BRAND MARKETING STRATEGY

Brand Marketing Strategy

Brand Marketing Strategy

Literature Review

Branding, the establishment of a name and/or symbol that distinguishes a product or product line from its competitors, is a part of the process of marketing. We usually associate the idea of a brand with commercial products; however, the fact is that the concept has come to be used far more broadly to encompass individuals, Oprah Winfrey, for example, and places like Las Vegas (Scott &Bruce, 1994, 580). Individuals, groups, and places often invest great time, energy, and money in becoming a brand.

Most frequently, brands are consumer products designated by names and/or symbols that distinguish them from similar rival products. The objective of branding is to increase sales and profits by surpassing rivals with a lesser brand name or no brand name at all. Brands transcend geography and social class (even in the case of products that themselves do not). Even the poorest Americans can identify most brands, even (or perhaps especially) those they could never afford (Schoemaker & Amit, 2003, 33). Brands certainly increase sales, but their influence extends far beyond those millions or billions who actually buy the product. A brand is a national and international cultural phenomenon with influence extending far beyond its economic results and consequences.

From about the tenth century forward, the sale of goods differentiated by brand by names of producers, sellers, product attributes, or other symbols (such as the white rabbit brand of sewing needles) became commonplace in China. In addition, the symbolic branding occurred in the fifth and fourth Centuries BC in Mesopotamia through the use of seals and standardized packaging. Moore and Reid (2008) agree that brands have been around since such ancient times, but recognize that modern brands are more complex. They refer to these ancient brands as ''proto-brands'' and note that many of them provided logistical information to enable the sorting, storage, and transportation of product, which is not a modern function of brands (Schlender, 2000, 36).

This paper includes the importance of branding in overall marketing strategy of a company, according to the concept of brand marketing; marketers give distinctive names (and other brand identifiers such as logos, packaging, etc.) to their particular product offerings. Marketers then could promote their offerings by name, often suggesting they had a distinctive character or quality, so that consumers (and consequently distributors) could and would order them by name (Schlender, 2000, 38). Brand identity became the salient point in marketing and subsequently in the minds of consumers. Given the existence of what at least seem to be ''proto-brands'' (in the modern sense of brands) in ancient cultures, anthropologists may yet discover evidence of this brand marketing concept in ancient cultures.

Further, this paper discusses the importance given by customers to the various elements and principles of a brand and the major factors that impact the brand of Apple. The paper also discusses the power of Apple brand on the customer, the process of establishing a brand includes the use of logos, colors, types of characters, names, ...