Brand Personality - 3

Blackston (2000) has argued that to understand brand-customer relationships, it is necessary to consider what a brand thinks of you. To obtain this information you need to think about what the brand would say to you if it were a person.

Whether a brand is a product or a company, the company has to decide what personality traits the brand is to have. One commonly accepted way for creating brand personality is matching the brand personality as close as possible to that of the consumers or to a personality that they admire. Temporal (1999, p 39) defined brand personality creation process with four steps:

Step 1: Define the target audience

Step 2: Find out their needs, expectations and what they like

Step 3: Build a consumer personality profile

Step 4: Create the product personality as close as consumer personality profile

Aaker (1997) has created a framework to describe and measure the brand personality in five core dimensions, which is known as Brand Personality Dimensions or Relationship Basis Model.




• Sincerity (Down-to-earth, family oriented, genuine, old-fashioned)

• Excitement (Spirited, young, up-to-date, outgoing)

• Competence (Accomplished, influential, competent)

• Sophistication (Pretentious, wealthy, condescending)

• Ruggedness (Athletic and outdoorsy)

This framework can used to investigate the current status of a brand and to describe the desired future status of it.

Brand Personality - 2

Aaker (1997) mentioned that in addition to personality characteristics, brand personality includes demographic characteristics such as gender, age and class. Similar to personality characteristics, these demographic characteristics also are inferred directly from the brand’s user imagery, employees, or product endorsers and indirectly from other brand associations. For example, driven by distinct user imagery, Virginia Slims tends to be thought of as feminine, whereas Marlboro tends to be perceived as masculine. Apple is considered to be young, and IBM is considered to be older (Aaker, 1996). On the basis of their different pricing strategies, Saks Fifth Avenue is perceived as upper class, whereas Kmart is perceived as blue collar (Aaker, 1997).

Temporal (1999) mentioned about a consumer research, where sample consumers were asked to comment about how they feel about two companies.

When asked the question: “If these two companies were people, how would you describe them?” their replies were:




These two companies are actually competitors in a service industry. Like 95% of the sample consumers you would choose Company B as your friend if you were asked to choose one of them.

This research shows that consumers tend to prefer brands that fit in with their self-concept. Consumers tend to like personalities that are similar to theirs or to those whom they admire. An effective brand personality building strategy is to create the brand personality as close as to the target consumers’ personalities. The closer the brand personality to consumer personality, the greater will be the willingness to buy the brand and the deeper the loyalty.

Brand Personality - 1

Many of the world’s most powerful brands spend a great deal of time for putting personality into their brands. How can a company create personality for its products or for itself? The answer of this question lies in the choice and application of personality values and characteristics. Based on the premise that brands can have personalities in much the same way as humans, brand personality describes brands in terms of human characteristics. Brand personality is seen as a valuable factor in increasing brand engagement and brand attachment, in much the same way as people relate and bind to other people. Much of the work in the area of brand personality is based on translated theories of human personality and using similar measures of personality attributes and factors. Brand personality is defined as “The psychological nature of a particular brand as intended by its sellers, though persons in the marketplace may see the brand otherwise (called brand image). These two perspectives compare to the personalities of individual humans: what we intend or desire, and what others see or believe” in the marketing terms dictionary of American Marketing Association (A.MA.).

The concept of relationship between a person and a brand provides a different perspective on how brand personality can work. Aaker (1996) mentioned about two elements that affect an individual’s relationship with a brand. First one is that there is a relationship between the brand as person and the customer, which is analogous to the relationship between two people. Second element is the brand personality which is the type of person the brand represents (Aaker, 1996). The brand personality adds depth to the relationship.

Human and brand personality differ in terms of how they are formed, although they might share a similar conceptualization. Perceptions of human personality traits are inferred on the basis of an individual’s behavior, physical characteristics, attitudes and beliefs, and demographic characteristics. In contrast, perception of brand personality traits can be formed and influenced by any direct or indirect contact that the customer has with the brand (Aaker, 1997).

After creating a personality for a brand, it will be easier to attract consumers to the brand. As brands grow, as do human relationships, it is the emotional dimension which tends to become dominant in loyalty. Brand personality helps brand to grow by providing them emotional difference and experience.

People’s personalities are determined through their beliefs and values and other personality characteristics they develop. Honesty is an example for a value or belief. And confidence is an example for a characteristic. There are about two hundred words that describe personality characteristics and these can be used in brand personality creation process (Temporal, 1999).

Brand Identity - 3

An easy to remember and immediately recognizable visual identity helps building awareness and recognition of a brand. That visual identity triggers perceptions and unlocks associations of the brand. Human brain recognizes and remembers shapes first. While words have to be decoded into meaning, visual images can be remembered and recognized directly. Reading is not necessary to be able to identify shapes, but identifying shapes is necessary to be able to read. After recognizing shapes human brain remembers colours. Colour can trigger an emotion and evoke a brand association. Carefully chosen and distinctive colours can also help expressing differentiation, while building brand awareness. Third and last, content comes, that means the brain takes more time to process the language (Wheeler, 2003).

Unlike advertising, which launches a new campaign each year, brand identity needs to be long lasting. Brand building and sustaining process represent a major investment for the companies.

Wheeler (2003, p 13) stated three compelling reasons to invest in brand identity:

 Brand identity makes it easy for the customer to buy: Brand identity plays an important role in differentiation. And a smart system conveys respect for the customer and makes it easy to understand features and benefits of both recent and future products and services.

 Brand identity makes it easy for the sales force to sell: Strategic brand identity works across diverse audiences and cultures to build an awareness and understanding of a company and its strengths.

 Brand identity makes it easy to build brand equity: A strong brand identity will help build brand equity through increased awareness, recognition and customer loyalty, which in turn helps make an organization more successful.

Regardless of the size of the company or the nature of a business, there are certain ideals that characterize the best brand identities. According to Wheeler (2003, p 16) brand identity ideals can be investigated in nine different topics:

1. Vision
A compelling vision by an effective, articulate and passionate leader is the aspiration and foundation of most successful brands in general. Successful brand identity projects are top-down initiatives which means top management has endorsed the project. The support of top management is critical because it sends a strong message to everyone involved that the project is a priority that will affect the future success of the company.

2. Meaning
Top brands stand for something- a big idea, a strategic position, a defined set of values or a voice that stands apart. Meaning is an idea that is conveyed through a symbol, a word or an action and it inspires the creative process. Meaning is the DNA of brand identity, where form is imbued with rationale and assigned deeper meaning.

3. Authenticity
The brand identity must be an authentic expression of a company- its unique vision, goals, values, voice and personality. The design and messages emerge from who it is and anticipate what it will become. The design must be appropriate to the target market and business sector of the company. Authentic identities emerge from a process which is both investigative and intuitive.

4. Differentiation
The uniqueness and differentiation of brands determine their success. All companies want customers’ attention, loyalty and money so all brands compete with each other within their business category. When a designer creates a brand mark, his/her responsibility is to create a unique symbol that is differentiated, has the power to communicate within a second and most of the time smaller than a dime.

5. Sustainability
Sustainability is the inherent ability of an identity to have longevity in an environment that is in flux, characterized by future permutations that no one can predict. Sustainability also refers to an identity’s ability to transition through changing media, and models of communication.

6. Coherence
Coherence is the quality that implies that all the pieces hold together in a way that feels seamless to the customer.

7. Flexibility
An identity system must continuously demonstrate an inherent flexibility. With the help of flexibility communications inside and outside stay fresh and relevant. No one can say with absolute certainty what new products and services a company may offer in five or ten years. However the brand identity designer needs to anticipate and create a flexible infrastructure to accommodate the future.

8. Commitment
A good identity itself does not guarantee success. It is not enough to create an effective brand name or develop a sustainable and intelligent brand mark. Most successful companies have a commitment to quality and to seizing every opportunity to grow their brand. An effective brand identity is tied inextricably to management’s desire to nurture it.

9. Value
The indisputable goal of most organizations is creating value. The best companies consistently demonstrate their value though the superior quality of their products and services and their unswerving dedication to meeting their customers’ needs. The best brand identities are the most public and widely communicated symbols of that value.

Brand Identity - 2

Kapferer (2004) developed the Brand Identity Prism. According to him, brand personality should be just a one key facet of brand identity. Jennifer Aaker (1997) deserves credit for having revitalized the human metaphor for a brand. But merging a number of dimensions of brand identity into brand personality causes conceptual confusion. At this point, Kapferer (2004) recommends revitalising of the original terminology of brand identity as the overall brand descriptor.




Kapferer (2004 described the dimensions of brand identity prism in the following way:

 Physical Facet (Physique) of Brand Identity:
First of all, a brand has specialities and qualities – its physique. Physique is both the brand’s backbone and its tangible added value. The first step in developing a brand is to define its physical aspect: What is it concretely? What does it do? What does it look like?

 Personality of Brand Identity:
The easiest way of creating instant brand personality is to give the brand a spokesperson or a figurehead, whether real or symbolic. In the prism, brand identity is the personality facet of the source. Thus brand personality is described and measured by those human personality traits that are relevant for brands.

 Culture of Brand Identity:
Every brand has its own culture, from which every product derives. Culture means the set of values feeding the brand’s inspiration. The basic principles governing the brand in its outward signs are referred by the cultural facet. Country of origin is a great cultural reservoir for a brand. Some brands represent countries and some are worldwide brands. Brand culture plays an important role in differentiating brands.

 Relationship of Brand Identity:
Brands are often at the crux of transactions and exchanges between people. This is particularly true for both service sector and retail brands. The relationship is crucial for banks, banking brands and services in general. Service is by definition a relationship.

 Customer Reflection of Brand Identity:
A brand will always tend to build a reflection or an image of the buyer or user which it seems to be addressing. Target and reflection often get mixed. Brand’s potential purchasers or users are described by the target. By the way reflecting the customer is not describing the target. The customer should be reflected as he/she wishes to be seen as a result of using a specific brand.

 Consumer Mentalisation (Self Image) of Brand Identity:
A brand speaks to our self image. If reflection is the target’s outward mirror, self image is the target’s own internal mirror.

Brand Identity - 1

While brands speak to the mind and heart of the consumer, brand identity is tangible and appeals to the senses. Brand identity can be defined as the visual and verbal expression of a brand (Wheeler, 2003, p 4). Supporting, expressing, communicating and visualising the brand are the tasks brand identity has to do. It can be defined as the shortest, fastest, most ubiquitous form of communication available. You can se it, touch it, hold it, hear it, and watch it move. Brand identity begins with a brand name and brand mark and builds exponentially into a matrix of tools and communications. Brand identity increases awareness and builds business on applications from business cards to websites, from advertising campaigns to fleets of planes and signage (Wheeler, 2003).

Good brand identity systems are memorable, authentic, meaningful, differentiated, sustainable, flexible and have value. Brand identity is a powerful and ubiquitous tool. A well designed brand identity is the consistent reminder of the meaning of a brand. Brand identity is an asset that needs to be managed and invested in.

Wheeler (2003, p 11), stated the features of brand identity as follows:

 Brand identity is a unique and sustainable symbol that synthesizes big ideas. It works across media to build awareness and loyalty and spearheads and integrated program.

 Brand identity is flexible to encourage creative thinking and execution.

 Brand identity engages the senses and understands its customers.

 Brand identity communicates a unique vision for the future.

 Brand identity is strategic, and supports brand architecture across a global spectrum of services.

 Brand identity works across languages and cultures to build powerful brand.

 Brand identity builds on customer passion and helps the sales infrastructure sell.

 Brand identity is an omnipresent point of view that is dynamic and futuristic.

John Noel Kapferer (2004) defines brand identity as an essential tool of brand management which specifies the facets of brands’ uniqueness and value. While brand image is on the receiver’s side, brand identity is on the sender’s side. In terms of brand management, identity precedes image. The identity and image figure below shows that an image is a synthesis made by the public of all the various brand messages. An image results from decoding a message, extracting meaning, interpreting signs.

Brand Name - 2

Haltner (2004) mentioned the importance of choosing a suitable name for a bank. While considering a name for a new bank there is a need to think globally, and also online and e-commerce activities of the bank. As online banking and e-commerce continue to grow, thinking about customers when deciding on a new name becomes very important step. Long geographic names may be confusing and difficult for customers to find on the net. Customers sometimes have difficulty with long, drawn out names. They start searching using initials. This won’t help when trying to find out the new bank online, ever tried doing an online search and 500 sites pop up? Firms don’t want this to happen. They want their customers to find them preferably in the first 10 sites. Will this happen if they use First or United? There are lots of Firsts and Uniteds out there.

When H.G. Sanders, founder of Espoma Company (is a leading manufacturer and marketer of natural and organic based plant foods for the lawn and garden industry), launched an organic and specialty plant food company in Millville, he named the venture after his first product, a proprietary blend called Espoma. The moniker appeared to violate a commonly held belief – pick a corporate name that describes your company’s business – but 89 years later The Espoma Co. is still growing (Daks, 2007).

Selecting the right name for a company can be tricky. Picking one that ties into the company’s activities gives brand managers the ability and chance to speed their brand awareness. But that can turn into a liability if a firm later decides to expand into other areas, i.e. how many people would buy food from the Ford Motor Co., or a car from a firm called General Mills. “A name can be important in the sense that it’s one more way to communicate with customers,” says Chandrashekaran. His research includes looking into ways that marketing communications influence consumer behavior. “In some cases, the name itself may convey a fairly direct message about the company’s purpose. But it does not necessarily have to do that to be effective”. Chandrashekaran cites two well-known watch companies to illustrate his point.

“Consider Timex,” he says. “The name incorporates the phrase “time”, which relates to the company’s mission so there’s little doubt about what it does. But you also have companies like Rolex, which is successful despite the lack of a direct connection between the company’s activity and its name”. (Chandrashekaran, 1998)

Brand Name - 1

A strong brand name is one of a company's greatest assets. It enables the company to earn above average return by creating a loyal consumer who protects the firm from competition.

A brand name is part reputation, part familiarity - not to mention the unquantifiable / psychological thrills that a consumer gets when he or she purchases something that bears his or her favourite brand name. The concept of the brand name first arose with the advent of advertising and mass media in the 1930s and further compounded by the advent of the 40-hour work week, which allowed consumers more time to enjoy the things that they bought. It is not a coincidence that Disney was founded during this time - as people were working too much to watch cartoons prior to the 1930s and as its major asset was its brand name. (To, 2005)

American Marketing Association (A.M.A.) defined the brand name as: “The brand name is that part of a brand that can be spoken. It includes letters, numbers, or words. The term trademark covers all forms of brand (brand name, brand mark, etc.), but brand name is the form most often meant when trademark is used.”

A brand name performs many key functions, according to Palumbo and Herbig (2000):

 It identifies the product or service and allows the customer to specify, reject or recommend.

 It communicates messages to the consumer. Information provided could include statements regarding their users’ style, modernity or wealth.

 It functions as a piece of legal property in which the owner can invest and through laws is protected from competitor trespass.

A study about the effect of brand names on consumers’ choices about brands shows that a real brand name for a product has a powerful effect on the product’s total consumer appeal, contributing 55% of its share of choice nearly (Gibson et al., 2005).

Literature Review on Brand

“A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or combination of these which is used to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.” (Kotler et al, 2002, p 16)

According to the definition of American Marketing Association (A.M.A.) a brand is “a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name.” Technically speaking, whenever a marketer creates a new name, logo, symbol, etc for a new product or service, he or she has created a brand (Keller, 2003).

A brand is both a physical and a perceptual entity. The physical aspect of a brand can be found located on a market shelf or in the delivery of a service. The perceptual aspect of a brand exists in psychological space – in the minds of consumers’ (American Demographics, 1994).

In the 19th century with the advent of packaged products the term brand and branding came into place in the field of marketing. With the help of industrialization the production of many household items moved from local producers to centralized factories. When shipping their ordered goods, the producers would literally brand their logo on the barrels used, which is where the term comes from.

Keller (2003) summarised the marketing advantages of strong brands as:
 improved perceptions of product performance
 greater loyalty
 less vulnerability to marketing crises
 less vulnerability to competitive marketing actions
 more inelastic consumer response to price increases
 more elastic consumer response to price decreases
 larger margins
 greater trade cooperation and support
 increased marketing communication effectiveness
 possible licensing opportunities
 additional brand extension opportunities

A brand carries both physical and perceptual views. The physical view of a brand can be found located on a supermarket shelf or in the delivery of a service. On the other hand, the perceptual view of a brand exists in psychological space: in the minds of consumers.

Future Online Brands

As seen from increase in the number of internet users around the world, people will buy almost everything from meals to even cars or houses online in a near future. And at that time best online brands will dominate their sectors by using their capabilities and brand loyalty. To decide on the future top 10 brands, Futurelab 100 was investigated and found suitable and logical to use.

The Futurelab 100 ranks the online relevance of the world’s 100 most valuable brands as listed by Business Week/Interbrand. Its objective is to highlight to senior executives the importance of paying close attention to their brand’s performance in the online arena. The ranking is based on the number of times the brand’s name appears in leading search engines like Google, Baidu (leading Chinese search engine) and Technorati (a search engine for searching blogs), the number of links to the brands website, its reach and Page-rank relevance, and the number of times people express their “love” or “hate” for the brand.




The table above is obtained by a manual calculation for each brand in terms of the following criteria (Futurelab, 2006):
- the number times a brand is mentioned in Google
- the number of times a brand is mentioned in Baidu
- the number of Technorati blogposts about the brand
- the number of links to the brand’s dot-com (.com) website (URL Trends)
- the google page rank for the brand’s dot-com (.com) website
- the relative reach of the brand’s website (as per Alexa ranking)
- the number of times the wording “I love (brand)” and “(brand) is great” appeared in Google
- the number of times the wording “I hate (brand)” and “(brand) sucks” appeared in Google (in spite of its crudeness, this word has substantial statistical significance within a US context).

From the table it can be seen that Google is the most valuable online brand in the future and only 3 of top 10 offline brands found a place in top 10 online brands which are Microsoft, Disney and Nokia. eBay and amazon.com are recently known as the top performing online brands and according to futurelab’s study they will sustain their success in the future.

Offline vs Online Branding - 2

It’s important to remember that the company website offers a better understanding of customer behavior than other traditional brand touch-points. Reicheld and Schefter (2000) mentioned that while the Internet may seem like an anonymous space, in reality it is far easier to track customers, their purchase histories, and their preferences online than in a traditional business setting. Customers in bricks-and-mortar stores leave no record of their behavior unless they buy something – even then, the data are often sketchy. But in virtual stores, their shopping patterns are transparent. Every move they make can be documented, click by click. If a customer exits a website when the price screen appears, it’s a fair bet that he’s price sensitive. If he jumps from page to page without ever initiating a transaction, he’s probably frustrated at being unable to find what he wants.

According to Miniwatts Marketing Group data (2008), internet users all over the world dispersed like the Figure 1 below. Not surprisingly Asia has the most users (530 millions) and Australia has the least users (19 millions).




Figure 1: Worldwide internet users by region
Source: World Internet Usage Statistics News and World Population Stats, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Table 1 displays the population, number of internet users and usage growth from 2000 to 2008 statistics for every region. Table stats show that 56.6% of all world citizens are living in Asia. Since the population of Asia is far more than other regions most internet users are living in Asia (37.6%). However, the internet penetration of Asia is 14.0% which just higher than that of Africa (5.3%) only. North America has the biggest population penetration ratio to internet (73.1), which means that every seven people from ten can reach internet.




Source: World Internet Usage Statistics News and World Population Stats, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

The figure and table above show the internet usage and world population statistics by regions. If the usage growth from year 2000 to today is investigated it can be seen that number of people who can reach internet nearly tripled. This is an important and clear message about how important the online branding is.

Offline vs Online Branding - 1

To brand a product or service, it is necessary to teach consumers ‘who’ the product / service is – by giving it a name and using other brand elements to help identify it – as well as ‘what’ the product / service does and ‘why’ consumers should care. In other words, to brand a product or service it is necessary to give consumers a label for the product and to provide meaning for the brand to consumers (Keller, 2003).

According to Keller (2003), branding involves creating mental structures and helping consumers organise their knowledge about the products and services in a way that clarifies their decision making and, in the process, provide value to the firm. For branding strategies to be successful, consumers must be convinced that there are meaningful differences among brands in the product or service category. The key to branding is that consumers must not think that all brands in the category are the same.

Rowley (2004) claimed that online branding is at an interesting point of development. Many organisations recognise the need for integrated marketing communications across offline and online channels. This makes it difficult to differentiate, both practically and theoretically, between online and offline branding. On the other hand, branding in online environment poses a sufficient range of challenges and opportunities that it is important to shine the spotlight on branding in digital environments, and to explore some of the potential impacts of online channels for branding strategy.

It is crucial to ensure the consistency of the brand is not lost when the company’s brick-and-mortar brand is coming online. The functionality of a web site can sometimes be forgotten in place of look, feel and sound of the brand. If a marketing manager wants the company’s brand to relay reliability, focus and dependability - by cramming a web site full of Flash animations which will take considerable time to load and isn’t compatible for every browser may not lend itself to his initial aim.

Websites arguably present more demands than any other brand touch-point. For some web users, the site is the entire customer experience. Business strategy, brand strategy, communications strategy, product quality and customer service strategy are transparent. The site is a pressurized environment, since it exposes every dimension of the company.

Jackson (2006) argued that to delay updating or addressing site problems because of budget concerns is a false economy. Think of a customer who is prepared to pay a substantial premium for consumer electronics but who discovers, upon visiting a company website, that product images take interminably long time to build – or that crowded pages and unclear navigation make it next to impossible to locate a product’s detailed technical specifications. This situation would undermine this customer’s confidence in the brand and his or her motivation to purchase.

Importance of Branding - 3

In today’s global business world organisations need teach the importance of branding to their internal customers (employees). Employees who know their jobs’ importance in their brand’s success will contribute more than who doesn’t know. Believe in your brand name, what it means, and customers will follow.

Time, money and effort spent on branding come back many times over when the process plays out intelligently. According to a privately held online publisher of home business and small business information Powerhomebiz, branding fattens companies’ bottom line for the reasons stated below:

1. Memorability: It is much easier to remember a branded product than a unknown, what was its name? product.

2. Loyalty: People tend to buy brands that they tried in the past and have positive experience with those products. We can say consumers are loyal to the brands they trust and are pleasant to buy them.

3. Familiarity: Psychological studies have shown that familiarity induces liking which makes even non-customers more likely to recommend a brand they know.

4. Premium image - premium price: Generally customers are willing to pay more for the well-branded products or services.

5. Extensions: It is much easier to introduce a new product or service with the help of your gained respect and success with your existing well-known brand.

6. Greater company equity: Companies with more brand value cost more than the companies with the same size but not well-branded when they are under sale.

7. Lower marketing expenses: You need to invest really big money to create a strong brand but once it is created you get big advantage over your competitors in every kind of marketing campaigns.

8. For consumers, less risk: When you afraid of the consequences of a mess-up you tend to choose the brand-name seller instead of the no-name one.

Keller (2003) stated the roles of brands to consumers and firms. According to Keller (2003) there are seven roles of brands to consumers. Brands provide:

 identification of source of product
 assignment of responsibility to product maker
 risk reducer
 symbolic device
 signal of quality
 search cost reducer
 promise, bond or pact with maker of product.

Keller (2003) claimed six different roles of brands to firms, they provide:
 means of identification to simplify handling or tracing
 signal of quality level to satisfied customers
 source of competitive advantage
 source of financial returns
 means of legally protecting unique features
 means of endowing products with unique associations

Importance of Branding - 2

Branding adds value to products and services. This value arises from the experience gained from using the brand; familiarity, reliability, and risk reductions; and from association with others who use the brand (Palumbo and Herbig, 2000).

Generally, consumers really don’t think much about the importance of branding in their daily life. They just go and buy the brand, they trust like most people do. But the name of a brand comes crucial when the business point of view is under discussion. For instance the importance of a brand name can be expressed with the help of a well known brand “Nokia”, when consumers hear Nokia; they think mobile phones and the slogan of Nokia: “Nokia, connecting people.” came in their mind. A strong brand name and slogan has taken Nokia to the top of its industry.

Choosing a brand name is not a process happening by chance. It is a well thought out process which really needs to think about the analysis of names and meanings. Creating a simple name for the company is the starting point of branding, so it can be said it is the most important step of branding. Because usually consumers remember simple and short names, there is a need to find a simple name which is associated with a positive value or characteristics (Kapferer, 2004, p. 155). An example can be given from Turkey about the shortness of a brand name; Dogus Group use “Garanti” instead of “Garanti Bankası”.

Another vital point in choosing the brand name is that the brand name must be different and unique (Fuchs, 2005). It will result as revenue lost if the company brand name is too close to one of its competitors which will cause its customers’ to mix it up. Also companies can not reach success by using a close name of a brand which came in market before them.

Importance of Branding - 1

The first impressions on customers play a crucial role. The company logo and corporate identity will be seen by thousands even millions of people depending on business area, and is marketing managers’ first chance to make a long lasting impression on company’s target customers. The brand gives companies a chance to communicate their corporate vision and set them apart from their competitors.

It is really important to have a perfect strategy behind the company brand, which will allow the transition of managers’ ideas to reality. Firms can stand out over and stay above the competition instead of getting lost in the crowd by the help of a strong and memorable brand. According to branding experts of Potential Difference, a brand management consultancy firm, a strong brand is firstly built on trust and reinforced over time with every kind of communication channels which are displaying a clear and consistent message, all contributing to its success in the marketplace.

In an increasingly complex world, individuals and businesses are faced with more and more choices, but seemingly have less and less time to make those decisions. The ability of a strong brand to simplify consumer decision making, reduce risk and set expectations is thus invaluable. Creating strong brands that deliver on that promise and maintaining and enhancing the strength of those brands over time is thus a management imperative (Keller, 2003).

According to Kapferer (2004, p 33) branding means much more than just giving a brand name and signalling to the outside word that such a product or service has been stamped with the mark and imprint of an organisation. It requires a corporate long-term involvement, a high level of resources and skills.

Consumer Attitudes Towards and Experinces With Airline Companies

This thesis is composed of the following chapters.

Chapter 1 includes the introduction stating the importance of branding, benchmarking offline and online branding in brief, giving top 10 offline brands and top 10 future online brands.

Chapter 2 reviews the literature on brand, branding and brand management concepts.

Chapter 3 introduces the research methodology and the hypotheses of the study.

Chapter 4 includes the descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses, and the findings with the results of the analyses.

And finally chapter 5 includes the conclusion and interpretation of the study.