Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

A brand is a promise -- a promise that your target audience will get the same benefits, consistently, every time they interact with the brand. If you deliver on your promised benefits every time -- consistently -- over a long period of time, your brand becomes accepted, even embraced, as a trustworthy entity, and you have a strong brand franchise.

Of course, the brand and the product(s) for which it stands, must meet real needs and be seen as having value to the target audience. That's where branding really begins: understanding consumer needs, wants, behaviors, beliefs, values, likes/dislikes, and emotional make-up. The better you understand your consumer, the better your chance of striking a nerve with your brand positioning and beginning to establish a high-value, long-lasting brand franchise.

There are numerous experts and articles on this, and I'd urge you to read and understand them if you're really interested in the concept of branding.

Hope this short overview helps.

Zahid is right. Because a brand's value exists in the consumers' minds, it's REALLY important to understand how they perceive the category, what their expectations are, and how they are currently satisfying the needs you want to address.

That's precisely why a brand is all about the consumer, and secondarily about the product itself. (This concept seems to escape many non-marketing people.)

You might want to read "Positioning : The battle for your mind" by Al Ries and Jack Trout. While it focuses on positioning, it implicitly deals with branding at the same time. It's also a short, easy read -- and well worth the hour or two it will take to read it.