For the survival of the trading activities, it is essential that the person or organization involved in trading activities should ensure continuous outgo (sales) of the goods, against sufficient consideration, they purchase for trading. In case the sales do not match with the purchases or production, the organization may feel short of liquidity or cash/funds inflow resulting into holding up of the purchase/production activities and that will come to stop. In a healthy economy, there is no problem in selling out the goods as the traders/manufacturers do have sufficient demand of their products but in slow-down, the inventory goes up and procurement/production has to be curtailed to reduce the inventory costs.
Generally, those organizations/persons who continue strenuously working for increasing the sales of their products/services, do care that their entity is well established and be known with some brand name with which the consumer may have confidence on account of quality and price factors. A brand is a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers. Therefore, it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.
Around 1900, James Walter Thompson published a house ad explaining trademark advertising. This was an early commercial explanation of what we now know as branding. Companies soon adopted slogans, mascots, and jingles which began to appear on radio and early television. By the 1940s, manufacturers began to recognize the way in which consumers were developing relationships with their brands in a social/psychological/anthropological sense.
A well established brand ensures that it :
• Delivers the message clearly.
• Confirms your credibility.
• Connects your target prospects emotionally.
• Motivates the buyer.
• Concretes User Loyalty.
To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your customers and prospects. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your efforts at every point of public contact. Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for sales intensifies day by day. It’s important to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After all it is your brand that is the source of a promise to your prospects. It’s a foundational piece in your marketing communication and one you do not want to be without.
Now that the economic downturn constraining growth for big brands in big markets is for a few years, possibly indicating a longer term change, some new thinking has entered the marketplace. Creative brand marketers are beginning to aggressively embrace what would have been deviation not so long ago: synergistic branding…the intention of borrowing and sharing equity with other brands to reach new markets, connecting emotionally and intellectually with consumers of your services.
A brand has become a distinctive name identifying a product or manufacturer. They emotionally motivate you to purchase the goods they represent. They are more than just a name; they are all that surrounds that name: brand and aura. Sometime, a good brand becomes so much popular that the people forget the original character of the commodity and personify with the brand. For example, Surf is a brand name of detergents. But people ask surf, not the detergents. Dalda is a brand name for vegetable oils. But here too, Dalda has become personified the vegetable oil. People ask for Dalda not the vegetable oils and shopkeeper understand that the customer is asking for vegetable oil.
Brands are provocative forces that can evoke empathy or hatred. While marketers have worked to ensure brand consistency around the world, the new information highway and individual points of view say that Pepsi, for example, cannot mean the same thing all across the globe. It depends on who you are and where you are looking from…and that’s personal and local brand perception. What’s associated with it-outside of it-helps determine the brand and its aura. Using Britney Spears in a Pepsi ad makes the brand hot in the USA, but not in the Middle East.
Establishing and knowing your brand not only in its home market but also how it resonates in markets and with individuals in local communities wherever you want to be is the new game. Consider what your brand is. You need to create an aura. Give some adjectives. Make sure they are clear in the name, your website, look and feel. Then, take a look upon the strategy as you are the target. What do you feel? Let’s say you’re a consultant. Whether you’re selling to IBM or a sole proprietor, your personality must speak to them. Are you classic? Uptown? Downtown? Behind the scenes? Front row and center? Jeans or Celine? Whatever your personal brand, your logo, products, collateral presentations, and personal presence must harmonize, because if they don’t, you’ll lose your brand aura.
Some people distinguish the psychological aspect of a brand from the experiential aspect. The experiential aspect consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand and is known as the brand experience. The psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct created within the minds of people and consists of all the information and expectations associated with a product or service. People engaged in branding seek to develop or align the expectations behind the brand experience, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain qualities or characteristics that make it special or unique. A brand is, therefore, one of the most valuable elements in an advertising theme, as it demonstrates what the brand owner is able to offer in the marketplace. The art of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management.
Careful brand management, supported by a cleverly crafted advertising campaign, can be highly successful in convincing consumers to pay remarkably high prices for products which are inherently extremely cheap to make. This concept, known as creating value, essentially consists of manipulating the projected image of the product so that the consumer sees the product as being worth the amount that the advertiser wants him/her to see, rather than a more logical valuation that comprises an aggregate of the cost of raw materials, plus the cost of manufacture, plus the cost of distribution. Modern value-creation branding-and-advertising campaigns are highly successful at inducing consumers to pay, for example, 50 dollars for a T-shirt that cost a mere 50 cents to make, or 5 dollars for a box of breakfast cereal that contains a few cents’ worth of wheat.
A brand which is widely known in the marketplace acquires brand recognition. When brand recognition builds up to a point where a brand enjoys a critical mass of positive sentiment in the marketplace, it is said to have achieved brand franchise. One goal in brand recognition is the identification of a brand without the name of the company present. For example, Disney has been successful at branding with their particular script font (originally created for Walt Disney’s “signature” logo), which it used in the logo for go.com.
Consumers may look on branding as an important value added aspect of products or services, as it often serves to denote a certain attractive quality or characteristic (see also brand promise). From the perspective of brand owners, branded products or services also command higher prices. Where two products resemble each other, but one of the products has no associated branding (such as a generic, store-branded product), people may often select the more expensive branded product on the basis of the quality of the brand or the reputation of the brand owner.
Brand identity
A product identity, or Brand image are typically the attributes one associates with a brand, how the brand owner wants the consumer to perceive the brand – and by extension the branded company, organization, product or service. The brand owner will seek to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity. Brand identity is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolizes the brand’s differentiation from competitors.
You need to set up a brand, maintain it and try to make it so popular that you and/or your products are started to be known by your brand name. As soon as you get such goodwill, you won’t need to make more efforts for increasing your sales. Your brand will itself pull the customers. You need to sustain its goodwill by ensuring the quality and services you may be known for.
Be Happy – Increase your sales as this approach is deciding factor for enhancement of your income, betterment of your living standards, education, health, pleasures and relieving you of your metal stress and fatigue etc.