What is a brand? A Perspective on Brand Meaning

Abstract

Brand is a complex phenomenon. Though brands have been widely discussed and debated in academic world; a common understanding on brand could not be made among the brand experts. Each expert comes up with his or her own definition of brand or nuances of definition (Kapferer, 2004), which increases the complexity in brand interpretation as well as its management. This article aims to provide an overview of the existing academic literature defining the brand by analyzing and synthesizing more than three dozen definition of brand. The review of the existing literature was done to reduce the time and efforts of present and future researchers in this area by providing a quick snapshot of the existing definitions; pointing unanswered questions and various perspectives that constitutes brand meaning. At the end views and critical analysis have been presented reflecting authors understanding of the brands.

Keywords: Brand, identity, relationship value, signal, image.