I have been working in advertising for many years and have been using advertising creativity and communication methods to build a brand for Party A. In recent years, I have switched from working in the marketing department and brand department of Party A. Although the job role has changed, the work The branding terminology that has been used in: brand positioning, brand proposition, brand communication theme, brand strategy and other brand work terms have not changed.

During the recent epidemic, I happened to be slightly out of work, and I wanted to take this opportunity to reorganize my basic understanding of the brand. The original intention of sorting out was to make my work more organized. When communicating vertically with the same department or horizontally across departments, it reduces communication costs, improves work efficiency, and avoids confusion in information communication.

Let’s start with the brand. Everyone is familiar with Brand. What is a brand? Various Chinese and foreign schools of thought have different opinions. Baidu took a look: Brand refers to consumers’ awareness of products and product series.

In a broad sense, "brand" is an intangible asset with economic value. It uses an abstract, unique, and identifiable mental concept to express its difference, thereby occupying a certain position in people's consciousness. It reflects that brand building is long-term.

In the narrow sense, "brand" is a kind of "standard" or "rule" that has both internal and external aspects. It is made by standardizing and regularizing the four aspects of concept, behavior, vision and hearing, so that it has A general term for an identification system that is unique, valuable, long-term, and cognitive. We also call this system CIS (corporate identity system) system.

The explanation given by Baidu is very written and full of "authority". Read carefully and understand that the keywords "cognition, recognition, difference, CIS" still emphasize the identity of the brand.

Generally speaking, a brand is equivalent to a trademark, or a symbol. In fact, this understanding is very one-sided. From the history of "brand", the word comes from the ancient Norse word brandr, which means "burning", which refers to the producer using a burning seal to imprint it on the product. In ancient times, nomadic people used to distinguish each other's livestock, cattle, horses and sheep. This was the original way of trademarking brands. Until 1960, the American Marketing Association (AMA) gave an earlier definition of brand: A brand is a name, term, mark, symbol and design, or a combination of them, with the purpose of identifying a certain salesperson. or a seller’s products or services and differentiate them from those of competitors. At the same time, the internationally common registered trademark mark is the initial capital letter of the English word "register", which means that it has been registered. The difference between trademarks and brands will not be discussed in this article, and will be elaborated on later.

To sum up, "identification" is the original foundation of the brand, used to distinguish, identify and prove ownership.

In one sentence, it is the function of "cognition and distinction".

With the development of the industrial era and the improvement of technology, industrial assembly line-like production and the increase in production capacity have enriched products. As a result, businesses in the commercial society urgently need to compete for market share. After meeting basic functional needs, brand has become the core of competition in the commercial market. Therefore, in addition to the original identification, the brand should be given more meanings.

First of all, the difference in recognition is no longer simply reflected in visual recognition. The cycle of brand management is also a kind of exclusive differentiation. For example, a time-honored brand with a long history, secret recipes handed down from ancestors, and a century-old store indicates that it has been in business for a long time and is dedicated to its operations. Because of its concentration, it indicates professionalism. At the same time, the century-old store also shows that many people use it, which further proves that the quality is reliable. Therefore, the brand here has an additional layer of trustworthy meaning, which reduces the "usage risk cost" of selecting goods or services. It reduces the "cost of choice" for consumption, resulting in repeat purchases and a well-known "word-of-mouth" effect, which ultimately builds the brand's reputation.

The reduction of risk control costs and selection costs has formed a periodic choice "trust inertia" among consumers.

Just like a friend asks you to borrow money, first think about your friendship. The previous friendship is a "trust reference". Then look at his current situation and evaluate whether he can pay it back? This is a risk assessment. This series of thinking is an unconscious personal brand measurement in consumers' lives, using the past trust inertia. If you are still not at ease, the two of you find a friend whom you both trust to act as a guarantor. Based on the trust of this guarantor, you lend him the money. This is the "brand spokesperson". If the guarantor is an institution, it will be "certified by the industry or national quality inspection department." I remember that many years ago, a ham sausage asked Ge You to be the spokesperson. The advertising slogan at that time was "Provincial Excellent, National Excellent, Ge You", using the method of endorsement + certification.

Today’s Internet celebrity sales are a sales channel and a brand endorsement. However, with the form of new media, the combination of brands and channels is getting closer and closer. Internet celebrities have become "promotion + channels + products" to endorse and bring goods, and cooperate with the preferential "prices" of e-commerce platforms to form a complete set of 4P Marketing closed loop.

Generally speaking, the basis of modern commercial brands is "recognition", and the core task of this recognition is difference and branding. The difference is the brand image such as brand trademark, slogan, product, packaging, etc. The reputation is the brand awareness between the brand and the audience, and the resulting reputation and loyalty.

From the literal understanding of Chinese, "brand" is divided into the word "pin" and the word "pai".

The meaning of the word "品": quality, is the quality of products or services. Word-of-mouth refers to the user's feedback after using the experience, and the active communication rate among the friends around them after use;

The meaning of the word "brand": brand, recognition, symbolic logo, memory hook . At the same time, the word "Pai" also means trust and "trust" in China, an endorsement of credit. This is why big brands, international brands, old brands or brands endorsed by celebrities are more likely to gain trust because there is history, companies and celebrities providing trust and endorsement for the brand, thus continuing consumers' past "trust inertia". Returning to the root is the word "faith", which means trust, trust, belief, and faith.

In addition to recognition and trust, the ultimate goal of brand building is to achieve greater market share, more consumer awareness, and higher frequency of continuous purchasing behavior. It also further increases market competition barriers and brings lasting premium profit margins.

In addition to providing functional uses, a brand is also a label of identity, image, status, and taste. Consumers will have an invisible sense of mental belonging and identity, thus bringing emotional and spiritual benefits. A sense of superiority.

In summary, the three basic capabilities of a brand are:

1. The differentiation ability to reduce identification costs;

2. The trustworthiness ability to reduce selection costs;

3. Improve the long-lasting premium ability of products.

With the transition from the industrial age to the information age, the enrichment of material life, the convergence of product functionality, the iteration of the main consumer groups, the replacement of trendy cultural discourse and other factors, consumers have diversified choices. Sexuality, information fragmentation, consumption stratification, and market segmentation have increased the risk of brand loyalty vulnerability. In the future, there will be more and more personalized, niche, and diversified brands in the market.

When we choose a brand, we choose a label for ourselves, and use the brand of the product to build our own personal brand.

This is bound to put higher and higher requirements on brand work.

Let’s talk next time: the difference between Slogan and Tagline, Claim, and headline in brand communication