Building a Brand

It often takes years or decades for building a brand. It helps in creating loyal customer with the company (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009). This blogpost is about the concept of brand in today’s market and the changes evolved in the concept over the time. In this study, Apple is taken as a brand having Magan Fox as brand-ambassador and also other famous character that can be connected with this brand as a case study.

Brand in Today’s Market and its Evolution

Brand in today’s market:

In today’s market, a brand is creation of relationship and emotional link between consumer and company. It is a process of converting prospective customers into loyal fans. According to American Marketing Association (AMA),”Brand is defined as a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them which is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors (Healey, 2008).”

Value of brand in today’s market is the result of long journey of brand and this will be further divided into 3 major periods. In the first period, company behind the brand was focused and the action of company influences the consumer most, while in the second period, consumer is the main concern and human prospective approach is adopted by the management. In current situation i.e. in third period, cultural and contextual forces decide the consumption pattern where new literature and articles attracts brand loyalty (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2009).

Brand evolved over the time:

In accordance with the above three periods, there are 5 strategies in which brand can be sub-divided.

• The economic approach in which the brand is taken as a part of traditional marketing mix.
• The identity approach, where the brand represent corporate identity.
• The consumer based approach, in this brand is perceived as cognitive construal in the mind of consumer.
• The personality approach: The brand is treated as human.
• The cultural approach: In this approach the brand is taken as a part of broader cultural fabric.
  

The Apple brand shines in today’s market after a long journey. It starts from selling the Apple-I personal computer kit in year 1976 at a price of $666.66. Over the year, Apple I computer was sold at $14000. In Year 1978, Apple II installed 570 bases. In year 1980, Apple came with initial public offer. Apple Computers paid $80000 for the world wide right to use the Apple name on computers. In late 1997, Apple changed its logo to solid crystal white logo which was first introduced on lid of PowerBook G3 (Linzmayer, 2004). In year 2005, Apple starts producing Intel based Mac computers. Mac Book Pro and iMac was the first computer using Intel’s Core Duo CPU. Between year 2003 to 2006, Apple stock price increases more than tenfold.

Apple computers release the fourth generation i-Phone with the features like video calling, multitasking, Dashboard applications like Google Maps and Weather, VGA camera and Face Time video chatting with new stainless steel design (Apple Inc. 2011). It provides facility of net browsing applications such as safari and mail.

Target market for Apple:

The target markets for Apple i-phone will be divided into four groups, 15-20 years, 20-25 years, 25-45years, and 45years and up. High school and college age people showcase it for social sites while the age group from 25-45years finds out its uses for business applications and social/personal use (Malley, 2007). In recent years, the company is trying to target the middle class people and more and more youngster, while in the past the price was so high that is only targeted to high income groups.

Competitors of Apple i-phone:

The main competitor for the Apple i-phone is Samsung, which introduce the concept in budget range. Apple's core competency is innovative design and technology. That's the spirit behind its innovation is "Think Different". Today i-phone comprises of portable digital media player, Internet client, and camera that truly surprised the market. Above this, Apple changes the thinking for consumer electronic by its unique features.

Part 2nd: Celebrities good fix for the brand

Celebrities endorse the brand & the target market they connect:

Magan Fox endorse Apple i-phone and good fit for this as she is representing stylish youth of the country. She is connecting the brand with both the youngster of the country and the richer section. She represents it as the style of the youth and attracting them toward the brand. She has been actively taking part in a number of initiatives to help young people around the world to enjoy a better life, while MAC marketing campaign also place great importance on the value of engaging youth. Magan Fox is attracting her fans throughout the world using the leading smart mobile technology.

Other famous characters that could be connected with the Apple:

The famous character like Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig can also connected with this brand, as they are the part of James Bond series in which latest technology is used. Also Henry Rollins, a punk rock musician could be connected with this brand as the gadgets have excellent sound quality. Stephen John Fry, an English actor, comedian, and film director can also be connected with Apple brand, as he represents the old generation is also technologically advances and likes to use these gadgets.

Competitor and their brand ambassadors:

There is cut throat competition in this market. Every company is trying to manufacture the gadgets at the cheaper cost and tries to penetrate the untapped market. More and more exiting features are introduced in the gadgets to attract the customer. Samsung electronics Co. Ltd. recently inked an exclusive agreement with David Beckham to be its global brand ambassador. He is a sports person in the field of football. The other competitors are Viewsonic ViewPad 7, Archos 9 Tablet, Dell Streak and blackberry i-phone.

Conclusion

In the current scenario, building a brand image is crucial exercise that helps in making core competency for the organization. Marketing strategy of the product plays a vital role in creating a brand image of the organization. Apple is constantly evaluating its products and tries to penetrate the market to get the maximum target audience. It has introduced his new product in the range of middle income class group to compete his competitors. This shows that how Apple is conscious in choosing its brand ambassador who can represent its brand with full potential.

We hope that this post would be useful for you to understand the concepts behind developing a brand.If you have any query regarding building a brand or need assignment help or homework help, please do write to us info@assignmenthelpexperts.com or Call us at 001-877-839-9989

Referencing
Apple Inc.(2011). Apple Info. Retrieved July 04, 2011 from http://www.apple.com/ .
Healey, M. (2008). What is branding? Singapore: Rockport Publishers.
Heding, T., Knudtzen, C. F. & Bjerre, M. (2009). Brand management: research, theory and practice. USA: Taylor & Francis.
Kapferer, J. (2008). The new strategic brand management. Britain: Kogan Page Publishers.
Linzmayer, O. W. (2004). Apple confidential 2.0: the definitive history of the world's most colorful company. USA: No Starch Press.
Malley, A. (2007). Apple, AT&T neophytes to define iPhone audience. Retrieved June 27, 2011 from http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/06/06/apple_att_neophytes_to_define_iphone_audience_report.html.