The difficulty of defining the term value is demonstrated even by the fact that the very definition of value is… a value! It is commonly used to say that value is a useful, necessary, price concept, or a quality, which corresponds to the needs, expectations, human ideal, national, social, moral, etc. Being a subjective quality, value is paradoxically assimilated differently, depending on the specifics of each society in its historical evolution. Moreover, the individual may have different interpretations and meanings. In this context, a value analysis of the brand from the consumer's perspective is very difficult. The brand is one of the most important values that any business can generate.
- • Branding is the one that offers the best way to communicate to customers those elements that differentiate the brand and make it irreplaceable.
- • Branding creates those essential differences in the positioning of the brand in the mind of the consumer.
- • Branding builds the fundamentals of brand and company values.
- • Branding brings added business value.
- ● A product can become a brand, a brand can never be a product.
Branding is currently the most important aspect of any business. Whether it is a bank or a toy factory, the value of the brand is what will determine the success of the business. We can say that a successful brand is equal to the success of the business. This may seem like a simple equation, but building a charismatic brand is a long and often difficult journey. A recipe for the success of a brand is very difficult to find because no two brands are alike. But one thing is certain. The path that a brand has achieved is not the right path. Each brand is unique and that is why the choice of the path to success is always a personal one. Branding is the process by which trust develops, as a determining factor of consumer loyalty. It is a complex process that generates emotions at the level of each consumer. All our decisions are emotional. The analysis is a rational one, but the decision on the choice is always an emotional one. Some brands produce negative emotions among consumers due to the lack of an ethical nature of business or due to ill-treatment of employees or the environment. Some brands are surrounded by a feeling of neutrality, being so used to them we often do not even notice their presence. Some brands produce such a pleasant feeling that every time we interact with them they bring us a smile and can trigger strong passions. No matter what the feeling is when interacting with one brand or another, we are certainly not immune to these emotions. They are the ones who determine our decision when purchasing a product or service. The reputation and expectations with which a brand is credited are based on several essential elements without which branding would be impossible to define. The first and perhaps most important element is
THE PROMISE.
Although this is not explicitly stated, it is the key to a brand's success. Apple is not just a manufacturer of computers, or iPhones. It's a different way of being, it's a concept that all Apple users share. Belonging to a community of Apple users is a determining factor in the personality of those who use Apple products. It's the promise, always kept, to offer something else, something that creates you as a user of Apple products, the feeling that you are different. "Think different" is more than a slogan is the Promise that Apple keeps every time, respecting its customers. In 2018, worldwide, Apple sold nearly 218 million iPhones, out of the 1.6 billion smartphones sold worldwide. The second element, but no less important, is the personality of the brand. Like humans, brands have their own personality. Refined or stupid, strong or just evasive, each brand has built its own personality over time. The perception that consumers have about the brand is closely correlated with the personality of the brand and implicitly with that of its traditional consumer with whom it identifies. This biunivocal relationship between the brand and the consumer, which has in its center the personality of each one, is the essence of the whole branding process. The continuous transfer of emotions, feelings, desires, which takes place between the consumer and his favorite brand at the level of each person's personality makes today the consumer to identify with the brand and the brand personality to identify with the aspirations and desires of the consumer. Today, consumers identify socially, culturally, morally with the brands that represent their options and desires. The own system of values specific to each individual as part of a community, a system that underlies all its decisions, has as reference points the approved brands. We are what we consume, we consume what we are, both individually and especially socially. The third element is the brand differentiator. Without differentiation the brand does not exist. Differentiation is the element that positions each brand on the market. An essential element, characterized by the value unanimously accepted by both consumers and the manufacturer, makes each brand be associated with a unique quality, memorable and irreplaceable for its own identity. But if everyone tries to differentiate by the same means using the same strategies, keeping in mind the same rules - NO ONE will be able to get out of line. They will all be the same. Differentiation is the art of being DIFFERENT, not only by the proposed goal and objective but especially by the chosen methods and path.
The difference that counts the most is the brick with which it is built
the branding.