What Is a Brand Image?

Brand image refers to the personality characteristics of an enterprise or one of its brands in the market and in the minds of the public. It reflects the public and especially consumers' evaluation and recognition of the brand. Brand image and brand are inseparable. Image is the characteristic of the brand and reflects the strength and essence of the brand. Brand image includes product name, packaging, graphic advertising design, etc. Image is the foundation of a brand, so companies must attach great importance to shaping the brand image.

The brand image is the interaction between the subject and the object. The subject perceives the object in a certain perceptual situation. From a psychological point of view, image is a kind of mental schema produced by people reflecting objects. Kenneth Bolding proposed in his book "Image" that a symbolic image "is an intricate and rough generalization or sign of various rules and structures."

At first, people's understanding of brand image is basically focused on various factors that affect brand image, such as brand attributes, name, packaging, price, reputation, etc. Design Motor believes that the brand image is a collection of images and concepts about the various elements of the brand that exist in people's psychology, mainly

The most important factor that leads to the establishment of a brand image is people's association with the brand, or the consumers who think of the brand name will think of something. This association connects the brand image with many things and drives the establishment and development of the image.

The image of the product or service itself

The functionality of the product or service itself is the content basis of the brand image. The image of the product or service includes price, speed, function, durability, comfort, and application from the rigid performance image. It may be a sense of youth from the soft performance , Elegance, decent, cherished, bold, noble, charming and so on.

Product or service provider image

The image of a product or service provider is also an important factor driving brand image. As the old saying goes: Yan is a teacher and a master is a master. People often use this concept to evaluate brand image. The rigid indicators of the provider's image include scientific and technological capabilities, enterprise size, asset status, service status, and personnel quality. In the process of establishing a brand image, marketers often make use of the existing corporate image, such as

Brand image can be examined with quantitative methods. There are two indicators commonly used to measure brand image power: one is brand awareness; the other is

The tangible elements of the brand image include the product and its packaging, production and operation environment, production and business performance, social contribution,

Win by quality

That is, the quality of a brand's product or service is the efficiency that meets people's needs and is the core of the brand. The cornerstone lifeline is also one of the pillars of the brand's longevity and popularity. In order to forge a brand and create a famous brand, first of all, it is necessary to have high standards in design and understand market demand; secondly, to continuously innovate and maintain quality on the road of brand growth; finally, to use technology and improve services to promote quality leap Achieve further promotion of the brand. Ninety percent of the brand's forging depends on the quality of its own work. For example, traditional old brands, when they were founded, did not have modern publicity methods and rely more on interpersonal communication, and interpersonal communication should be based on the personal consumption experience of the product or service as a prerequisite. Good product or service quality, plus Only a good consumer experience can form a good reputation. Almost all old brands win with quality and have won a good reputation from consumers. Only through interpersonal communication have they become famous, and modern brands must stand for a long time. To become a real famous brand, it is also based on quality, and cannot be separated from the inspection of consumers.

2. Win with service

Today, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Service has become another core of corporate competition and an important strategy for the entire brand strategy. Become the focus of market competition. Service is an important part of the brand strategy. Good service awareness can win more customers for the enterprise, gain a good reputation, and also enhance the market competitiveness of the enterprise. The competition between many companies is not just at the product level, and the services of enterprises are becoming more and more important. Therefore, to build a good brand, services are also very important.

3. Win with advertising

What we mean by advertising here is not just who spends a lot of advertising costs, but also the advertising method used. Ultimately, it depends on the effectiveness of advertising. Companies with sufficient funds mainly choose TV advertising or print advertising, which are more effective and faster. This advertising model is obviously not suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises that lack funding and lack of brand building experience.

Small and medium-sized enterprises prefer online advertising that is low-cost, quick-acting and easy to operate, which is what we often call online promotion. There are also many network promotion models, and some companies choose to do

Point 1: Thematic promotion

Based on the promotion of products, due to less consideration of the cluster effect between the promotion of individual products, the choice of products is often messy, lacking a clear and consistent product image design. For this reason, when carrying out branding promotion, we must first draw an existing product distribution map in order to find the basic value proposition hidden behind the product, and use it to guide the basic promotion theme and auxiliary promotion theme. In the actual promotion operation, you can consciously and systematically select the product that is most suitable for the theme to promote, prevent the scattered phenomenon in the usual product promotion, realize the concentration of the product promotion theme, and increase the deferred effect of promotion investment. In the field of traditional Chinese medicine with abundant resources, Guilin Tianhe selected the field of topical plasters and promoted it with the theme of modernization of traditional Chinese medicine and the way of selling traditional Chinese medicine. It quickly stood out and established its own relative in this segment. Competitive Advantage.

Point 2: Stylized promotion

In the continuous updating of products, in the continuous transformation of demand and fashion, the product style is also constantly changing. Product-based promotion often focuses on the design effect of a single product's trademark, without considering all products. Consistent style, but the result of this is that every new product launch needs to inform consumers from the beginning, unable to take advantage of the previous product effect. When carrying out branding promotion, a lot of preparations need to be carried out for the construction of the product identification system, incorporating common brand values into the design of different products, so that consumers can feel its positioning and value, and improve Consumer loyalty. The Apple Computer, widely respected by graphic designers, has formed a clear and unique Apple style through effective design positioning, design language, and human-computer interface operations, through modeling, color, texture, and operating system design. Maintain a large number of "Apple fans".

Point 3: Advantageous promotion

The product resources of many manufacturers are extremely abundant, and some of them are in good condition and have the potential to grow into star products. However, due to the constraints of the current revenue, manufacturers are often regardless of size, and equally allocate limited resources equally. In the end, the product structure was mixed and the product role was blurred. Even after years of product promotion, it failed to form a competitive product mix. The promotion of branding abandons the original mode of allocating resources, and adopts the strategy of distinguishing primary and secondary, constructing echelons, highlighting the main players, and shaping stars, which not only makes the distribution of profit contribution points more balanced, but also improves the market influence of the entire brand, thereby improving the entire enterprise The ability to integrate resources and market competitiveness. In this field of health care products, the product resources and corporate strength of different manufacturers are almost the same at the beginning. Mrs. Oral Liquid can not stand out for ten years, and it gives up dispersed product promotion and concentrates resources to persist in advantages. Promotion strategies are closely related.

Point 4: Fashionable promotion

Whether it is fast-moving consumer goods or high-tech products, its market demand is constantly changing, and it maintains a distinctive fashion consumption color. Although product promotion without brand awareness will also use some fashionable language to express themselves in the promotion operation, but most of them are outside the product value, it is difficult to really stir the heart of consumers. When product promotion is converted to brand promotion, the possibility of fashion will be conceived from the basic value of the brand, and the sticking of external fashion labels will be prevented, thereby gaining the respect and support of consumers. In the emerging juice beverage market, when more new entrants are imitating the size of the unified orange, Coca-Cola has launched a cartoon-style "queer", which has won the city with its vivid and jumping fashion colors. Love of new humans.

Point 5: Continuous promotion

Any specific product has its own specific product life cycle. The short life of the product shortens the period of product promotion revenue, the space for continuous promotion is narrowed, and the possibility of obtaining deferred revenue is almost non-existent. Through the conversion of product promotion to product brand promotion, it can effectively extend the life cycle through continuous promotion, delay the aging of the product, and even get rid of the limitation of the product life cycle through product improvement and brand rebuilding. income. In the process of product brand promotion, if you pay attention to the accumulation of corporate brand assets, you can in turn provide powerful and rich endorsements for new products, reduce barriers to market entry for new products, and support the rapid growth of new product brands. In the field of central air-conditioning, Yuanda has persisted in investment for many years, promoted its popularity through mass promotion, established its reputation through professional promotion, and established a strong brand equity in the Chinese mainland market.

Brand association is an important way for consumers to build their brand image. Kohler believes that brand associations are formed by the long-term contact between customers and brands. They reflect customers' perceptions of the brand, attitudes and emotions, and also indicate the future behavioral tendencies of customers or potential customers. Brand Lenovo reflects the brand image on the whole, and determines the status of the brand in the eyes of consumers. Therefore, by analyzing the content of brand associations, we can understand the process of consumer brand image creation in more detail, which is of great value to guide us how to build a successful brand image.

Generally, consumers' association of a brand includes such contents as company image, user image, product or service image, anticipation of the product or service, their own previous experience or other people's experience, and events. It is worth noting that, according to different products and industries, consumers' emphasis on brand associations is different, and because of the individual needs of consumers, the degree of consumer attention to these contents is also different.

1.Company image

As the history of the development of the market economy in China is not very long, consumers' understanding of brands is not enough, and some even confuse the company name, trademark, "brand", and product category name. In the previous planned economy period, most of the product brands produced by enterprises were named after the company name, which cultivated the habit of consumers only recognizing the manufacturer and not the brand when buying goods. This is an important reason why Chinese consumers value the company's image in particular. Of course, a good corporate image is more conducive to building a successful brand image in the minds of consumers. Consumers are more inclined to purchase products from well-known companies with strong financial strength, large scale and strong technical capabilities. This can reduce consumer purchase costs and purchase risks, and maximize benefits.

User image

When consumers purchase products and services, they pay attention not only to the quality of the products or services themselves, but also to other consumers who consume the same products as themselves, such as age, gender, professional background, income status, education and many more. When the consumer feels that there is a big difference between consumers who consume the same products or services, he thinks that the brand's products are not suitable for his own consumption, so he will switch to the arms of other brands. This is also one of the reasons for market segmentation and positioning of target consumers.

Another situation is that some consumers have never consumed a certain brand of goods, but consumers who consume the brand of goods have certain characteristics that these consumers expect to have. In this case, these consumers People will try their best to own or use the branded products in order to expect others to be recognized as one of the target consumer groups of the branded products. Even if such consumption cannot be achieved, consumers can get psychological self-consolation and satisfaction in the pursuit of the brand's products. A typical example is the consumption of luxury goods. For expensive jewelry, the vast majority of consumers do not have the ability to demand, but people still very much agree with and yearn for the brand image of these luxury goods.

3. Product or service image

For different products in different industries, the image of a product or service may vary widely. For everyday small commodities with low value and easy consumption, consumers pay more attention to whether their packaging is exquisite and the color match is appropriate; household durable products, such as refrigerators and washing machines, consumers value function and quality more; fashion jewelry Consumers value their appearance design and whether they are in line with the trend of the times. For service goods, consumers are more concerned about the environment of the business place, the dress of the service staff, and their behavior.

When buying branded goods and services, consumers will choose their favorite packaging and design products and receive services in their favorite environment. When consumers find that a brand's products can always meet their visual and psychological needs, he has a good impression on the brand. The next time he spends, he will give preference to the brand's products. Over time, the brand has established a positive brand image in the consumer's mind, and consumer loyalty has also increased.

4.Expectations for products or services

Consumers' expectation of a product or service is actually a hypothesis of the value of the brand's goods after the consumer accepts the information of a certain brand. Before consumers first came into contact with a certain brand of goods, they actually believed in the information conveyed to consumers during the process of brand communication. They will always treat the content of those branded products as authentic and credible, until they personally experience or listen to others about the actual value of the branded products. During this period, the information disseminated by the brand will help the brand build Brand. Of course, the information expressed in the process of brand communication must be able to meet the needs of the target consumer group and stimulate consumers in order to guide consumers to purchase behavior.