Branding and Packaging Decision (1)

The first section of the basic concepts of brand and trademark

First, the meaning of the brand

1, what is the brand

The best way to distinguish professional marketers may be to see if they have the ability to create, maintain, protect, and expand the brand. The American Marketing Association defines the brand as follows.

A brand is a name, term, symbol, symbol, or design, or a combination of them.

Purpose: To identify a seller’s product or service and distinguish it from competitors’ products and services.

The 6-layer meaning of a brand expression:

Attributes: A brand first brings people specific attributes. For example, Mercedes shows high quality, excellent manufacturing, excellent craftsmanship, durability, high reputation, high re-sold prices, quickness, and so on. Companies can use one or more of these attributes to advertise. For many years, Mercedes's slogan was: "The quality of its projects is unparalleled in other cars around the world." This is a well-designed positioning program that shows the other attributes of the car.

Benefits: A brand is not limited to a set of attributes. Customers are not buying attributes, they are buying interests. Attributes need to be converted into functional or (and) emotional benefits. Durable properties can translate into functional benefits: “This car helped me to reflect importance and envy.” Attributes Good manufacturing can translate into functional and emotional benefits at the same time: “In the event of a traffic accident, I am also safe.”

Value: The brand also reflects some of the manufacturer's sense of value. For example, Mercedes embodies high performance, security, prestige, and so on, and the brand marketer must speculate on the specific car buying group that is looking for these values.

Culture: Brands may additionally symbolize a certain culture. Mercedes means German culture: organized, efficient and high quality.

Personality: The brand represents a certain personality. If the brand is a person, an animal, or a subject matter, what will happen in the mind? Mercedes can remind people of a boss (person) who is not bored, a powerful lion (animal) or A rustic palace (subject matter). Sometimes it can represent the personality of an actual celebrity or spokesperson.

Users: The brand also reflects which consumer is buying or using this product. When we saw a young woman secretary driving Mercedes, she would be surprised. What we would like to see is a president sitting behind the car. In fact, the value, culture, and personality expressed by the product can all be reflected on the user.

If a company sees a brand only as a name, it ignores the key points of the content. The challenge of the brand is to deepen the significance of brand development. A brand can be seen in all 6 layers of meaning, we call it a deep meaning brand; the other hand is a superficial brand. Mercedes is a profound brand, because we understand the meaning of all six aspects of it; Audi is lighter, because it is impossible to easily grasp its specific interests, personality and user image.

After clarifying the 6-level meaning of the brand, marketers must decide how to identify the brand. One of the mistakes is only the attributes of the promotional brand. First, buyers are interested in brand interests rather than attributes. Second, competitors can easily replicate these attributes. Third, current brand attributes may be worthless in the future, and breaking a brand often starts with those specialized attributes.

Even one or more benefits of a promotional brand include risks. Assuming that Mercedes is touting its main interest as "high performance", then assuming that several competing brands embody the same high or higher performance, or assuming that car buyers start to think that high performance is less important than other interests, so Mercedes should need to have more Great freedom to adjust new interests.

The most lasting meaning of a brand should be its value, culture and personality. They define the basis of the brand. Mercedes has expressed "high technology, performance, success" and so on. This is the brand strategy that Mercedes must adopt. If Mercedes's name is sold cheaply in the market, this is a mistake. Because it dilutes the values ​​and personality that Mercedes has built over the years.

2, brand name

Brand refers to the part of the brand that can be used as a language

3, brand logo

Brand signage refers to the part of the brand that can be recognized but cannot be used in words

4, trademarks

Refers to a registered part of a brand or brand that is protected by law.

5, branding

The enterprise provides its products with brand names, brand marks, and all business activities that are registered with the relevant government authorities.

Second, the brand's function and role

Analysis from the buyer, seller and society:

(A) Benefits to Buyers

1. The brand represents a certain quality and features of the product, which is easy for the buyer to purchase and improve the shopping efficiency.

2. The brand can protect the interests of the buyer, facilitate the supervision of the relevant departments on the quality of the product, and the quality of the problem is also easy to trace responsibility.

(b) Benefits to the seller

1. The brand facilitates sellers' management. If you are advertising and signing a sales contract, you need to have a brand to simplify the transaction procedures.

2. Registered trademarks are protected by law and are exclusive.

3, the brand can establish a stable customer base, attract those consumers with brand loyalty, so that corporate sales remain stable.

4. The brand helps market segmentation and positioning. Enterprises can set up different brands according to the requirements of different market segments, and put different brands into different market segments.

5. A good brand helps establish a good corporate image. 

(iii) Benefits to the Whole Society

1. The brand can promote the continuous improvement of product quality. Since buyers purchase products according to brands, producers cannot but care about the reputation of the brand and strengthen quality management, so that the quality of products on the market generally improves.

2. The brand can strengthen the social innovation spirit and encourage producers to innovate constantly in the competition, so that the products on the market are rich and varied, with each passing day.

3. The right to exclusive use of trademarks can protect the fair competition among enterprises, make the circulation of goods in an orderly manner, and promote the healthy development of the entire society and economy.