Torula News

A word or two about ... Packaging , marketing and more

What is a brand?

by Robert Stansfield,  RSI

A brand is a product with a personality that means something to a specific customer.

With an increasing multitude of products to fulfill basic needs, available from an ever-widening supply source, modern consumers can easily become confused. Strong brands clarify their purchase decision.

However, brands go further than make a clarification. Brands go beyond the physical fulfillment of a product function. Brands are not so much about what   people think they are about how they feel. They tap into the emotional and this what give's them the edge over products status. A customer can make an unemotional decision about a product, particularly those products sold on price. A brand will often be more expensive than an equivalent product. A consumer willing to pay the extra premium brands usually demand. They get an emotional value that means more to the purchaser than the extra price.

Consumers will always balance price versus perceived value for money.

Brands also tap into the basic human need to belong. They signal the type of person you are. They have personality, which helps to identify and reflect your own (or how you would like it to be) and marks you out as an individual whilst at the same time signals to those you wish to associate with that you are a certain type of person.

Wear any watch and you can tell the time. Wear a Rolex and it marks you out as a certain type of person. Rolex means quality and style for many people. For others it is a status symbol to say that you have the resources to purchase such a watch. You have arrived.

Volvo cars not only get you from A to B, but Volvo also aim's at a particular group of customers for whom safety is a concern. Volvo means safety.

More recently competition has caught up with Volvo, as safety features have become standard in most cars. In order to maintain their differentiated position, Volvo, like all brands need to constantly reappraise their relevance in the market place. Many older brands have lost their relevance in a modern consumer society which has many pressures placed upon it.

Modern consumers are pressured to attain an ever-wider array of goals, complicated further by the shortage of time most working people experience. Therefore, modern brands need a clear understanding of consumers needs to make them relevant in today's society.

Brands must always ask, "what do they mean to their customers"?

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