The Notion Of Brand From The Point Of View Of Consumers' Emotions

“A product is something that is made in a factory; a brand is something bought by a customer (King, 1973)” In a world where millions of brands exist, each one of us has at least one brand that comes up in our minds when we think about a particular service or product. Furthermore, we all have preferences for numerous brands, especially, when it comes to associating brands with our day-to-day lives. As discussed in the book ‘The Changed Notion of Brand Management’, people choose a brand that project aspects of their personalities. We can say that even though the functionality of the product is important, consumers are quick at associating emotional attachment with brands that they feel are worthy of their trust and loyalty.

Why is it that people attach emotions to brands? Why is it easy to choose a few brands over others? How do few brands cross geographical boundaries and become globally successful? (Chernatony, 2010) Chernatony discussed in his book Marketing Theory that various branding and communication techniques adopted by a brand/company, stir particular emotions and attachments in customers towards that brand. By giving importance to marketing, once a brand has successfully narrowed the ‘identify image gap’ and minimized ‘customers’ perceived risk’, the brand is recognized to add value to a customer’s lifestyle.

Among numerous globally giant companies that we know of, TATA steel would be an apt example to illustrate how a brand can create communities and generations of dedicated and unconditionally loyal customers. More than a century ago, the visionary pioneer of the TATA group - Jamshedji Tata, had not only dreamt to create a value-based working environment for the steel industry employees but also promised to improve the quality of life for the society.

Ever since establishment in 1907, TATA steel has kept up to their forefather’s stronghold on values and TATA as a brand has embarked a prosperous journey thus creating a humongous brand value for itself in the market. As per the World Steel Association, TATA Steel is on the list of top 10 steel producers in the world. (World Steel Association, 2017). It is also the world’s most geographically diversified steel producer, having a presence in over 50 countries.

Today TATA has its strong foot in almost every segment of the market. Form automobile to lifestyle, from power plants to chemicals, from food and beverage to hospitality, from technology to educational institutions, the list goes on. The reason for their success dates back to their building blocks where they established themselves as caretakers of the society. ‘Values stronger than steel’ is not just a slogan for the TATA group but is considered as ‘a way of life’.

TATA as a brand has always been synonymous to the values (such as trust, transparency or total community care) that they have projected as their utmost propriety (TATA steel , 2011). This has helped them create a robust emotional bond with millions of people; be it their employees, business partners, subsidiaries, customers and with the people of TATA’s own created industrial town – Jamshedpur. Hence, the respect and prestige that consumers attach with TATA are more to do with their legacy as a trustworthy brand. Even though similar products are available in the market, people invest in the brand they love and trust.

Taking another example of a local India brand of instant noodles – Maggie, by Nestle India, we can illustrate how successful branding not only creates a huge market share for the product but also helps companies recover during a crisis situation. Being in the Indian market since 1912, Nestle India Ltd launched Maggie instant noodles in 1984 (Mitra, 2017). Originated from India, now, Maggie has a market in several other countries like Canada, UK, Singapore, Kenya (Dutta, 2015).

Conversing about the long-term vision of Nestle, Suresh Narayanan, the chairman and managing director of Nestle India, said how introducing Maggie was a “huge leap of faith” in a rice and wheat eating country (Mitra, 2017). Hence, even though instant noodles was not a part of the Indian local market, Maggie quickly paved its way to young Indians hearts and the brand was soon seen to have created an emotional connection with the consumers. The brand ‘Maggie’ became so popular that according to the website - livemint, Maggie noodles earned 29.23% of Nestle India’s total sales in 2014, which was more than double the revenue share in the year 2001.

Since Maggie noodles were steadily growing, Nestle India at that point of time stopped looking at new segments or product categories (Mitra, 2017).However, came a time in June 2015 when Nestle India’s largest revenue earner was banned throughout the country for about six months on an allegation that it contained a particular flavor enhancer (monosodium glutamate) and lead beyond permissible limits (The Quit, 2017). Nestle was immediately to cease the sale of Maggie and to destroy the existing stock. About 30,000 tons worth of instant noodles was destroyed (Shah, 2015).

This came as a huge shock to young Indians whose love for Maggie was unparalleled. Maggie was being missed to a great extent and as a response to consumers affection and support towards Maggie noodles, the company posted short films on brands YouTube page depicting consumers love and loneliness without Maggie. The films ended with a silent message by Maggie saying “#wemissyoutoo”. (Gangal, 2015).

Maggie soon came back in a new “avatar” (improvised version) and is still rejoiced the same or even more (Mitra, 2017). Many competitor brands that have always tried to replace Maggie, even taking advantage of the ‘Maggie crisis’, couldn’t do so. Suresh Narayanan, the chairman, reported to Times of India, that Maggie regained 60 percent market share after the 2015 crisis, which was about 15 percent less than the pre-crisis market share of Maggie noodles (The Times of India, 2017)Hence, no bans, unmet standards or a dozen competitors could ultimately affect consumer’s affection for this celebrated brand.

We can conclude that it is the brand that the consumers attach more emotions too, rather than the product. Even though competition exists, the company that owns stronger brand fetches higher consumers’ loyalty and higher market share among other competitive advantages (Alizadeh, Moshabaki, Hoseine, & Naiej, 2014).