Monday, August 20, 2012

The Definition And Traps Of Brand Identity

By Jeff Wagner


The unique sets of trademark associations that are created and maintained by a strategist are what brand identity is all about. Represented by the associations are the stand of the brand and the implied promises by members of the organization to the customers. These unique sets help to determine the stand of an organization, its core values, the perceptions of the customers, the projected personality traits and important relationships that are there.

Through this, the trademark is given meaning, direction and purpose. When branding concept is expanded it gains value. The concepts scope should be wide instead of narrow if it is to achieve optimum strength. Strategists may be hindered from achieving the concepts full strength by limited perspectives. There are 4 principle branding equity dimensions, trademark individuality drives one of them which is associations.

It has four traps; image trap, position trap, external perspective trap and product attribute fixation trap. The image refers to the customer perception and provides the customer with necessary background info. Image trap results when efforts needed to go beyond the image are lacking. This trap looks to the past where the identity should be looking into the future for associations aspired.

Needs to be communicated is what position is all about and these needs demonstrate an advantage over competing trademarks. When identity search becomes position search it results to position trap. The effect of this trap is the inhibition of the full fledged evolution.

When the trademark individuality role is not recognized by a firm as part of understanding more about the basic purpose and values of the firm it results to an external perspective trap. If the focus of the business brand tactical and strategic management is based fully on product attributes then there is a product attribute fixation trap. There is more that goes into the trademark than just the product.

This focus on attributes has some important limitations. There is the failure to differentiate, rational customer assumption, strategic flexibility reduction and the ease to copy. The inclusion of other perspectives as part of trademark concept broadening is key when developing a strong brand identity.




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