Brands have nowadays become associated with high status, high prices and no more than average quality. For that reason, many customers feel there isn’t much good in them. However, what motivated companies to establish such functions as brand management was the prospect of putting an outrageously high value on products that did not cost much to develop. It seems that the times when this function was looked down upon are long gone. The reasons are obvious: a well-established brand with a favourable brand awareness will allow companies to put more than generous mark up on their products. A little more investment into maintaining this brand management and there seems to be nothing in the way to long-lived business prosperity.
What is more, experts on branding have noticed that a strong brand name can be successfully used to launch a new product. By association with a name that has become synonymous with quality and class, a new product will stand a better chance of gaining a foothold on the market with a minimum of marketing expenses. This practice of brand stretching has become widespread in the fashion industry where one brand is frequently stretched to include a heterogeneous product range from clothes and accessories to perfumes, toiletries and soft drinks. It is therefore no wonder that brands have become a very valuable asset in their own right.
