Building Brands [Archives:2002/26/Business & Economy]

THE ROAD AHEAD
By Raidan A. Al-Saqqaf
Many products appear in our country markets. Some become the best sellers, whereas others fail to do so. The question is what makes a product successful? The answer is the customer. Customers buy products to satisfy a need, want or desire, and they choose a particular product because they think that this particular product would fulfill that need or desire.
A brand is a product which have consistency in quality, price, availability & an easy to recognize symbol supported with images, these images should in turn create perceptions about the product. The perception should associate the product with satisfying some kind of needs or desires (i.e. reason to buy).
Nowadays, companies compete to make their products successful brands which can be positively thought of and gain a big share of the customers attraction. For example when you think of a mobile phone you could think of a nokia, this means that nokia has succeeded in taking the biggest share in your mind when you think of mobile phones, so that when you think of buying a mobile phone you think of a nokia first.
A brand is created through creating mental images in the minds of customers and attaching these images with the product. These images could be created through many controllable ways like advertising, sales promotion & personal selling or through uncontrollable ways like publicity & word of mouth.
Advertising is considered the most popular and best method used in creating brands, because it carries a message to the targeted recipients, i.e. the customers, about a product or a service in order to create the desired perceptions and mental images in the minds of customers about it. For example if the advertising message says that this watch is worn by stars,this suggests that by owning that watch, you will look like a star.
So customers buy only those products which they think are going to fulfill their needs, but they choose the product with the image they want to use or associate their selves with.
End note: Companies produce products, customers buy brands.
Brand = Product + Images..
 

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