• Dominance of Mass Marketed Brands: 1915 to 1929

By 1915, manufacturer brands had become well established in the United States on both a regional and national basis. The next 15 years saw increasing acceptance and even admiration of manufacturer brands by consumers. The marketing of brands became more specialized under the guidance of functional experts in charge of production, promotion, personal selling, and other areas, which led to more advanced marketing techniques.
 
Although functional management of brands had these virtues, it also presented problems. Because responsibility for any one brand was divided among two or more functional managers—as well as advertising specialists—poor coordination was always a potential problem.
 

• Challenges to Manufacturer Brands: 1930 to 1945

The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 posed new challenges to manufacturer brands. Greater price sensitivity led retailers to push their own brands and dropped nonperforming manufacturer brands. Advertising came under fire as manipulative, deceptive, and tasteless and was increasingly being ignored by certain segments of the population. In 1938, the Wheeler Amendment gave power to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to regulate advertising practices.
 
Procter & Gamble put the first brand management system into place, whereby each of their brands had a manager assigned only to that brand who was responsible for its financial success. Other firms were slow to follow. During World War II, manufacturer brands became relatively scarce as resources were diverted to the war effort. The Lanham Act of 1946 permitted federal registration of service marks and collective marks.
 

• Establishment of Brand Management Standards: 1946 to 1985

After World War II, the pent-up demand for high-quality brands led to an explosion of sales. Personal income grew as the economy took off, and market demand intensified as the rate of population growth exploded. Demand for national brands soared, fueled by a burst of new products and a receptive and growing middle class. Firm after firm during this time period adopted the brand management system.
 

• Branding Becomes More Pervasive: 1986 to Now

The merger and acquisitions boom of the mid-1980s raised the interest of top executives and other board members as to the financial value of brands. This appreciated the importance of managing brands as valuable intangible assets. The last 25 years have seen an explosion in the interest and application of branding as more firms have embraced the concept.
 
 

Discussion questions

 
1.  What do brands mean to you? What are your favorite brands and why? Check to see how your perceptions of brands might differ from those of others.
 
Answers will vary widely. Discussions could revolve around reasons for such differences.
 
Page: 6
Learning Objective: Define “brand,” state how brand differs from a product, and explain what brand equity is.
AACSB: Analytic Skills
 
2.  Who do you think has the strongest brands? Why? What do you think of the Interbrand list of the 25 strongest brands in Figure 1-5? Do you agree with the rankings? Why or why not?
 
These two questions can be used to illustrate the similarities and differences between “favorite” brands and “strong” brands. The discussion could include evaluation of the criteria for inclusion on the Interbrand list.
 
Page: 8
Learning Objective: Explain how branding applies to virtually everything.
AACSB: Reflective Thinking
 
3.  Can you think of anything that cannot be branded? Pick an example that was not discussed in each of the categories provided (services; retailers and distributors; people & organizations; sports, arts, & entertainment) and describe how each is a brand.
 
Discussion might involve why anything can become a brand. (Because of the way perception functions, the differential effect of when a brand is present vs. the commodity product can always be achieved.) Students will come up with many different examples of branded products, and the discussion can be used to examine what makes a brand.
 
Page: 8
Learning Objective: Explain how branding applies to virtually everything.
AACSB: Reflective Thinking
 
4.  Can you think of yourself as a brand? What do you do to “brand” yourself?
 
People resemble brands themselves in many ways – with their name, their mode of dress, their pattern of speech, their interests and activities, etc. – because each aspect of a person contributes to the differentiation of that person from other people.