Brand Definition

Today, everything is about a brand. To study a brand, we first need to set a brand definition.

In this lesson, we will learn the definition of a brand and get to know the most famous brands.

Resource: Pixabay

In this lesson learners will find out:

1. What is Brand
2. What are the strongest brands

Definition

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.“

As this is an outdated definition, we will supplement it with Seth Godin’s definition: “A brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

To have a broader understanding, we will include a few more definitions:

• In today’s social, customer-controlled world, marketers may be spending their money to build a brand. But they don’t own it. In their influential book, Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff state “your brand is whatever your customers say it is…” As a marketer, this means that, while a brand is the emotional relationship between the consumer and the product, you must engage with consumers and build positive brand associations. The deeper the relationship, the more brand equity exists. Neil Feinstein – True North
• Brand is the sum total of how someone perceives a particular organization. Branding is about shaping that perception. Ashley Friedlein
• A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer. Seth Godin – Author of Linchpin
• A brand symbol as “anything that leaves a mental picture of the brand’s identity. Leo Burnett

These are all brands you’ve heard of. What is characteristic is that these brands, although large, still have incredible growth from year to year. This was certainly influenced by establishing strong brands that helped these companies push through and beat their competitors.

Conclusions

At the end of this short lesson, we will take a quote from Steve Forbes: "Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business."

Here you have the contents of the lesson in PDF: