Week 2 EOC: Discussion Questions

1.     Describe the relationship between branding and marketing.

Branding is to give a product its identity where marketing helps the product reaches its end user or consumer through various marketing techniques likes promotion, advertising, types of graphics and other things. Branding is about giving a product a name so that other consumers will feel like they carry that name, and feel a sense of belonging. Marketing is pushing the product out, and making sure the consumer likes the product. So they have to conduct surveys and do all sorts of things that will get consumer information to make the product better.

2.     How does the decision-making process differ between that of luxury brands and mass-market brands?

Decision-making is the process and the relationship between top management and the creative department that separates them into different categories. The difference between luxury brands and mass-markets brands is the power and role the designer has. For luxury brands, brand managers don’t exist for they carry and make a name for themselves. A couple of these luxury brands are Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Balenciaga, Tom Ford, etc. With mass-market brands on the other don’t have total control for they do have brand managers. Basically they fall under the category of trend followers, and not so much as trend leaders or innovators.

3.     Explain the meaning of “brand identity” and highlight its role in the positioning strategy.

The idea of brand identity is somewhat human. Here is a quote from the book that says so. “If I ask you to identify someone, the first thing that comes to mind would be that person's name. A name makes it easier to identify “John” within a crowd of people”. If you ask me that sound about right, we brand ourselves like we brand product. Brand identity is a good thing, but it can also be bad. Here is another quote from the book that talks about brands being concrete and very stagnant. “Consumers often define brand identity in terms of very concrete, palpable, and tangible attributes.” It does make sense as to why people perceive this way, but branding plays a big part in the world.