In foreign countries, the brand was first promoted by Spanish nomadic tribes, who branded all their livestock to distinguish them from other people's livestock in barter transactions. English bomd still has the meaning of mark and brand. Brand appeared in Europe in the13rd century, when European guilds prevailed. Jewelry and jade merchants, wool weavers and leather merchants have formed their own guilds, requiring members to use certain marks on their products, and individual craftsmen and merchants must also sign their own marks on their products. In order to supervise the quality of products and maintain the monopoly position of the guilds, we should investigate and deal with shoddy and counterfeit products. /kloc-in the 0/4th century, there were laws in Europe to hang journalists who forged wine labels. Legend has it that a king once issued a law to punish journalists who impersonate others by cutting off their right hands. 16 and 17 centuries, the guild became the pillar of European economy, and it was very common to use guild marks, responsibility marks and personal marks. For producers, these signs are for the convenience of selling their own goods, so as to distinguish them from similar goods of other producers, and buyers have gradually developed the habit of identifying brands for shopping. In this way, this mark was brought into the scope of national legal control in the Middle Ages. Modern brands appeared after the establishment of the capitalist system in the19th century. With the development of capitalist economy, the expansion of production scale and the growth of commodity trade, it is necessary to have a mark that can be widely used to identify commodities, that is, names other than the natural names of commodities, and brands are widely popular. The most important difference between modern brand and early brand trademark is that it is not a simple trademark, but an industrial property that can be transferred and bought and sold, and it is an intangible property protected by law. Since the middle of19th century, western European countries have included brands in the scope of legal protection.

People began to study this brand in 1955, by Burley B. Gardner.

Sidney J. Levy (STD Nancy J. Le) proposed to publish the article "Products and Brands" in Harvard Business Review. Since then, the number of literatures about brand research has surged, mainly involving the following aspects: 1, the nature of brand; 2. The reasons why consumers choose brands; 3. Brand creation and management; 4. Brand equity.

1, the nature of brand

The article "Products and Brands" published by Burley B Gardner and Sidney ·T·J· Levy in Harvard Business Review is innovative. In this paper written by 1955, they emphasized to understand the essence of brand, that is, brand has not only functional value, but also emotional value. Gardner and Levy pointed out that the creation of brands should transcend differences and functionalism, and should pay attention to the development of individuality. This personality is carefully defined and respected by the target customers. Brand personality should be clear and intimate to the target customers, especially when other competitors' products have similar functions, which will contribute to the success of brand products.

Therefore, one of the tasks of brand management is to establish brand personality and creatively use advertising resources.

Long-term income investment of enterprises.

2. Research on the reasons why consumers choose brands.

Many foreign scholars have studied the reasons why consumers choose brands.

Xie Si, Newman and grotte (Xie Si, Nunan and Gro: 199 1) studied consumers' choice of products.

Behavior, put forward the theory of consumption values (T), and pointed out that T affects consumers' five consumption values when choosing products. They are: (1) functional value, (2) conditional value, (3) social value, (4) emotional value and (5) intellectual value. They believe that: (l) the choice of consumers is a variety of consumption.

Function of value; (2) In a given choice environment, the five consumption values have different functions;

(3) The five consumption values are independent. Through investigation and study, they found that most consumers gave up.

Less important value in exchange for more critical value. One of the contributions of this paper is to explain why some consumers want to keep the choice of all brand products instead of buying the same brand products continuously by introducing conditional value and intellectual value into the components of consumption value.

An important factor affecting brand selection is the demand of consumers. Due to consumers' pursuit of brand value

Demand will change with time, so the brand image should be constantly adjusted. Puckle,

Jaworski and macneice (Park, Jaworski, Macl 5 1986) put forward a strategic brand concept-image management model. Help managers not only choose the ideal brand image, but also constantly adjust and manage the brand image over time. They believe that brand is a comprehensive association and feeling, which can provide functional, symbolic and experiential benefits.

Many foreign scholars have studied this and defined the functional needs of consumers as looking for products.

Machines, in order to obtain the utility of products, the functional benefits of brands are used to solve external consumer needs.

Ask questions. The symbolic demand of products is to realize the internal self-improvement and role status.

The need of management. We can use consumer behavior theory to illustrate the important relationship between symbolic demand and consumption, and

Make the brand's symbolic interest design adapt to the psychological needs of consumers. Experiential demand refers to demand.

Products are designed to provide sensory pleasure. Use diversification theory and experiential consumption theory to clarify consumption.

The importance of experiential demand, and make brand experiential fun design meet these needs generated by consumers.

Yes Therefore, researchers usually classify products as one of the above three types of needs, such as lawn mower is work.

Energy products, cars are symbolic products, and food is experiential products.

3. Brand creation and management

When Nan Neng and Cooper applied anthropological and psychological theories to study advertising and culture, they put forward the emotional theme in brand building. They analyzed the different characteristics of American advertising methods and European advertising methods. American advertising is a tool of information dissemination, while European advertising is the embodiment of myths and rituals. They believe that Europe's advertising methods are rich and colorful, which enables people to see how brands change with culture.

Change and evolution.

Brown (1995) pointed out that in the information society, because consumers are surrounded by too much information, the key to shaping brand image should be the quality of information rather than the quantity. This requires enterprises to effectively spread some key features of brand information, and have a very strong association, so that brands become a set of sketch symbols to convey product characteristics. As more people enter the information society, people need more pleasant and exciting filtered information instead of unattractive realistic portrayal. Therefore, it is particularly important for brand building to create an attractive brand image and strengthen short-term escape from reality mentally and emotionally.

4. Brand equity

Feldwick (1996) gave a systematic explanation of brandequity.

Analysis and research. He believes that it is wrong to look for a single and operable concept of brand equity, because brand equity must be an inclusive and vague concept. These concepts include the following general questions: What is our current situation? How well can we do in the future? None of these problems can be solved.

The measurement method gives a complete answer. Therefore, the concept of brand equity should have multiple meanings, or there are multiple brands.

The concept of rights and interests to meet the needs of practical application.

Interbrand in Britain regards brand equity as brand value, that is, when a brand is

There must be a certain price when selling: the brand is listed on the balance sheet as an intangible asset.

Value amount. They designed a formula to measure brand value, which is widely used.

Second, the domestic literature review

Since 1990s, China academic circles have begun to pay attention to brand research. The research results can

Divided into the following categories:

1, the nature and characteristics of the brand

Ai Feng (1997), a pioneer in brand research in China, believes that brands have the following five characteristics:

(l) Brand is the unity of intangible and tangible. Brand or famous brand often refers to brand-name products and enterprises.

Industry actually includes two parts: tangible assets and intangible assets. Invisible and tangible are mutually transformed, and intangible is originally formed by tangible. But once it is formed, it has relative independence and can be transformed into tangible things. We should attach importance to intangible assets and promote the transformation of intangible and tangible.

(2) Brand is the unity of finiteness and infinity. Intangible assets are not equal to infinite assets. Specific situation

Brand value can be directly evaluated and traded. The brand itself is ok.

Can continue to increase in value. If your famous brand is getting better and better, and the famous brand enterprises are getting bigger and bigger, then you

Brand value will also increase, and in principle, it can grow indefinitely.

(3) Brand is the unity of simplicity and complexity. Any complex brand is simple, because it is simple and clear.

In the vast ocean of goods, consumers can easily find a certain product they like. But this kind of

Simple and advanced simple. Its model already contains various indicators of this commodity and manufacturer. brand

It's not just trademark graphics, although brands can't do without trademarks.

(4) Brand is the unity of firmness and fragility. Once a brand is registered, it is protected by national laws.

Brand can't be blown away by wind, damaged by rain, damaged by fire and eaten by insects. But the brand is very fragile, and I am most afraid of two things: one is that the brand itself is reversed, and the other is that it is copied by others.

(5) Brand is the unity of material and spirit.

Famous brand products are not only material achievements, but also the crystallization of labor; It is also a spiritual achievement, a crystallization of wisdom and kindness. famous brand

Spirit is a valuable spirit, which actually represents and embodies the comprehensive and thorough responsibility to consumers.

Spirit, the spirit of Excellence in products, the spirit of continuous pursuit of progress in the cause.

2. Research on the role of brand development

This is aimed at the influx of foreign brands into the China market in the early 1990 s, while China enterprises have not.

Jiang Xiaojuan and Liu Shijin (1996) believe that China's economy has bid farewell to the era of "overall shortage" and started to enter the stage of quality T competition and brand competition. Brand strategy is a powerful lever to realize the transformation of economic system and economic growth mode, because the adjustment of industrial structure led by brand-name products and advantageous enterprises is conducive to the reform of state-owned enterprises and the strategic structural adjustment of state-owned economy, thus promoting the transformation of economic system; The essence of promoting industrial structure adjustment with brand-name products and advantageous enterprises is the survival of the fittest, which is conducive to the transformation of economic growth mode.

3. Brand creation and protection

Brand creation is the implementation of famous brand strategy. In the early and mid-1990s, foreign brands became targets in China.

The market share is constantly expanding, and China famous brands are bought out by foreign brands and withdrawn from the market.

Scenario, how do governments, enterprises and scholars * * * create China under the impetus of the central and local governments?

Research on famous brands. Yang (1997) put forward that quality, advertising, scale and talents are the four strategic elements of systematic engineering for cultivating famous brand products.

4. Brand management and brand design

Tan Xu and Lu Taihong (1998) summarized the effective brand naming as follows: making naming strategies; According to the naming war

Develop the brand name slightly; List the compiled brands and attach the test results; A comprehensive and detailed legal search

Wait for four major steps.

Huang Shengbing and Lu Taihong (2000) studied the independent brand model (product brand) and the company brand model (enterprise

Industry brand), analyzes the influencing factors of choosing these two modes, and points out that the independent brand mode comes from differentiation, while the enterprise brand mode mainly comes from standardization, and enterprises should make effective choices according to the external environment and their own factors. .

Zhang Weinian and Li Jichun (1999) pointed out that the market is changing rapidly, and the successful operation of enterprises needs more innovation.

Instead of simple repetition; Enterprises should take the following points as decision criteria when drawing up brand extension: (1) brand definition.

Do the job requirements still apply? (2) Can brand assets be transferred? (3) Whether different kinds of products

Can it be sold through the same channel and promoted together?

Third, several typical brand theories

(A) brand image theory

The so-called brand image (1) is a collection of images and concepts that exist in people's minds, and it is the sum total of brand awareness and main attitudes. Compared with the product itself, the brand image depends more on the explanation in consumers' minds.

The brand image theory put forward by Ogilvy, an advertising master, once influenced the operation strategy of American advertising industry in the 1960s, and it still has a deep influence.

Ogilvy's "brand image theory" mainly has the following points:

Create differences. The more similarities between brands, the less rational consideration to choose brands.

(2) establish personality. Ogilvy & Mather believes that image refers to personality, which can make products stand firm in the market, and improper use will also make products untenable. It is the overall personality of the brand, not the trivial differences between products, that ultimately determines the brand's market position.

(3) reflect on yourself. Brand image reflects the buyer's self-image.

(4) Long-term contribution. Every advertisement is a long-term investment in the brand. Therefore, advertising must maintain a consistent style and image.

(5) Comprehensive factors. There are many factors that affect the brand image, such as its name, packaging, price, advertising style, sponsorship, listing time and so on.

(6) Long-term goals. Brand image is a long-term strategy, which cannot be done hastily. At the same time, because of its long-term nature, it is extremely difficult to change an old image formed over the years.

(B) brand positioning theory "

Positioning was first put forward by famous American marketing experts A reece and J Kutz in the early 1970s.

Later, it was widely used in the field of marketing and became a special term inevitably involved in marketing textbooks. The concept of brand positioning began in the field of advertising in the 1970s, and its main ideas are as follows: there are vacancies in people's minds,

Let manufacturers fight for it. If consumers have vacancies in their hearts, positioning will be easy. However, if there is a dispute,

If competitors occupy it, it is difficult to locate it. Therefore, in order to occupy a certain position in the minds of consumers, manufacturers must reposition themselves in the highly competitive market. He Jiaxun described in detail how to position the brand and the principles of positioning in the book Brand Image Planning. The main contents are as follows:

(l) Implement brand recognition. When the positioning of a brand exists, brand recognition and value proposition can be fully developed, which has a systematic context and depth.

(2) Target consumers. Brand positioning must set specific communication targets, and these specific targets may only be part of all the target targets of the brand.

(3) Actively spread the brand image. Brand positioning can be regarded as a bridge between brand recognition and brand image, and also a tool to adjust the relationship between brand recognition and brand image.

(4) Create the differentiated advantages of the brand. Brand positioning essentially shows its advantages over competitors. Brands attract consumers' attention and understanding by transmitting different information to consumers, and occupy a unique and valuable position in consumers' minds.

(C) Brand property rights theory

David Aaker's brand property right theory (1) holds that a brand is mainly composed of five asset elements, namely brand knowledge.

Reputation, quality awareness, brand association, brand loyalty and other proprietary assets.

Brand equity is a kind of value part outside the tangible entity of goods, which is related to brand name, brand

Identifiers, brand awareness and brand loyalty are linked, which can bring benefits to enterprises and belong to intangible assets.

Brand equity is closely related to brand name and brand logo. If the brand name and brand logo are published,

With the change, brand assets will also change, and the relevant contents in the balance sheet of enterprises will be adjusted accordingly.

Brand assets have three characteristics: monetary value, intangible assets and perceptibility. Brand equity is the enterprise capital representing a specific brand symbol, which is beyond the price of production, commodity itself and all tangible assets.

Value. Although brand equity is intangible, it often brings and creates value-added effects faster than tangible capital.

The task of brand operators is to establish and continuously improve brand awareness, brand association and brand loyalty. According to the importance of each asset element in brand assets, they are brand loyalty, brand awareness, quality cognition, brand association and other exclusive assets. The highest level of brand management is the trust and loyalty between producers and consumers.