Why brands matter to consumers

To consumers, brands provide a convenient way of tracking companies and products that effectively meet their specific needs. Brands help consumers keep mental notes of who is producing the product or service and allows them a mechanism to assign responsibility in the market place. Consumers both subconsciously, and consciously, keep track of their past experiences with products and services. Ones that have met or exceeded their expectations are recalled positively. If brands perform well this will resonate and create a level of trust with consumers.

A brand can instill a level of trust that it will perform to a certain level or be of a certain quality. Consumer’s recognition of brands grows the more they have positive experiences with it. Positive experiences increase consumers recall and recognition of the brand. This recall helps consumers make purchase decisions quickly. Brands allow consumers to efficiently find and select products or services without having to conduct extensive searches for what will best meet their needs. Decisions can be quickly made based on past experiences and their knowledge about the brand, its quality, performance, characteristics, etc.

In essence a brand is a relationship between consumers and products. Consumers trust the brand and they reward that trust with brand preference and loyalty. Once a bond of trust has been established between a consumer and a brand it is difficult to break. Consumers are more likely to buy the brand they know and trust than the one they do not. For brands to keep this trust it is essential for the brand to continue to remain consistent to its brand promise. Breaking the brand promise will begin to impede consumers recall of positive experiences and the relationship will be broken.

A brand’s promise may not only be functional but it may also be symbolic. Brands allow consumers to project certain images. Brands find niches and become associated with these niches and are seen as being used by certain types of people. Consumers use these niche brands to project images to other people and to themselves. Brands function in this capacity like a club or team that people join for association purposes.

Brands become intertwined with consumers and they take on special associations. Consumers use branding to classify, recall positive experiences with products and services, and to associate with the image of the brand. The trust that consumers bestow upon products and services because of the psychological aspects of its brand will positively affect the consumer’s perception of it. Brands provide a convenient way to classify and retain information about products and services in a complicated world. The personal relationships that consumers develop with brands last a lifetime.