Brand is perceived value of a business, organization, product, service or person by its target audience.
That’s all it is, its not jargon for marketing professionals, its not cereal you eat every morning, its not that logo on t-shirt. it is simply The Perceived Value.
So what is a Perceived Value? The equation of perceived value is simple:
Cost + Time / Satisfaction = Perceived Value
How much it actually cost us financially, emotionally and physically and how much of our time it took, Compared by the satisfaction we had. What we left with is Perceived Value. So perceived value is the end feeling we left with after completing interaction with a business, organization, product, service or a person.
For example, when you buy a new pair of shoes of a well known company and you feel a new comfort and physical support for your feet next few times you jog. It creates a certain value for the product in your mind as well as for the parent company. The price you paid, the time and effort it took you to buy either from the online store or physical shop and the end satisfaction you have each time you jog all these define how you perceive that product and its company.
Over the years if the shoes stays effective this builds reliability and trust in the company you bought shoes from. If you interact with an ad of a new shoes from the same company and it promises longer durability with more comfort you’ll likely choose to buy it instead of a new company with lesser price.
So brand is End Value? No. Let me explain, Its a new office and you are going to buy a new chair for long hours against your computer and you are health conscious. But you don’t know which company is good so you ask a friend or do a little research on internet, if its a friend you most likely end up with a company name and location to buy from, if its internet you end up with article explaining how ergonomic chair should be or the corporate website of an ergonomic furniture company. Whatever the case you make choice based on their options in chair types, price range, ergonomic features and how long they have been in business.
Bottomline you assume its value, the perceived value not the end value will be decision maker here. This perception of quality and trust, this assumption before using the actual product is brand of the company. And it start changing right the moment customer decides to buy and start the buying procedure.