Post | Meusite

Now we come to the part I'm passionate about: brands. I must confess that within my professional experience, I've noticed it's a topic that grabs attention but also raises many doubts, questions, and heated discussions on how to manage them. Once they are in the world, we lose full control over how they’ll be perceived, and it becomes a collaborative construction with the public.

Behind the scenes, we do everything and take care of every detail to steer them in a certain direction, to stay true to their positioning, but this depends on many factors that transcend the marketing department. It needs to be part of the organization's culture and also make sense with social movements and those who give it meaning when they engage with it.

What is a brand?

The concept of a brand is multifaceted and has evolved over time. This evolution reflects not only a shift in market perception but also the complexity of relationships between companies and consumers. Initially, brands were simple product identifiers, but today they represent much more: they are intangible assets that shape a company's identity and reputation.

A brand can be conceived as a set of experiences or associations that determine relationships or perceptions about an institution or its products. Although still often confused, it transcends the mere logo and encompasses values, concepts, and strategic positions that can be communicated intentionally or unintentionally.

Moreover, consumer perception of the brand goes beyond just the logo, representing values, concepts, and strategic positions that may or may not align with those proposed by the company. Brands like Petrobras, Havaianas, and Natura exemplify this concept, representing not only products but also causes, people, and even countries, as studied by Ana Couto, a well-known Brazilian branding agency.

Kotler, considered the father of Marketing, emphasizes the importance of a brand developing an authentic DNA to establish a genuine connection with consumers. This involves not only expressing its positioning but also evolving through different strategies and actions directed towards the consumer.

The truth is that a brand is constructed daily through our imagination, and this responsibility doesn't just lie in its color palette, typography, tone of voice, and other definitions found in its brand guidelines. It also undergoes influences from the company's strategic decisions, how its employees perceive the company, decisions regarding its product and distribution, how consumers interact with it, and many other subjective factors.

Brand management and its assets

This is why branding, the management of a brand, is so crucial. The professional dedicated to this task is often mistaken for a guardian of design aspects, but in reality, it’s strategic and requires a holistic view of the brand. This process is continuous, systematic, and careful in building the brand collaboratively with various areas of the company and with consumers. We’re increasingly moving away from a product-centered approach to one driven by purpose, where brand, business, and communication are aligned to create value not only economically but also socially and culturally.

According to Martins (2006), branding goes beyond its economic nature, influencing culture and people's lives. It's a living process that evokes sensations and creates fundamental connections for the brand. It's the practice of creating meaning through stories that resonate and comfort consumers, becoming an essential part of their lives.

Nowhere in the literature does it state that the sole objective of a brand is to generate profit and grow at all costs, although for a long time this was the prevailing mindset in large organizations. On the contrary, it needs to stay true to its reason for existence and thus find space for profit that also contributes to its ecosystem.

In the next article, we will further explore this paradigm shift in the organizational world.

This is an article that is part of a series based on my postgraduate thesis in Positive Psychology.