Reasons for and against Branding

• Reasons for branding:

1.       Product identification: customers can easily identify branded products. This facilitates product choice. Brands also differentiate products from those of competitors. This facilitates product positioning

2.       Quality consistency: brands assure quality to customers. Branded products possess quality consistency. This improves brand loyalty

3.       Promotion: promotion activities are brand-oriented. Promotion of the brand promotes all the products under that brand

4.       Legal protection: brands provide legal protection. They cannot be copied by others

• Reasons against branding

1.       High cost: branding requires a great deal of time and money for promotion, packaging and legal protection

2.       Low quality: if the product is of low quality, branding is not done. Similarly, branding is not done where consistency of quality is not possible

3.       Perishable products: perishable products are generally not branded. Their life is short. Their storage time is short. Examples fruits and vegetables

Homogeneous products: they are difficult to differentiate from those of competitors. Hence, they are not branded. Examples are raw materials and food grains