This is a graduation thesis in advertising that I found online. You can change the title yourself or slightly change the content. I hope it will be helpful to you! Haha

On the spread of brands

With the development of the market economy, gradually mature consumers have begun to recognize brands for consumption, so "brands" are increasingly used by operators and researchers’ attention. Concepts such as "brand strategy", "brand planning", "brand management" and "brand management" have emerged and frequently appear in treatises. Undoubtedly, this is a gratifying phenomenon in the era of knowledge economy, which places unprecedented emphasis on “brands” that condense knowledge. However, because these concepts are extremely rich in connotation, their denotation is also quite broad. Although research on them has the efficiency of multi-disciplinary integration, it will inevitably lead to generalization and superficiality. In order to pursue the in-depth and effective brand research, we selected the key to brand building - "communication" to conduct specialized research, so we proposed a new concept of "brand communication", and in this article we put forward its connotation, background, and Characteristics are discussed.

1. The connotation of "brand communication"

As for the connotation of "brand communication", let's first understand the origin of the brand. Paul Stubert, director of the British Intelligent Brand Company, once said Wrote: Brands have long been used to differentiate products from different manufacturers. In fact, the English word 'brand' means 'branding'. Indeed, in many writings, it is described that ancient people put brands on cattle and their livestock to identify their owners, put fingerprints on the bottom of wet pottery to identify the pottery maker, and branded axes, sickles, barrels and other tools. Marked to indicate the producer; these are actually the prototype of the brand. When the scale of social production gradually expanded, the use of brand marks quickly became popular and brought intangible value. "Trademark" and trademark law were born to seek brand protection. The first trademark bill was born in France in 1803, and the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States also enacted trademark laws in the 1870s. It is worth thinking about that brands give birth to trademarks, and trademarks in turn promote the development of brands. But for the earliest brands, which emerged more than a hundred years ago, the brand development process derived purpose and significance beyond the sole function of legal protection. A brand implies a guarantee of product quality and identity to its buyers, who otherwise know nothing about the manufacturer of the product. More importantly, a brand can accurately distinguish one manufacturer's products from another manufacturer's products

Since the feeling and evaluator of the "brand" lies with the consumer, and the ownership of the brand Owners and operators are also production companies; thus, "communication" that establishes an organic connection between the two has naturally become a key factor in brand management or crystal brand strategy. The concept of "Brand Communication" then entered our field of vision.

We propose "brand communication" based on the current status of brand research. Looking at the current brand research, we can find that its contents mainly include two parts: first, the static composition of the brand, including the brand name, brand design, brand product reference, brand's technological content, brand's cultural connotation, brand value, etc.; The second is the dynamic management of the brand, including brand positioning, brand strategic decision-making, brand management, brand product marketing, brand extension, brand protection, etc. Although it also involves brand promotion, it has not yet been raised to the level of communication for understanding and research. After reviewing and reflecting on the current situation of brand research, we regretfully found that the current brand research is actually just the result of approaching brands from multiple angles of design, management, marketing, product research and development, and law, understanding brands, and scanning brands one by one. Although the multi-disciplinary scientific perspective has given us a new integration of our understanding of brands, it has also inevitably led to the generalization of research content, making it impossible to position the subject, so that it is not taken seriously by mainstream disciplines.

As for the connotation of "brand communication", it should first be an operational practice, that is, through communication methods such as advertising, public relations, news reports, interpersonal interactions, product or service sales, etc. In order to optimally improve the brand's awareness, reputation, and harmony in the minds of the target audience; and the discussion and summary of the basic laws and methods of brand communication constitute the content of brand communication "learning".

In the above statement about the connotation of brand communication, we do not limit the objects of brand communication to simple consumers, but specify the "target audience" including consumers; its consideration Yes: In a modern society with highly developed information, many social contents and phenomena are symbolized, that is, branded; the reference of "brand" is not limited to commercial brands, but also includes city brands, regional brands, school brands, Social brands such as group brands and personal brands. If commercial brands can be called brands in a narrow sense, then various social brands can be collectively called brands in a broad sense. The coexistence of narrow-sense brands and broad-sense brands is an objective existence. Since there are special cases in any research object, and the generalization of the object will increase the special cases geometrically, this restricts the pursuit of self-sufficiency in disciplinary exploration and the accumulation of results. Therefore, our theoretical discussion of "brand communication" focuses on brand communication in the narrow sense.

2. The background of the proposal of "Brand Communication"

Communication is an emerging social science that emerged in the 20th century, but communication in the 20th century was mainly closely related to journalism. Marriage; therefore, journalistic communication studies serve social politics more. In the 21st century, mankind has emphasized peace and development and economic construction more than any other period in history. Therefore, it has become inevitable for communication science to directly serve economic construction. This inevitability gave birth to "brand communication". Its specific background can be understood from the following two aspects:

1. The key to winning in the world market is brand communication

The integration of the global market is a trend that everyone can clearly feel. But this may not be good news for all market competitors, because competition in the world market is more reflected in the game of the strong and the duel between famous brands, that is, the competition between multinational companies and the brands they own. The multinational companies themselves are not only brands, such as Coca-Cola, General Motors, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Disney, and Sony, but they also have a brand group each. Not to mention the more than 100 brands owned by Procter & Gamble, even General Motors also has " "Chevrolet", "Cadillac", "Buick", "Opel" and other brands; The Coca-Cola Company not only owns "Coca-Cola", but also has brands such as "Sprite" and "Fanta". Looking at the competition in the international market, it is actually mainly the brand competition between multinational companies, such as the competition between "Kodak" and "Fuji", "Coca-Cola" and "Pepsi", "GM" and "Ford" and other brands. The flames of war have spread to almost every corner of the world market.

In China, according to the first survey of Chinese consumers’ life attitudes and lifestyle trends conducted by Gallup Research Company, in terms of brand awareness (awareness rate), the top 20 products Brands, there are 16 foreign brands and only 4 domestic brands. Coca-Cola has the highest awareness rate at 85%. Among the 58 brands with awareness rates exceeding 20%, 10 are domestic brands, accounting for 17.24%. This shows that when foreign brands enter the Chinese market, they actually use brand communication as their strategic guide.

In contrast, the vast majority of brands in my country are still in the growth stage in the local market. In the international market, in addition to brands such as "Haier", "Gree", "Double Star" and "Tongrentang", there are also To a certain extent, there are few brands that can compete with multinational companies. Accordingly, it is extremely necessary to conduct research specifically on "brand communication".

2． The market survival of media must serve brand communication.

The 20th century was generally a period of great prosperity for mass media and advertising communication. Throughout the 20th century, although the world was in a state of war and cold war for most of the period, and the content of media communication focused on politics and ideology, in the second half of the 20th century, especially in the last decade, with the great With the end of large-scale wars and the Cold War, most countries in the world have entered a period of economic development, and the survival of the media has also changed. That is, the media has become famous because of the huge investment in advertising, and advertising has also grown due to the huge communication power of the mass media. Very useful. When our country's media industry frequently establishes groups and even undergoes modern corporate transformation and enters the stock market, we have to conclude that the media's market survival has become the main theme of the media's subject consciousness.

The market survival of the media forces it to coordinate operations among "communication content", "market audience" and "advertisers"; and in the circular interaction between the three, "communication content" and "market audience" must be inseparable. In a sense, it has become a means to win over advertisers and serve "advertisers". Because serving "advertisers" has become the lifeline of survival in the media market. If we say that serving "advertisers" to a certain extent means serving "brand communication", For media management, this is actually a breakthrough in management guiding ideology. As we mentioned earlier, "brand" is actually a symbol of the competitiveness of an enterprise and a country, and the economic construction around brand communication is also a breakthrough. It has become the biggest politics in the 21st century; therefore, breaking through the concreteness of winning advertisers, breaking through the simple statistics of advertising revenue, and cooperating with the systematic brand communication of advertising publications are not only not a minefield for news reports, but also a need for the media The subject of scientific research. However, the premise needs to be clear, that is, the market survival of the media needs to serve "brand communication"

3. Characteristics of "brand communication"

Clarifying the connotation of "brand communication" and the proposed social background establishes the existence of the concept of "brand communication" in a certain sense. However, diverging this concept into a systematic theory and transforming it into operable rules and methods will also. There is a lot of research work to be done. Here, we will first discuss and summarize the characteristics of "brand communication":

1. The aggregation of information

As a dynamic brand Communication and its information aggregation are determined by the information aggregation of static brands. The information content of brand surface factors such as name, pattern, color, packaging, etc. is still limited, but the information content of "product characteristics" and "benefits" is limited. "Commitment to service", "brand recognition", "brand association" and other deep-seated factors of the brand undoubtedly aggregate rich information. And they constitute the information source of brand communication, which also determines the information of brand communication itself. Aggregation. Therefore, when the world's famous multinational companies take action in business decisions, organizational adjustments, product development, market development, advertising releases, public relations activities, etc., the audience, including consumers, will naturally accept the psychological structure. This inspires brand communicators to make information selections dialectically when operating brand communication practices, so that the brand information they spread has a basis for "integration". "Gathering" can express the spirit.

2. The target of the audience

Brand communicators are most concerned about the target audience, because the "brand" impresses the "audience" and the "audience". It will produce behaviors that are beneficial to the brand - not only directly driving sales but also triggering various indirect behaviors, such as opinion leaders will spread the brand twice, and potential consumers will be converted into aware consumers. To a certain extent, "consumers" and "audiences" are consistent. Different expressions and emphasis reflect different guiding concepts: describing the object of brand communication as "consumers" emphasizes consumers' affection for the product. Consumption reflects the utilitarian concept of profiting from marketing; describing the object of brand communication as "audience" emphasizes the audience's recognition and acceptance of the brand, and reflects the concept of information sharing and equal communication in communication. Therefore, the only reasonable counterpart to “brand communication” is “audience”. If information dissemination is also regarded as a marketing behavior, then like all companies seeking to survive in the market, communicators also need to segment the market and find their target consumers, that is, the target audience. In fact, the media that have already existed in the market have their own target positioning and their own audience groups. But for a "brand communicator", the target audience he is looking for is not only a target consumer, but also a follower of the brand, and should also be an active "trust seeker" through specific media. In this way, only when a clear target audience is established, the audience-oriented awareness in communication can be reflected, the audience's acceptance needs can be met, and the corresponding brand communication can be effective.

3. Diversity of media

Media technology often determines the message itself. For example, television media disseminates much more "messages" than newspapers, periodicals, and radio; while Internet media disseminates "messages" that are compatible with all media messages. Today, when communication technology is undergoing revolutionary changes, the birth of new media and the rebirth of traditional media have jointly created a new pattern of diversified communication media.

This provides opportunities for "brand communication" and also poses new challenges to the diversified integration of media use.

Traditional mass media, such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, street signs, posters, car bodies, light boxes, etc., still have charm for audiences in modern society; the choice and combination of them It is inherently diverse. The birth of new media has made the media diversity of brand communication more prominent. For example, the websites run by enterprises and the online advertisements published and broadcasted not only function as advertisements, but also carry out brand communication with rich connotations. The richness of new media brought by the Internet has not yet been fully understood by people. In this way, brand communication has the premise of diversity in the choice of old and new media.

4． Systematicity of operation

In the eyes of communication practitioners, “a system is a set of interacting units that respond and adjust to the pressure for change from the environment within an existing boundary. And it works for a long time to obtain and maintain the target state. In brand communication, the system is mainly composed of the brand owner and the brand's audience, both of which consist of specific information, specific media, specific communication methods, and corresponding responses. The communication effect (such as the audience's consumption of brand products, evaluation of the brand), corresponding communication feedback and other information interaction links constitute each other, because brand communication pursues not only the optimization of recent communication effects, but also the pursuit of communication. Long-term brand effect, so brand communication is always operated in the interactive relationship between the brand owner and the audience, and follows systematic principles: examine the main body of brand communication - understand and study the target audience - and position the brand in the market. ——Establishing brand representation—Additional brand culture—Determining brand communication information—Selecting and combining communication media—Implementing integrated communication—Measurement and value evaluation of brand communication effects—Control and adjustment of brand communication... The program constitutes a systematic project of brand communication, and it goes back and forth to make the brand continuously increase its vitality and move towards strength and longevity through systematic communication and updating. If there is no unified main line for a single brand's advertising and promotion activities. Even if you do the best, it is just a pearl. Only by stringing together all the communication behaviors can you form a shining necklace. This is the "Necklace Law" that we sometimes find when making diagnoses for enterprises. Enterprises do not have unified rules and regulations for their advertising, promotions, public relations and other activities. It seems that they are not done by one enterprise. In this way, each publicity becomes an independent behavior without continuity and interaction. This is actually the case. A waste of communication.

Some people say that brands are either "sold" or "speculated", but in fact, no matter which form a brand is produced, it is inseparable. Open communication. The process of brand formation is actually the process of brand communication among consumers, and it is also the process of consumers gradually recognizing a brand. The so-called brand communication means that brand manufacturers find their own advantages to satisfy consumers. Value is the process of continuously communicating with consumers in an appropriate way, promoting consumers' understanding, recognition, trust and experience, generating the desire to purchase again, and continuously maintaining goodwill for the brand. It can be said that no matter it is the birth of a new brand. , or the maintenance of old brands, all depend on good communication. Without communication, there is no brand.