Brand is the evaluation and cognition of an enterprise and its products, after-sales service and cultural value, and it is a kind of trust. Brand is the embodiment and representative of the comprehensive quality of a commodity. When people think of a brand, it is always associated with fashion, culture and value. When enterprises create brands, they constantly create fashion and cultivate culture. Enterprises become stronger and bigger, constantly changing from low added value to high added value, and changing to high-level advantages of product development, product quality and cultural innovation. When the brand culture is recognized and accepted by the market, the brand will produce its market value.
A brand is a symbol added to a commodity by a manufacturer or distributor. It consists of names, nouns, symbols, signs, designs or their combinations. Generally, it includes two parts: brand name and brand logo.
1. General definition: A brand is a name, noun, symbol or design, or their combination. Its purpose is to identify the products or services of a seller or a group of sellers and distinguish them from those of competitors. (Dr. philip kotler, Marketing Expert)
2. Just as the definition of brand strategy development: brand is the image recognition, feeling, quality recognition and customer loyalty through these factors and a series of market activities. Generally speaking, it belongs to intangible assets. So at this time, the brand appeared as an intangible asset.
3. Brand building is a systematic project, which needs passion, wisdom and faith. Brand strength depends on brand leadership, in which positioning is the direction and balance is the general plan; Balance includes positioning, and positioning makes balance strong. This is the essence of IBF brand balance theory.
4. Brand is the holographic concentration of all intangible assets of enterprises or brand subjects (including cities and individuals), which can be identified by specific symbols; It is the product of the interaction between subject and object, subject and society, enterprise and consumer.
5. Brand is an enterprise name and its logo, which is used to identify a seller's product or service and distinguish it from competitors' products or services. It is usually composed of words, marks, symbols, patterns and colors or a combination of these elements. 1. differentiation: product differentiation is the first condition that must be met to create a product or service brand. Companies must distinguish their products from other products in the market.
2. Relevance: refers to the availability of products to potential customers. Only when consumers actually see the existence of brands in their daily lives can brands be meaningful.
3. Cognitive value: This is the key to building a valuable brand. Even if the product of an enterprise is different from other products in the market, if potential customers don't feel the value of the product, they won't buy it. The most lasting significance and essence of a brand is its value, culture and personality; Brand is a business term. After the brand is registered, it forms a trademark, and the enterprise is protected by law and has its exclusive right. Brand is the result of long-term efforts of enterprises and the intangible carrier of enterprises.
In order to profoundly reveal the meaning of the brand, we need to look at it from the following six aspects.
1, Attribute: A brand represents the attribute of a specific commodity, which is the most basic meaning of a brand.
2. Benefits: The brand not only represents a series of attributes, but also embodies some specific benefits.
3. Value: The brand embodies a certain value concept of the producer.
4. Culture: The brand is also attached to a specific culture.
5. Personality: The brand also embodies a certain personality.
6. Users: Brand means the type of consumers who buy or use products.
Based on the above six levels of brand meaning, marketing enterprises must decide the depth level of brand characteristics. Brand value includes user value and self-value. The function, quality and value of the brand are the user value elements of the brand, that is, the internal three elements of the brand; The brand's popularity, reputation and popularity are the self-value elements of the brand, that is, the external three elements of the brand. The user value of a brand depends on three internal factors, and the self-value of a brand depends on three external factors.
Wrong idea
All walks of life are talking about brands. Enterprises want to do their own brands well. The state has also given a lot of support in policy, and the media is also spreading various brand concepts. However, at present, there are many misunderstandings in the brand concept of enterprises, and many business operators and marketers have no clear understanding of the brand. They think that brand building is only the creativity of brand value and communication language, and only promotion activities make their brand building behavior vague and random, and the resulting brand effect is naturally unsatisfactory. The enterprise has not established brand promise and performance comparison and evaluation mechanism. The inconsistency between the promised content and the fulfilled content will lead to deviation and dislocation in the process of brand building. There are many examples of big brands in all walks of life in the market, whose commitments and performance are misplaced.
Brands and trademarks
Trademark and brand are two concepts in different fields, which are easily confused. In daily work, many people mix these two terms and use them universally. Even mistakenly believe that the symbol that marks the trademark has become a brand. If this is the case, then all trademarks registered in the industrial and commercial bureau can be called brands.
In fact, there are both connections and differences between the two.
China is a big trademark country, while China is a weak brand country. The most valuable brands in the world are 100, and there are only a handful of brands in China. It can be seen that trademarks and brands cannot be equated. They refer to the same thing from different angles, which are closely related and different. In life, many people often confuse these two concepts and think that a registered trademark becomes a brand. In fact, it takes a long and arduous process for a registered trademark to become a real brand, just like building the Great Wall of Wan Li. The word brand comes from the old Norwegian brandr, which means "brand" in Chinese. At that time, western nomadic tribes branded their horses differently to distinguish their property, which was the original way of naming goods and the source of modern brand concept. In 1960, the American Marketing Institute (AMA) gave an earlier brand definition: a brand is a name, term, logo, symbol and design, or a combination of them. Its purpose is to identify a seller or seller's products or services and distinguish them from competitors' products and services. A trademark refers to a brand or a part of a brand that has applied to a trademark registration agency according to legal procedures, been examined and approved, and been granted the exclusive right to use a trademark. Trademarks are protected by law, and no one may copy or use them without the permission of the trademark registrant. It can be seen that the brand has a wider connotation.
If the brand is compared to a huge iceberg, the trademark is only a small part of the iceberg.
A trademark is an inseparable part of a brand. It is just the symbol and name of the brand, which is convenient for consumers to remember and identify. But brands have richer connotations. Brand is not only a symbol and name, but also contains vivid spiritual and cultural content. Brand embodies people's values, symbolizes people's identity and expresses people's feelings. For example, the brand connotation of Coca-Cola goes far beyond the symbol and name of the word "Coca-Cola", which embodies the "optimistic" American culture of several generations in the United States. Mercedes-Benz symbolizes the owner's "success and status".
Brand naming and logo design are only the first step in brand building. To truly build an excellent brand, we need to carry out brand investigation and diagnosis, brand planning and positioning, brand communication and promotion, brand adjustment and evaluation, and also need to improve brand awareness, reputation and loyalty, accumulate brand assets, persevere year after year, stick to our brand positioning, keep our promises to consumers, and let the brand image be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people for a long time.
Although trademarks and brands are symbols of commodities, trademarks are legal terms and brands are economic terms. Only when a brand touches the hearts of consumers can it produce market economic benefits. At the same time, a brand can only become a registered trademark after it is registered in accordance with the Trademark Law, and it can be protected by law to avoid infringement and imitation by any other individual or enterprise.
In terms of ownership, the trademark is in the hands of the registrant, while the brand is rooted in the hearts of consumers. The ownership of the trademark is in the hands of the registrant. The registrant can transfer and license his trademark, and can crack down on the infringement and use of his trademark by others through legal means. But the brand is rooted in the hearts of consumers. The great value and market appeal of the brand comes from consumers' trust, preference and loyalty to the brand. If a brand loses its credibility and the trust of consumers, it is worthless. For example, Qin Chi and Chundu have won the trust of consumers because of their product quality problems. Although the scenery was good for a while, it was also doomed to be destroyed soon. Therefore, brand management is essentially the continuous progress of enterprises in consumers' minds, and the large amount of credit deposits that can be successfully recovered in the future is to build a treasure house of commercial credit that is based on the present and contributes to the future.