Communication with customers via brand.

Rybansky, Rudolf ; Prajova, Vanesa

1. INTRODUCTION

From historical perspective, brand appeared in the 19th century. Its emergence is associated with the development of packaged products. Industrialization shifted the production of large quantities of household products from smaller local companies to centralized factories. The factories producing products of mass production were trying to expand the sales of their products to people who had previously purchased only the products from smaller local companies. The manufacturers of packaged goods from large factories had to convince the market about the quality of their products. Around 1900, James Walter Thompson published a concept of branding. This was the beginning of commercial brands' labeling (Molnarova & Jedlicka, 2007).

Though brand clearly belongs to the "intangible" assets of an organisation, its economic importance is evident.

2. BRANDS

In terms of semiotics, brands have four levels:

1) A utilitarian sign. This is about the practical aspects of the product and includes meanings of reliability, effectiveness, fitness for purpose and so on.

2) A commercial sign. This is about the exchange values of the product, perhaps conveying meanings about value for money or cost-effectiveness.

3) A socio-cultural sign. This is about the social effects of buying the product, with meanings about membership of aspirational groups or about the fitness of the product for filling social roles.

4) A sign about the mythical values of the product. Myths are heroic stories about the product, many of which have little basis in fact.

The association of different values with the brand name can be extremely useful when researching the acceptability of a brand's image. The importance that consumers place on these values can be researched using focus groups, with a subsequent analysis of the key signs contained within the brand, and consumers can be segmented according to their responsiveness to these signs and their relevance to the consumer's own internal values.

2.1 Brand names

It is said that the first face of the brand is its name. With this in mind, it is not difficult to understand why name creation, especially for a brand that intends to cross geographic and cultural boundaries, is a challenge in itself.

When a new product has been developed, the producer will usually give it a brand name. This is a term, symbol or design that distinguishes one seller's product from its competitors. The strategic considerations for brand naming are as follows:

* Marketing objectives. The brand name should fit the overall marketing objectives of the firm.

* Brand audit. Is a comprehensive examination of a brand involving activities to assess the health of the brand, uncover its sources of equity, and suggest ways to improve and leverage the equity. In comparison to marketing audit, brand audit is a more externally, consumer-focused exercise that involves a series of procedures to assess the health of the brand, uncover its sources of brand equity, and suggest ways to improve and leverage its equity.

* Brand objectives. As with the marketing objectives, the overall intentions about the brand need to be specified.

* Brand strategy alternatives. The other ways of achieving the brand's objectives, and the other factors involved in its success, have a bearing on the choice of brand name.

Brand name can be protected in most countries by registration, but there is some protection for brand in that it is illegal to try to "pass off" a product as being branded when it isn't. The brand names should have the following characteristics:

1) They should shock.

2) They should be alliterative.

3) They should connect to the product's positioning in the customer's perceptual map.

4) They should link to a visual image.

5) They should communicate something about the product, or be capable of being used to do so.

6) They should encourage the development of a nickname.

7) They should be telephone and directory friendly.

2.2 Visual and verbal identity

"Visual identity" is a recent term that was probably coined to avoid lengthy arguments about the meaning of "brand" versus "corporate identity". In the 1980s, the term brand migrated from soap powders and came to mean virtually anything on the planet with an ability to sustain an attraction or influence among people. Politics, countries, movements, artists, celebrities and educational establishments as well as companies and chocolate bars all became brands. So brand came to mean more or less what had been described as corporate identity: the total experience offered by a company to its staff, customers and others, a heady and distinctive concoction of intangible promises and tangible attributes and benefits.

Visual identity is a component in branding--the part you see, obviously. As such it is an important part because what you see is more likely to influence you than what you are told or what you comprehend from an 80-deck slide presentation.

Visual identity comprises the graphic components that together provide a system for identifying and representing a brand. The "basic elements" of a brand's visual identity might comprise distinctive versions of the following (Clifton, 2003):

* Logotypes

* Symbols

* Colours

* Typefaces

Verbal identity

Verbal identity's "basic elements" aim to make a brand's language distinctive. These might comprise the following:

* The name

* A naming system for products, sub-brands and groups

* A strapline

* Tone of voice principles

* The use of stories

2.3 Brand valuation process

To capture the complex value creation of a brand, take the following five steps:

* Market segmentation. Brands influence customer choice, but the influence varies depending on the market in which the brand operates. Split the brand's markets into non-overlapping and homogeneous groups of consumers according to applicable criteria such as product or service, distribution channels, consumption patterns, purchase sophistication, geography, existing and new customers, and so on. The brand is valued in each segment and the sum of the segment valuations constitutes the total value of the brand.

* Financial analysis. Identify and forecast revenues and "earnings from intangibles" generated by the brand for each of the distinct segments determined in step 1. Intangible earnings are defined as brand revenue less operating costs, applicable taxes and a charge for the capital employed. The concept is similar to the notion of economic profit.

* Demand analysis. Assess the role that the brand plays in driving demand for products and services in the markets in which it operates, and determine what proportion of intangible earnings is attributable to the brand measured by an indicator referred to as the "role of branding index". This is done by first identifying the various drivers of demand for the branded business, then determining the degree to which each driver is directly influenced by the brand. The role of branding index represents the percentage of intangible earnings that are generated by the brand. Brand earnings are calculated by multiplying the role of branding index by intangible earnings.

* Competitive benchmarking. Determine the competitive strengths and weaknesses of the brand to derive the specific brand discount rate that reflects the risk profile of its expected future earnings (this is measured by an indicator referred to as the "brand strength score"). This comprises extensive competitive benchmarking and a structured evaluation of the brand's market, stability, leadership position, growth trend, support, geographic footprint and legal protectability.

* Brand value calculation. Brand value is the net present value (npv) of the forecast brand earnings, discounted by the brand discount rate. The npv calculation comprises both the forecast period and the period beyond, reflecting the ability of brands to continue generating future earnings (Clifton, 2003).

2.4 Brand perception as a criterion for survival and quality.

For the customer, it is necessary to develop the trust in the ability of an organization to deliver the desired quality consistently and maintain it. General market requirements and customer specific requirements should be then transferred to pre-set specifications which are the basis for subsequent actions on the draft.

A product design should clearly and adequately reflect the quality requirements. However, it is necessary to take into account the specification of such quality characteristics, which are subject to a subjective assessment of the customer. According to the approach that everything that can positively influence the customer should be defined and accepted as a sign of quality, brand may also become a symbol of quality in some cases.

Research shows that there is a relationship between the perception of a brand and purchasing behavior. It was verified that particular customers with better insight into a certain type of goods focus on particular brand when purchasing. The link to the brand, especially in the situation when the products are essentially the same, is obvious here. In addition to identifying the product, the brand communicates its image, helps in decision-making and also leads to certain consistency in the shopping behavior.

To understand the brand in relation to customer, need analysis of the following issues is inevitable:

* basic values of the product categories regardless the brand;

* individuality and authority in the major labels in a given product category;

* links with other elements of the communication mix within the analyzed brand and the competition brands (Salgovicova, 2005).

3. CONCLUSION

The future of brands is inextricably linked to the future of business. In fact, the future of brands is the future of business if it is to be about sustainable wealth creation. Further, because of the interaction of brands with society, and since so many socially influential brands are in the not-for-profit sector, the future of brands is also inextricably linked to the future of society.

The current contribution is a part of an institutional project "Integrated Communication of the Quality-Oriented Organisation" No. 1/0290/09.

4. REFERENCES

Blythe, J. (2000). Marketing communications, Personal Education Limited, ISBN 0-273-63960-9, England.

Clifton, R. & Simmons, J. (2003). Brands and brandings, The economist in association with profile books LTD, ISBN 1 86197 664X, London

Molnarova, D. & Jedlicka, M. (2007). Building and management of brands in a competitive environment, New trends in marketing management aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the enterprise, ISBN 978-80.969827-14, Trnava, VIVAEDUCA

Salgovicova, J. (2005). Marketing in quality management, ISBN 80-227-2288-X, STU Bratislava, Bratislava