Jevons, Colin --- "Beyond brand" [2006] MonashBusRw 2; (2006) 2(1) Monash Business Review 7

Beyond brand^TM

Colin Jevons

Branding is more than a logo, a symbol or mere advertising, says Colin Jevons.

A brand is much more than a logo, a symbol, a sign or device, or simply the result of clever advertising. It helps to communicate value and create and deliver that value.

Branding is a promise of value for customers. It helps to attract and, if it is true and accurate, keep customers. It provides an extra element of understanding or meaning for customers as they form opinions and make purchase decisions from a variety of competing offerings.

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the development of the word “brand” from the Germanic word “brandr”, first noted in 1552, which meant the mark made with a hot iron. The earliest definition of “marketing” found by the Oxford lexicographers was just after this date, in 1561, so on this basis branding preceded marketing.

The uninformed person – who perhaps thinks that marketing is just selling – may see branding as simply advertising, and there are still examples in the daily and business press of proud CEOs launching their company’s ‘new brand’. They are quite wrong!

Branding – and the study of it – continues to increase in complexity. Students, practitioners and academics find the plethora of branding concepts and definitions confusing, to the extent of being unhelpful. There is a multiplicity of adjectives used in industry in particular, with meanings that often are neither discrete nor clear. At its worst, this reflects widespread confusion in the field; at best, exciting innovation and development.

Political branding is big business. In some countries, such as the UK and Australia, there are few substantive differences in the product offering of the major parties, with ‘rusted-on’ voters being passionately loyal to their long-standing brand. Politicians, pop stars, sports and entertainment identities all have a form of brand identity.

Branding can even be dangerous. The internet phenomenon known as ‘phishing’, where fraudsters pretend to be banks and send emails requesting updates to account information, while based on the old trick of impersonation, is greatly helped by the ease of copying the visual brand identity to improve the effectiveness of the deception.

There is no argument, though, that the brand distinguishes a product from its unbranded counterpart through the sum total of consumers’ perceptions and feelings about the product’s attributes and how they perform. In other words, the brand itself means something to consumers. So when Monash University excludes underperforming students it not only is saving them trauma and expense, it is removing products that do not meet marketplace (future employer) standards, thus preserving the value of the university’s brand.

Cite this article as

Jevons, Colin. 'Beyond brand^TM'. Monash Business Review. 2006.; Monash University ePress: Victoria, Australia. http://www.epress.monash.edu.au/. : 7–7. DOI:10.2104/mbr06002

About the author

Colin Jevons

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Colin Jevons is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing at Monash University, where he teaches and researches brand management and related communications areas.