Charles Morris
‘Human civilisation is dependant upon signs and systems of
signs, and the human mind is inseparable from functioning of signs–if indeed
mentality is not to be identified with such functioning’
- ( Charles Morris, foundations of the Theory of
Signs)
What is branding?
Matthew Healey
Design
Refers to all aspects of how a thing is crafted, not just
the visual aspect. The design is the liquid as well as the label, the nuts and
bolts as well as the name, the self as well as the surface. Often, when a
company talks of rebranding, they really just mean a redesign. A true
rebranding cuts to the core concept.
Customer relationship
Management represent the sometimes quixotic efforts of
corporations to make each of use feel special. This is vital. Your phone
company has millions of customers, but has to make you and every other one feel
like the most important. A difficult trick, but try they must. At the heart of
every branding effort there has to be a kernel of truth. The beauty of great
branding lies in its ability to identify that the truth, tell its story, make
it look good, and build it into a valuable, emotional bond between producer and
customer.
Customers always believe a branded item is worth more than a
generic one, even though the two may be similar. On a rational level, we assume
that if a large company invests effort and money in building up a brand, it
must be good.
Branding can do several useful things, all of which help to
ensure the success of the product or service. It can:
-
Reinforce a good reputation
-
Encourage loyalty
-
Assure quality
-
Convey a perception of greater worth, allowing a
product to be priced higher
-
Grant the buyer a sense of affirmation and entry
into an imaginary community of shared values.
‘A brand is a promise of satisfaction. It is a sign, a metaphor operating as an unwritten contract between a manufacturer and a consumer, a seller and a buyer, a performer and an audience’
Everyone is drawn to a good emotional story and wants to hear the best ones over and over again. When we buy brands, we take part in their story: great brands reassure us as to what an important role we play in their great story. (M. Healey, 2010)
(V. Thomans & G. Vinuales, 2017)
‘A brand represents one of
the most important assets to a company, and it may be represented by its name,
logo and slogan. With these elements, consumers recognise, remember and recall
the brand.’
Michael Gobe
‘Providing an emotional branding experience requires an integrated and
coordination organisational effort so that the customer is not only satisfied
but also always feels good about the consumption experience. Creating and
managing effective emotional branding experiences can lead to service brand
differentiation, an increase in sales, consumer loyalty and evangelical promotion
of the service brand.
‘The future of branding thus rests in listening carefully to people in order to be able to connect powerfully with them by bringing pleasurable, life enhancing solutions to their world. In the future companies will not be able to rely on their brand history… they will have to focus on providing brands with a powerful emotional content.
A brand is not a brand until it develops an emotional connection with you in contrast to this Gobe (2001) reflects emotional branding as a means of creating personal dialogue with the consumers which adds credibility through powerful connections on a personal and holistic level.
‘Over the past decade, it has become resoundingly clear that the world is moving from an industrially driven economy where machines are the heroes toward a people-driven economy that puts the consumer in the seat of power.’ ‘Since consumers are in the driver’s seat, they will experience brands in a different way. People today feel capable of influencing the world with their beliefs and shaping part fo their own future. We will see people seek and redefine for themselves the quality level of their life. They will fulfil their desires for themselves and for everyone around them by bringing an unprecedented personal and emotional dimension to their choices and decisions. The increasingly important “quality of life” concepts of hassle free shopping, time management, stress reduction, connectivity and heightened pleasure will profoundly affect consumers’ overall receptivity to new product or marketing ideas. There is a new mandate of tailoring every aspect of business toward serving the whole person. Those brands that don’t understand this will miss a big opportunity.’
‘Consumers buy, people live.’
‘Relationship means that the brand representatives really seek to understand and appreciate the consumer, this is how trust is built.’
‘Trust is one of the most important values of a brand and it requires real effort from corporations. One of the most powerful moves toward building consumer trust was retailers’ implementation of the ‘no questions asked’ returns policy many years ago. This brings consumers comfort as well as the upper hand in decision making.’
‘For established products to attract and retain consumer interest, it is critical that innovative retailing, advertising and new product launches capture the imagination.’
Morrison and Crane, 2007).
Emotional branding is defined as the
engagement of consumers in a deep, long-term, intimate emotional connection
with the brand, which is beyond the benefit based satisfaction, and which
creates a special trust based relationship for the development of a holistic
emotional experience
In contrast, another set of theorists
argue that emotion is purely physiological. In their view emotion is the
physiological response to a stimulus, which results in certain cognitions but
is entirely separate from the cognitive process (Morrison and Crane, 2007).
(R. Lazarus, 1984)
Many psychologists have looked into the impact emotional branding has on the consumer, one set of theorists argues from a cognitive processing perspective that emotion is the result of the cognitive evaluation of a stimulus, an evaluation steeped in a person’s history and cognitive mind set.
(Thompson et al., 2006).
As a posed
to conventional benefit driven branding approach, emotional branding focuses on
brand meanings that interact with consumer lives and inspire their passion,
life stories, memories, and experiences (Thompson et al., 2006).
http://www.kvimis.co.in/sites/kvimis.co.in/files/ebook_attachments/Keller%20Strategic%20Brand%20Management.pdf
A brand
is therefore more than a product, because it can have dimensions that
differenti- ate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same
need. These
differences may be rational and tangible—related to product performance of the
brand—or more symbolic, emotional, and intangible—related to what the brand
represents.
For
brands facing rapid growth, a brand functions term can provide critical
guidance as to appropriate and inappropriate categories into which to extend.
For brands in more stable categories, the brand mantra may focus more on
points-of-difference as ex- pressed by the functional and emotional modi ers,
perhaps not even including a brand functions term.
Brand
feelings are
customers’ emotional responses and reactions to the brand. Brand feelings also
relate to the social currency evoked by the brand. What feelings are evoked by
the market- ing program for the brand or by other means? How does the brand
affect customers’ feelings about themselves and their relationship with others?
These feelings can be mild or intense and can be positive or negative.
Kevin
Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi argues that companies must transcend brands to
create “trustmarks”—a name or symbol that emotionally binds a company with the
desires and aspirations of its customers—and ultimately “lovemarks.” He argues
that it is not enough for a brand to be just respected. Pretty much everything
today can be seen in relation to a love-respect axis. You can plot any
relationship—with a person, with a brand—by whether it’s based on love or based
on respect. It used to be that a high respect rating would win. But these days,
a high love rating wins. If I don’t love what you’re offering me, I’m not even
interested. A passionate believer
in the concept, Roberts reinforces the point that trustmarks truly belong to
the people who offer the love to the brand, and that an emotional connection is
critical. The emotions evoked by a brand can become so strongly associated that
they are accessible during product consumption or use. Researchers have de ned transformational
advertising as advertising designed to change consumers’ perceptions of
the actual usage experience with the product. Corona Extra overtook Heineken as
the leading imported beer in the United States via its “beach in a bottle”
advertising. With a tagline “Miles Away from Ordinary,” the campaign was
designed to transform drinkers—at least mentally—to sunny, tranquil beaches. A
brand that successfully injected some emotion into an industry is W hotels.
By appealing
to both rational and emotional concerns, a strong brand provides consumers with
multiple access points while reducing competitive vulnerability. Rational
concerns can satisfy utilitarian needs, whereas emotional concerns can satisfy
psychological or emotional needs. Combining the two allows brands to create a
formidable brand position. Consistent with this reasoning, a McKinsey study of
51 corporate brands found that having distinctive physical and emotional
bene ts drove greater shareholder value, especially when the two were linked.
(Thompson et al., 2006).
As a
posed to conventional benefit driven branding approach, emotional branding
focuses on brand meanings that interact with consumer lives and inspire their
passion, life stories, memories, and experiences (Thompson et al., 2006).
Gobe (2001)
M. Gobe
‘Over the past decade, it has become
resoundingly clear that the world is moving from an industrially driven economy
where machines are the heroes toward a people-driven economy that puts the
consumer in the seat of power.’
‘Since consumers are in the driver’s seat, they
will experience brands in a different way. People today feel capable of
influencing the world with their beliefs and shaping part fo their own future.
We will see people seek and redefine for themselves the quality level of their
life. They will fulfil their desires for themselves and for everyone around
them by bringing an unprecedented personal and emotional dimension to their
choices and decisions. The increasingly important “quality of life” concepts of
hassle free shopping, time management, stress reduction, connectivity and
heightened pleasure will profoundly affect consumers’ overall receptivity to
new product or marketing ideas. There is a new mandate of tailoring every
aspect of business toward serving the whole person. Those brands that don’t
understand this will miss a big opportunity.’
‘Consumers buy, people
live.’
‘Relationship means that the
brand representatives really seek to understand and appreciate the consumer,
this is how trust is built.’
‘Trust is one of the most
important values of a brand and it requires real effort from corporations. One
of the most powerful moves toward building consumer trust was retailers’
implementation of the ‘no questions asked’ returns policy many years ago. This
brings consumers comfort as well as the upper hand in decision making.’
‘For established products to
attract and retain consumer interest, it is critical that innovative retailing,
advertising and new product launches capture the imagination.’
Lazarus
Emotion,
for ex- ample, is not just physiological arousal, though such arousal
is one of the traditional defining attributes. Arousal can be produced by
exercising vigorously or entering a hot or cold room. Doing this will
