The Role of Brand Image on Brand Conscious Consumer Association

Abstract

Brand in the field of marketing originated in the 19th century with the advent of packaged goods. When shipping their items, the factories would literally brand their logo on the barrels used. Around 1900, father of marketing James Walter Thompson published a house ad explaining trademark advertising, in and an early commercial description of what is known as branding. Afterwards Companies soon adopted slogans, mascots, and jingles which began to appear on radio and early television which were a few sources of information in that era (Kotler, Philip and Pfoertsch, Waldemar (2006) B2B Brand Management).

By the 1940s, Mildred Pierce manufacturers began to recognize the way in which consumers were developing relationships with their brands in a social/psychological/anthropological sense. This clicked the mind of many manufacturers and they quickly learned to associate other kinds of brand values, such as youthfulness, fun or luxury and richness with their products. This began the practice what is known as branding, where it is felt that consumers buy the brand instead of the product as studied by (Mael & Ashforth, 1992). This trend arose in the 1980s into what has been described as brand equity mania. Marketers engaged in branding seek to develop the expectations behind the brand experience, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain qualities or characteristics that make it special or unique. A brand image may be developed by attributing a "personality" to or associating an "image" with a product or service, whereby the personality or image is "branded" into the consciousness of consumers. A brand is therefore one of the most valuable element involved in consumer buying decision/behavior. The phenomena of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management (Kotler, Philip and Pfoertsch, Waldemar, 2006 B2B Brand Management).