The development process of brand awareness

01

The definition of brand

The English word brand comes from the ancient Norwegian word brandr. The meaning of branding is to brand livestock with a mark to distinguish their owners and play a role in identification and certification. In this way, the original brand has the function of identification. Through the distinction of symbols, the brand assumes the most important role of ownership. Intuitive identification function, and because of this, the early brand meaning is very similar to the concept of trademark. The World Intellectual Property Organization has made the following definition in its trademark "Model Law": "A trademark is an enterprise's product or service. "A mark that distinguishes the products or services of another enterprise." It can be seen from this that the original meaning of the modern word brand is basically the same as the concept of trademark.

The above definitions generally focus on the recognition function of brands, which can be supported by foreign scholars’ understanding of brands. American scholar Dr. Philip Kotler defined brand in "Marketing Management": "A brand is a name, term, mark, symbol or pattern, or a combination of them, used to identify a certain consumer or a group of people. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “a name, term, symbol, sign, or design used to identify a product or service or a group of products or services. The combination is used to distinguish the products or services of other competitors."

The general understanding of domestic scholars is the same. A more representative view is: "The so-called brand is the brand of the product. , it is a business name specified by sellers for their products. It usually consists of words, marks, symbols, patterns, colors and other elements or a combination of these elements. It is used as the logo of a seller or a group of sellers. Differentiating products from competitors. Brand is a collective concept, including name, logo, and trademark. All trademarks are brands or parts of brands. ”?

With the development of human economic form, brands have evolved. The definitions of brand symbols are also constantly enriched. Two types of definitions, represented by brand identity theory and brand image theory, have appeared successively. They are both supplements and improvements to the definition of brand symbols. For example, advertising master David Ogilvy defined a brand: A brand is an intricate symbol. It is an invisible combination of the brand's attributes, name, packaging, price, history, reputation, and advertising style. Perhaps Chinese scholar Wang Haitao's definition is more stringent: a brand in a broad sense includes three levels. The first is a trademark, which is from a legal sense; the second is a brand, which is a gold-lettered signboard, which is from an economic or market perspective. sense; thirdly, a brand is a kind of reputation, a taste, a style, which is from a cultural or psychological sense.

The definition now generally recognized by the brand academic community is based on the brand relationship theory. The famous brand expert David Egger proposed a brand definition based on brand relationships from the perspective of brand asset management: "Brand is the connection and communication between products, symbols, people, enterprises and consumers. Brand is an all-round structure. Involving all aspects of communication between consumers and brands. "This definition emphasizes the decisive role of consumers in the communication between consumers and brands. Without consumer recognition, there is no brand at all, and the value of brand equity is reflected. In brand relationships, therefore, this definition has gradually been widely recognized by the brand theory community.

02

The development process of understanding the essence of brand

Of course, the understanding of modern brands is not achieved overnight. It has experienced intermittent history for hundreds of years. Let’s briefly summarize It can be roughly divided into five stages:

The first stage: the brand symbol stage.

Early commercial brands only appeared as a trademark that distinguished them from competitors, which is what is called product identity awareness in theory. At this time, the brand was a widely used marketing tool to achieve differentiated competition. Later, with the continuous development of marketing practice, brand differentiation marketing methods were widely adopted by operators, thus forming a complete external recognition theory.

Since then, the initial understanding of the essence of the brand has been completed. At this time, the understanding of the brand is: the brand is just an identification mark, a commitment and guarantee of the benefits that the functions and characteristics of a product can bring to consumers.

The second stage: brand personality stage.

After all, the symbol is only the external recognition of the brand. Because it lacks the support of the internal recognition mechanism, even with legal protection, it is difficult to prevent competitors from imitating competition. As a result, a theory emerged that aimed to shape the internal image of a brand and strive to differentiate competing brands from a deep level. This theory was reflected in the autobiography "Confessions of an Advertising Man" by advertising master David Ogilvy. He believed that "the final decision The market position of a brand depends on the overall character of the brand, rather than the trivial differences between products." This view was quickly recognized by the advertising industry. Under the guidance of this theory, a large number of excellent advertising works were produced, such as Marlboro, Western cowboy etc. David Ogilvy believes that a brand is an intricate symbol, an intangible combination of brand attributes, packaging, name, price, history, reputation, and advertising style. The brand is also determined by consumers' impressions of its use and their own experiences. To be defined, a brand is a symbol, the feelings and feelings of consumers. Following this, the American Gray Advertising Company proposed the brand personality theory in the 1980s. Its main theoretical point is to advocate the personification of the brand, and strongly advocates moving from character to personality. It believes that Ogilvy's theory is too broad. Because of this , brand personality theorists emphasize that personality can create admiration, not just recognition.

There is no doubt that brand personality theory is a great development of brand understanding. At this stage, the connotation of the brand has undergone a qualitative change, going beyond the functional benefits of the brand and highlighting the psychological benefits.

The third stage: brand relationship stage.

Brand is the sum of various relationships, which can outline the basic framework of brand relationships, namely: the relationship between symbols, companies, products, and consumers. At this stage, the brand is regarded as a deeper relationship in which consumers can personally participate, a sum of rational and emotional interactions with consumers. It emphasizes that the ultimate realization of the brand is determined by consumers and is determined by the product. formed during interactions with consumers. Some scholars believe that "brand is the comprehensive information and unique impression of all interests, emotional relationships and social relationships provided by an organization, product or service, expressed as an image mechanism of symbols with ownership relationships, and is formed thereby." Non-physical assets that can continuously bring superior returns to specific owners."

The application of brand relationship theory is quite extensive and is the main theoretical basis for modern brand operation and advertising production practice.

From the above three stages, it can be seen that as the degree of product homogeneity intensifies and consumers' psychological needs increase, the understanding of the essence of the brand is increasingly separated from the tangible material characteristics of the product, and turns to Consumers’ comprehensive experience and feelings about the brand connotation.

The fourth stage: brand equity stage.

In tandem with brand development, the industry’s understanding of brands has gradually moved away from the main axis of identification, and has gradually transitioned from brand relationships to brand asset management.

At the end of the 20th century, the famous brand expert David Egger proposed the brand equity theory from a management perspective. Brand equity theory believes that brand is an important asset, including positive and negative values, forming four aspects of value: popularity, quality, loyalty and relevance. Kevin Lane Keller also proposed the concept of brand equity, "Customer-based brand equity refers to the different responses to brand marketing caused by customers' awareness of the brand." ?Representative figures include American branding expert Alexander L. Biel, who once wrote: "Brand equity is a value that transcends production, commodities and all tangible assets. The benefit of a brand is that it can be expected that future revenue will far exceed the launch." The expansion costs required by other competitive brands.” Chinese brand scholar Zhu Heliang (2007) summarized the definition of brand equity and believed: “Brand equity is the market effect generated by the brand.

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This type of understanding assumes that the brand is a special type of intangible asset, highlighting the profits that the brand brings to the company, the premium it brings to the product, etc. It is believed that the brand is an asset that can exist independently. Can be traded and transferred, with profitability

The fifth stage: the economic explanation stage of the brand

In recent years, the explanation of the brand has made great progress, especially. Regarding the development of brand economics, Sun Yueyao (2007) attributed the role of brands to reducing consumers’ choice costs and improving choice efficiency through brand credit, and defined: “The so-called brand is to achieve a long-term interest balance with target customers, thereby reducing costs. The exclusivity category symbol for its selection cost. In layman's terms, a brand is a reason for target customers to buy without hesitation and for a long time."

The development process of brand definition and understanding of brand essence are complementary to each other, and the development of brand definition comes from the deepening of understanding of brand essence. . After the brand relationship theory, some scholars have defined brands from different perspectives, but because their basis is not rigorous enough and their scope of influence is small, they have not received enough attention, so I will not go into details here.

Brands can be explained from multiple perspectives such as semiotics, informatics, and economics. Based on the above summary, we give a definition of brand: The essence of brand is information, a means for organizations to gain competitive advantage, and a measure of excess profits. A tool for redistribution. (Note: The first distribution of excess profits is based on the input of factors. Redistribution refers to the process of redistribution of excess profits among factors.)