Marketing : Brands Meaning and Role

According to American Marketing Association," A brand is a name, term, symbol or a design, or a combination of them which is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors."

Brands

Brands represent a product, service or company which have their values embodied in it. Like Tata is known for its strength, reliability and quality and McDonalds for quality and pocket friendly burgers. They make it easy for the company to get into the mind of its customers.

A good brand is mostly simple and short which is easy to identify like Apple if someone talking about electronics and heard the name Apple or seen its icon they know its one of the world's top most company manufacturing iphones, tablets, laptops Mac books, etc. Apple has been successfully able to make its name in the premium market.

Sometimes people themselves become a brand like Sachin Tendulkar, Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bacchan are brands themselves. Many times people go to the movie theater only by knowing the star-cast of the movie because those actors have been consistent in their performances and the choice of films they do that always entertain them and prove to be value for their money.

Brands can be read, seen, heard or felt they are the intangible assets of a company. The qualities associated with them can not be build only by advertisements the product they are representing should be able to perform on the said quality standards.

Role of Brands in marketing

Brands play a very important role in the success of a business. some of them are:

1. They help in making the product identifiable. There are so many companies selling the same product in the same market brands for them are like names given to human beings.

2. They make it easy to advertise for the product. A product with a brand name is easy to advertise and become known to people like it was easy for Rahul Gandhi to enter the politics with Gandhi surname.

3. Products with brand names becomes easily acceptable by the customers like ITC launched sunfeast biscuits under its brand and was easily accepted by the people as a good brand in biscuits.

4. It becomes easy for a company to expand its product mix under a successful brand like ITC has varied product mix tobacco, hotels, agriculture produce, soaps, biscuits, etc.

5. Brands provide an assurance of quality to the customer which saves his money and energy in researching and looking out for appropriate product which enable the company to charge a premium on price.
6. Middlemen who are involved in the business of branded goods have many advantages as they don't need to expend on advertisement and there is less risk of loss.
7. Brands pull the sale of products and thus increase the profit.
8. Brands protect fluctuation of price.
9. Consumer is satisfied after using the product of a good brand as he feels value for money.
10. Sale of the product comes automatically under the name of an accepted brand.