Brand Image for Marketing : a Critical Analysis

People pay more for brand-name products than they do for essentially identical products lacking brand identity. Sometimes this pertains to brand as a signal of quality. However, brand-name markups are particularly pronounced in the fashion industry where functionality is less important than the brands signal of style and exclusivity. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name. A Brand is a product or service made distinctive by its positioning relative to the competition and by its personality in the context of the target market". A brand is a name or trademark connected with a product or producer. Brands have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as "cultural accessories and personal philosophies. Strong brands help a company to maintain market share in the fact of a changing competitive environment. Most markets are dominated by two or three well known brands. It has been shown that, in turn, a strong market share is associated with above average profits. This paper makes an attempt to analyse the importance of brand image in the field of marketing.