What exactly is a brand?

Nowadays, all sectors of society are talking about brands. Enterprises hope to build their own brands and make them good. The state has also given a lot of support in terms of policies, and the media is also spreading various brand concepts. However, there are many misunderstandings in our current brand concepts. Many people do not have a clear understanding of brands, resulting in vague and random brand-building behaviors, and the resulting brand results are naturally unsatisfactory.

I attended a brand seminar a few days ago. There were many brand experts present, as well as reporters from many media brand columns. In the process of communicating with them, I felt that many people had problems with their understanding of the brand. Of course, when I mention the media here, I do not mean that the media should be responsible for this. The key point is that experts did not convey the correct brand concept to the media, which led to confusion in the media and confusion in the enterprises.

Products have product value, and brands have brand value

When a company makes products, its products have product value; when it makes a brand, the brand also has brand value. Products can be sold, and so can brands. When consumers buy a product, they get the benefits of the product. If consumers buy something with brand value, they will get the benefits of the brand value. If a brand cannot bring benefits to consumers, it cannot be sold. Why should we shape something that cannot be sold? Just make more products and sell them for profit. So since you want to build a brand, the brand must have an independent value. Its independent value satisfaction is different from product satisfaction. Products satisfy the needs or needs of consumer interests; while brand satisfaction also has needs, but It's more about desire.

Desire is spiritual satisfaction. Consumers will also spend money to satisfy their own spiritual needs. This kind of satisfaction is what brands want to bring to consumers. What the brand brings to consumers is an emotional value that the soul needs, and this value is also a benefit.

Brand is actually the emotion of the crowd connected with the product concept

We need to clarify the concept of brand: Brand is actually the emotional needs of the consumer group corresponding to the product concept. The product brand created by the enterprise should be a concrete reflection of the emotional value of the consumer corresponding to the product. For example, young girls nowadays like Li Yuchun in "Super Girl", which means that the temperament, habits, behavior and other brand elements displayed by Li Yuchun's "product" meet the emotional needs of these girls, which creates value. Value is the emotional needs of the group Li Yuchun corresponds to, not her own needs. Therefore, a brand is something that satisfies the emotional value of consumers corresponding to the product, rather than the trademark of the company's product, its own packaging or product concept, etc. Many people now have misunderstandings in this regard. It is understandable that companies have misunderstandings, because Chinese companies have just begun to think about how to build their own brands. But it is inappropriate for some experts to have such problems. These experts are supposed to guide companies to build brands, and they are not vague at all.

What is shown is actually just the brand elements

The brand is not a specific thing. Some experts say that the brand is the trademark, the graphics, the packaging, or the comprehensive expression of these elements. In fact, these have nothing to do with the brand. We say that products are produced and brands are shaped, but trademarks and other things are not shaped but described. For example, I can design packaging, but once it is designed, it will definitely be recognized by consumers. Can it create emotions in consumers' hearts? uncertain. Therefore, when designing a trademark, we should echo the emotional identification of consumers.

Product brand names are given to consumers

Also, if we give a trademark name, will consumers definitely like it? This is not necessarily the case. Nowadays, many bosses will ask fortune tellers to help them name their products. He only thinks about whether the name is auspicious for him, but does not consider the effect the name can have on the market. The brand name of the product is not given to the boss himself, but to the consumers, because the product is not produced to meet the boss's own needs, but to be sold to others. The product satisfies the emotions of others, not the boss himself. The name the fortune teller gives you is for you. He cannot tell fortunes for the consumer groups your products correspond to, nor can he create a name that these consumers will recognize. Name, as a result, the market recognition of this name is misaligned, and the company cannot get the results it wants.

Therefore, when we are building a brand, we cannot say that a trademark or name is a brand. It is just a symbol to identify the brand.

Brand is an emotional identity covering the product

So is packaging. Who is this person? Is it male or female? Or young or old? When we see a person himself, he has no brand value, only product value. Its brand value takes time to understand, but it is relatively easy and simple to recognize it. For example, this is Zhang San and that is Li Si, we can easily recognize it. Once you know him, will you definitely have a good impression of him? uncertain. For another example, if two people are in love, if they have a good impression, it will be slowly cultivated (shaped) through constant contact and understanding; two people work together for a long time, and they will have a tacit understanding and good impression of each other. This is also Shaped and honed over time.

When I first meet a person, I don’t have a favorable impression of the person, only of the product. Some people say that they like someone at first sight because they are beautiful. This is a good impression of the product. Brand favor requires communication. It is an emotional need and recognition that arises after two people have been together for a period of time.

So what is a brand? A brand is not a simple symbol, not a trademark or packaging, nor an ordinary concept of a product. Brand is an emotional benefit recognition covering a product. It satisfies the emotional value of the product's corresponding group.

Brands are not created by oneself

I see that many media now have brand columns and invite some entrepreneurs and experts to talk about brands, but the results are all wrong. The media hosts did not understand brands, and in the end they talked about how we should build a big brand, as if we could create a brand like an atomic bomb. In fact, this is not the case. A brand cannot be made by oneself. It must be recognized by consumers. This recognized value is the result of a combination of many elements and takes time, because it is not a simple interest value recognition, but the psychological and emotional value recognition of others.

Simple interest recognition is not brand value

No consumer says that a company’s brand will only be consumed if it corresponds to its psychological and emotional value. Favorability is only part of the emotional value, and also Only by accumulating more emotional value can we achieve overall brand recognition. Simple benefit recognition is the use value and the consumer's need for product benefits. The need for brand interests is the emotional need and desire need in the social environment. All these companies have to think about how to do it. It would be too superficial to simply say that a brand is an express train leading to internationalization, and what will happen to the company's brand if it gets on this train. These are two completely different things. . Therefore, unclear brand concepts are a common phenomenon faced by the entire Chinese market.