Branding: Almost Everything
Brands are reputations: A brand bundles everything a person knows, perceives, and assumes about an organization and its products. Brands are also promises (or threats): A brand is a symbol in a person’s mind of the expectations s/he has in dealing with an organization or experiencing its products.
Some would say that a brand is “everything”. Clearly this is not so, for the product or service that a brand represents is not the brand. However, it is arguable that successful branding is a key contributor to the achievement of organizational and marketing aims. This post seeks to identify and briefly describe literature and research that supports, in various contexts, the statement: “Brands are critical to marketing communicators”.
The “Brand” Defined
A brand’s most literal definition, in the corporate world, is of a symbol, word, or mark that represents an organization and its products and differentiates them from competitors. BusinessDictionery.com expands upon that by incorporating the dimension of time: “Over time, this image becomes associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumer’s mind (positioning). Thus brands help harried consumers in crowded and complex marketplace, by standing for certain benefits and value.”
What’s important and significant in this mainstream, non-academic definition of brand, is the implication that the real value of a brand is where it is “positioned” in the mind of the consumer, and the identification of the consumer as a beneficiary of branding in a “crowded and complex marketplace”.
A more considered definition of “brand” is proposed by de Chernatony, L. & Riley, F. (1998), who, after interviewing 20 leading branding practitioners, concluded that a brand is a multidimensional construct, which matches a firm’s functional and emotional values with the performance and psychosocial needs of consumers.
By definition alone, branding must be of interest to marketing communicators who seek to influence the attitudes and behaviors their target consumers. But is branding critical?
Other Things Being Equal – In the General Store
Where all other things are equal, positive brand recognition will positively influence a purchasing decision. Though highly improbable, a situation where all other things are equal will most likely occur within a shop that offers multiple brands within the same product category. Indeed, a research experiment suggests itself: Shoppers are asked to help themselves to a free can of baked beans and are confronted with a supermarket shelf lined with three different brands, whose prices are hidden and whose packaging is identical except for the brand.
Dodds et al (1991) studied the effects of price, brand, and store information on buyers’ perceptions of product quality and value, and their willingness to buy. While not a study of the influence of brands in isolation, the design of the experiment was such that the authors could analyze the relative effects of each variable. They concluded that higher prices had a positive effect on perceived quality, but a negative effect on perceived value and willingness to buy. Favorable brand and store information, however, always positively influenced perceptions of quality and value and a subjects’ willingness to buy.
More “Rational” Buyers – Wooing the Suits
In the business-to-business (B2B) context, one might assume that branding is non-critical to an organization’s success—that perhaps innovation or manufacturing efficiency would be more important to the more hard-nosed business person.
Based on an examination of almost 1,700 companies listed either on the United States or European stock exchanges, Ohnemus (2009) concludes that shareholders of B2B firms with balanced corporate brand strategies generally enjoy a return that is 5%-7% higher than shareholders of firms with no consistent branding. However, in Ohnemus’ study it is not clear to what the extent the branding strategies can take the credit. Maybe branding is simply part and parcel of what good management does in the modern age.
Another study by David et al (2008), drawing on the results of two mail surveys, examined the effects of branding in the B2B logistics services industry. Their findings suggest that brand equity does exist for logistics service providers. Customers do differentiate the marketplace offerings of this commodity-like service.
Winning as You’re Losing – Branding in Sports
When their teams are winning, sports fans are brand loyal. But performances can be inconsistent and sometimes results just don’t go their way. Of serious concern to sports marketers is a series of bad performances or a prolonged losing streak. When heroes become easy-beats, the hardcore fans will keep watching, but the masses may just start to lose interest and shift their attention to other teams or—even worse for franchise-based competitions—to other sports.
This is one compelling reason that branding and brand loyalty is so important to professional sports, according to Gladden & Funk (2004). The other reason is that strong team brands with loyal followings have the opportunity to extend beyond the core sports product into areas such as merchandising, hospitality, and food & beverage.
Gladden & Milne (2004) sum up the importance of branding in sports marketing, thus: “[Through] efforts to increase brand awareness, brand associations, and brand loyalty, the sport manager can improve the frequency and degree to which positive marketplace consequences are realized.”
In other words, strong branding can help teams make money off the field, even while they’re getting thrashed on it.
Conclusion
After looking into branding research and literature in various contexts, including the definition of a brand; the low-involvement retail purchase decision; the more analytical B2B marketplace; and the passion and pain of sports marketing, the author supports the statement that “brands are critical to marketing communicators”.
Marketing communicators have always strived to get into the minds of consumers to influence their behavior. Brands are always there, and they always do!
Help Me Understand: What Do You Think?
References
BusinessDictionary.com, Brand, http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand.html, viewed online, May 18, 2010
Davis, D.F., Golicic, S.L., Marquardt, A.J., (2008), ‘Branding a B2B service: Does a brand differentiate a logistics service provider?’, Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 37, Issue 2, April 2008, pp 218-227
de Chernatony, L. & Riley, F. (1998), ‘Defining A “Brand”: Beyond The Literature With Experts’ Interpretations’, Journal of Marketing Management,14(5), pp 417-443
Dodds, W.B., Monroe, K.B., & Grewal, D (1991), ‘Effects of Price, Brand, and Store Information on Buyers’ Product Evaluations’, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Aug., 1991), pp. 307-319
Gladden, J.M, & Funk, D.C., (2004), ‘Understanding Brand Loyalty in Professional Sport: Examining the Link Between Brand Associations and Brand Loyalty’, Chapter 7 in The Business of Sport, edited by Rosner, S.R. & Shropshire, K.L., Jones and Bartlett Publishers International, 2004, London
Gladden, J.M, & Milne, G.R., (2004), ‘Examining the Importance of Brand Equity in Professional Sport’, Chapter 7 in The Business of Sport, edited by Rosner, S.R. & Shropshire, K.L., Jones and Bartlett Publishers International, 2004, London
Ohnemus, L., (2009), ‘B2B branding: A financial burden for shareholders?’, Business Horizons, Volume 52, Issue 2, March-April 2009, pp 159-166
