How do contemporary promotional cultures construct a relationship with consumers through brands and how active are consumers in this relationship? Illustrate your answer with examples.
This paper provides a framework for the relationship formed between brands and consumers; It will attempt to discover what this relationship looks like from an annalist point of view, additionally it will be touching upon brand management, this will be applied in relation to appropriate examples such as the US clothing brand, Abricombie & Fitch (A&F). Moreover, It will be analyzing the concept of “active consumers”, whilst attempting to understand how active are consumers in this relationship.
“Brands are product names that have meaning attached to them through naming, packaging, advertising and marketing.”(Marita Sturken, 2004) Branding originates in the late nineteenth century, companies had realized the advantage of associating and marketing their product with “meanings that distinguished the qualities of a company and its products from other similar products”. Although the “origins of branding in the rise of consumer society can show us how products were turned into brands, the extent of branding culture and the complexity of consumers' relationship to brands today have changed dramatically since that time” (Sturken. M).
The relationships between consumers and brands has been investigated thoroughly in the past by various different researchers, many of which suggest that this relationship is of equal and mutual input, suggesting that the consumer acquires a large input in order to create a lasting relationship. Giep Franzen describes the relationship between the customer and the brand as being a mutual relationship [..] comprising an interac...
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...(Google eBook) [Accessed 21st Mar 2014]
YouTube. 2014. BBC Three - Secrets of the Superbrands (Fashion). [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd7lfcnlb9c [Accessed: 21st Mar 2014].
Google Books. 2012. Tony Hines, Margaret Bruce Fashion Marketing: Contemporary Issues. [online] Available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uYlYhLQC9goC&pg=PR2&dq=tony+hines+and+margaret+bruce+fashion+marketing&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cOMxU9OdOOGm0QWUpICoCA&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=tony%20hines%20and%20margaret%20bruce%20fashion%20marketing&f=false [Accessed: 21 Mar 2014].
Google Books. 2014. Brand Culture. [online] Available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3r5_AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA111&dq=Consumers+becoming+active+in+a+brand&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hlkyU9udEe-M0wX3zYGwCg&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Consumers%20becoming%20active%20in%20a%20brand&f=false [Accessed: 21 Mar 2014].
When people go shopping there are limitless choices of one product made by different companies, all choices of this product basically do the same thing, but what makes them different is the brand’s name. Companies with brands are trying to get their consumers by presenting their commodities in ways
In every given business, the name itself portrays different meanings. This serves as the reference point and sometimes the basis of customers on what to expect within the company. Since personality affects product image (Langmeyer & Shank, 1994), the presence of brand helps in the realization of this concept. Traditionally, brand is a symbolic manifestation of all the information connected with a company, product, or service (Nilson, 2003; Olin, 2003). A brand is typically composed of a name, logo, and other visual elements such as images, colors, and icons (Gillooley & Varley, 2001; Laforet & Saunders, 1994)). It is believed that a brand puts an impression to the consumer on what to expect to the product or service being offered (Mere, 1995). In other application, brand may be referred as trademark, which is legally appropriate term. The brand is the most powerful weapon in the market (LePla & Parker, 1999). Brands possess personality in which people associate their experience. Oftentimes, they are related to the core values the company executes.
Steele, V., 1997. Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xqEt6Dpb4TYC&pgis=1 [Accessed April 16, 2014].
Brand identity is about story telling. Using the latest content that has been published, compromising the five best images that reflect the profile of the brand, a consumer-photo-storyboard can be developed to: Describe the profile of the brand; Identify the main communication and publicity themes; and Critically assess the integrated modes of communication with consumers, including limitations and negative content.
A customer’s response falls in two categories, judgment and feelings. Consumers are constantly making judgments about a brand. These judgments fall into four categories: quality, credibility, consideration, and superiority (Keller, 2001). Customers judge a brand based on its actual and perceived quality, and customers judge credibility using the perception of the company’s expertise, trustworthiness, and likability. To what extent is the brand seen as “competent, innovative, and a market leader,” “dependable and sensitive to the interest of customers,” and “fun, interesting, and worth spending time with” (Keller,
A brand audit is a detailed assessment of a brand’s current ranking in the market compared to other competitors. It provides information on how the business is performing in the market. A brand audit also aims at examining the image and reputation of the brand as perceived by customers. The two key elements of brand audit are brand inventory and brand exploratory. Brand inventory provides up to date itinerary of how a company markets and brands its products. On the other hand, a brand exploratory is an examination undertaken so as to comprehend what consumers feel about the brand. It seeks to conduct a consumer insight research in order to acquire consumers’ feelings and perceptions. This paper looks into the brand exploratory aspect of auditing under the customer-based brand equity (CBBE) model.
According to Heath and Heath (2008), consumers seem to have a mistrust of marketing resulting in a disconnection between the agenda of brand managers and consumer interests. This mistrust lies with the consumer view that marketers are pushing for “excessive consumption” rather than really understanding attitudes and perceptions that lead to satisfying the needs and wants of consumers (Heath & Heath, 2008). Today, consumers are opposed to push strategies, and prefer making decisions about brands more independently. Hipperson (2010) has found that companies may have to “change from delivering push communications to creating pull interactions” (p. 263). This reflects the importance of listening to what consumers are demanding and then implementing strategies that will satisfy this ...
[5] Nandan, S. (2005) An exploration of the brand identity-brand image linkage: A communications perspective, Brand Management. (pp 264 – 278)
Today's modern concept of branding grew out of the consumer packaged goods industry and the process of branding has come to include much more than just creating a way to identify a product or company. Branding is used to create emotional attachment to products and companies. Branding efforts create a feeling of involvement, a sense of higher quality, and an aura of intangible qualities that surround the brand name, mark, or symbol.
A brand identifies a seller’s product from a competitor’s product. There are three main purposes for branding product identification, which is the most important purpose, repeat sales, and new-product sales. Branding has a lot of terms that marketers use there is brand equity, global brand, and brand loyalty. Marketers also have different brand strategies that they use for different products or customers. It all depends on the consumer for them to decide which strategy they will use. The different strategies are generic products, manufacturer’s brands, private brands, individual brands, family brands, and co-branding. The branding purposes and the branding strategy make up the importance of branding.
Product is the core of marketing, which including tangible goods like food or drinks or intangible services, as it is the major way to embody customers requirements; and, branding is directly associated with it. In fact, branding is all about decisio ns of products, like brand names or trademarks. Stork (2007) asserted that a brand is a unique business identity which represents the personality, quality or origin of products. And, such a product which added value by branding would appear in every activity of marketing, namely, branding is actually react on the whole marketing system directly and indirectly.
The term 'branding' in modern marketing is generally originated in the agricultural practices of the medieval age. The farmers 'branded' their animals with the iron and then they were able to identify to whom a particular animal belonged. Artisans 'branded' their products, for example, expensive silver tableware. Smiths 'branded' their swords. The role of the brand is to identify products by the same way as for medieval farmers and for modern corporations as well.
Early on in the twentieth century, when mass marketing and production became commonplace, company branding allowed consumers to identify with a company. The consumer made a one sided personal relationship
Brand offers superior quality of the service to the customer’s expectation and satisfaction. Furthermore, people are much attached to the branded products, as majority of the people purchase the branded products with the belief that brands show their status and life style in the society. And also because they believe that they are purchasing quality when purchasing branded product. As duration of stay creates impact of brand on consumer behaviour, so verification of brand image, brand loyalty and personality should be considered as the significant factors in this regard. It can also be said that there is need to improve the product of a particular brand so that the impact of brand on consumer behaviour is more effective in comparison to the existing scenario. The study also reflects that the product features are very essential for consumers. Advertising plays a very important role in achieving growth for any product or brand. The right media for advertising products and services should be chosen to gain customer attention.
The Association reflects the fact that products are used to express lifestyles whereas other Associations reflect social positions,. and professional roles. Still others will reflect Associations involving product applications, types of people who might use the product, Stores that carry the product or salespeople who handle the product or even the country of origin. (Keller, 1998) defines brand associations as informational nodes linked to the brand node in memory that contains the meaning of the brand for consumers. These associations include perceptions of brand quality and attitudes towards the brand. Keller and Aaker both appear to hypothesize that consumer perception of a brand are multi-dimensional, yet many of the dimensions they identify appear to be very similar. The image that a good or a service has in the mind of the consumer-how it is positioned is probably more important to its ultimate success than are its actual characteristics. According to (Aaker, 1991) there are at least nine brand