The preparatory stage of brand theory

The stage of classic brand theory is the initial stage of brand theory. In this sub-stage, firstly, the connotation and extension of brand are studied from the aspects of brand definition, naming, logo and trademark. Secondly, many strategic brand theories are put forward from the perspective of shaping, such as unique sales proposition theory, brand life cycle theory, brand image theory, brand personality theory, brand positioning theory, brand extension theory and so on.

(1) 1950s. The main representative achievements are:

① Ogilvy first put forward the brand concept in 1950;

② Gardner and Levy (1955) put forward the thoughts of emotional brand and brand personality in their first professional paper "Products and Brands";

(3) unique sales proposition theory (USP) put forward by Rolls-Reeves (early 1950s). This theory has three principles, that is, every advertisement puts forward the same proposition to customers, but this proposition must be something that competitors can't or haven't put forward, and it must have enough publicity to impress customers. Among them, finding the uniqueness of products or services is the basis of USP theory. In the 1990s, advertising developed into the era of brand supremacy. Reeves re-examined USP, inherited and developed this theory, that is, USP's creativity lies in revealing the essence of a brand and strongly confirming its uniqueness, making it invincible and unstoppable. Generally speaking, in many fields, if competition is still in the primary stage, breakthrough results can be achieved quickly through USP. However, once the degree and level of competition are upgraded, USP strategy will have problems, because technology is updated quickly and competitors "imitate" quickly.

② 1960s. The main representative achievements are:

(1) ①Ligh and King( 1960) made a normative study on the brand connotation and extension.

(2) the brand life cycle theory put forward by Manfred Bruen (in the early 1960s), that is, the brand life cycle consists of six stages: brand creation, stability, differentiation, imitation, differentiation and polarization.

③ The brand image theory put forward by Ogilvy & Mather (1963). The theory has three principles, that is, with the strengthening of product homogeneity, consumers' rational choice of brands is weakened; People pursue both functional and emotional benefits, and advertising should focus on giving brands more emotional benefits; Any advertisement is a long-term investment in brand image.

(4) With the further exploration of brand connotation, in 1960s, Gray Advertising Company of the United States put forward the "brand personality philosophy" and Professor Kobayashi Taisaburo of Japan put forward the "enterprise personality theory", from which the "brand personality theory" gradually formed. According to this theory, personality is the highest level in communication with consumers, from logo to image to personality; In order to achieve better communication effect, we should personalize the brand, that is, think about "if the brand is a person, what should it look like (find out the brand's values, appearance, behavior, voice and other characteristics)?" ; To shape the brand personality, we should make it unique, exciting and lasting. The key is what core pattern or theme copy can show the specific personality of the brand; It is often important to find and choose symbols that can represent brand personality.

(3) The 1970s. The main representative achievements are:

① The brand positioning theory put forward by trout and Rees (1972, 1979) has three principles, namely, the law of concentration, the law of sacrifice and the law of extension. The concept of "positioning" was first put forward from the perspective of solving the communication efficiency of brand market. Because any activity of enterprise brand promotion has the function of spreading brand information, in order to improve the efficiency of brand market communication, it is necessary to systematically manage brand positioning. In this way, the concept of "positioning" has evolved from a simple way of communication to a systematic management tool for strategically managing products or brands and increasing brand equity. The essence of positioning is to make the brand occupy the most favorable position in the customer's mental ladder and make the brand become the representative brand of a certain category or feature. There are three main methods of brand positioning, namely, preemption, Lenovo positioning and repositioning of competitors;

(2) Taubel (1979) put forward the idea of brand extension for the first time in his published paper "brand authorization extension, new products benefit from old brands".

(4) The 1980s. The main representative achievements are:

(1) Taubel, Busch, Allen, Prague, Fisk, bronia Chick, Ackell, Keller, Parker, Sun De, Rangaswamy, Loken, Bottomley, Smith, Baron and other scholars to build the brand extension theory. These studies mainly focus on the attitude of consumers towards the original brand, the relationship between the original brand and the extended brand, the influence of brand association on the extended brand, the evaluation process of consumers on the extended product, the influence of brand extension on the original brand, and the influence of brand extension on market share and advertising efficiency.

② Western advertising circles put forward the concept of "brand equity" from the perspective of brand management. At that time, many western countries were facing economic depression, and enterprises had to take various measures to reduce costs and increase profits. Advertising fees have become the target of cuts. Enterprises frequently use the marketing means of price reduction and promotion, which promotes the growth of short-term sales, but harms the brand image and the interests of long-term development of enterprises. The advertising community thinks it is very dangerous to do so. In order to remind enterprises to pay attention to the important role of brand in the long-term development of enterprises and avoid the negative impact of price promotion on brands, the concept of brand equity is put forward. At the same time, many mergers and acquisitions with huge amount and brand as the main goal also make people have a more intuitive understanding of brand assets.

From the perspective of brand practice, during the period from 1950 to 1960, many enterprises, especially consumer goods enterprises, implemented brand management system and remolded brand loyalty activities, and at the same time, brand management and brand marketing played an increasingly important role in marketing. From 1960 to 1980, the brand manager system began to prevail in the world. Modern brand theory stage is the deepening development stage of brand theory, which mainly includes three aspects: brand assets (assets and value) theory, brand assets (assets and value) management theory and brand assets (assets and value) management operation mode.

(1) brand equity (assets, value) theory. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the theoretical research on brand equity (assets and value) has become a new and important academic hotspot. At present, there are several concepts related to brand equity in foreign literature, such as brand equity, brand equity and brand value. Generally speaking, the relationship between them is as follows: brand equity is a static description of the brand from the perspective of financial accounting of asset classification, which belongs to the concept of result; Brand equity describes the dynamic process of brand equity formation and the interaction between various influencing factors, which belongs to the concept of process and relationship; Brand value is a causal concept, which describes the fundamental reasons for the existence of brand assets from the philosophical and economic sources, and lays a theoretical foundation for the study of brand assets and brand rights.

① The research of brand equity mainly focuses on brand valuation, that is, the price evaluation of brand equity. This method is to estimate the price of brand assets by imitating other intangible assets evaluation methods of enterprises. Brand pricing is involved or required in property rights trading activities such as company merger and acquisition, brand authorization and franchising, joint venture negotiation, tort litigation claim, etc. Out of this need, many asset appraisal companies set foot in brand evaluation and developed many evaluation methods, mainly including cost method, market method and income method. The research representatives in this field are Hill, Lederer and Keller (200 1), Davies (1999,2002) and Franklin (2003).

② Brand equity has become the most widely used but vague concept in the brand field. These include American Institute of Marketing Science (MSI), Farquhal (1989), Ackell (199l, 1995, 2000, 2004), Kamakura and Russell (19 1). Parker and Srinivasan (65438+) The research in this field mainly focuses on the formation mechanism and evaluation of brand equity, that is, starting from exploring the constituent elements of brand equity and their interrelationships, looking for the essential driving factors hidden behind the economic value of brand equity. This method focuses on the causes and process of the formation of brand rights and interests, and focuses on the qualitative study of the interactive relationship between brands and customers. The main core documents include, for example, Management decision-oriented evaluation methods developed by consulting companies such as Y & ampR(Brand Asset TM Valuator) and Total Research(Equity Trend TM), brand asset management plans of Pitta and Katsanis in 1990s, Aaker( 199 1, 1995) brand equity five-star model and brand equity ten model, Keller( 1993,1998) customer-based brand equity model, etc.

③ Research on brand value ③ The research on brand value mainly focuses on describing the use value and value of brand assets from the economic root. Among them, the use value has the function of identification, competition and value-added, and the value includes cost value and value-added value. However, from the perspective of value philosophy, there are a series of systematic problems such as the essence, evaluation, classification, selection, positioning, creation, evolution and management of brand value. The research representatives in this field include Nelson (1998), elwood (2002), Mozota (2004), Arfvidson (2005), Turkel (2006), Le Hu (2006) and other scholars.

(2) Brand assets (assets, value) management theory. With the in-depth study of the concepts and theories of brand assets, assets and values, people realize that in order to ensure the effective formation and long-term development of brand assets, assets or values, it is necessary to establish special organizations and standardized guidelines for management. Therefore, theoretical research on brand equity, asset and value management came into being. The main research achievements in this field are: Aaker's Managing Brand Equity (199 1), Kapferer's Strategic Brand Management: A New Method of Creating and Evaluating Brand Equity (1998, 2004), Keller's Strategic Brand Management (18) 2002, paper brand report card (2000), Davis's Brand Asset Management: Promoting Profit Growth through Independent Brands (65438+ Mozota's Design Management: Building Brand Value and Company Innovation by Design (2004), Haig's Brand Loyalty: How World 100 Top Brands Prosper and Survive (2004 and 2006), and Durdin's Advantage of Loyalty: Necessary Steps to Make Companies, Consumers and Brands Vibrant (2005). Le Hu's "Brand Maintenance: How to Prevent Brand Aging by Protecting, Strengthening and Increasing Brand Value" (2006), Turkel's "Building Brand Value: Seven Simple Steps for Profit Transfer" (2006) and so on.

(3) Brand assets (assets, value) management and operation mode. On the basis of the above-mentioned research on brand assets, assets and value management, practitioners, especially consulting circles, have put forward many operating modes around how to manage brand assets (assets and value), such as Ogilvy's brand housekeeper, Saatchi's all-brand strategy, Dentsu's brand communication, Darby's brand wheel and so on. Generally speaking, at this stage, brand began to rise as a major emerging field in company strategy and management. Contemporary brand theory stage is the all-round development stage of brand theory. In addition to the further innovation, perfection and mutual penetration of classic brand theory and modern brand theory, it mainly includes brand relationship and brand power theory, brand modeling method, strategic brand management theory, category brand theory (from the continuous expansion of brand extension) and other emerging brand concepts.

(1) brand relationship and brand power theory. Since the mid-1990s, with the gradual change of the understanding of marketing from function theory and trade marketing to process theory and relationship marketing, the profound reflection on the formation mechanism of brand rights (assets and values) and the cross-penetration of emerging strategic management theories (such as stakeholders and organizational ecosystem), the academic circles began to have a craze focusing on "brand relationship". Looking at the research paradigm and development process of brand relationship theory, it can be roughly summarized as "two types", "three stages" and "five levels", namely, entity brand relationship and eco-brand relationship, traditional brand relationship, deep brand relationship and eco-brand relationship, brand relationship with products/markets, brand relationship with related brands, brand relationship with customers/stakeholders and brand relationship with resources. Among them, the ideological roots of the first two stages are mainly based on the one-sided thinking and perspective of "physics". The main results are as follows:

① At the stage of traditional brand relationship, there are many literatures about the relationship between brand and product/market, or between brand and customers, such as traditional logo theory, trademark theory, brand extension theory, brand positioning and brand origin theory. The core documents of the second aspect are, for example, the relationship marketing theory of Webster (1992), Mokenna (1997) and Gordon (1998); Schultz and Barnes' strategic brand communication theory (1997,1999); Customer relationship management of Chili and Rogers (1993, 1997); Blackston and Max's conceptual model of brand relationship (1992,1995); Foumier's brand relationship analysis framework (1994,1998); Blattberg (1996), Raster and Zetham (2001); Study on communication norms of brand relationship between Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal (2001); Lu Taihong and Zhou Zhimin's brand relationship index model (2003); The theoretical model of brand community of McAlesend, Schouten and Koenig (2002), etc.

② In the stage of deep brand relationship, brand relationship should be the relationship between brand and customers/stakeholders, or the relationship between brand and related brands. The core documents of the first aspect include. For example, Duncan and moriarty's brand value category concept and integrated marketing model (1998); Decchematony (2000). Brand-employee relationship theory of Nicholas ind (2004), Sartain and Schumann(2006); Shin Kwang Yong's integrated marketing communication strategy (2001); Welfare and kendrick's brand stakeholder equilibrium theory (2006), etc. The core documents of the second aspect are, for example, the concept of brand group based on a single enterprise, brand recognition theory (1995), brand relationship spectrum and brand structure model (2000)n, brand combination strategy of Aaker (2004) [53j; Hill and Lederer's brand combination molecular model based on enterprise ecosystem (2001); Blackett and Boad's brand alliance thought (1999), etc.

③ In the stage of eco-brand relationship, brand relationship is the relationship system between brand and branded things/markets, related brands, customers/stakeholders, resources and environment. The core documents include: Davidson's brand iceberg concept (1997); Winkler's brand ecological environment thought (1999); Wang Xingyuan's famous brand ecosystem theory (1999,2000,2004); Aring Zhang put forward the concept of brand ecology (2002), the structural model of brand ecosystem (2003), the idea of brand ecological management (2003) and the framework model of eco-brand relationship (2005). Chen Yungang's brand resource composition model and brand environment composition model (2004); And environmental theory in marketing.

4 brand voice communication believes that to be a brand, you must be good at making your own brand voice. It is a long-term brand communication plan, based on the cyclical interaction between enterprises and consumers. By combining the goals of enterprises and consumers, we can understand the needs of consumers while listening to their voices, constantly integrate and refine the core values of the brand, shape the value system shared by enterprises and consumers, create a strong brand voice origin, and then build a strong brand voice region through the innovative use of various modern communication means. Deliver a consistent and meaningful positive brand voice to consumers in a targeted manner, thus forming a wave of "magic" brand voice circles that continue to act on consumers, so that consumers gradually rise from initial sensory cognition to silent worship of brands.