gmtPLUS09 | live from Seoul

Why are brands important to marketers?

Because the successful global marketing programs (of Microsoft, IBM, Coca-Cola, Disney, etc.) depend on ‘brands’.

• Brands are a means of differentiating a company’s products/services from those of its competitors.
• And, customers will pay a premium price for a good brand and sometimes will be loyal to that brand.

A brand is a name, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these.
They are intended to identify the goods and services of one business or
business group and to differentiate them from competitors.

Why brands matter?

• Marketers believe brands are important because they create influence (customer decisions, brand loyalty) and generate value.
• Factories
  do not make profits. It is the relationship with customers, and it is
  company and brand names that secures those relationships.
• Companies
  like P&G and HP have a broad product mix that covers many segments
  of the personal and business markets. Managing their many sub-brands is
  a key part of the product strategy of any business, especially those
  operating in highly competitive consumer markets.
• A marketing
  plan is an important business tool. A marketing plan without branding
  strategies is ineffective, inefficient, and mostly incomplete.
• Consumers
  need strong brands they can trust because they provide information and
  they give off emotion, enery, and attitude. Companies need strong
  brands because that’s where premium pricing, and loyal users are.
• Companies
  - in US and EU - must report intangible assets such as brands on their
  balance sheets. This creates a power struggle between financiers and
  marketers over who should control the company. Brand valuation has
  revealed intangible assets accounted for an increasingly large portion
  of a company’s worth - over 80% in the case of leading consumer brands
  such as Coca-Cola. Thus, brands has become the company’s most valuable
  asset and has increased power and influence for marketers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 21st, 2005 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.