A. Introduction

Why do companies such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM and Disney seem to achieve global marketing success so easily? Why does it seem such an effort for others?

Why do we, as consumers, feel loyal to such brands that the mere sight of their logo has us reaching into our pockets to buy their products?

So, what is brand? Why is brand so important? What advantages and benefits does branding bring to us? You will know after listening our presentation today.

B. Contents

I. The definition of brand 

- The American marketing association defines a brand as “a name, term, symbol, or design, or combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or a group of sellers from those competitors”. For example, Google, Nestle and Microsoft are well renowned brands. In technical speaking whenever a marketer creates a name logo symbol he or she has created a brand.

According to Kotler a brand can convey up to six levels of meaning- Attributes, Benefits, Values, Culture, Personality and User. One mistake is to focus only on attributes- they can be easily copied by competitors or benefits-which can be easily topped....

*Note that: Brand is different from product: brand identity consists of far more than the physical product itself. It includes all the psychological features that we have learnt to associate with it

II. The importance of brand 

First of all, let’s learn the importance of brand in business: 

A business wants their products covered most of the market. To do this, enterprises must take its brand to "power play" with the brand's other businesses on the same product. So the company branding is particularly important positions, can help businesses:

- A brand can be viewed as an important intangible asset of any firms. For example, Google is the most value brand in the world currently, is worth 44.3 billion dolar. Registered brands are protected of the legal, therefore it ensures long term growth and stability of the business, avoids of copying from counterfeiters. 

- The names, symbols, colors characteristic of the brand will support the product easy to go into the customer's mind. There are many brands and logos ingrained in the minds of consumers across generations, so much that we just glance can say what the product is. When you see an image of apple with a right corner bite, you immediately think of a famous brand computer: Apple, it has become one of the most popular brands in the world nowadays. 

- Brands help the company to have the opportunity to attract faithful customers, keep images of products and company in the future. With a strong brand, the company will have situation in the competition of the market on price, product delivery, attract investment capital, attracting talent ...

-Brand helps company to expand market share easily when customers know trademark from this region to other region or from this country to other country. When you had a strong and well-known brand, you will be able to attract customers quickly when penetrating new markets, expanding product or expand into other sectors. Therefore, Unilever group has launched $5 million to buy the brand of toothpaste P / S instead of building a new brand new. Moreover, when customers are familiar with trademark, company can maintain stable price, doesn't need to reduce price to attract customers 

- Brands play a very important role in the competitiveness of the business, which can contribute to increase value of goods or services while the material value does not change. In the market economy, many companies have good quality products but they has not sold and can not attract customers. Price, quality is one reason but a further problem is the brand, because hundreds of people in the market sell the same products at present, the enterprises which attracted the attention of customers, it is the first step. And the first impression that appeals to customers is the brand of the business. For example, why are we more excited to pay $200 for a Nike shoes instead of just $50 for other unknown shoes? This proves that when the business has confirmed his name, consumers will be willing to spend more money to use products with strong brands. Popular brands help customers select goods easier because they believe would not mistake in buying them. Perhaps because of this reason, many people like to use the famous goods, they were drawn by the famous fashion brands such as: Nem, Gucci, JK, Foci...

Because of the importance above, brand has become the facility for enterprises to build their images. Through brand we can assess the level of culture business. This is extremely meaningful in attracting investment, protecting and nurturing it to create the greatest long-term value of the business.

Furthermore, brand also important with customers: 

- Consumers may evaluate the identical product differently depending on how it is branded. Due to function awareness of brand it becomes a tool for consumers select goods easily by brand in accordance with the requirements and preferences, quality you want. If consumers want to use high-end cars will be chosen for the Lexus brand. Because as they know Lexus is a vehicle with modern, elegant and stylish ... so the brand helps consumers to identify and orients to use, selects goods, the brand allows them to save a lot of time and effort in buying products for the purposes and their interests, creating a comfort psychological for consumers when shopping, people's life are improved in a comprehensive way.

- Brand also has role confirm personality, character and individual image of each consumer in other eyes. Brand gives user a unique style. The brand you choose reflects who you are and expresses yourself on what you like to do and be able to join the community of like-minded people. Branding is a win: win situation for both the businesses and the loyal customers. Nowadays, many people prefer to use laptops Vaio while they are more expensive than many other computer brands. The laptop brand is located is senior products for businessman.

- Brand gives consumers the reason to buy it and wastes less time for consumer to choose. Branding helps make purchasing decisions easier. In this way, branding delivers a very important benefit. In a commodity market where features and benefits are virtually indistinguishable, a strong brand will help your customers trust you and create a set of expectations about your products without even knowing the specifics of product features. 

With positive implications for businesses and consumers, the brand was no small contribution in the development of the economy.

- First, we can immediately see using brand according to law will creat a healthy competition in the market, developing production and improving product quality.

- And also due to the healthy competition, the position of goods are increasing and took position in the world. Some products of Vietnam has become quite familiar with foreigners: Trung Nguyen coffee, tobacco Vinataba, Biti's footwear, confectionery Kinh Do ... The focus on building and developing brands, these products have been successful and become a voice on the world market, improve the position of Vietnam in the international arena.

III. How to build a strong brand:

There are four steps of building a strong brand. These are as follows:

1. Ensure identification of the brand with customers and as association of the brand in customers’ minds with a specific product class or customer need.

2. Firmly establish the totality of brand meaning in the minds of customers by strategically linking a host of tangible and intangible brand associations with certain properties.

3. Elicit the proper customer responses to this brand identification and brand meaning.

4. Convert brand response to create an intense, active loyalty relationship between customers and the brand

C. Conclusion

You may now have a better understanding of what a brand is and its importance. And it’s clear why you need to spend time developing an effective brand. Take the trouble to do it right, and your business will perform at a far higher level than if you scrimped on time and effort required