| A brand, also a trademark, is the commercial name and it is a term in marketing, symbolizing the embodiment of an information system, related with a particular product or service. It generally includes in itself the name, logotype and other visual elements (character fonts, tonality and symbols).
The earlier term “Brand” (“Brand-name”) did not signify all trademarks, but only the widely popular. Today it is used as a synonym to the term “trade name”.
Other synonyms: trademark and commercial name.
It is necessary to differentiate the legal and psychological approach to the understanding of a brand. From the legal point of view it is considered as a trade sign, signifying the product manufacturer and liable to legal protection. From the customer’s psychological point of view (consumer research) the discussion is about the brand in relation to the information, saved in the memory of the consumer.
The target of advancement of a brand and its value and price.
The target of advancement of the brand is to be by the creation of a monopoly in a given segment of the market. For example, many companies sell aerated water, but only Coca cola may sell Coca cola. In such a way indirectly the actions of antimonopoly regulators are treated.
The world famous trademark, surrounded by a list of expectations, associated with the products or the services, which are typically raised to the public. The Business Week regularly publishes the price of 100 brand leaders, which are determined together with the company Interbrand.
The first three leaders (in 2000-2007, each costs more than 50 billion dollars) are Coca cola, Microsoft and IBM.
Brands are the objects of purchase and sale.
There are two concepts, “Brand valuation” and “Brand evaluation”.
* Brand Valuation is the value of the brand.
* Brand evaluation is the price of the brand.
Also many other concepts are used, such as brand capital, brand power and so on. It is necessary to differentiate the psychological value or power of the brand (this is “Intellectual Capital”) and the financial brand price – these are the values of the discounted future money flows, generated by the brand for the organization.
The most “authorized” definition of a brand belongs to The American Association of Marketing (American Marketing Associations — AMA): “Name, Term, Sign, Symbol, or Design or a combination of all these, prescribed for the identification of the goods or services of the competitors”. This is an authorized definition, accepted in the legislation and order of most countries. However, in this there is no place for one of the most important components of a brand, the person in whose mind it is created.
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BMW corporation already owns three car brands - BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce - and now it is planning to launch its fourth green car brand. The car will be designed environmentally friendly. The name of the car brand and the logo will be chosen later.
