SOCIAL MEDIA AND BRANDING: WHAT ARE THE 8 FUNCTIONS OF A BRAND

Social Media Strategy and Branding: What are the Functions of a Brand?

A world class brand has 8 functions. It is critical to understand these functions to create a world-class brand. In a New Media Age, a marketer must have a solid understanding of branding. Social Media is a god send for a marketer. In order for this great tool to work, a marketer must be able to drive customers to their brand, at the exclusion of all other brands.
The great part of social media is its incredible scale. This is also its greatest drawback. In social media there is just so much content. People have to come to your product for social media to work---and this is why branding is critical.
The eight functions of a brand are IDENTIFICATION, PRACTICALITY, GUARANTEE, OPTIMISATION, BADGE, CONTINUITY, HEDONISM, AND ETHICS. Let me briefly summarize each of these functions.

IDENTIFICATION. A brand makes a product clearly seen. It helps a consumer make sense of an offer. Simply, the brand will identify a product for a consumer. A brand will act as a lighthouse for a consumer, shining a beacon in their eyes, in order that they will know what products to select in a flooded marketplace.

PRACTICALITY. To allow savings of time and energy. People know that this is the product they want at this time.

GUARANTEE. To be sure of buying the best product in its category, the best performer for its category.

BADGE. To create an image for the marketplace that clearly identifies this product in relation to others.

CONTINUITY. Brands create a sense of satisfaction and trust. They create friendship with customers in the social media age. This creates a relationship. It is relationships that motivate a customer to buy.

HEDONISTIC. This relationship and friendship creates enchantment and attractiveness of the product that develops loyalty. To create this enchantment, logos, theme songs, and phrases are created that communicate the experiential rewards.

ETHICAL. The satisfaction that the product brings is linked to responsible behavior. This responsibility solidifies the relationship between the product and consumer and creates the long term relationship that leads to brand.

Some brands have succeeded in proving with their slogans that they know and understand what their fundamental task is: to transform the product category. A brand not only acts on the market. It organizes the market, drives a vision, creates a calling, and develops a clear idea of what the category is all about. Too many brands wish only to identify with the product category. In social media, products and consumers create a two way friendship.

Dean Hambleton
dnhambleton@gmail.com