by Indrani Basu

Created on: September 22, 2009   Last Updated: September 24, 2009

When it comes to brands, many of us do not actually know the actual company behind the brand. Or even we do not differentiate between the brand and the product. Two of the classic examples are Xerox and Scotch tape. Therefore it becomes necessary to understand what products are and how could any product or a company turn into a great brand.

Essentially a product seems to be something tangible that is manufactured in a factory, goes to the wholesaler and retailer and then finally to the consumer. It has a shelf life as well as a total lifetime of its own. But that does not hold true in all cases, for example we could take examples of financial products or software products. With the evolution of industries into various spectrum, products have also changed their form and whole definition since industrial revolution. For a consumer a product is something that solves his problems or satisfies his needs. The need could be anything from a simple functional one to a very complex emotional one. And for a brand manager, this is the first step to understand that any product will have a value equivalent to the magnitude with which it satisfies consumer's needs at any level. When Revlon cosmetics chairman said that, in the factory we make cosmetics but in the store we sell hope probably he meant just that.

Now if for a single need there is more than one product in the market, how can one ensure that the customer is getting a fair deal? That is where brands take the lead. If we could imagine any product to be a person then the brand would constitute his personality. It helps to distinguish and choose the best. By this analogy anything could be a brand. Some of the best brands are in fact companies like Microsoft, Intel and IBM. Some are actually product from companies marketed as brands like Revlon, Coca-Cola and Marlboro.

What makes a good brand? With cut throat competition and wild ways of marketing it is very difficult to make a long lasting impression on the consumer's mind. Still then some brands rule the hearts and minds of the consumer and have been doing so since decades. Think about a theme park and instantly Disney comes to mind. Think about Coffee and no one can deny that he doesn't know what Starbucks is. The same is with McDonald's. For some it is same as breakfast. On the same lines there have been names and brands which were once very popular but now have faded away somewhere. And again there are some more which people may know about but not necessarily it is in their preference list. It may happen that they also fade away into oblivion.

Therefore a successful brand could be that which has a sustainable differential advantage. It could be anything, a person, product, symbol or a combination of all. The differential edge has to be created and maintained year after year. Like for McDonald's it is not the bread and the meat but more of how it has the excellent standardization throughout with the logo, the people, the prices and everything about it. The sustainable is something trickier to deal with; again with McDonald's it is their local flavours that make it sustainable.

Great brands do not happen, they have to be made and continuously maintained and improved. And then these are always the brand leaders in their segment.

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