Re: Branding & Marketing

From: Jerry Blanton <jerry.blanton_at_marchfirst.com>
Date: Wed 07 Mar 2001 13:28:23 -0600

HUGH SMITH <hbsmith_at_AllSunshine.com> WROTE:

> Me, too. I think some folks are merely confusing
> terminology.
 
> Brand = a class of goods identified by name as the product
> of a single firm or manufacturer
 
> Branding = to impress indelibly
 
> For example, Kenmore and Craftsman are brands; the Sears
> name is not. Branding is accomplished through some
> combination of quality, service, price, convenience and
> marketing. Don't know any other way to do it.

> Are services "goods"? Can services be brands? Probably not;
> but branding techniques can be and are used to build services.

Indeed the problem is terminology -- moreover it is the
problem of trying to define the boundaries of the terminology.

In the extreme and most limiting sense, "brand" is the
mark of ownership. Nothing more, nothing less.

Your definition above expands that to talk about "class[es]
of goods identified by name..." This is also correct.
However in starting to expand the meaning we are now on a
slippery slope. David Aaker (a well respected brand expert
and author of several books on the subject) defines a brand
much more broadly -- a short-cut to consumer choice, a
collection of associations, attributes (both rational and
emotional) pertaining to quality, status, value, etc. etc.

If you allow for the broader definition of brand then by
extension something like Sears is a brand in its own right
(called a "parent brand") and has powerful and valuable
associations in consumers' minds. (I know this from
direct experience as I have done some brand strategy work
on Craftsman vis a vis Sears and their relationship).

If, as marketers, we can leverage these associations to
create demand (awareness + interest + action) then we are
in the business of "branding."

I would recommend that before anyone makes any further
declarations as to whether a service can or can't be a
brand etc., that person first articulate their definition
of what a brand is.

my 2 cents worth.

Jerry Blanton



Received on Wed Mar 07 2001 - 13:28:23 CST