Chapter 1: Brands & Brand Management

This chapter began by defining a brand as a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or some combination of these elements, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. The different components of a brand (brand names, logos, symbols, package designs, and so forth) are brand elements. A brand is distinguished from a product, which is defined as anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want. A product may be a physical good, service, retail store, person, organization, place, or idea.

A brand is a product, but one that adds other dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same need. These differences may be rational and tangible—related to product performance of the brand—or more symbolic, emotional, or intangible—related to what the brand represents. Brands themselves are valuable intangible assets that need to be managed carefully. Brands offer a number of benefits to customers and the firms.

The key to branding is that consumers perceive differences among brands in a product category. Marketers can brand virtually any type of product by giving the product a name and attaching meaning to it in terms of what it has to offer and how it differs from competitors. A number of branding challenges and opportunities faced by present-day marketing managers were outlined related to changes in customer attitudes and behavior, competitive forces, marketing efficiency and effectiveness, and internal company dynamics.

The strategic brand management process has four steps:

Identifying and developing brand plans

Designing and implementing brand marketing programs

Measuring and interpreting brand performance

Growing and sustaining brand equity.

The remainder of the book outlines these steps in detail.