How would you define branding? This is a term often used in business today. Why

Question

How would you define branding? This is a term often used in business today. Why is branding important to the business and what does branding have to do with corporate communication? Can you think of any business in the news over the last five years that have had to work on their company image? What happened? Why did they need to work on their image? Can you find a YouTube commercial or print ad for this company that you are discussing to show how they have worked on company image? Part Two Another part of branding is the company image. Why is image so important to a business? How can an image ruin or improve a reputation? Can you think of a business of late that has had image problems? What happened? How did problems with the image hurt the business reputation? Instructions Respond to both parts of this discussion. Provide research to support your response. You will want to finish your response with a reflection of how these two are related and why this is important to a company.

Explanation / Answer

Branding can be defined as the process of creating a unique image and name for a company’s product in the minds of the users and consumers. Branding relies on different forms of advertising like print advertising, OOH advertising, digital advertising etc. to create the desired unique image. Branding is important to business as it helps a company to make its products stand out from other products available in the market on the basis of certain attributes, features and qualities. Corporate communication helps in making a brand more tangible, more pronounced and better defined.

The company in the news recently that had to work on its company image was Volkswagen. The company was involved in an emission scandal as its cars were found to be fitted with a cheat device and software to give a false picture of the emission of its cars. In reality the cars were more polluting than what was being recorded. The lower level of recordings was due to the use of cheat device and software. The company, after this scandal, needed to work on its image to regain the trust and confidence of buyers in the market.

The YouTube commercial can be found on the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPonpk2V1sM

Part two:

Image is of vital importance to a business as consumers often base their purchase decisions on the basis of the images associated with a company and its products. For instance the image of Toyota cars is that they are reliable and efficient. Thus a prospective car buyer looking to buy a reliable car will consider buying a Toyota car. On the other hand a car buyer who is looking to buy a fun to drive car will probably look to buy a BMW because that is the image created by BMW for its cars. Reputation for a company is build (and hence is ruined) by its image. The products and services provided by a company have to be consistent with its image. If this is not the case then the reputation of the company will take a hit.

A business of late that had image problems was Samsung. Its Galaxy Note 7 model was introduced in the year 2017 and immediately after the launch the mobile’s battery caught fire and exploded. This was due to a technical error but Samsung’s image of being a manufacturer of premium and high quality mobile devices took a hit.

Brand and image are related to each other. Brand is about the emotional relationship between consumers and the business and image is the based on look and feel of the business and is based on the perception of the consumers. Both brand and image feed on each other and so a strong brand will have a good image while a weak brand will not have that good an image. This is important for a company as they will have to constantly work to keep their brand strong and their image good.

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