What Does Branding Affect and Communicate?

  According to The American Marketing Association (AMA), it defines the brand as “a name, term, symbol or design, or a combination of them integrated to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of others sellers.” Generally speaking, the existence of a brand is to convey a clear business message of the corporation, striking a chord in target audience.  To achieve such successful extent, the message usually has to contain the trait of introducing complete information of products and service, the confirmation of credibility, the motivation of buyers, and concretion of user loyalty (Lake, n.d.).

  However, with further category, a brand, like a double-edged sword, could be classified as brand identity and brand image. As the one able to be controlled and constructed by the enterprise, a brand identity is consisted of the color, image, name and the value that a firm wishes to build up for customers identified over competition; namely, brand identity seems to be a company’s weapon for exerting in business battlefield. On the other hand, with few right to control, the brand image reflects the individual and collective evaluation and judgment regarding the performance of brand communication. It derives from the customers and directly orientates these outside environmental opinions to the firms, enabling them to map out the direction of improvement to maintain brand status in the commercial battlefield. For better knowing how the brand effects target or gets swayed by opponents, the former, brand identity, is often under detailed examined and adjusted by business to strengthen the durability of effectiveness.

  Consequently, owing to managing the brand in attempt to tightly connect the brand value and culture with customers, the brand communication has already been a common-to-be-seen gimmick adopted by various corporations and rife around in visual and digital form. The essence of brand communication is to bridge the gap in the perceptions the target audiences have about the brand. The dimension of communication covers branding identity, re-building and brand promotion. All creative, planning and execution tasks are meticulously carried out to ensure high impact and effectiveness.

  Standing in a customer's perspective, I deduce that it might be demanding for customers absorbing all what they receive from others since the coverage of information expressed is broad. Therefore,  some intangible influence and effect deriving from individual or surrounding have impacted the way we cope with information during communication (許士軍, 2011):

  (1) The process of deciphering: Once when the sender and accepter hold different values towards the messaged relayed, the expected effectiveness might be hardly reached and understood.

  (2) Interest problem: The selective perception and deliberate neglect often occur once information accepter is not intrigued in the very topic, failing the communication. 

   

  (3) Attitude and trust problem: If the accepter has already made the prior hypothesis or chosen the side of standpoint, they would get no trust in or not be willing to understand certain information due to the bias bearing in mind, causing them to twist and wrongly define the sender's purpose. 

  To conclude the conditions above, sometimes the influence of advertisement communication does not purely come from the sender, such as branding of enterprise. The accepters also play a key role in the middle of communication and realization of authenticity, depending on their personal condition and cognition. Both deliberate and innocent biased judgement in branding should not be underestimated while researching. 

  In short, brand represents an organization’s products, ideas and people behind it. No matter in which way a brand appears in the era of information, brand is to dialogue with the crowd and communicate realistically in order to leave an authentic impression on the target group and to inspire the world around them with responsibility and commitment. The effects it brings along with include corporate culture, incredible data and message, sustainable and innovative products, trustworthy service, enthusiastic employees and thousands of fascinating ideas for a lively future.

Keywords:

*Brand

*Brand identity

*Brand image

*Brand communication

References:

Novamondo: Strategic brand design and digital communication [Motion picture]. (2011).

Communications. (n.d.). [Cleanslate].

     Retrieved from http://www.cleanslategroup.com/communications/strategy/

Lake, L. (n.d.). What is branding and how important is it to your marketing strategy?
     [About]. Retrieved from http://www.about.com/

Brand identity vs brand image: Brand management 101 [Motion picture]. (2012).

許士軍. (2011). 溝通. In 管理學 (10th ed., Vol. 1, p. 389). 台北市: 東華.