Resurgence

Why would you even want to read this? Because the question ‘What is Brand?’ may make you uncomfortable and send you looking out for answer. You may be aware of the importance of Brand in the ‘Corporate Jungle’, role it plays in the ‘Marketing Strategy’ and its seeming impact on the ‘Consumer’s Life’. However, this most basic question usually evokes a very text bookish response. When I graduated of my MBA College (a very respectable one, I must say) with the ‘Best Marketing Student’ tag, I was very comfortable in what Philp Kotler had to say about brand: brand is defined as a "name, term, sign symbol (or a combination of these) that identifies the maker or seller of the product." And though it is perfectly okay to look at ‘Brand’ through the prism of the above definition, I have come to conclude that this is not the only truth or the version out there. This belief has come from interacting consumers of all hues and colours in my career of last one decade. Why see...

Why would you even want to read this? I have often been asked about the Consumer Decision Making process. Questions like ‘What would make a consumer buy this product/ brand?’ OR ‘Why are consumers not buying our product?’ are pretty common. Think through and you would realize that this should be the most important question for any marketer as the ultimate objective is to make customers/ consumers buy your product. If you search the Internet, you would find a wide variety of literature ranging from theories on Customer Involvement, Need and Motivation, Influencers and beyond; You would even find literature suggesting that human mind is too lazy and hence use shortcuts while taking purchase decisions. So, which one is correct? Well!! Consumer Decision Making Process is like a Holy Grail of Marketing – People may have misconceptions about their knowledge but I am yet to meet or read someone who has all the answers. Why the Confusion? Don’t get me wrong. I am not s...