The Science of Branding

Brands are one of the biggest aspects of today's companies that marketers focus on, and for good reason.  A good brand is invaluable, and is a key component in gaining and retaining customers.  Many companies today are spending more and more money building their brand, and ensuring that everyone who purchases their products will see the brand as a symbol of trust and reliability.  For example, the Nike Swoosh is imprinted in the minds of millions as a symbol of trusted footwear, for the right price.  In spite of people paying high prices for particular brands, many consumers such as myself have resorted to purchasing cheaper generic brands such as the items Walgreens and Walmart have to offer.

Because of the current ecomomic situation, and the climbing number of consumers switching to generic brands, do you think that these cheaper options will take over the market, consuming more expensive brands that can't lower their prices? Could this lead to a greater number of outsourced jobs as a result?

A response to Pam Galante's post

Do you think that it is possible for companies to recover from serious cross cultural blunders? Can you think of examples of companies (or even individuals) whose reputations have been ruined permanently or temporarily because of their misunderstanding of a culture/language?

 Of course I think it's possible for companies to recover from blunders like this, but not without incurring monetary and reputational costs.  One example of such a misunderstanding is when the swedish furniture company IKEA named one of it's desks FARTFULL, obviously implying that the desk is unclean or smelly.  Although if fixed quickly, blunders like this may not hurt the companies reputation it is a waste of time and money to have to take a few steps backwards and fix problems like this.