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Some researchers suggest that whilst companies may have legal ownership of brand names, it is consumer who now effectively own brands.Discuss this statement in relation to the roles of that brands fulfil how these have and continue to change.
Brands lie at the heart of the business and many of the world's best known companies, e.g. Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Mars are all very much structured around their brands.It would be very difficult to give an exact definition of what a brand is as there are many different aspects of brands and also many varying opinions, but it is what defines a good, and how it is viewed.Nevertheless, they play a vital role in today's society not just for producers/companies, but also for the consumers.
Brands have quite a substantial role to play for companies.The brand is the thing that differentiates their product and sticks out in the minds of the consumers as being something which appeals to them or something that they don't want.
If a company can gain consumer loyalty through their experience of the brand, it gives the company a number of distinct advantages i.e. protection from new rivals competing with the product, less need for as many promotions and other advertising methods as they don't keep having to force the 'hard sell'.
Developing a portfolio of brands can enable a company to target different consumer segments, thereby increasing share and profit.
To many firms, a brand is worth more than a product because of the associations attached to it.It serves as a useful shorthand expression for a whole collection of attributes and properties associated with a given product.
Consumers also find brands vitally important.A customer's attitude towards a brand is his evaluation of the brand's potential to satisfy his/her motives.In today's marketplace many consumers form relationships with brands.Corporations communicate brand concepts and consumers transform these to brand images, which they store in their mind.I shall discuss this in more detail later on.Kapferer indicates brands as having a physique, personality, culture, all of which suit the self-image of the consumer that tends to regularly purchase the brand.A very recent example for this could be how American fashion designers are aiming their 'ultra-cool' designs at younger people and since the attacks in New York on September 11th, they have introduced a lot of red, white and blues into their garments as a mood of patriotism sweeps the nation and they want to associate their brands with this.
Lannon and Cooper said "what turns a product into a brand is that the physical product is combined with something else, - symbols, images, feelings, - to produce an idea which is more than a sum of the parts.The two product and symbolism live and grow with one another in a partnership of mutual exchanges."
Nowadays with so many varying brands and changes in marketing (which will be described later), consumers have a much greater choice on what brands to use but also more importantly through improved technology e.g. the internet, they can have a bigger say on the development of brands, companies and consumers have changed remarkably.
Goodyear believes that the Evolution of brand concepts and images occurred in six stages and he produced a model to illustrate this (Goodyear model 186).The model highlights possibilities for any brand over time.The first four models of the model represent the classic marketing approach to branding, whereas stages five and six are the post modern approach.However not all the brands go through all stages.A main aspect of the model is its focus on the need to change with consumers, and communication with them being vital.
The evolution of branding comes for several reasons e.g. the expertise of management, firms strategic goals and market target activities, activities of other companies, improving technology, greater affluence of customers leading greater sophistication.
Stage one of the Goodyear model is known as unbranded goods.This is generally not seen in the economically developed world.Here demands exceed supply so there is no great need for any selling effort.There are virtually no branded goods although customers maybe able to distinguish between different articles by a mark or signature left on any craft (e.g. pottery) and so could maybe recognise one being of a higher quality than the other by looking out for a signature.
Stage two is known as Brand as Reference here as time goes on competition forces management to try and differentiate their product and so they try to position it as having unique functional benefits.They generally try to attach a name in an attempt to try having their benefit and name linked together and being different or more desirable than other products."Brands are values in consumers minds" (Southgate14).Brands at this stage only differentiate on physical attributes, yet consumers start to use brand name on their image of brand.
Stage three is Brand on Personality. At this stage, differentiation on functional (physical) is more difficult.Marketers have to try and find personalities and lifelike characteristics for brands to try and make them different from others.Brands started to become living being or have personalities (Aaker 17).This enabled people to relate to them and they grew and evolved.'Guinness is strength' is a prime example of a life like characteristic being given to a brand.Today there are still some brands, which remain 'mechanistic' and do not apply personalities to their brands but according to Simon and Newll171 most brands need to differentiate themselves on more than just functional criteria.So over time the brand began to change from a dead to a living entity.This allowed consumers to merge with a brand whose personality they believed suited them or reflected theirs.Consumer's value of brands began to become a method of self-expression.Different classes and cultures began to use brands to identify themselves i.e. the wealthy drove Mercedes cars.However, goods may not be valued by different cultures, so values communicated by product and brand must be consistent within group and culture.Camel cigarettes introduced the character Joe camel to their advertising campaign and the effects were remarkable.Joe camel came across as 'young, hip, and super cool'.This encouraged many young Americans to either start smoking camel cigarettes or to switch from the brand that they did smoke to camel cigarettes, as they wanted to associate with this image.
Brand as an Icon is stage four.Here in Goodyear's model, the brand is 'owned by the consumer'.They have a vast knowledge on the brand and they use it to create a self-identity.Very often the brand becomes recognised as a physical symbol here.The brand is a strong enough to stand on its own in signifying values and people instantly recognise the symbol (generally worldwide).Good examples of these are the Nike swish and Calvin Klein's 'CK'.The more associations the brand symbol has, then the bigger the consumer network.People see football stars like Zedane wearing Adidas gear and they associate Adidas not only with a great player (Zedane), but also success as he is on the French soccer team who are the current World Cup Champions.
Stage five is Brand of Company.This is the first stage of postmodern marketing.Although before this people like Levitt (180) had recognised the idea of a brand as being an extended product around the actual product and it included name, pack, service, guarantee, and quality, which really helped differentiate it.With the new post-modern intellectual paradigm many new ideas developed in marketing.New 'softer' views using social sciences came about on marketing activities (e.g. Anderson 18).This moved away from the older owner orientated, classical views of the brand which were grounded in economies with its perspective on man as a rational being.In this brand as company stage the relationship between the consumer and the firm become more 'interactive'.
An example could be firms giving consumers more power to run their own affairs e.g. banks and ATM machines so people can have more control over their finances.This means that consumers can co produce as well as consume.Major improvements in technology have allowed communications at more levels between firm and consumer.People can now use the Internet to get in better contact with firms.Better communications has lead to people customising their own products e.g. cars or Levi jeans can now allow people to get a pair of jeans fitted for their exact personal measurements.People now have more options."In doing this they are tailoring the brand and its values to their individual needs."(McNally and DeChernatony).Firms make their brands as flexible as they can enter into partnership with consumers.With the more and diverse points of contact between company and consumer, more information is exchanged which benefits both company and consumer who interpret brand meaning.
Goodyear's final stage is Brand as Policy.This involves social, ethical and politic issues.Very few brands are in this stage as it can be quite a controversial one.This is a stage were needs are very sophicated (and so would be high up Manslow's pyramid).These brands are highly motivated and reflect strongly held values of consumers.The Body Shop is an example as it campaigns strongly against cruelty to animals and on environmental issues.Benetton also campaigns on a lot of present day social issues (e.g. aids).However, these brands may offend customers with their strong outright views.
Both stages five and six exemplify terminal values, which are the end states that most consumers went.Overall, the old branding doesn't suit the new high tech service specialised customer products.This is why branding has changed from narrow to broad, and from tactical to strategic.Now firms try to build on developing equity.They attempt to produce a product/service meeting peoples needs and at a fair price.
So in conclusion and to try and answer the question as to who effectively owns brands, I would have to say that brands certainly have changed an awful lot from being very much just product and owner orientated to a very much more consumer orientated thing.Goodyear believes that at stage four of his model "customers own brands".It is true to say that brands are there for customers and that as brands have evolved they definitely have become more and more custom made for customers.However firms still have a large stake in brands with people like Jack Welch (CE), very successfully managing brands for his firm.In conclusion, companies have moved from totally owing brands to now carefully and strategically aiming their brands at different customers thanks to a large input from customers because companies could not succeed without them.I believe at the minute there is a balance in the relationship.
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