Marketing communication: principles and practice

Elements of the British Airways brand
Source
: Based on Crainer, 1995
Fuctional capability
The brand–purchaser relationship is based on trust that
the brand will meet performance expectations
Sign of ownership
The link to the parent corporate reputation
Legal protection
Trademark registration to counter counterfeiting
Strategic direction
Coherent combination of the six building blocks
Symbolic role
The emotional element, what the brand ‘says’ about the
consumer/buyer
Name and logo
Stand-out identity by conveying strengths
Shorthand notation
The prompt of recall and evaluation of brand
characteristics
Figure 8.2
How does a brand mediate communication with consumers?
Source
: Based on de Chernatony, 1993

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•
personalization
: the brand name allows consumers to express their
individuality and originality through their purchases
•
entertainment
: the brand allows the exercise of choice, thereby giving
consumers satisfaction of their need for novelty, arousal, surprise, and so
on (gratification)
Perhaps, simply, we can think of a brand as a shorthand or 
aide mémoire
for
a particular product–provider combination. The choice of brand name is
considered in Box 8.2.
In the modern ‘science’ of branding, products mean something by virtue of
how they are used. Neither the meaning nor the use are fixed by the provider.
These meanings may be rational and/or emotional, and are created within
the context of ever-changing group affiliations of people as providers,
consumers, and buyers. Thus, there arises a dialogue between people who
learn from each other what a product means to them and to others.
Most brands have characteristics such as those listed in Table 8.1.
The communication of marketing mix elements, as we saw in chapter
seven, provides consumers and buyers with information (context-specific
data) from which they create meanings. Construed added values are
distinguishers that are taken as brand personality. How well do these match
with the self-image of the consumer/buyer? Is your product seen by your
preferred customers as a brand that is like an old friend?