Communications and Media

How can we critically account for the rise of branding in recent years What are its effects

The word branding in its most literal sense means to stamp something with an insignia or mark that would provide that thing with some kind of identification. Usually, in the past, it was done by means of hot iron stamps and the objects to be branded were mere cattles. The concept of branding has come a long way since the time when farming and cattle herding were the sources of income for a large number of population. Today, that concept has been modified to such an extent that it permeates the lives of every individual.

Consumerism is the new way of life which has been discovered by people over the past few years. Not only has it impacted the way people think but also the way future generations would conduct their lives. The rise of big corporations, selling a plethora of products targeted at either specific or mass markets, has changed the buying habits of individuals. People are no longer buying commodities, rather they are buying an experience, something that is intangible and provides a greater satisfaction than any tangible commodity.

Every individual has an identification that differentiates that person from others. That person would have a certain image that heshe projects in the minds of the people that know himher. That image is distinct and has a certain place in people s minds. That image creates the most basic form of what we know as a  brand . A person can become a brand in itself provided that heshe influences the minds of the people as such that people start to identify him because of that unique trait that heshe possesses. It is not easy and not everyone is able to command such influence over others minds.

The same way a person conjures up a certain image in peoples mind so does a product. A simple product can be converted into a brand overnight. The trick is to create a perception in the mind of the consumer about the product that would be desirable for the consumer. The brand would posses certain qualities that it boasts would not be found else where. This is the differentiating factor or more commonly known as USP in the marketing world. The brand would then leverage itself on the basis of this unique factor and try to get as much share of the market as possible.

A very good example of this would be the iPhone that combined the touch technology with that of a mobile phone along with its various other features. Although it is a product that has been launched by the company Apple, seldom is it heard that people mention that it is a product by Apple because the iPhone itself is a brand. It appeals to a certain segment of the market and therefore is marketed as such. It has managed to capture the minds of the consumers and is all the rage these days. The iPhone has become a huge brand and a success story for the company as it has managed to raise the company s equity. Its sleek look and high-tech features has provided it with a certain image that no other cell phone company has managed to exactly imitate. This is a modern-day brand which has emerged as a result of applying the concepts of modern-day branding. But this was not the case a few decades ago, back then it was known as mass production.

Mass production and division of labour was the way of life decades ago and laid the groundwork for industrialisation. What is known is fordism is basically an era where there was complete standardisation in production techniques as well as the products being produced. Labor was being exploited as labourers were not allowed to rotate their work instead they had to work on the same process day in and day out without any respite. Even the work hours were long. There was absence of motivation among employees, and labour turnover, as a result, used to be high as well. This era projects a rather bleak image and therefore the wheels of change started to turn in the direction of what came to be known as post fordism. In this age, focus had shifted from manufacturing to retailing. Huw Beynon and Theo Nicholas have quoted Murray in their book as mentioning (Beynon and Nichols, 2006)

 In Britain the groundwork for the new system was not laid in manufacturing but in retailing .the revolution of retailing reflects new principles of productivity, a new pluralism of production, and a new importance of innovation. As such it marks the shift to the post-Fordist age (Murray, 1988).
Manufacturing was at first just a process between the producer and the workers little input was required from consumers. The consumers at that time were passive beings without much exposure to the world around them and the different opportunities and choices that they could make use of.  The concept of retailing involves the producer, retailer and the consumer. The chain has widened and the opinion of consumers would now make a difference on the type of product produced and the way it would be produced.

The concept of branding with respect to consumer goods probably started during that time we call the post-Fordist era. But even then, branding was not recognised as something to be worked upon and made use of as people had not fully realised the importance of this concept and the revolution it would bring once its workings are fully understood. Flexible manufacturing practices and its benefits were being realised. The revolution was lead by the Italian clothes manufacturing company Benetton that applied computerised systems to its manufacturing and retailing process which was spread out in 2,000 retail outlets (Murray, 1985).

The streamlining of all the processes eased the lives of many people from the manufacturer, distributor and retailer to the end consumer. People started associating a certain name, it did not matter whether it was a name of a product or the name of the company with a certain group of people that bought that product, and its quality was determined by that same name. So, branding of goods had started a long time back, only then it was not recognised as branding as such.

Today, branding is done at a whole new level. It is like when in the old times hot iron stamps were being used to physically brand cattles. These days, it is a process that affects people mentally the logo of the brand is imprinted in the consumers mind. That logo is associated not only with product quality and its physical attributes but also with the feelings it generates in the consumers mind. A product at first when it is launched, no matter how big the company which produces it has to go through the process of climbing up the brand value pyramid.

At first, the product can only compete with others based on its physical attributes. Then at the next level, it competes on the basis of the benefits that it provides to the consumer that other products cannot .When the product reaches the highest level where feelings and emotions start getting associated with it, then a product becomes a successful brand. This is because these feelings and emotions generated by that specific brand cannot be copied by any other competing brand. Therefore, it is able to find a special place in the consumers mind.

An example of such a feeling would be that when a person enters The Body Shop to buy any cosmetic product. The first thing that comes to their mind regarding that brand is that it is environmentally friendly. This would generate positive feelings towards the brand. This positive feeling exists because The Body Shop has successfully been able to project its image as such. Environmentalists would prefer to shop here rather than anywhere else as they have been assured by the company by its constant branding efforts that it uses natural ingredients in its products.

Another example of the extent to which branding has been used by companies today is that of the Harry Potter book series. Once the books became a success, movies were being made based on the stories of those books. This connected the Harry Potter brand directly with the mass market. All kinds of marketing strategies were being employed to make Harry Potter a successful brand. Different products were being made under the Harry Potter logo that included products from coffee mugs to action figures based on the characters of the book. People from all ages who associated themselves with the brand bought these products. A specialised market was developed and targeted. This is the new type of consumerism.

This type of change in the buying habits of individuals has been brought about largely as a result of globalisation. It has blurred the physical boundaries that once separated countries from each other. Today s world is a rather more integrated world with people in one part of the world dependent on people from the opposite end of the world for their livelihood. Even though there are thousands of miles separating them, still their work is being performed as swiftly and efficiently as if the other party was in the same room. This is the power of the internet and the various information systems that have been developed over time to ease the lives of people. Mechanisation and computerisation have enabled man to achieve so much more than ever imagined decades ago. This time and space compression has brought about changes in everyone s lives (Lash and Urry, 1994).

Globalisation has led to more awareness among people. They are more informed about the things being produced in other parts of the world. They know about its quality and its worth. The best thing about all of this is that not only are they informed and posses the right information, they are also able to acquire the product as it is readily made available to them. This is what globalisation has enabled people to do with access to the internet, they can explore the world beyond their own and can buy anything and everything at the right price. This has given rise to another phenomenon called competition. Such competition has altered the way companies used to produce and market their goods. It is a completely different game now where even the slightest advantage can turn around the future of the company.

This competitive edge can be maximised once the firms realise that the product that they are producing, even if it is a basic commodity can be sold at a premium. The way to achieve higher profits would be through branding. Firms not only face competition from domestic firms but also from international companies. This is the era where multinationals dominate the consumer goods market. Not only has this trend been witnessed in the goods industry but also in the service industry. Banks and financial institutions have also gone global and are trying to outdo the other through consistent marketing activities that would project them as a better brand than the competition.

The way a brand is projected to the consumer is through the media. Advertising alone takes up almost the entire budget of the marketing department of companies. The most popular form of advertising is through television. This is the fastest and most efficient way to reach the masses. The company has a different image to project for each of its product and brand managers do their best to clearly get their message across to the consumers. There are a lot of ways a brand manager uses in advertisements to influence the consumers. Every product demands a different approach. Mostly, the popular culture is being presented in advertisements as advertisements alone are a projection of the culture that is prevailing (Wernick, 1991). Brands then use that appeal to connect with the audience. It is important to make sure that the image of the brand relates to the target market, otherwise the brand would fail. Such is the power of advertisements that they can make or break a brand therefore a lot of effort and money go into making advertisements.

As brands have gone international, the advertising campaigns in one country may differ from that of another country due to the difference in cultures. There have been many incidents in the past where famous brands have failed to successfully enter a foreign market as their advertising campaigns were not appropriate according to the culture. Brands are like people, they have their own personality.

They have a brand persona that appeals to the consumers. The stronger that personality, the more power it has to influence consumers. An example of different brand personalities can be observed by the difference between Coco-Cola and Pepsi. They are the two giants in the cola industry. Both brands have different personalities and that is reflected in their advertising campaigns and therefore appeal to different types of people. There is a marked difference in the way they try to attract customers. Coca-Cola is the stronger brand as it has the most brand equity. Such is the loyalty of Coca-Cola that when it introduced the new coke bottle, there were widespread protests by Coca-Cola consumers as they wanted the old packaging back. Therefore, in order to pacify coke loyalists, it reintroduced the old bottle as Coca-Cola classic.

This goes to tell that brands have power and they can use that power to alter the buying patterns of consumers. Whenever consumers are exposed to a brand that identifies with their personality, it has a greater chance of being bought than the one that claims to have a different image. Branding is all about image creation. Once in the limelight, that brand has to continuously work on maintaining that image, otherwise that identification would be lost and the brand would suffer.

The Nike swoosh is another good example of the increase of branding practices. The swoosh sign has been seen countless of times with the Nike name, that now the swoosh sign alone on any product signifies that it is a product by Nike. As it is an international brand, the swoosh sign is easily recognisable by people belonging to different cultures and languages.

Another important aspect of branding that has been on the rise is that although big brands charge high premiums for their products, their products are being manufactured in different parts of the world. Those places are usually the developing countries where labor laws are not that stringent and manufacturing is cheaper than in the western nations. Now if that same product being produced in the developing world is sold under a different name, people would not be willing to buy it at that high price. But instead, if that product has a tag of brand on it then people will happily buy it. The reason for this is the marketing efforts that go behind building that name and creating an image that the target market would want to be associated with.

The rise of consumer culture in the modern era has shifted the focus from producing towards consuming (Featherstone, 2007). Consumer lifestyles have changed. Everyone is looking for differentiated products that provide them with an identity. The services and products that they consume are basically what they stand for. In other words, in this consumer culture, objects define an individual rather than the other way around. People no longer look for only the tangible benefits but also for the emotional and social connection that those products and services would provide them.

In this new age, everything is so interlinked that even if one factor changes, it sends a ripple of change across the board to everything that is related to it. Therefore, it is not easy to form a long-term strategy whether it is a government or a company (Harvey, 1989). Internet, computer technology, increased awareness among people and the dilution of physical barriers have enabled companies to come up with products that can command a high price provided that they are properly branded. A company s need to distinguish itself from competition and capturing a bigger market share has been the driving force behind this whole branding phenomenon.

It is not surprising that even countries have started branding themselves. Globalisation has led to an increase in competition on the geo-economic front as well. Countries are competing for foreign direct investment and development. Trade blocs are being formed and every country wants the biggest share of the pie. A recent campaign by India would be a fitting example of this. In this age of political turmoil and law and order debacles, India has started projecting itself to the world as  Incredible India . It is a fact that India has a large growing population and the poverty in India is staggering in number. Still, despite the internal problems that exist in India be it social or political problems, its media has made it a point to project the good things of that country. Its rich culture, history, cuisine and heritage is being marketed through advertisements so that a perception is created around the world that investing in India and Indian companies would be a good investment. Not only would this increase tourism in the country but also bring in foreign development projects and investment for the progress of the Indian economy.

A lot of brands have emerged over the years. There are only a couple of brands that are able to dominate the market in each category. The effects of branding have been made quite obvious over the years. This is because companies are continuing with this branding strategy and bringing in new ways to do it. In order for a brand to be successful, there are a few things that should be taken care of. First, a good name for the brand must be decided so that it stays in consumers minds or gets their attention. Then, it should be priced at a premium to give a perception of good quality.

Many companies apply this strategy when launching a brand. The truth is that it works because people tend to associate high quality with high price. The highly priced item then gets associated with luxury and class and only certain people are able to afford it. Hence, whenever someone would be seen using that high-priced product, it would be a clear indication to others about which income group or social class that person belongs to. This is one way that branding has affected the lives of consumers.

Certain brands are associated with a certain class of people and if it is something luxurious then it becomes a show of wealth and status. People have started competing with each other in this regard and buy brands that are better than those they want to show off to. Companies have noticed this trend and in turn have used this to their advantage by advertising in a way that is able to manipulate this weakness of consumers.

Everyone wants to be different and in order to differentiate themselves and make a statement to others, they are willing to pay a premium price that good brands demand. Branding has also impacted the way people think. An example would be the war between MAC users and Windows users. Both systems have a certain image associated with them and obviously both are rivals. When it comes to the users of both the systems, a rivalry emerges there as well. Both are brand loyal and would not tolerate anyone defaming their choice of brand. Therefore, strong branding can have an influence over people s sentiments and the way they interact with others.

A similar attitude is observed when people develop a bonding with their brand. That bonding is so strong that they are not willing to buy the same product by any other brand other than their favorite. An example of such bonding would be one that a person develops with hisher car. A person who owns a Ferrari would not part with the brand no matter what and would not buy any other car. In fact, heshe would buy all the accessories even clothing that is branded by Ferrari.

Not only has a change been witnessed in consumer behaviour, there has been a change on the retail and distribution side as well. Retailers now keep stock of those brands that are in strong demand these strong brands, instead of relying on the push strategy, are gaining advantage because of the pull strategy. No longer do these brands have to convince the retailers to stock their product, instead the retailers want to stock the product in order to satisfy their customers.

The way brands are marketed these days has also changed. At first, advertising on TV was thought of as the most potent form of marketing the brand. Although TV is the most used medium for advertising even today, there is so much clutter on TV that marketers have realised that in order to differentiate their brand and stand out from the clutter, additional efforts would have to be made.

Publicity is the new type of advertising it has the same effect as advertising ad has more credibility.
There are constant activities being done by companies in order to keep their brand in the news.

Whether it is good publicity or bad publicity, the ultimate effect that it has on brands is that it increases sales. Every day, new types of gimmicks and publicity stunts are being done worldwide in order to promote the brand. So, branding has changed the way goods are being sold to the consumers.

The ultimate change that branding has brought about over the years is in the buying patterns of individuals. With the help of branding, it has been made easier for marketers to predict the buying behaviour of individuals. With internet technology and smart softwares, increasingly innovative methods are sought out to influence the consumer. The consumers attitude has also changed they are presented with so many choices that they are no longer passive consumers. They actively seek better products at better prices and companies do their best to fulfill their demands. Promotional activities have increased and so has the direct interaction with customers and brands increased to develop a strong and lasting relationship. Companies that are not branding their products would be better off doing so as branding will remain in the scene for quite some time.