BRANDING
A crucial step in the
branding strategy is deciding on a specific brand name for the product that is
being introduced. In the earlier times when the concept and practice of
branding was much less developed, very often the family name/surname was used.
Some of those are still very much alive, for example, Siemens or Ford. The
other common method of branding was by way of addressing the product range of
the company. Two famous examples are General Motors and General
Electric. It seems the function that brand was supposed to perform was
either to indicate the source or the origin of the product (family name) or
indicate the product range. However, a brand name has emerged as one of the
most important elements of the merchandising function in the recent times and
will become more and more crucial as the competition becomes more severe in
India. Let us understand what the conceptual meaning of the terms brand and
brand name is.
Brand: Brand is a word, mark,
symbol, device or a combination thereof, used to identify some product or
service. The definition clearly focuses on the function of a brand, that is, to
identify, irrespective of the specific means employed for the identification.
Brand Name: The American
Management Association defines it thus: "Brand name is a part of a
brand consisting of a word, letter, group of words or letters comprising a name
which is intended to identify the goods or services of a seller or a group of
sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors."
