Kotler and Keller (Marketing Management, 2015) define a product as anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or a need: physical goods, services, experiences, events, people, places, properties, organisations, information and ideas. A product can therefore be a night at a hotel, a flight, a language course, clothes, food or toothpaste.
To show what a product is and where branding comes in, we use the example of water. Water is a resource people use to live. Yet water has become a product that companies sell in bottles.
Water always looks the same: liquid and transparent. How can several companies sell the same product and persuade people to buy their water rather than a competitor’s? The answer: by creating a brand.
What a brand is
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a name, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or services as distinct from those of other sellers.
We see a brand as the idea or image people have in mind when they think of a company’s products, services and activities, both practically (“the shoes are light”) and emotionally (“the shoes make me feel stronger”). A brand is not created by physical characteristics alone, but also by the feelings customers develop towards the company or its products. That combination of physical and emotional cues is triggered on contact with the name, the logo, the visual identity or the messages communicated.
A product can easily be copied by competitors. A brand is always unique. The taste of Pepsi and Coca-Cola is very similar, yet some people are drawn to Pepsi and others to Coca-Cola.
Back to water. The product sold is water. To persuade people to buy a particular water, companies have developed different brands: Evian, Perrier, Fiji. Each gives water a different meaning: Evian makes you feel younger, Perrier is invigorating, Fiji water is pure, natural and healthy.
A brand is the feeling a person has about a product or a company. Everyone forms their own image, and a brand’s popularity rises or falls depending on how people feel when they use its products.
What branding is
Branding is the process of giving meaning to a company, product or service by creating and shaping a brand in customers’ minds. The goal is to attract and keep loyal customers by delivering a product that is always in line with what the brand promises.
Who a brand influences
Customers. When they are undecided between similar products from different companies, the brand gives them a quick decision.
Employees, shareholders, partners. Beyond helping customers tell similar products apart, a successful branding strategy adds to the company’s reputation. That reputation matters to many people: employees, investors, shareholders, suppliers, distributors. If you do not feel connected to a brand, you probably do not want to work for it. If you feel the brand understands you and offers products that inspire you, you want to be part of its world.
How a brand is created
Companies use several tools to create and shape a brand:
- visual identity (logo, website, colours, typography);
- advertising and communication;
- product and packaging design;
- the experience in the shop or in the app;
- pricing;
- sponsorships and partnerships.
In short: the product is what you sell, the brand is the image created by the product you sell, and branding is the strategy for building that image.
Branding and design at Amazing Soft
We work on branding in tiers, from visual identity to a complete brand with strategy and voice, so you can choose the tier that fits where your company is now. See what each includes on the Branding and design page.