What is a "brand"? Because everyone's experience, culture and knowledge background are different, there may be many different answers, each with its own unique understanding. Although people always seem to invent different brand definitions according to their own needs, one thing is the same. The meaning of the brand reflects people's psychological recognition and expectation of the brand.

At present, the generally accepted definition of brand is: brand is a spiritual connection existing in people's minds, and it is the view that products or services are closely connected with consumers. In order to establish brand views in consumers' minds and spread them effectively, it is very important to ensure that brand views are concerned by consumers. Today, 80% of brand advertisements fail because they are not based on a strong brand point of view.

Looking at any successful brand in today's market, whether it is an old brand or a new brand, you will immediately find that there are huge differences between them and similar products, and these differences are related to consumers. No matter how unconventional the brand viewpoint is, it must also meet the needs of consumers. If we can't do this, its brand strategy or brand building will be meaningless. It can be seen that it is very beneficial for managers to make brand views clear at a glance and for brand communication to effectively express brand views and be accepted by consumers, and it is also very beneficial to successfully build a strong brand.

If you ask consumers how your brand concept is formed, most of them will give you the answer: first, you should have brand awareness, and then let consumers know that the product has been launched through advertising or promotion. Once consumers get to know you, let them consider using your brand and convince them to actually buy it. The truth may be just the opposite. If an enterprise wants to build a successful brand, it must first establish a unique connotation for the brand. Only by discovering the uniqueness of products can we establish a brand view. Then determine whether this uniqueness is of concern to consumers. If they are related, who is next? How big is this group? Only after you have established a different and relevant brand connotation for your brand, do you begin to think about how to let consumers know. You can't consider brand awareness from the beginning, which is already the content of brand building. Before this, we must first establish a brand perspective, which is a way for consumers to distinguish brand differences. If we rashly start to spread symbols with creative brands before we have a clear brand concept, we will pay a heavy price.

BAV(brandassetvevaluation) is an effective tool invented by Jan Robikai advertising company to determine the difference of brand connotation. This tool mainly measures from four aspects to determine the brand connotation.

1. Difference. What makes your brand unique.

2. Relevance. It refers to how this unique difference properly keeps in touch with the consumer groups you want to reach.

3. respect. It refers to the evaluation of the brand in the market.

4. understand. It refers to consumers' cognition and understanding of your brand.

The so-called strong brand is able to maintain a high degree of difference and relevance. And respect and understanding mainly affect the brand status. For example, a brand with more respect than understanding is a reputable brand, although people may not know much about it, because the brand is in a strong position in consumers' minds, thus attracting consumers to understand it. On the other hand, it is dangerous. Understanding is greater than respect. Consumers will think that I have heard a lot about this brand, but nothing special. At this time, it is very difficult for you to make consumers buy your brand.

Second, from brand connotation to brand symbol expression.

Brand building is how to spread the brand connotation to consumers' minds. Brand building is related to the symbols used in brand connotation. Consumers will know what the brand stands for by understanding the meaning of your brand symbol. Brand communication symbols mainly include company logo, name, color, logo, font, picture and packaging design. It is something that can bring a sense of experience. For example, the brand spreads a Logo, which will make consumers have the meaning of the logo recognized by the product, and it can also be said to be the identity symbol of the product. Consumers of different cultures and classes, and consumers with different personalities, have different meanings of brand symbols they agree with and expect, so the brands they use are also different. But behind every brand, there will be a group of people with the same characteristics. The brand can only belong to a certain group of people, and it cannot represent everyone. Although we don't agree to judge a book by its cover, in fact, a person's clothes and the category of goods used objectively reflect a person's social class and status. People from different social classes drive different brands of cars, wear different brands of clothes, live in different houses in different communities, attend parties in different places, use different brands of cosmetics and smoke different brands of cigarettes. Every social stratum will choose its own brand. When a user of a high-end brand uses a low-end brand, it means that his economic income will drop and his social status will be low. When a low-end brand user has the conditions to use a high-end brand, it shows his social status and economic income.

The meaning of brand symbol is also the psychological comprehensive representation of consumers' long-term brand cognition. Consumers' cognition of brand mainly includes two aspects: the cognition of brand function and the cognition of brand image symbolic meaning. Under the market condition that products tend to be highly homogeneous, it is particularly important for consumers to understand the symbolic meaning (psychological representation) of brand image For example, Rolls-Royce brand is a symbol of a person's status, while Cadillac brand is a symbol of success. It can be seen that they are all cars, but the symbolic meaning of the brand is definitely different. According to a survey, about 30% consumers in China tend to buy goods that are one level higher than their actual consumption capacity in some sense, so as to show their "self-identity". It can be seen that the symbolic meaning of brand plays an important role in actual marketing.

Third, from brand symbol expression to brand building.

The brand is made, and it is carefully built. The brand is carefully designed, manufactured, tempered repeatedly, and strives for perfection, eventually forming something with taste and quality. The difference between a good brand and inferior products is that every detail is different. Just like a pure aristocrat, he will pay attention to his own food, clothing, housing and transportation, and show a kind of education. He can't spit everywhere, and he can't throw scraps of paper. Everything will be elegant, and so will the brand. A first-class brand will not have more functions than ordinary brands, but will pay more attention to details. Now electronic watches have the most functions.

People often say that the core of brand building is how to deal with the details of the brand. From the perspective of brand strategy, that is, from the perspective of consumers everywhere, everything starts from the perspective of caring for consumers. For example, Procter & Gamble successfully established five shampoo brands, Rejoice, Head & Shoulders, Pan Ting, Sassoon and Runyan, in Chinese mainland. Each brand has developed a unique brand to solve the problems of consumers. Each brand has a specific positioning and serves a specific group of people. Each product has a very China name, which contains the rhyme of China culture.

The essence of brand building is a long-term investment process. Brand has great income value, and the asset value of a successful and powerful brand is ten times and one hundred times that of an ordinary brand. Today, the understanding that brand is an investment concept has more meanings. For example, using brands is also an investment for consumers themselves, and consuming well-known brands is an affirmation of self and helps to increase self-confidence. Over time, self-confidence will be greatly improved and self-confidence will be accompanied by greater success in life. This kind of investment is extremely valuable and necessary. Conditional consumption of high-quality brands means an achievement in life, which will bring you a better feeling and make you better and better.

From the perspective of the brand's commercial investors, brands, like a company, must be profitable, and successful brands have strong profitability. In the evaluation of brand assets, the international practice is that the maximum value of brand assets can reach 5 to 10 times of tangible assets, that is, considering the long-term profitability of brands, investing in brands must operate like investing in a company, and it must have its own strategy. To establish an organization and a management system, we must have a planning and operation plan from the market positioning, brand planning for 3 years, 5 years or even 10 years, brand short-term strategy, what products to promote, how to advertise and how to promote sales. Before a brand goes public, it needs to estimate its market potential, investment amount, manpower and material resources, expected profitability and possible risks. In short, brand investment is long-term, brand income is also long-term, and brand value is accumulated for a long time, which requires brand investors to have an investment patience.

In a word, it is a profound topic from brand definition to brand connotation to brand construction, which contains a variety of rich connotations. For enterprises in China, it will take a long time to truly understand the definition and connotation of brand. Let's work together.