INTRODUTION: -

The term brand means different things to the different roles of buyer and seller, with buyers generally associating brand with a product or service, and merchants associating brand with identity. Brand can also identify the company behind the specific product that's not just a biscuit, that's Britannia biscuit. This use of brand puts a "face" behind the name, so to speak, even if the "face" is the result of advertising copy and television commercials. This use of brand also says nothing of quality, just the buyer's exposure to the brand's product and media hype. For the typical merchant, branding is a way of taking everything that is good about the company positive shopping ex perience, professionalism, superior service, product knowledge, whatever the company decides is important for a customer to believe about the company and wrapping these characteristics into a package that can be evoked by the brand as signifier. INTRODUCTION TO BRANDING:The American Marketing Association defines a brand as A name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group and to differentiate them to those for competitors. A brand is thus a product or service thats adds a Dimension that differentiates it in some way from other products or services designed to satisfy the same need. These differences may be functional, rational, or tangiblerelate to product performance of the brand. Branding has been around for centuries as a means to distinguish the goods of one producer to those of another. The earliest signs of branding can be traced to Europe where the medieval guilds required that craftsmen put trademarks on their product to protect themselves and producer against inferior quality substitutes. Also in fine arts branding began with artists signing their works. Brands today play a number of important roles that improve the consumers lives and enhance the financial value of firms.

Brands identify the source or maker of the product and allow consumers either individual or organizations to assign responsibility to a particular manufacturer or distributor. Consumers may evaluate the identical product differently depending how it is branded. Consumers lean about the brand with its past experience and the marketing program. As consumers lives becomes more complicated, time starved the ability of brand to simplify decision making is

invaluable. Brands also perform valuable functions for the firm. First they simplify the product handling and tracing. Brands help to organize inventory and accounting records. The brand name can be protected registered trademarks. The intellectual property rights ensure that the firm can safely invest in the brand and can reap the benefits over a long period of time. Brands can signal a certain level of quality so that satisfied buyers can easily choose the product again. Brand loyalty provides predictability and security of demand for the firm and creates barriers to entry that makes it difficult for other firms to enter the market.

How do you BRAND a product? Although firms provide the impetus to brand creation through marketing programs and other activities, ultimately a brand is something that resides in the mind of the consumers. A brand is a perpetual identity that is rooted in reality but reflects the perceptions and perhaps even the ultimate choice of the consumers. Branding is endowing products and services with the power of brands. To brand a product, it is necessary to teach the consumers who the product-by giving a name. Branding involves creating mental structures and helping consumers organize their knowledge about products and services in a way that clarifies their decision making and in process provides value to the firm

Branding can be applied virtually anywhere a consumer has a choice. It is possible to brand:
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A physical good (Nestle soup, Pantene shampoo or Maruti Swift) A service (Kingfisher Airlines, TATA AIG medical insurance) A store (Big Bazaar, BATA stores) A place (The state of Kerala, Pushkar Mela) A person (Shahrukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar) An organization (UNICEF or BCCI)

PURPOSE OF BRANDING:The purpose of branding is to create a powerful and lasting emotional connection with customers and other audiences. A brand is a set of elements or brand assets that in combination create a unique, memorable, unmistakable, and valuable relationship between an organization and its customers. The brand is carried by a set of compelling visual, written and vocal tools to represent the business plan and intentions of an organization. Branding is the voice and image that represents your business plan to the outside world. What your company,

products and services stand for should all be captured in your branding strategy, and represented consistently throughout all your brand assets and in your daily marketing activities.

The brand image that carries this emotional connection consists of the many manageable elements of branding system, including both visual image assets and language assets. The process of managing the brand to the business plan is important not only in big change situation where the brand redefinition is required, but also in the management of routine marketing variables and tactics. This does not have to be a ground-up situation where there are wholesale changes to the business. Rather it is more common that specific changes to the changes to the business plan are incremental and the work of the brand strategist and designer is to interpret these changes and revise the branding strategy and resulting brand assets and define their use in the full range of marketing variables.

LOYALTY:A second dimension, however, is whether the customer is committed to the brand. Philip Kotler, again, defines four patterns of behaviour: 1. Hardcore Loyals - who buy the brand all the time. 2. Soft core Loyals - loyal to two or three brands. 3. Shifting Loyalty - moving from one brand to another. 4. Switchers - with no loyalty (possibly 'deal-prone', constantly looking for bargains or 'vanity prone', looking for something different).

BRAND LOYALTY:Brand loyalty is the ultimate goal a company sets for a branded product. Brand loyalty is a consumers preference to buy a particular brand in a product category. It occurs because consumers perceive that the brand offers the right product features, images or level of quality at the right price. This perception becomes the foundation for a new buying habit. Basically, consumers initially will make a trial purchase of the brand and, after satisfaction, tend to form habits and continue purchasing the same brand because the product is safe and familiar. In general, brand loyalty can be defined as the strength of preference for a brand compared to other similar available options. This is often measured in terms of repeat purchase behaviour or price sensitivity.

However, Bloemer and Kasper (1995) defined true brand loyalty as having six necessary conditions which are: 1. The biased (i.e. non-random) 2. Behavioural response (i.e. purchase) 3. Expressed over time 4. By some decision-making unit 5. With respect to one or more alternative brands out of a set of such brands 6. A function of psychological processes. It can be measure by asking customer to rank various brands in terms of how they like it, which brand prefer more. Brand loyalists have the following mindset: I am committed to this brand. I am willing to pay a higher price for this brand over other brands. I will recommend this brand to others.

There are different levels of a brand loyalty:

In a bottom non loyal customer we can also say that they are basically switchers those who often change a brand. They are completely indifferent from the brand. Each Brand is perceived to be adequate and the brand name plays a little role in purchasing decision. These buyers basically consider the pr ice of the product or known as switcher also. In the second level, customer no reason to change or switching its product or at least not dissatisfy. No reason for dissatisfaction of the product. These buyers termed as habitual buyers. Such segment can be vulnerable to competitors that can create a visible benefit to switching. Third level or satisfied buyer with switching costs, In this particular segment to attract buyers competitors need to overcome the switching costs by offering an inducement to switch or by offering a benefit large enough to compensate. This group known as the switching cost loyal.

On the forth level, find those customer s that truly like the brand. Their preference may be based upon an associated such symbol, a set of use experience, or a high perceived quality. However, liking is often a general feeling that cannot be closely traced to anything specific; it has a life of its own People are not always able to identify why they like something, especially if the relationship has been a long one. In the Top level, they are very high committed customers. Example I Phone customer even before launching the 4th edition customer desperately waiting for it and after introduce in the market, customer queuing outside of the store. The brand is very important for them either functionally or as an expression of who they confidence is such that they will recommend the functionally or as an expression of who they confidence is such that they will recommend the brand to others.

PROCESS TO CREATE AND MAINTAIN BRAND LOYALTY:Favorable brand attitudes are the determinants of brand loyalty - consumers must like the product in order to develop loyalty to it. To convert occasional purchasers into brand loyalists, habits must be reinforced. Consumers must be reminded of the value of their purchase and encouraged to continue purchasing the product in the future. To encourage repeat purchases, advertisement before and after the sale is critical. In addition to creating awareness and promoting initial purchases, advertising shapes and reinforces consumer attitudes so these attitudes mature into beliefs, which need to be reinforced until they develop into loyalty. It is easier to reinforce behaviours than to change them, and the sale is just the beginning of an opportunity to turn the purchaser into a loyalist.
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Develop an unbeatable product - If you want to keep customers, make sure they can get what they want from your product. Give customers an incentive to repeat-purchase -Chances to win a prize, gifts with a certain number of proofs of purchase, in-pack discount coupons, etc. Stand behind your product - If customers dont trust the product, they wont purchase it again. Know your trophy customers and treat them best of all - Remember the rule that 80 percent of sales will come from the top 20 percent of customers. Make it easier to buy your brand than competing brands - Availability and simplicity are keys in todays high-speed world. Customers appreciate convenience more than ever. Go to customers - Bring the product to customers when possible. Becomes a customer service champion seek to serve the customer and they will repeat-purchaseagain and again!

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE BRAND LOYALTY:There are five factors influencing the brand loyalty, BRAND NAME :Famous brand names can disseminate product benefits and lead to higher recall of advertised benefits than non-famous brand names. There are many unfamiliar brand names and alternatives available in the market place. Consumers may prefer to trust major famo us brand names. These prestigious brand names and their images attract consumers to purchase the brand and bring about repeat purchasing behaviour and reduce price related switching behaviours. Furthermore, brand personality provides links to the brand is emotional and selfexpressive benefits for differentiation.
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PRODUCT QUALITY :-

Product Quality encompasses the features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. In other words, product quality is defined as fitness for use or `conformance to requirement. Material is important in product quality because it affects the hand feel, texture and other performance aspects of the product. Further, consumers relate personally to colour, and could select or reject a fashion because of colour. If the colour does not appeal to them or flatter their own colour, they will reject the fashion.
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PRICE :-

Price is probably the most important consideration for the average consumer. Consumers with high brand loyalty are willing to pay a premium price for their favoured brand, so, their purchase intention is not easily affected by price. In addition, customers have a strong belief in the price and value of their favorite brands so much so that they would compare and evaluate prices with alternative brands. If the perceived values of the product are greater than cost, it is observed that consumers will purchase that product Loyal customers are willing to pay a premium even if the price has increased because the perceived risk is very high and they prefer to pay a higher price to avoid the risk of any change.
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STYLE :-

Style is visual appearance, which includes line, silhouette and details affecting consumer perception towards a brand. According to Abraham and Littrell (1995), a composite list of apparel attributes has been generated and one of the conceptual categories is style. Consumers judgment depends on the consumers level of fashion consciousness, so judgment will be conditioned by their opinion of what is currently fashionable. Fashion leaders or followers usually purchase or continue to repeatedly purchase their fashion garments in stores that are highly fashionable. They gain satisfaction from wearing the latest fashion and style which also satisfies their ego.

PROMOTION :-

Promotion is a marketing mix component which is a kind of communication with consumers. Promotion includes the use of advertising, sales promotions, personal selling and publicity. Advertising is a non-personal presentation of information in mass media about a product, brand, company or store. It greatly affects consumers images, beliefs and attitudes towards products and brands, and in turn, influences their purchase behaviours. This shows that promotion, especially through advertising, can help establish ideas or perceptions in the consumer minds as well as help differentiate products against other brands. SERVICE QUALITY :-

A common definition of service quality is that the service should correspond to the customer expectations and satisfy their needs and requirements. Consumers like to shop at specific stores because they like the services provided and are assured of certain service privileges. Trust in salespeople appears to relate to overall perceptions of the stores service quality, and results in the consumer being totally satisfied with the stores in the end. Additionally, personalization significantly influences consumers experience and evaluation of service, and in turn, affects the brand loyalty of consumers.

BRAND LOYALTY Vs CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:-

Consumers are more versatile and less loyal than they ever have been. Studies on consumer satisfaction indexes have long demonstrated that, when contemplating their next purchase, satisfied consumers do not automatically buy the same brand of car or television set. Many marketing manager are concerned with an apparent trend towards brand switching. Among the reasons given for decline in brand loyalty is consumer boredom or dissatisfaction with a product, the dazzling array of new products that constantly appear in the marketplace, and an increased concern with the price at the expense of brand loyalty. As a researcher I find that people who participate in events (ex: Brand Community) feel more positive about the products as a result and this enhance brand loyalty. They are more forgiving than others of product failure or lapse in service quality and less likely to switch brands even if they learn that competing product are good or better. These community members become emotionally involved in the company welfare.