COP 3: The Power of Branding

Insight Into Branding and How it Links to my Question

I wanted to look deeper into branding as it was the discipline I was focusing on in my essay, and see what information I could collect and different perspectives of what branding is and consequences of it. 

The guide helped shed light on the subject of branding as a whole, what it is how it works and how you can use it to help improve your business or the perception of your service. I wanted to go through this so I knew it in and out and clearly know what I am looking at and for when it came to case studies for my essay 

the key areas it was set out into was:

• What do we mean by branding
• How the web has changed the relationship with the customers
• How branding can help your business 
• The key ingredients of any good brand
• How to communicate, manage and develop your brand identity 
• Branding for different market sectors 
• The relationship between design and branding

What do we mean by the word brand?

The simplest answer is that a brand is a set of associations that a person (or group of people) makes with a company, product, service, individual or organisation.

this first part is about what the associations with brands are whether they can be good or bad, for example some can be out of their hands and come from another source like a press review slating the product would do it some harm giving it negative associations in peoples minds.

A good example to use would be Coke because world renowned as a brand

Coca-Cola executive:

"If Coca-Cola were to lose all of it's production related asserts in a disaster, the company would survive. By contrast, if all consumers were to have a sudden lapse of memory and forget everything related to Coca Cola, the company would go out of business."

So what are these all-powerful associations? For Coca-Cola, typical perceptions might be that it is the original cola drink (‘The Real Thing’), that its recipe is secret and unsurpassed, that it’s all-American or maybe global, that it’s youthful, energetic, refreshing and so on. Visual associations might include the unmistakable red and white logo and corporate colours, or the unique shape and tint of the original glass bottles.

These are mostly positive brand associations, but there may be negative ones too. For example, Coca-Cola may be seen as unhealthy, or as a symbol of global imperialism by American brands. What is seen as a positive association to some may be unpleasant to others and negative perceptions could become attached to a brand’s identity even if the company strives to present a different character.

What is Branding ?

If a brand results from a set of associations and perceptions in people’s minds, then branding is an attempt to harness, generate, influence and control these associations to help the business perform better. Any organisation can benefit enormously by creating a brand that presents the company as distinctive, trusted, exciting, reliable or whichever attributes are appropriate to that business.

While absolute control over a brand is not possible due to outside influences, intelligent use of design, advertising, marketing, service proposition, corporate culture and so on can all really help to generate associations in people’s minds that will benefit the organisation. In different industry sectors the audiences, competitors, delivery and service aspects of branding may differ, but the basic principle of being clear about what you stand for always applies.

How This links to My Question

Looking at how brands present its self and portrays there product in a certain way is exactly what I am investigating with in my question. What meat and dairy products are putting across with in there brand and if that is actually true and do certain associations of the particular brand be need to be made more aware with in the branding.  

How Brands are Changing?

In the last few years the digital communications revolution has completely transformed this balance of control. The consumer's voice has become louder and much more public. Consumers can publish their experience of a brand and compare it with the experience of others. The ability of a brand to respond to this can have a profound affect on the way they are perceived. It's also affecting the types of brand that achieve prominence. There is even a thriving market in brands whose primary strategy is to champion the consumer's voice, Tripadvisor is one of the most famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) of these.

Opinion 

I Agree that is is changing in the scale of what brands are coming to providence because it is easier for the consumer to criticise and and available to do so on many platforms. So problems with in brands become easier to find out about via social media ad other things. However my question focuses on meat and diary products and I think at the moment they have the coke effect that they are so well know and a part of peoples lives that no matter the associations they will still be bought. But maybe because the associations aren't done in the right way which is what i will be exploring.  

Why Do You Need A Brand ?

Creating difference

Branding is a way of clearly highlighting what makes your offer different to, and more desirable than, anyone else’s. Effective branding elevates a product or organisation from being just one commodity amongst many identical commodities, to become something with a unique character and promise. It can create an emotional resonance in the minds of consumers who choose products and services using both emotional and pragmatic judgements.

Adding value

People are generally willing to pay more for a branded product than they are for something which is largely unbranded. And a brand can be extended through a whole range of offers too.

Connecting with people

Creating a connection with people is important for all organisations and a brand can embody attributes which consumers will feel drawn to.

The Key Ingredients of a Brand

The big Idea

Values 

Vision 

Personality