. 01 – 05, May, 2011 ISSN: 2047 – 041X
Available online at http://wwww.businessjournalz.org/cmr

defined as the brand. However, the power of the brand is proportional to the ability to influence purchasing
behavior. Brands should be satisfied customer’s expectations. Consumers, except for their basic needs, have
different expectations from products through the factors of social, psychological and cultural concepts.

Successful brands give the possibility of to resist the pressure of competitive price to businesses through the
creation of stable demand. A strong brand means high market share, high sales and also profit. Being a brand is
the result of marketing and management activities of businesses. Brands are created, stimulated and applied by
people working in organizationsseeking to create worthwhile experiences for their customers that will induce
behavior beneficial to the organization.Brands also offer benefits to customers by making it easy to choose
products and feel good about that choice.

2. THE CONCEPT OF BRAND

The word brand comes from the Old Norse brand, meaning to burn, and from these origins made its way into
Anglo-Saxon. It was of course by burning that early man stamped ownership on his livestock, and with the
development of trade buyers would use brands as a means of distinguishing between the cattle of one farmer and
another (Blackett, 2004).

Defining a brand is not something that is generally left to chance.A brand is not a name. A brand is not a
positioning statement. It is not a marketing message. It is a promise made by a company to its customers and
supported by that company. Brand names help the buyer by conveying a bundle of attributes about the product
or service (Rowley, 2004).

A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol (such as logo, trademark, or package design) intended to
identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers, and to differentiate those goods or
services from those of competitors. A brand thus signals to the customer the source of the product, and protects
both the customer and the producer from competitors who would attempt to provide products that appear to be
identical (Aaker, 1991). Also it can be defined as aname, term, sign, symbol, design, or combination of these
which is used to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from
those of competitors (Kotler& al., 2005). Alternatively, brand can be defined as an identifiable product
augmented in such a way that the buyer or user perceives relevant unique added values which match their needs
most closely. Furthermore, its success results from being able to sustain these added values in the face of
competition (Chernatony and McDonald, 1992).

Certain brands (e.g., Coca-Cola, McDonald’s) are considered to possess “high brand equity,” resulting in higher
market shares and prices than competing products (Badenhausen, 1996).A key reason for their strength is the
existence of favorable, strong, and unique associations about them in consumers’ memories (Keller, 1993).Many
of the brand associations that make brands distinctive and strong are of this nonfunctional type; that is, they go
beyond the perceived quality of the brand on functional product and service criteria and deal instead with
“intangible” properties of the brand e.g., Coca-Cola is “All-American,” Mercedes is “prestigious,”etc (Batra and
Homer, 2004).

Brand is the important part of the product. Thus, value of brand should be always improved by the firms
(Knapp, 2000).

3. POWER OF THE BRAND IMAGE

From the customers’ perspective, a brand name has no value if the people one is trying to impress by flaunting
the brand have never heard of it.Changes in brand image are not instantaneous; they occur over time. Otherwise
there would be no temptation to over-supply. Instead, a brand.s value adjusts progressively to match its actual

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Contemporary Marketing Review Vol. 1(3) pp. 01 – 05, May, 2011 ISSN: 2047 – 041X
Available online at http://wwww.businessjournalz.org/cmr

exclusivity or commonness (Kort, & al.,2005).Conveying a brand image to a target market is a fundamental
marketing activity (Park, & al.,1986).

Brandingis the process of creating an association between asymbol/object/emotion/perception and a

product/company with the goal ofdriving loyalty and creating differentiation. The phenomenon of branding is
not new in the business community, but the awareness of its strategic value has developed considerably (Herbert
and Schantz, 2007). For example, through productpackaging and advertising, Coca Cola has created an
association betweenmany different objects and its brands. The hourglass shaped bottle, the red andwhite colors,
and even the font of its logo together make Coca Cola distinctive from competitors (Hislop, 2001).Brand image
is like an asset that can be built up over time.

In addition to creating a successful brand image, attractive color, form of packaging, a logo or a symbol and any
combination of them provide creating a well-known brand (Meyers and Lubnier, 2004).Brand image is defined
and measured as a “set of associations which a brand has acquired for an individual” and as “brand associations
in consumer memory (Dolnicar and Grun, 2007).Brand image refers to consumer’s perception on brand. A
brand image is a combination of the brand which is like strong and weak points of brand and perceptions can be
mostly controlled (Pery and Wisnom, 2003).

Large corporations often maximize short-term profits with actions that destroy long-term brand image and
competitive position. However, many of successful firms have a successful brand image. For instance,
according to Economist Article, the fashion designer Giorgio Armani did a good job in carefully managing his
brand image. It was noted that Mr. Armani has been steadily profitable for thirty years, while he diversifies into
new lines without cheapening his brand (October 2-8, 2004, pp.61-62).

A positive image is one which will continue to work for a company, even when things start to go wrong. A
company with an excellent reputation can suffer an occasional slippage in one area or another and the customer
will be forgiving. In contrast, a company with a poor image will be castigated for any default and there will be
no exoneration. The strength of the Perrier brand pulled it through after a disastrous contamination of the
product by benzene required the complete recall of all its stock of bottles in warehouses, shops and homes
(Hague).

4. BRAND IDENTITY

New business models, new channels of distribution, the fragmentation of mass media and mass markets,
deregulated industries and converging markets – some observers believe these market phenomena will spell the
end of branding as we know it (Hagel and Singer, 1999).

Due to the increased global economic integration, even companies that focus on the domestic market have to be
competitive internationally in order to secure long-term survival and growth (Karagozoglou and Lindell, 1998).

An integrated brand identity which starts with name, logo and slogan must distill the brand promise in a unique
and memorable way. Delivering on the promise “brand as experience” then becomes the key to building trust
and long-term brand equity (Campbell, 1999).

Kapferer (1997) has developed a model called “The Brand Identity Prism” which reflects the different aspects of
building brand identity. The model is very extensive, and the focus in this thesis will be on the most important
factors which are; physique, personality, culture, relationship, reflection, and self-image. The brand identity
prism is developed under the prerequisite that brands can speak, since they can only exist through
communication (Andreasson and Streling, 2007).

For a brand identity to be successful it needs to fulfill three functions. First it needs to be in accordance with the
customers, second it needs to differentiate the brand from competitors’ and third, it needs to correspond with

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Contemporary Marketing Review Vol. 1(3) pp. 01 – 05, May, 2011 ISSN: 2047 – 041X
Available online at http://wwww.businessjournalz.org/cmr

what the company can and will do over time (Ghodeswar, 2008). While a brand identity is how the brand
owners or marketers want the brand to be perceived, a brand image is how the customer interprets the brand.
The message of the brand is sent through various media and there are noises around such as for instance
competitor’s brand. The message received by the customer is therefore not always the same as sent by the
marketer, in other words, brand identity and brand image often differs from one another (Bernardzon and
Mascareigne, 2008).

5. CONCLUSION

All successful companies have a strong brand strategy in order to survive in the competitive world. Any
organization can benefit enormously by creating a brand that presents the company as distinctive, trusted,
exciting, reliable or whichever attributes are appropriate to that business. Brand can create an emotional
resonance in the minds of consumers who choose products and services using both emotional and pragmatic
judgments.
Brand names help the buyer by conveying a bundle of attributes about the product or service. This increases the
buyer’s confidence that they are making a satisfactory purchase, and increases their search efficiency.
Understand that successful brand managementnowadays is a complex task. It requires skillsnot normally
associated with the traditional marketingfunction.

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Available online at http://wwww.businessjournalz.org/cmr

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