HISTORY AND IMPORTANCE OF BRANDS DR SOTIRIS T LALAOUNIS

& MODULE OVERVIEW

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Personal Information
Dr Sotiris T Lalaounis
Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Design Management

Modules: Brands & Branding (UG)

Design Management & Marketing (UG)
Brand Design (PG)

Research: Organizational Paradoxes, Design Management, Creative Industries.

Design Management: Organisation and Marketing Perspectives (2017)
Strategic Brand Management and Development: Creating and Marketing Successful
Brands (2020)

Office location: Room 1.79, Streatham Court (Level 1)

Tel. No.: 01392-722655
email: s.lalaounis@exeter.ac.uk

Office Hours: Wednesdays 13:00-15:00 (Online by Teams appointment)

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Session Objectives

• Defining Brands and Branding.

• Importance of Brands to Consumers, Organisations, and Society.
• History of Branding.
• Module Overview.
• Module Information.
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Question

What do you
think a brand is?
1. A nice logo.
2. A good name.
3. A catchy slogan.
4. A good design.
5. The personality of the organisation.
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Defining Brands
Etymology & Early Definition

• Origins: From the Old Norse ‘Brandr’ – meaning ‘to burn’.

• “A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify
the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiate them from
those of competition” (American Marketing Association, 1960).

Problems with this definition:

• Meaning: symbolic devices instead of merely legal trademarks.
• Independence: brands are independent of products/services not subordinate.
• Co-creation: meaning is co-created - consumers–organisations.
• Scope: other stakeholders beyond the consumers–organisations dyad.
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Defining Brands & Branding
Organisation & Consumer Perspectives

Organisational perspective:
• Brand Elements: the components of the brand that identify it and differentiate from the rest of
competition.
• Full personality of the organisation – interface between organisation and its audiences (Davis, 2009).
• “A living business asset, brought to life across all touch points, which, if properly managed, creates
identification, differentiation and value” (Hales, 2011) – objectives!

Consumer perspective:
• Brands reside in consumers’ minds!
• “..the aura of beliefs and expectations about a product (or service) which makes it relevant and distinctive.
It stretches beyond the physical and into the psychological and is extremely powerful” (Smith, 1998).
• “Branding is not something done to consumers, but rather something they do things with” (de Chernatony &
Dall’Olmo Riley, 1998).
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Defining Brands & Branding
Holistic Perspective

Brand Identity Brand Image

(Input) (Output)
Organisation’s Consumers’ mental
messages, elements, and emotional
personality associations
BRAND

• Brand Identity: it what the organisation communicates to consumers.

• Brand Image: the interpretation of the brand identity by consumers lead to a brand image in their
mind.
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Defining Brands
Level of Meaning

Attributes
A brand first brings to mind certain product attributes.

Benefits
Customers buy benefits. Attributes must be translated into
functional and emotional benefits.
BRAND
Values
A brand says something about the buyers’ values.

Personality
The brand will attract people whose actual or desired self
images match the brand’s image.

(based on Kotler et al., 1999 and Kapfener, 1992)

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Question

Which is the main reason

that brands matter today?
1. Economic importance.
2. Social importance.
3. Political importance.
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Importance of Brands
Consumer Perspective

• Identification of the source of the product.

• Assignment of responsibility to product maker: brands have to perform - fulfil
expectations.
• Risk reducer: consumers trust brands.
• Search cost reducer: less time and effort to search.
• Promise, bond, or past with product maker: consumer knowledge.
• Symbolic device: consumers express their own personality & values.
• Signal of quality: guarantee of quality.
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Consumer Perceived Risk

FUNCTIONAL
Branding can help RISK
reduce the consumer PHYSICAL
TIME RISK
perceived risk: RISK

CUSTOMER
PERCEIVED
RISK

PSYCHO-
LOGICAL FINANCIAL
RISK RISK

SOCIAL
RISK
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Importance of Brands
Organisation Perspective

• Identification to simplify handling or tracing (logistics).

• Legally protecting unique features: copyright of brand elements.
• Signal of quality level: consumers trust the company’s offerings.
• Endowing products with unique associations: consumers’ minds.
• Source of competitive advantage: brand equity & differentiation.
• Source of financial returns: strong brand equity increases financial value of the brand.
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Importance of Brands
Importance to Society

ECONOMIC SOCIAL
IMPORTANCE IMPORTANCE
Global wealth Represent what
Organisational growth society values
Societal benefits Symbolic device

POLITICAL
IMPORTANCE
Expressions of political
and ideological views
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Brands
Expressions of Ideologies
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Anti-brand movement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI0itS3gQFU
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History of Brands
Proto Brands Modern Brands

Early Middle Late Iron Age Ancient Middle Renaissance Brand Brand
Bronze Age Bronze Age Bronze Age Revolution Greece Ages Revolution Explosion
& Roman
Empire

2250-2000BC 2000-1500BC 1500-1000BC 1000-500 BC 825BC-4c.AD 5c.-15c.AD 16c.-17c.AD 18c.-19c.AD 20c.-21c.AD

“Brands have been a long-term feature of human cultural development, acting within multiple
ideological and institutional contexts” (Wengrow, 2008, p. 21).
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History of Brands
Proto Brands

• Early types of brands – ancient civilizations and pre-

industrial era.
• Information conveyors (identification & logistics)
without image/meaning characteristics (Moore &
Reid, 2008).
• Merchants’ seals (Indus Valley), crests (ancient
China), potters’ marks (ancient Greece & Rome),
royal emblems and guilds (Middle Ages), volume
manufacture of fine products (Renaissance).
• Commercial laws (ancient worlds) & laws for
hallmarking gold and silver / watermarking paper.
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History of Brands
Modern Brands
• Industrial and post-industrial era.
• “Necessity for firms to be identified and represented by a
symbol, recognisable by the consumer” (Belfanti, 2018).
• Transition: transactional to transformational / utilitarian to
image-building (Moore & Reid, 2008).
Brand Revolution
• Industrial revolution – mass production & marketing.
• Products designed for working classes / high classes.
• Establishment of best-known brands and advertising agencies.
Brand Explosion
• Since WWII – explosion of in the use of brands.
• Brands symbolise the move of world economies from command-
led model to demand-led model.
• Anti-globalisation movement.
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Module Aims
• To provide a thorough understanding of how brands and branding strategies are developed and
managed.
• To provide a critical perspective on the psychological and sociological aspects of brands.
• To provide an understanding of the important role of brands in consumers’ daily lives and in society
at large.
• Evaluate current brand campaigns and strategies using multiple theoretical insights.

A multi-disciplinary approach
• Different disciplinary perspectives spanning the social sciences.
• Brand Management, Marketing, Sociology, Psychology, Consumer Culture Theory, Communication
Studies, and Design Studies.
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Module Overview
Developing Brand Equity, Positioning, Personality and Values
Identifying and Developing
Brand Plans
Strategic Brand Management Process

Creating Brand Identity: Brand Aesthetics and Symbolism

Brand Communications and the Attention Economy

Holistic Brand Experiences and Emotional Branding

Designing and Implementing
Brand Marketing Programmes Consumer Collectives, Brand Avoidance, and Political
Consumption

Brand Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Sustainable Consumption

Measuring and Interpreting

Brand Performance and Metrics
Brand Performance

Brand Growth:
Brand Architecture and Brand Extensions
Growing and Sustaining
Brand Equity
Brand Futures:
Technology and Innovation in Branding Strategies
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Multi-disciplinary Perspectives
BRAND MANAGEMENT PSYCHOLOGICAL & SOCIOLOGICAL & DESIGN &
PERSPECTIVES EXPERIENTIAL ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES COMMUNICATIONS
PERSPECTIVES PESPECTIVES

Brand Communications
and the Attention Creating Brand Identity
Developing Brand Brand Aesthetics and
Economy
Equity, Positioning, Symbolism
Personality, and Values Creating Brand Identity
Brand Aesthetics and
Holistic Brand
Symbolism
Experiences and
Emotional Branding Brand Communications
and the Attention
Economy
Consumer Collectives,
Brand Performance and
Brand Avoidance, and
Metrics
Political Consumption
Holistic Brand
Experiences and
Brand Ethics, Social Emotional Branding
Responsibility, and
Holistic Brand
Sustainable Consumption
Experiences and
Brand Growth: Brand Emotional Branding Brand Futures:
Architecture and Brand Brand Futures: Technology and
Extensions Technology and Innovation in Branding
Innovation in Branding Strategies
Strategies
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Module Content Plan

Week 1: History and the Importance of Brands

• Definitions of brands and branding.
• History of brands and branding.
• Importance of brands to consumers, organisations, and society.

Week 2: Developing Brand Equity, Positioning, Personality and Values

• Customer-Based Brand Equity pyramid model.
• Brand positioning and contribution to brand equity.
• Brand personality and brand values and contribution to brand positioning.

Week 3: Creating Brand Identity: Brand Aesthetics and Symbolism

• Brand Expressions–Consumer Impressions framework.
• Brand aesthetics (primary elements and the five senses) and brand symbolism.
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Module Content Plan
Week 4: Brand Communications and the Attention Economy
• Brand communications options and media platforms – their influence on consumer decision-making.
• Planning effective brand IMC programmes.
• Implications of social media in consumer culture.
• Ethical issues of self-branding and hyper-narcissism in the attention economy.

Week 5: Holistic Brand Experiences and Emotional Branding

• Human experiences and experiential perspectives of consumption.
• Emotional branding and nostalgia.
• Retro-branding and the development and management of brand meaning.

Week 7: Consumer Collectives, Brand Avoidance, and Political Consumption

• Collectivist and constructivist aspects of consumption.
• Subcultures of consumption, brand communities, consumer tribes, and brand publics.
• Brand avoidance, anti-consumption, and political consumption.
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Module Content Plan

Week 8: Brand Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Sustainable Consumption

• Ethics, CSR and their implications for branding.
• Moral philosophy and its implications for branding.
• Ethics and CSR in brand marketing.
• Social marketing programmes.
• Sustainability and green marketing.
• Cause-related marketing programmes and branding.

Week 9: Brand Performance and Metrics

• Brand Value Chain model.
• Brand Audit: Brand Inventory and Brand Exploratory.
• Quantitative and qualitative techniques in brand exploratory.
• Brand ecology and ethnography.
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Module Content Plan
Week 10: Brand Growth: Brand Architecture and Brand Extensions
• Brand architecture and brand hierarchy.
• Brand extensions: line and category extensions.
• Advantages and disadvantages of brand extensions and impact on parent brand.
• Factors moderating consumers’ brand extensions evaluations.
• Global branding : advantages and disadvantages.
• Global branding: Building a global brand strategy.

Week 11: Brand Futures: Technology and Innovation in Branding Strategies

• Dimensions of consumer engagement.
• Big data and its contribution to value creation and competitive advantage.
• Measuring consumer engagement.
• (Anti)social consequences of consumer analytics and data mining.
• Internet of Things and its implication for branding.
• Neuromarketing: applications and ethical implications.
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Lectures Plan
• Before lecture: PowerPoint slides available on ELE.
• After lecture: Extra materials released on ELE including extra videos and notes.
• Reading: core: from textbook / supplementary: available on ELE.
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Seminars

• One-hour seminar every other week (Weeks 2,4,8,10 or Weeks 3,5,7,9).

• Before: prepare answers to questions of a case study (from core textbook).
• Discussion of the set case study in class.
• Discussion of topics covered in previous lecture materials with examples.
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Assessment
Individual Assignment

Topic:
• “Choose a brand and critically evaluate its current branding strategies. Applying
appropriate brand concepts and theories covered in the course, discuss its future
development”.
• Submission Date: Tuesday 3rd May 2022 at 3pm [online submission]. (TBC)

My advice to you:
• Avoid EXTREMELY successful brands.
• Choose a middle of the road brand that you can see potential and can still get much
information on.
• For example avoid: Coca-Cola, Apple, IKEA, Absolut Vodka, McDonald’s etc.
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Assessment
Individual Assignment

Guidelines:
• Maximum of 2,500 words.
• 50% of your total module mark.
• Make extensive use of diagrams / images to illustrate your points. Diagrams will not be included in the
word count!
• Fully reference all the literature used in your assignment!
• This assessment tests your ability to:
• Apply theory into practice in order to critically analyse and evaluate different brands.
• Develop brand management and communication strategies.
• Be innovative and creative whilst remaining rooted in market, competitive & company conditions.
• Writing, research and independent study skills.
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Assessment
Exam

• 24-hour online exam.

• 50% of your total module mark.
• Two questions (Answer both) – word count: 1,000 words for each question (total 2,000
words).
• Each question asks you to:
• Critically explore concept(s) covered on the module.
• Show how one or more brands that you choose demonstrate the concept(s)and explain
why.
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Core Reading – Recommended Purchase
Lalaounis, S.T. (2020). Strategic Brand Management
and Development: Creating and Marketing Successful
Brands. London: Routledge

• Core reading every week - a chapter from this book.

• Case study for weekly seminar.
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Extra Materials & Reading
Core Reading:
• Chapter 1 in Lalaounis, S.T. (2020). Strategic Brand Management and Development: Creating and Marketing
Successful Brands. London: Routledge.

Extra Materials:
• Week 1 Extra Video: All about New Coke [Available on ELE].

Supplementary Reading:
• Dall'Olmo Riley, F. (2016). Brand definitions and conceptualizations. In F. Dall'Olmo Riley, J. Singh, & C.
Blankson. (Eds.), The Routledge companion to contemporary brand management. (pp. 3-12). London:
Routledge. [Available on ELE]
• Eckhardt, G. M., & Bengtsson, A. (2010). A brief history of branding in China. Journal of Macromarketing,
30(3), 210-221. [Available on ELE]
• Moore, K., & Reid, S. (2008). The birth of brand: 4000 years of branding. Business History, 50(4), 419-432.
[Available on ELE].
DR SOTIRIS T LALAOUNIS