WHAT IS BRANDING ? WHY IT IS A MUST FOR EVERY BUSINESS?

BRAND NAMES

 WHY BRANDING IS A MUST?

Every marketer wants to sell his/her product and try to distinguish it from other products. But, how can anyone distinguish its product from many other products, when we know that there are a lot of products in the market. There is a great solution for this problem. The marketer can take help of the marketing strategy called Branding. Branding refers to the process of giving a name, symbol or any sign, logo, etc. to the product.

In this process most marketers give a different or unique name to their product which helps the customers in identifying and distinguishing their products from any other product.  Branding is one of the most important and crucial decisions for a marketer.  In order to increase sales and create Goodwill in the market he has to decide whether the product will be sold under a brand name or a generic name. In the above paragraph, we have discussed that brand name means creating an identity in the minds of the customer. But, what is a generic name?

Generic name means the name of the whole class of the product. For example- a camera, a tyre, shoes, etc., but if the marketer will sell its product by a generic name, it will be very difficult for them to differentiate their products from the competitor’s product. Thus, the concept of branding was introduced.  With the brand name, it becomes easy to create a different image for the product.  Also, it will help the customer's in selecting the product.

Before undertaking the process of branding, the marketer should know some related concepts or terms of branding-

Brand 

Brand refers to a name, symbol, design, logo or any kind of combination of them, which is used to differentiate the product from the competitor’s product. Example- Lifebuoy, Nike, Adidas, Rolex, McDonald's, fortune, etc. Brand is a very comprehensive word which includes two components-

1.   Brand name

2.   Brand mark

Brand name

Brand name refers to that part of the brand which can be spoken, i.e., which have a verbal component of the brand.  For example- Uncle Chips, Lifebuoy, Maruti Suzuki, Fortune, Westside,  Dominos, Allen Solly, etc,

Brand mark

Brand mark refers to that part of the brand which cannot be spoken, but that can be recognised. Brand Mark is a non verbal component, which means that it is not utterable. For example- The symbol of cock on cock Crackers, 4 circles of Audi,  devil of Onida, etc.

Trade mark

Trade mark refers to that part of a brand which has given legal protection to the product. The protection is given against its use by any competitor.

As we know Brand name, Brand mark, Trade mark, increase the cost of the product but still most marketers have adopted this concept because it has given  tremendous  benefit to the company.

☺The different kind of benefits that branding has given to the marketers are as follows- 

Differentiate product from competitor’s product

Branding enables the companies to differentiate its product from any other substitute. This helps the company to secure a great market share for its products.

Ease in advertising the product

 A brand helps a company in advertising its product.  With the brand name or brand mark, the customer can recognise the product and this will lead to increased awareness of the product and also increase its sales.

Introduction of new product

When any new product is introduced under an established Brand name, the new product can take advantage of the Brand name or Brand mark.  By this means, the new product can get an excellent start.  This is the reason why most of the companies are introducing new products under the same brand name.  For example- Dabur,  Maggie, etc.

☺Do you know that branding not only help marketer but it also give some benefits to the customer which are-

Helps in identification of the product

If any customer is satisfied with a particular product under a specified Brand name, he or she does not need to make a close inspection every time  he  purchases a product. He just has to recognise the brand name or logo every time when he repeats a purchase.

Quality inspection

When the customer will buy a particular product every time, he does not need to worry about the quality as he has already used the same product before.  If the product is of the same brand, there will be no derivation in the quality of the product.  This ensures the confidence of the customers in a particular brand.

Enhance status symbol

There are some brands in the market which give the customer a sense of status symbol. While making a purchase of these products customers feel proud of using them as it adds to their social status.  For example, if a customer buys an iPhone, the customer believes that it will enhance its status in society.

These are the reasons why every marketer wants to adopt the process of branding.