What is a brand and why is it important?

Week 1.

I made a fast search on the internet, and the first thing that pops up is Wikipedias description as following “ A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature the identifies on seller´s good service as distinct from those of other sellers:” I can nothing else but agree with what Wikipedia says, but I still think there are some deficits and it´s a little bit more complicated than that.

So, I would start to imagine the company as a person, so this is Stella, now what attributes make up her personality?

· What is her name?

· What does she wear? (i.e. design)

· How does she communicate? (i.e. positioning)

· What are Stellas core values and what does she stand for? (i.e. brand promise)

· Who does she associate with? (i.e. targeted marketing)

· Is she well known? (i.e. brand awareness)

Every brand is very different even if they are in the same trade, take for example the car brands Tesla and Ford, they sell the same product, but their brands say different things. One very important point is that the part where you are selling the product or the service comes before the brand awareness, and why is that? Take Stella again, what better way is there to get a sense of a person’s personality than deal with them? It´s exactly like this with businesses as well when the customers buy from you, they get a sense of how the company is.

Now we know what a brand is, but why is a brand even important?

Having a brand is important, it can change how the customers perceive your brand, it can drive new business and increase brand awareness. The companies brand make people know you, they will know what you stand for, offers etc. simply said this is the way that the company gets recognition and becomes know to the consumers. Branding is also important for future business, a strongly established brand can increase a business value and increase

the costumer flow, since new costumers will know your brand and company already, it will feel like a safe choice. When talking about that the business “feels like a safe choice”, there is one thing I have not mentioned yet, having a strong brand that people knows about, also comes with responsibility, the company can´t just say whatever and then when the push comes to show, do the total opposite and not fulfil the promise that they have given the customers. By not doing what you´ve promised, is a super-fast way to bring down both the company as well as the brand.

The things I´ve mentioned above is all about the “outside” of the company, from the

costumer’s perspective but having a strong brand will also make the workplace better for the

employees. If the employee knows what the company stands for, and what the company’s goal is, it´s much easier to work, especially if the employee stands for everything or almost everything the company is about, if the employee doesn’t agree with the companies statements the person will probably not like working there. It is much easier to work for something, if you know what your working for and what you want to achieve. It also helps to build up the relaionship between the customer and the company, in a way that are to advantage to the company. Trust me or not, the costumer will know if the employee likes working at the company or not.

Ida Henriksson 23.9.2019

Sources: Branding mag and Successwise