Brand Building: Developing a Distinctive, World-class Business Brand

A brand is a design, name or identity that is given to a product or service in order to differentiate it from its competitors. Brands can be created by whole companies, such as British Airways or Virgin, by manufacturers, such as Coca-Cola, Canon and Rolls Royce, and by major retailers. Brand extensions can be developed from existing brands. For example: Diet Coke, building on the success of Coca-Cola; or Virgin Cola, building on the success of Virgin’s identity. In recent years, the importance of brands has become increasingly recognised and valued, often as goodwill or in companies’ balance sheets.

Global brands increasingly have risks as well as opportunities. The brand connects the business to people creatively and expressively, but global brands are also major targets. Brands will continue to be important because they provide a time and energy advantage, they assure quality standards and they become identified by people. Product and service quality and market appeal will remain the essence of branding.