Brand is the perception that a consumer has upon hearing of a company name or a product or service. Branding is the process of influencing consumers to have a great sense of attachment and perception towards a particular product. A good example of the definition of a brand is the Apple Inc. There are customers who are attached to Apple products such that upon mentioning the name makes one feel good. Therefore we can conclude that branding is that particular perception that consumer has on a product. There are factors that make consumer value certain products, for example, the features of the product, the feeling they get upon consumption of the product, the quality of the products and also the price attached to the product. Most companies spend time in building their brand because it is what the customer will identify with. Marketing, on the other hand, contributes towards enhancing the brand of the product or service. Another example is Nike Company; you find that people would want to put on attire from Nike Company simply because its brand is known globally. Nike Company is considered the best when it comes to sports attire, therefore people would want to obtain the attire because it is from Nike Company (Reiner, & Nagel 2017).
The above insight on Branding will help up to further understand and evaluate how brands have impacted on our brain. Are we actually what we buy? Does what we consume define who we are? Are we recognized by what we use as a product or service? These questions linger in the minds of professional marketers as well as customers. We are living in a world where marketing has gone beyond the normal activity of creating awareness of certain product or service. The current marketing has focused on instilling certain perception regarding a particular product or service in the minds of potential customers. This is common especially to the established companies who have experienced customer loyalty. It is not easy for customers to stick to one product or service, customers have the freedom to chose what they buy, where they buy and how the buy. Having this in mind, companies have focused on psychological marketing whereby customers recognize themselves with certain brands (Ducu,2017) . This type of marketing focuses on high-income category, whereby the price of the product does not matter to the customer as long as the product is from a certain company. Marketing has ventured into the new way of making a customer buy a certain product because of the brand. We are going to analyze an example of a company whose brand attracts customers globally.
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In a bid to obtain customer loyalty through promoting product quality and branding, companies have invested in a long-term relationship with customers. Most companies aim at reaping long-term profits as a result of long term relation to customers; this is the most important strategy. Let us have an insight of Apple Company and how its marketing strategy has earned the company a long term relation with its customers. According to marketing experts, the knowledge of the brand a customer wants to buy has an influence on the decisions they make. The purchasing preference of a customer is attributed to the knowledge of the brand. Companies focus on what the customers will thing in regards to their products and services. Apple Inc is a company that is considered the best brand globally. Apple has been able to maintain its competitive advantage for the past years because of its brand. At the talk of Apple Company, most consumers of Apple products will say a lot about the product. The company has invested in its brand such that it is in the mind of every consumer that the products are of high quality and that people should use these products.
Apple has a brand strategy which has focused more on emotions of its customers; you find that most customers who use the products are so attached that when they own Apple product, they feel good. The personality of Apple brand revolves around, lifestyle, aspirations and dreams, imagination, people’s power, hopes, and innovation. Apple presents a great achievement such that the person using the product is considered of certain class according to social standards. The brand strategy has won the interest of those high profile characters globally; they identify themselves with the gadget they use Apple products. Simplicity is also associated with Apple brand such that the products are considered simple and with little complexity among its users. The features in the Apple products especially on the I-phones are a clear indication that the company focuses on quality and class. Most people who own iPphones express how it had helped them. The marketing and branding strategy of Apple Inc has managed to influence people to enjoy the products.
In conclusion, the ideas of Klein and Satel and Lilienfeld, are well expressed through companies like Apple Inc, which have ventured in psychological marketing. Indeed what we buy has defined who we are, in regards to the products and services that people use, the brand of these products and service is a priority. People no longer look for other factors such as prices or quality of a product. They look instead for the brand; this is psychological because it has become difficult to change the perception of people on a certain brand. On the other hand, companies who have focused on branding continue to experienced long-term returns as a result of customer loyalty and the strong customer relation (Shuqair et al.,2016) .
Reference
Reiner, P. B., & Nagel, S. (2017). Technologies of the Extended Mind: Defining the Issues.
Ducu, C. (2017). Topoi in Neuromarketing Ethics. In Ethics and Neuromarketing (pp. 31-64). Springer International Publishing.
Shuqair, S., Cragg, P., Zaidan, A., & Mitchell, T. (2016). The Influence of Users Generated Content on Attitude Towards Brand And Purchase Intentions–Case of Bahrain.