by Gautam Banerjee

Created on: October 12, 2009

The utility of brands as a guide to choice was established, when early man stamped ownership, with a hot iron containing his distinctive mark on the flanks of his livestock. This indelible mark on the animals was meant to distinguish between the cattle of one farmer and another. A farmer with good reputation for the quality of his animals would find his brand or the marking much sought after, while the brands of farmers with a lesser reputation were to be avoided or treated with caution.

The role of the distinctiveness of a product has remained unchanged to the present day. Any good dictionary would give the reader many variations of the usage of the word 'brand'. Irrespective of how the word is used, it always means, in its passive form, the object by which an impression is formed, and in its active form, the process of forming this impression.

A brand is neither the logo, nor the slogan alone, nor is it the package by which we come to identify as the brand. The difficulty in answering the simple question, "What is a brand?" is akin to the group of blind men trying to figure out what an elephant is by touching the trunk, the tail, the legs and the body. Similarly, trying to know what a brand is by looking at the components of a brand in isolation is futile. Let us examine what they are:

A brand simply is not logo alone. The function of a logo is to act as a shorthand for the brand, in which the company and consumers invest but it is not the brand. The distinctive mark or brand on office stationery, advertisements, branded products and services maintain a consistent image.

It is necessary but consistency in brand image alone is not brand. Consistency must be molded into a personality to become a brand. Brands which are inconsistent or confused have no future. Therefore, a brand must have a strong personality and dependability so that one can relate to it.

Positioning drives a brand but it is hard to define and achieve but, when it comes to the crunch, it is simply a brand promise. Buying decisions are more emotional than rational. When it comes to take a decision, the brand provides comfort that the intellect does not. Buyers will always choose a product or service basing the decision on some aspect of brand identification. Because the buyer can identify with something the brand represents.

A good reputation of a firm built on past performance is not the brand itself. A reputation accepts market perception passively, but branding actively seeks to create the image to guide and control this perception.

A brand is a relationship between the client or consumer and the seller. The ultimate connect between the seller and the consumer is successful identification of the brand which builds a deep and loyal relationship between the buyer and the seller.

Loyalty and repeat business is the goal of branding. It takes a combination of all the above mentioned elements to make a brand.

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