Whenever
there are companies and products, we can say that there
are also brands. The question is how to manage them.
Corporate interest in brand management arose worldwide
during the 1990s, and began to attract attention among
various business operators in Asia in the 2nd half of
the decade. As a result, the following 2 major changes
in business management have occured.
The first is the trend toward management of 'brand' as
an asset. Strong brands raise consumer loyalty (repeat
purchasing) and also give the product an advantage in
terms of pricing. In other words there has been a
change in the way that branding is seen among business
operators, who now regards it as an intangible asset in
the production of both stable future growth and high
return, and are concerned with how to increase its
value.
The other change is the trend toward restructuring of
conventional marketing systems from the point of view
of 'brand awareness' among the customer groups and
society that are its recipients. A brand represents a
'promise' between the supplier and recipient, and this
promise consists of the consumer's 'brand awareness' in
terms of the 'emotional' and perceptory quality'
derived from the recipient's 'totality of experience'.
Therefore, companies, with an eye to 'brand awareness',
are attempting to redesign their organizations and
operational systems, through a construction of a
marketing mix concerning products, distribution
channels, pricing and communication.
Towards New Horizons in Branding
The
expanding awareness seen today concerning the change
from Corporate Identity to Branding as a way of
corporate strategy is astonishing. This methodology is
now being formulated today through an introduction of
activities who have long focused on branding to boasts
global business excellence.
"Products
are
made
in the
factory,
but
brands
are
created
in the
mind"