Positive Branding's Central Role: Literature Review, IBA-946

This literature review examines the critical role of positive branding in achieving business success. It delves into various aspects of branding, including brand identity, personality, awareness, value, and loyalty. The review highlights the significance of creating a strong brand image, emphasizing the importance of consumer perception, reliability, and consistency. It explores the impact of brand loyalty on consumer behavior and the competitive advantages it offers. Furthermore, the review discusses the influence of globalization and conspicuous consumption on branding strategies, emphasizing the need for clear brand visions and targeted demographics. It also covers brand awareness and the importance of understanding consumer needs and preferences. The assignment includes an analysis of three articles, with detailed frameworks for understanding their methodologies, findings, and contributions to the field of branding and marketing.

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Introduction
A product or service or even an individual who is well established among the mass
and has massive recognition can be meant as a brand in literal context as well as intangible
sense. In the business industry, branding means to create a way by which one’s brand will be
established and people would recognize it. Customers experience business through branding.
Branding does not only mean a name and an appealing logo, but it is also more than that.
Every factor included in the company such as the business cards, marketing strategies,
advertising materials, and premises, quality to quantity, employees to their uniforms,
customer service strategies, endorsement, should reflect it (Graham & Cascio, 2018). each
company stands for something and they work in accordance with this along with their
mission and it must be reflected by the branding. Companies often come up with something
that makes them unique from their competitors and makes them stand out in the crowd. There
is always a personality in companies in terms of product, services, strengths or exclusivity.
And brands are created which can convey these messages and form a positive image in front
of the public. Branding is not easy as it should revolve around what consumers would find
attractive or unique in a business and not what the company perceives it is. Therefore, it
requires intensive market research. Creating a strong brand even before a company is
launched in the market, gives it a kick-start and it leads to a bigger chance to be successful.
The following content will reflect on several factors of branding and how it is crucial for
businesses to be a success.
Literature Review
There are several parts in branding, such as brand identity, brand personality, brand
awareness, brand value, brand loyalty, brand strategy, etc. the core purpose of branding
should be to appeal consumers and attract them towards business. Brand identity stands for

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the name, logo and the products or services it offers. Personality refers to the strengths or the
features of a company that indicates that how it is better than its competitors, with similar
products or business models. The offerings a company makes under a brand name are what
create the brand value. Initially, the value is created by the companies by making their
offerings unique or better in terms of attributes, usefulness, and quality and then they add
value to it. But in reality, customers create value or take it further by choosing the offerings
over other brands. Therefore, strong brand value is important since partly it is also
responsible for the company’s sustenance in the market. Brand awareness is also something
that contributes to this field as customers have to be made aware of the offerings along with
why they should opt for it to achieve success (Biswas& Suar, 2016). The core purpose of
branding is to build a strong consumer base along with building customer retention and to
affect their buying behavior. Dr. Saku Hirvonen emphasises on brand identity, especially on
small and medium businesses in his paper. Brand identity or image has to be created to the
public and in their perspective by encompassing a positive interaction between them and the
brand. The customers perceive it as positive branding when the interaction is conducted in the
right sense which leads to a positive experience for them. Interaction does not necessarily
mean customers buying and using the products. There are various ways to make that happen
(Reijonen et al., 2015). Clarity, reliability, and consistency are some of the factors that matter
the most in creating positive branding. When advertising a product, the company must be
clear with the ingredients and must add a note if the customers need to know something or be
warned about it while using it. Otherwise, the image gets ruined right away. Moreover,
companies cannot lie or exaggerate about their practices or the product’s usage while
marketing it. For instance, a company cannot market its products as cruelty-free items if they
do not execute cruelty-free experiments in their practice. Else, it will lead to a negative brand
image. However, if the company indeed preaches cruelty-free experiments and also practice

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it, it adds a bonus point for positivity in the company’s identity in the current period.
Reliability is what companies should maintain from the beginning and it comes with
consistency. In this era, the competition is huge but the customers are also more aware of
many things around them. Therefore, they judge the brands carefully which influences their
buying pattern. Dr. Tommi Laukkanen has explained further about consumers’ buying
behaviour in the research article. As mentioned previously, brand value is created by
companies and it comes with maintaining a top-notch quality and adding a feature to the item
that makes it different from other similar items. Brands have to maintain this with integrity
consistently to become a trustworthy name amongst buyers. Thus, it achieves the reliability
from the mass and this leads to the biggest competitive advantage, there is in today’s time, -
customer loyalty. When brands are loyal to their consumers in terms of honest marketing,
usefulness, and consistency, it impacts buyers’ positive behavior towards the brand. And, it
suffices to say that consumers are the key element in a business’s success and growth.
A brand can be in the market for more than a century and there are some real-life
examples to support this. For instance, Kelvinator has been here since 1986 and the famous
Kelvinator refrigerator brand turned 100 in 2014. There are other brands like Mesaratti and
Jim Beam etc. What made these brands stand out in the crown and still going strong are their
brand identity and positive branding (Astrachan, Prügl, Hair Jr & Babin, 2019). Positive
branding is directly driven by brand loyalty. It is the major component and the main essence
of branding and it plays a key role in a brand or business’s success. A research was done in
South Africa by Richard Chinomona to understand how brand image has an effect on brand
loyalty which influences consumers’ trust and preference. There are several dimensions and
layers of consumer behavior and it suggests that customers can and prefer to be loyal to
specific brands. It helps the companies to achieve desirable results and to acquire a major
share of the market. Loyal customers are what give the brands a competitive edge in this

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period and having a competitive edge in this time is crucial for them to be successful. But
research shows that it is easier to retain existing consumers as they are loyal to the brand than
to achieve loyalty in new customers’ minds. Practically, it costs five times more for
companies in terms of strategizing and investments to achieve this. The term loyalty is
significant in business and it directly represents recognition and association. When customers
are loyal, they opt for certain brands over others and buy their offerings for years after years.
It directly influences their buying preferences and pattern. Whenever they will require
something, they are bound to think of their preferred brands right away because of their
satisfaction and positive outlook of the company. It becomes even more significant when that
brand releases a new product or service in the market. Due to satisfaction, trust, and
attachment, buyers are more likely to opt for new products (Backhaus, 2016). It is important
for the business as the customers opt for the new products and the companies get further
opportunities to make alterations if required as per the consumers’ opinions and make the
launch successful. Due to globalization, every huge brand is now in the race with many other
renowned brands. The time is more difficult because of this. Therefore, positive branding has
become more crucial than ever. In the current time, ‘luxury’, ‘expensive’, ‘branded’ are the
terms that directly influence customers’ behaviors. Internationally acclaimed brands tend to
market their products as a display or a symbol of luxury and present the items as part of a
luxurious life. Some brands even advertise it to represent a direct connection of their items
with a wealthy life. In consumers’ minds, and the expensive product has great value in terms
of the products being either vintage or exclusive or limited and premium quality. It also leads
them to think that having branded products will be a symbol to show off their status and
quality of life. Brands take these notions and use it to their advantage. This is known as
conspicuous consumption. In order to make this work, brands target the rich families as their
target demographic and audience. So, it can be stated that each brand should make it clear by

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their items and its other attributes that what they target audience is (Hong & Diep, 2016). The
products, usefulness, pricing must be fit for the targeted demographic. Or else, the brand will
fail to achieve the result it desires to make it successful. This brings us to brand strategy.
Having a clear vision and statement for the brand is important. But it is as much as important
for them to know which location they are exploring, which region they are targeting to
distribute the offerings. Moreover, they should also consider the culture, beliefs and other
aspects the people in that region have. The companies should form their own segmentation in
the initial stage of branding and the segmentation should cover peoples’ needs, culture,
religion, preference, buying pattern and especially their social, economic, and employment
status. The message, the brands will be articulated along with the brand name and the logo
should be designed as per the demographic. The main purpose is to reach potential
consumers. For instance, a brand cannot successfully reach most of the potential customers; if
the brand name is not something they understand or even feel the need to understand. The
brands cannot put forth a message that most of the people in that region will find offensive or
if most of them cannot relate to it. At this point, companies should realize the importance of
brand awareness. A company can genuinely be brand new in the market or the company may
exist in other countries but not in the one they are targeting (Browning, 2016). Both of them
will require brand awareness, although one will require it more than the other. Brand
awareness means marketing the brand in public platforms and print media along with what it
will be bringing to the market for the public to know. People must be aware of the brands and
what makes it unique or different than others and why they should consider it. The awareness
is conducted using the brand name and the logo at first. It is intended to make the public
familiar with the name so that they have something, to begin with, and later they can just
connect the items with the brand name and recognize it immediately. Associating the
products or services with the name and logo is the main purpose here.According to Jumiati

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Sasmita and Norazah Mohd Suki, the younger generations are even more focused on brand
awareness and brand association. They understand how it works and it severely affects their
buying pattern since they can easily compare brands on their image. In brand awareness,
companies also put forward a message to create a positive image of themselves and they add
some of their beliefs, practices, and mission with it. Thus, in customers’ minds, they create
the identity and every time they will recall the brand, they will recall everything that comes
with it. It is helpful to create positive branding (Chang, Wang & Arnett, 2018). For example,
Johnson & Johnson targets their products exclusively for babies and their mission is to create
a vast range of products that will include babies in every size and the products are made to be
suitable for middle-class consumers to the upper class. In the last few years, they have
created some of the products that are exclusively created for premature babies and thus it has
maintained their positive branding for babies in every size (Ben Youssef, Leicht, Pellicelli &
Kitchen, 2018).
Conclusion
In this era, all businesses are customer-oriented. The business models and strategies
are also formed by keeping the customers in mind. Moreover, some brands have even taken
the initiative to product and value co-creation. It means that these brands engage the
customers by interactions and encourage their contribution to making a new line of products
that will specifically cater to their needs. Even, the value is co-created as the customers
decide every aspect of the items and the brands put the value they invest to come up with the
items. In this circumstance, positive image and branding are the key elements of the
businesses and what makes their products sell. Some companies have utilized special
packaging and eco-friendly practices which adds more positivity to their brands (Flowers,
2018). Positive branding has become the key essence of any business’s success in every sense
and form.

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Appendix
Appendix 1
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0019850115001467
The impact of entrepreneurial orientation on B2B branding and business growth in emerging
markets
Framework for analyzing articles:
Title
 Does it foreshadow the main purpose of the study as well as important aspect(s) of
methodology?
It emphasizes on branding and its importance to business growth
Purpose and importance
 What is the main purpose/aim/objective/... of the study?
To give an insight how branding orientation contributes to business growth
 Is it clearly stated by the authors?
Yes
 Does the general design of the study follow the main purposes/aims set for the study?
Yes, it does.
Framework
 What is the theoretical framework/lenses the authors use (if any) and do the authors
clearly discuss it?

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The authors put forth some discussions made by scholars on this subject.
Methodological aspects
For every following methodological aspect identify what methods/techniques/types of/etc
have been implemented and indicate if the authors give enough detail to make the
methodological design of the study transparent!
 Type of research aims/problems/questions
Descriptive research
 Strategy
Qualitative research strategy
 Sampling methods/techniques
Five scholars have been taken to discuss the research questions.
 Data collection methods/techniques
Qualitative and secondary method
 Data recording/transformation/analysis methods/techniques
Secondary research
 Procedures to ensure the quality/validity (may be described under certain/relevant
methodological aspect e.g sampling, data collection, etc)
The discussions have been rechecked from various secondary sources
Results
 Did the authors achieve the aim?
Yes

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 Main conclusions
Branding orientation has a positive effect in business’s growth in the emerging markets
Appendix 2
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJRDM-02-2014-0024/full/html
Young consumers’ insights on brand equity: Effects of brand association, brand loyalty,
brand awareness, and brand image
Framework for analyzing articles:
Title
 Does it foreshadow the main purpose of the study as well as important aspect(s) of
methodology?
It discusses various factors of branding and how the new generation perceives it.
Purpose and importance
 What is the main purpose/aim/objective/... of the study?
To understand the effects of brand image, awareness and loyalty on the young customers
and their buying pattern
 Is it clearly stated by the authors?
Yes
 Does the general design of the study follow the main purposes/aims set for the study?
Yes
Framework

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 What is the theoretical framework/lenses the authors use (if any) and do the authors
clearly discuss it?
The authors use the data collected from research to analyze and conclude.
Methodological aspects
For every following methodological aspect identify what methods/techniques/types of/etc
have been implemented and indicate if the authors give enough detail to make the
methodological design of the study transparent!
 Type of research aims/problems/questions
Quantitative research
 Strategy
Survey
 Sampling methods/techniques
Random 200 young customers have been approached from a public university in
Malaysia
 Data collection methods/techniques
Primary method
 Data recording/transformation/analysis methods/techniques
Correlation and multiple regression analysis
 Procedures to ensure the quality/validity (may be described under certain/relevant
methodological aspect e.g sampling, data collection, etc)
Primary research assures validity