Brand Management : Chapter 1

This chapter talks about what is brand management and what is branding. The historical story tells us about branding is that there were multiple farms located in one facility and when all the owners open their herds of cattle, when they come back they couldn't recognize which one was theirs. They got an idea where they make a symbol at the end of an iron rod and burnt stabbed them at their back. This can easily tell which animal was theirs. From this concept, the world picks out the concept of branding. So what is branding?, It can be a term (name), symbol, sign, color, or anything else which separates your product/service from your competitor's product or service.

So ultimately, companies should focus on creating a sold brand equity by giving them value. Aaker defined brand equity as a some of assets and liabilities associated with a current brand.

Theodore Levitt talks about the intensity of the competition. He said the real competition is not what the companies are creating in their factories but the competition lies in the augmentation in terms of packaging, add extra service and creating a mix to create a decent amount of value for the customer. The other theory which he put emphasis was on Market Myopia. A concept, where companies become profit centric and forget about their customer's actual needs and want. They don't innovate themselves and lack behind in the fierce competition. This is what happened to Nokia and Kodak.

Another famous example regarding branding is given by John Stuart, a former CEO of Quaker Oats. He said to take whatever you want from my company, my assets, my team, my resources, but I would not give you my brand name. To create a solid brand name you need to put every single smidge of your blood to make that brand popular and recognizable. But one silly mistake can ruin your brand name as well.

Importance of brand to Customers is very important because brand name gives the source of the product and can enhance trust. Ultimately, it reduces the risk for e.g. would you ever buy a bottle of water with no label, no name, no description and no brand sticker. Probably, the answer would be no because you can't risk your life with no authentication from the product.
Importance of brands to the firm talks about the legal property, influence consumers to buy your products and lastly, the most important factor is future sustainable revenues. One thing should be very understandable is that companies always think of themselves. They don't think about customers, they have to create value so that they can sustain in a market and consumer can buy their product. So all they think of is the profits.

The source of the brand strength lies in two phenomena, vision, and will. Some people have the vision that they can make a change in the world and they can do that and this, but they lack Will. Contrary people have the will to make a change but they don't have the vision to accomplish that thing. So both phenomena should be working with each other so that success can be achieved.