The term Brand has become a fancy word in today’s world. Everyone talks about it but very few know what exactly it means. A brand is a unique combination of product characteristics and values that have become attached to a product by means of its name, packaging, advertising, pricing, usage experience, etc. It is a collection of images, thoughts, and feelings in a person’s mind. These differentiate it from competitive brands in the consumer’s view.

A BRAND IS A TWO- WAY PACT:

“In return for your preference and loyalty, we will give you a shortcut to the best purchase decision.
We also understand that if we screw up, the deal’s off!”
It is truly said that “Your brand is what people say about it when you’re not there”.
                                                                                                 -Jeff Bezos, Founder Amazon

A brand should always have a vision. Nokia was not just a business of cell phones, rather its vision was “Connecting People”.

https://www.nokia.com

Hence, a brand without vision is blind. It won’t be able to survive long in the market. Having a vision helps the company to decide its guidelines and driving principles. It also helps to plan its future course of action. It keeps the company inclined towards a specific goal.

Moreover, it also keeps the employee motivated. If you know the vision, you will know how to achieve it. Thus you can track the future course in order to attain that and also evaluate the performance as to how much of the goal is achieved and what efforts are required.

Some brands with vision are:

“In our factories, we make products,

in the supermarket we sell hope.”

– Charles Revlon, Founder of Revlon

“I clothe egos.”

– Gianni Versace, Fashion Designer

“We’re not in the watch business!

We’re in the luxury business.”

  – President of Rolex

A brand is all about managing perceptions and driving actions which ultimately leads to creating values for the customers and stakeholders.

Now the question arises, what makes a brand?

Well in order to become a brand, any product\service should answer these five questions. They are-

• Does it fulfill any need?
• Does it have a clear identity?
• Does it offer tangible and intangible benefits?
• Is it differentiated?
• Does it create value for all its stakeholders?

These are the five checklists that any product/service should fulfill in order to become a brand.

I will explain it to you with the help of an example –

IS IPL A BRAND?

Now to answer this question we need to see whether IPL fulfills all those 5 checklists of not.

The very first question is:

• Does it fulfill any need?

Ans: Yes it fulfills the need of entertainment and thrill. Initially, cricket was very time-consuming. But now its just 20 overs game full of excitement.

• Does it have a clear identity?

Ans: Yes it does. It has a specific tune, every player has a different costume for IPL. It has a specific tagline as well. It has a specific format, cheerleaders as well which is different from the rest of the formats.

• Does it offer tangible and intangible benefits?

Ans: Yes it does. IPL gives fun and excitement.

• Is it differentiated?

Ans: Yes it is differentiated from all sorts of cricket games like Test Match, 50-50, etc.

• Does it create value for all its stakeholders?

Ans: Its stakeholders are players, investors, audience. All are getting benefited by this game. Players and investors are getting a handsome amount of money while the audience is getting their paisa wasool entertainment.

IPL fulfills all the 5 points thus, making it a brand.