About this article
This article is taken from the Open University Business School course Marketing in a Complex World (B825).
Expensive fakes
Trademarks register
an identifiable product, service, person or place, with relevant added values that match the buyer’s or user’s perception of their needs
To develop a brand takes time and money and is in effect an investment, which if properly managed should produce healthy rewards.
Unfortunately, some organisations do not take a sufficiently long-term view about brand building and, because they do not achieve rewards early on, cut back on investment.
In fact, in some markets where there are retailers with strong own labels some manufacturers have taken this short-term view, been disappointed by poor returns, and become an own-label supplier! United Biscuits is an example of a brand that floundered because it focused on financial strategy instead of brand investment.
An important term in the definition of a brand is identifiable. Of the many roles brands play, one is rapid recognition. The reason for seeing brands as being effective recognition (and therefore differentiating) devices arises in part because of the confusion with the term trademark.
A trademark is a name, a sign or a symbol used to distinguish the products or services of an enterprise from those of others. This could consist of:
- words (e.g. Kodak)
- letters (e.g. IBM)
- numbers (e.g. No. 5)
- symbols (e.g. the ‘golden arches’ of McDonald’s)
- signatures (e.g. Ford)
- shapes (e.g. the triangular shape of Toblerone chocolate)
What differentiates a brand from a trademark is the presence of added values.
Brands can be based around products, as exemplified by Coca-Cola, which has been estimated as one of the most valuable global brands. Services organisations are awakening to the importance of brands and seeking to learn from the experience of product marketers. They are succeeding by adding value to the consumption experience.
Examples include British Airways striving for a seamless service in their global alliances; American Express with their emphasis on global service; and First Direct, which deliberately recruited staff who believed in delighting customers and launched the first all-telephone banking service in the UK.
Brands have also been built around people. For example, in the UK Saatchi & Saatchi contributed to a Conservative Party election win through the projection of Margaret Thatcher as a brand. This ‘iron lady’ had a clear set of values which were projected as representing the values of her political party. It is now increasingly common to see politicians, pop stars, company chairpersons and entertainers being groomed by advisers to ensure their success as brands.
Places such as cities and countries are being developed as brands. During the 1990s, Catalonia capitalised on hosting the Olympics and used this as an opportunity to try to position itself as the cultural museum of Europe. Similarly, Egypt used the year 2000 to position itself as the ‘cradle of civilisation’.
Each town or country attracts people with core values common to that location, enabling them to make lifestyle statements. The challenge when branding locations is to identify these unique values, then develop a coherent strategy that can be used by all the organisations in the locale. These include such diverse groups as:
- government agencies
- environmental groups
- chambers of commerce
- trade associations
- civic groups
Brand naming can take several forms. The company’s name can serve as the brand’s name (like Canon), provide strong endorsement of the brand (for example Microsoft Office) or provide weak endorsement of the brand (for example Nestlé KitKat).
Alternatively, the brand may have an individual name, completely separate from that of the company. For example, Whiskas cat food is produced by Mars Incorporated.
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