The role of advertising in brand image development
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610429510097672 |
| Published date | 01 October 1995 |
| Date | 01 October 1995 |
| Pages | 23-34 |
| Author | Tony Meenaghan |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 4 NO. 4 1995 pp. 23-34 © MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS 1061-0421 23
Introduction
The notion that there is no objective reality and that people trade in the
realms of perception and image represents one of the most important tenets
of human understanding. Nowhere is this more true than in the area of
human relationships with business organizations, i.e. the domain of
marketing. Indeed images at all levels of marketing have taken on an
increased importance in recent times. Corporations have become obsessive
about public perceptions of their activities while at the level of the
product/brand there has been a “shift in attention away from the physical
aspects and functional benefits of products to their symbolic associations,
expressiveness” (Poiesz, 1989, p. 461). A variety of reasons for this
increased emphasis on image in marketing can be suggested:
●marketing’s increasing cognizance of the behavioral aspects of
consumer decision making;
●affluent society’s predilection with symbolic rather than purely
functional aspects of products;
●an increasing variety of relatively homogeneous products often
involving high product complexity and confusing messages which
increase consumer reliance on the image aspects of products;
●the fact that technological innovation, increasingly susceptible to rapid
imitation, may no longer offer previous levels of sustainable competitive
advantage (King, 1991; Parker, 1991; Wells, 1989).
The purpose of this article is to examine the role which advertising plays in
developing brand image. It commences by examining the various levels of
marketing imagery and focuses on those elements which the company
controls in the image formation process. The concept of branding is
reviewed as is the relationship which the brand forms with the consumer.
The two main schools of thought with regard to advertising effects are
examined in terms of their effects on brand imagery.
Levels of marketing imagery
Businesses conjure up a multitude of images with their many publics, with
much attention focussing on the corporate/product relationship. That is the
approach a company follows in communicating to its publics the relationship
of its products to one another and to the overall corporate entity (Olins,
1989). While this and similar classifications (Gray and Smeltzer, 1985)
focus on the producer’s corporate/brand relationship, three key levels of
imagery pursued by business entities, namely corporate, retail and
product/brand, are briefly examined for the purposes of this discussion.
Various definitions of corporate image are suggested (Bernstein, 1985;
Olins, 1989), however, that proposed by Gunther (1959) captures the
essence of corporate image: “The corporate image may be defined as a
composite of knowledge, feelings, ideals and beliefs associated with a
company as a result of the totality of its activities” (p. 62). While it is
The role of advertising in brand
image development
Tony Meenaghan
Developing brand image
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