When we see the logo of "Volvo", we will first think that it is the trademark of a car, and then, various pictures of "Volvo" cars will emerge in our minds.

Face, or parked in the street, or speeding on the road, or seen in business ... At this point, they have a * * * same feature-security, which has been strengthened in our hearts. Because Volvo = safety, this equation has already been established in our hearts. What I have seen, heard or experienced before provides all kinds of evidence for this equation. What we know is: "Volvo" is an internationally famous automobile manufacturing company; "Volvo" cars are heavy, generous and distinguished; People who drive or ride Volvo cars are successful people. They are steady, modest, talented and unobtrusive, and have a strong sense of responsibility for their careers and families. ...

These fragments can represent an ordinary consumer's general understanding of Volvo brand image. Through the long-term planning, management and communication of its brand, Volvo has gradually established such a brand image among the target consumers. This example is also a successful case that we often cite in brand management research.

In fact, it is active and controllable for every brand owner to establish a unified, clear and lasting brand image among target consumers. More importantly, what is the connotation of brand image? What can we do to establish the brand image we want among the target consumers?

Next, we will build a brand image modeling model from the relationship between brand image and consumers and the behavior of brand owners, and further explore how to effectively shape a successful brand image around this model. The author hopes to provide some ideas and references for enterprises to establish a successful brand image in the real business environment through the analysis and discussion of this issue.

First, the definition of brand image and its importance

There are many definitions of brand image in academic circles, but they are all similar in essence.

This paper analyzes Levy's definition of brand image from the perspective of psychology. In his view, brand image is a collection of images and concepts about brand elements that exist in people's minds, mainly brand knowledge and people's overall attitude towards brands.

Ronoz and Gunterman put forward that "brand image is an associative collection of differentiated meanings of products or services in competition" from the perspective of brand strategy. They also listed the strategic ways of brand image operation: product cognition, emotion or impression, trust, attitude, image personality and so on.

Shizi proposed that a brand should have a personality image like a human being, which is not only determined by the substantive content of brand products, but also includes other contents ... So far, the understanding of brand image has entered the brand personality level.

Parker and others put forward that "brand image comes from the concept of brand management by marketers, and brand image is a method of brand management". They believe that any product or service can theoretically express its image with functional, symbolic or empirical elements.

The author believes that brand image is the overall impression and judgment of consumers on a brand. This kind of impression and judgment is produced in the process of consumers' long-term contact with brands, and is strengthened by consumers' brand association. The ultimate goal of enterprise brand management is to establish the brand image that enterprises hope in the eyes of target consumers.

Enterprises establish brand core values and brand cultural elements according to their own advantages, product or service characteristics, consumer demand, market conditions and other factors. Then, under the guidance of brand core values and brand culture, we design brand recognition, choose brand name combination, define brand attributes, and formulate brand communication schemes. By implementing various functions of brand management, the preset brand image of enterprises will enter the hearts of target consumers.

Whether there is a good and distinctive brand image is an important evaluation index to measure the success of a brand. Look at those world-famous brands, and we can all see their unique brand images in our minds. Marlboro is the image of cowboy in the west, McDonald's is a happy and friendly image, and Mercedes-Benz is a solemn and noble image. These successful brand images are carefully designed by brand owners according to their own strategies and target consumers' psychology, which can be recognized and accepted by their consumer groups, and even form consumer preferences, thus creating fanatical pursuit of brands. Once consumers have a preference for a certain brand, when they have a demand for this kind of goods, consumers will buy the goods of that brand. Under the condition that consumers' purchasing preferences have not changed, this kind of purchasing behavior will continue. In other words, consumers are more loyal to the brand.

Second, the brand image belongs to consumers.

Why does the brand image belong to consumers? We should analyze the essence of brand image.

According to psychology, perception is a process in which people select, organize and interpret perceptual stimuli into meaningful and relevant images. Image is the general perception of objects formed by consumers through processing information from different sources over a period of time. Brand image represents consumers' overall perception of the brand, which is based on consumers' inference of the brand. This inference is based on external stimuli or imagination, and it is the belief of consumers in products formed from experience. This is the essence of brand image.

As the brand image is a comprehensive response of consumers to the brand and belongs to consumers, brand owners can only guide and cultivate consumers' mental models through a series of brand planning, design and communication means, constantly stimulate consumers to have positive associations with the brand, and gradually form the brand image that brand owners need. This process will be quite complicated and long. It is estimated that in the United States at the end of the 20th century, it will cost about $30 million to build a good brand image for a small brand, and this process will last for five years. It can be seen that building a successful brand image is not an overnight thing, it is a process that requires patience, careful planning, money and time.

Brand association is an important way for consumers to establish brand image. Kohler believes that brand association is formed by long-term contact between customers and brands, which reflects customers' cognition, attitude and emotion towards brands, and also indicates the future behavior tendency of customers or potential customers. Brand association reflects the overall image of the brand and determines its position in the eyes of consumers. So what? By analyzing the content of brand association, we can know the formation process of consumer brand image in detail, which is of great value to guide us to establish a successful brand image.

Usually, consumers' association with brands includes company image, user image, product or service image, expectations of products or services, their previous use experience or others' use experience, events and so on. It is worth noting that according to different products and industries, consumers pay different attention to brand association, and because of different personalized needs of consumers, consumers pay different attention to these contents.

1, corporate image

Because the history of China's market economy development is not very long, consumers' understanding of brands is not deep enough, and some even confuse enterprise names, trademarks, "brands" and product category names. In the pre-planned economy period, most of the product brands produced by enterprises were named after the enterprise name, which formed the habit that consumers only recognized the manufacturers but not the brands when buying goods. This is an important reason why China consumers pay special attention to the corporate image. Of course, a good corporate image is more conducive to establishing a successful brand image in the hearts of consumers. Consumers are more inclined to buy products from well-known enterprises with strong financial strength, large scale and strong technical ability, which can reduce consumers' purchase costs and risks and maximize benefits.

2. User images

When consumers consume the purchased products and services, they not only pay attention to the quality of the products or services themselves, but also pay attention to other consumers who consume the same products, such as age, gender, professional background, income, education level and so on. When consumers feel that they are very different from consumers who consume the same products or services, they will think that the goods of this brand are not suitable for their own consumption and will switch to other brands. This is also one of the reasons for market segmentation and positioning target consumers.

On the other hand, some consumers have never consumed a certain brand of goods, but the consumers who consume the brand of goods have some characteristics that these consumers expect. In this case, these consumers will try their best to own or use the brand's goods in order to be recognized by others as a member of the target consumer group of the brand's goods. Even if this kind of consumption can't be realized, consumers can get psychological self-comfort and satisfaction in the process of pursuing brand goods. A typical example is the consumption of luxury goods. For precious jewelry, the vast majority of consumers do not have the demand ability, but people still agree with and yearn for the brand image of these luxury goods.

3, the image of the product or service

For different goods in different industries, the image of products or services may be very different. Consumers pay more attention to the exquisite packaging and proper color matching of daily small commodities with low value and easy consumption; Household durable goods, such as refrigerators and washing machines. , consumers pay more attention to function and quality; For fashion accessories, consumers value its design, whether it conforms to the trend of the times; For service goods, consumers pay more attention to the environment of business premises, the clothes of service personnel, words and deeds, etc.

When consumers buy brand-name goods and services, they will choose their favorite packaged and designed products and receive services in their favorite environment. When consumers find that a certain brand of goods can always meet their own visual and psychological needs, they have a good impression on the brand. In the next consumption, he will give priority to the brand's goods. Over time, the brand has established a positive brand image in this consumer's mind, and consumers' loyalty to it has also increased.

4. Expectations for products or services

The consumer's expectation of a product or service is actually an assumption of the brand's commodity value after the consumer accepts the information of that brand. Before the first contact with a brand product, consumers actually believe the information conveyed to consumers in the process of brand communication. They will always think that the contents in the advertisements of those branded goods are true and credible until they have personally experienced or heard others tell the actual value of the branded goods. During this period, the information spread by the brand will help the brand establish its brand image. Of course, the information expressed in the process of brand communication should meet the needs of target consumers, stimulate consumers, and thus guide consumers to buy.

For example, a newly married woman may have never touched any shaving products before getting married, but she often sees advertisements of "Gillette" on TV or other media and knows that it is a sharp and smooth razor for men. Her assumption about the "Gillette" brand razor is that it is a very easy-to-use razor and my husband will be very satisfied. When she needs to buy shaving equipment for her husband one day, she will naturally choose Gillette brand, because the sharp and smooth impression of Gillette brand has been stored in this lady's memory.

5. Consumers' previous experience or others' experience.

What can better form a brand image than consumers expect is the past experience of consumers using a brand product or the experience of others using the brand product. Consumers will have a good or bad impression on a brand directly according to their own or others' usage. This impression is very important for building a brand image.

After consumers have a consumption experience of a brand, they will judge the brand according to their own preferences and decide whether to continue to consume the brand's goods or try other brands' goods next time. Of course, a single consumer experience is not enough to support consumers to establish a clear and lasting brand image. Consumers will gradually accumulate the impression of a brand in the process of repeated consumption, and finally establish their own brand image of the brand. Once consumers have formed a brand image of a brand, it will be more difficult to change this impression. It is much easier for consumers to form a negative brand image than to form a positive brand image.

6. Events

The events mentioned here include various public relations activities, crisis events, brand news, company dynamics, R&D innovation and so on. These events can usually strengthen the existing brand image in consumers' minds. In today's social environment, consumers are exposed to too much information every day. People subconsciously stay away from information that has nothing to do with them, and only care about information that can affect their life, work and study. In other words, consumers pay more attention to the brands they have contacted, rather than the unknown brands. For such information, consumers have not accepted it once, which is an improvement to the original brand image.

Because consumers' association and memory of brand image includes the above aspects, brand owners can completely guide and cultivate consumers' impression of the brand through a series of brand management measures, and establish a brand image in line with their own interests. Next, we will continue to discuss how enterprises should work according to consumers' brand association and establish a successful brand image in the process of establishing brand image.

Third, the enterprise's actions in establishing brand image activities

Although the brand image of the brand belongs to consumers, how to establish the brand image and what kind of brand image are controllable by the brand. Brand owners are always in a dominant position in the process of shaping brand image. Through a series of brand planning, design, management, communication and other activities, they guide consumers to form a good impression on the brand and gradually establish a unified, lasting and distinctive brand image.

The process of establishing brand image of enterprise's own brand in consumers' minds can be roughly divided into three steps.

1. Establish brand core values and brand culture.

Brand core value is the soul of the brand, and it is the general policy that runs through all aspects of brand building and guides all aspects of brand management. All brand activities should obey and serve the brand core values. It can be said that brand management is an activity to establish a good brand image in the hearts of consumers under the guidance of brand core values. This is enough to reflect the important position and role of brand core value in brand management activities.

We can cite the core values of many brands, for example, the core value of "Head & Shoulders" brand is "dandruff removal"; The core value of Haier brand is "sincerity"; The brand core value of Nepstar is "health and future". However, there are still many core values of excellent brands that we can't accurately say, such as "Microsoft", "General Motors" and "Disney". It cannot be said that these brands have no clear brand core values. It can only be said that we didn't have the opportunity to deeply understand the connotation of their brand core values. We can only analyze and speculate from all kinds of information spread by their brands. Even experts who specialize in brand research can't collect the brand core value information of each brand comprehensively and accurately. There is a simple reason. Brand owners do not directly describe the core value of their brands to consumers, but interpret them through corresponding brand communication activities to establish a unified, lasting and distinctive brand image in consumers' minds.

Brand core value is a policy used to guide brand management and establish the brand image that brand owners want. It belongs to the internal management tools and methods of enterprises, rather than a gimmick to show the brand management level of enterprises and win the recognition of peers. However, at present, many enterprises don't know how to effectively interpret and deduce brand core values, establish brand image, and can't wait to make their own brand core values into advertising language, which is reported in newspapers every day, trying to let consumers "learn" the connotation of their own brands in this way. This practice is a sign of quick success and instant benefit, which is not conducive to building a successful and long-lived brand.

There are three types of brand core values. In other words, we can define the brand core value from any one of three angles.

① Functional attributes of products or services. At this level, we should emphasize the unique advantages of brands in meeting consumers' basic commodity needs. For example, the safety performance of Volvo; The handling performance of "BMW" can highlight the core value of its brand.

② Emotional attributes. Defining brand core values at this level is mainly based on consumers' emotional needs for certain things. These emotional needs include: affection, love, friendship, career accomplishment, family warmth and harmony, praise, caring for interpersonal relationships and so on. For example, "crystal love" (jelly) represents love; "Red beans" (clothes) represent missing; "Goldlion" symbolizes success; "Happy" means caring and so on.

3 values. The core value of the brand on the value level is the pursuit of the brand, which comes from the pursuit of a certain aspect of life by the target consumers. Consumers can satisfy or reflect their pursuit of life by consuming the products or services of this brand. For example, GE shows the pursuit of the future and dreams (imagination is at work); "Nike" stands for breakthrough and transcendence; "Neptune" is the pursuit of health and the future and so on.

A good brand should have cultural accumulation. The core value of brand should be rooted in brand culture, which is the refinement and sublimation of brand culture. Paying attention to the spread of the brand's core values will leave some impressions in consumers' minds and will not give people the feeling of "fast brand".

Brand culture is gradually enriched and improved in the process of brand establishment, which carries the mission and pursuit of the brand, embodies the brand's concern for consumers, and is the emotional basis for brand communication with consumers. The establishment of brand culture is a long process, accumulated in the process of brand growth, and established by enterprises constantly adapting to the needs of the market and consumers and conducting extensive exchanges and communication.

Brand values and spirit are the core of brand culture. Brand culture is the promotion of brand values, endowing the brand with spirit, raising consumers' single demand for products to emotional height, and endowing products with life and vitality. Brand culture is embodied in every contact between the brand and consumers and the market. When consumers buy products, they also recognize and choose the brand culture.

Now there is a way to summarize and express brand culture with "brand totem". Its practice is to find things, things, people or a picture that can represent the brand's core values and brand culture, describe the brand's connotation to consumers, and create the effect that the brand has profound cultural connotation. This is also a common way to interpret the theme of advertisements. However, unlike a single business, totem elements such as things and objects appearing as brand totems will be long-term elements of brand communication activities, which must be consistent and stable for a long time.

Brand totem can vividly convey the cultural connotation of the brand to consumers. This way is easy to be accepted by consumers, and it is also convenient for consumers to quickly associate and recall the brand image and form a lasting memory under the stimulation of brand communication information. Our common brand totems are: "Seven Wolves" brand wolf, "Baisha" brand crane, "Ascending" (software) lion cub, "Marlboro" western wilderness and cowboy image.

2. Design and organize the elements of brand image

After establishing brand core values and brand culture elements, what enterprises need to do is to design and organize various brand image elements under the guidance of brand core values and brand culture. These elements should be able to match the content of consumer brand association, control and grasp the psychological activities of consumers to the greatest extent, and shape the brand image according to the elements of enterprise design.

Brand owners need to design and organize brand image elements, including: company image, user image, product or service image, consumer interest, brand visual recognition, brand personality and so on.

① Company image

In many cases, the company image plays a role in guaranteeing and endorsing the brand, which can affect consumers' trust in the brand. Well-known enterprises launch a new brand, which is easier to succeed than enterprises that consumers have never heard of. This is because consumers have a certain understanding of the background of well-known enterprises, and the images of these enterprises have already existed in consumers' minds. Under the same conditions, consumers tend to choose their familiar brands.

Therefore, what an enterprise should do is to show its advantages to the target consumer groups, let consumers know the technical strength, financial strength, R&D strength or professional level of the enterprise, and give consumers a reliable and trustworthy impression. Advertising and public welfare activities are usually effective ways to improve the company's image.

② User image

The user image should come from the target consumer group of the brand. If the target consumer group of brand products is relatively narrow, then the consumers in this group are similar in age, occupation, income, education level, lifestyle, personality, temperament, social status and other indicators. , the user image is easier to shape. If the target consumer groups of brand products are relatively broad, covering all walks of life and all ages, then its user image is more difficult to generalize and shape.

When designing the user image of brand products, we should know the situation of target consumer groups in advance, and comprehensively analyze consumers' needs, pursuits and ideas, living environment and lifestyle, work and emotions, concepts, etc. , find out the characteristics that can represent this consumer group, extract and concentrate them, and put them into all kinds of information spread by the brand for wide spread. Because these sexual characteristics are generally possessed or pursued by consumers in the target consumer group, they are more easily recognized and accepted by consumers and closer to consumers. For those brands with a wide range of target consumers, we can integrate some recognized emotional and personality characteristics into brand communication to increase the affinity of brand image.

③ Product or service image

Before designing the packaging and appearance of brand products, enterprises should fully understand the values and aesthetic level of target consumers, and design and produce according to consumers' preferences. At the same time, the packaging and style of brand goods must be consistent with the core values and cultural concepts expressed by the brand, at least not in conflict. For example, the outer packaging of food brands with the core values of healthy and happy brands should try to avoid using cold colors such as black, dark blue and silver as the main colors, and should use warm colors such as red, yellow and orange as the main colors symbolizing vitality and celebration.

Places to buy or consume branded goods should also reflect the cultural atmosphere of the brand, so that consumers can accept brand information in the process of shopping or receiving services. Through face-to-face communication between service personnel and consumers, we can understand consumers' views and understanding of the brand, accept consumers' feasible opinions and suggestions, and change the brand image communication from one-way passive acceptance to two-way interactive communication.

Sales or service personnel need to undergo strict pre-job training and practice before taking up their posts, in order to deeply understand the brand connotation, value and communication skills. In this way, when they communicate with consumers, they can deal with the common sense questions about brand goods raised by consumers, which is conducive to establishing a good brand image.

The image of products and services is the bridgehead to contact consumers, and it is also an important means to effectively occupy consumers' mental resources and establish a successful brand image.

④ Consumer interests

As mentioned above, consumers' brand association includes their expectations for the use of branded goods, that is, to what extent and how consumers expect branded goods to meet their needs before using them. Consumer interests include two aspects: brand goods meet their material needs and psychological needs. The realization of consumers' material needs is mainly the satisfaction of the functional attributes of brand goods to consumers' interests, such as the refrigeration function of refrigerators, the beauty function of cosmetics, and the thirst-quenching function of beverages. The psychological needs of consumers are realized by satisfying consumers' emotions, consciousness and psychology through the emotional attributes of brand goods.

The design of consumer interests should not be exaggerated and divorced from the use value of brand goods. Otherwise, there will be a gap between consumers' interests and consumers' expectations for the use of branded goods, which will often cause great damage to the brand image, and the greater the gap between them, the greater the damage to the brand image. However, too conservative consumer interests will not stimulate consumer demand, and it is not conducive to the successful shaping of brand image. The interests of consumers should find a balance between the use value of brand goods and consumer demand, which not only conforms to the characteristics of brand goods but also meets consumer demand.

⑤ Brand visual recognition

Brand visual recognition here mainly refers to symbols and pictures such as brand name and LOGO, which can be intuitively recognized by consumers. Brand visual recognition is an abstract visual expression of brand core values and brand culture, which interprets brand connotation through language, words, pictures and symbols.

The design of brand visual identity should combine subjective and objective, that is, on the one hand, designers should give full play to their imagination and design beautiful and vivid brand names and logos, on the other hand, they should cater to the aesthetic requirements of target audiences and be recognized and accepted by consumers. Secondly, brand visual recognition should have its own distinctive features and be different from other brands. After all, the most essential function of brand visual recognition is to distinguish it from other brands and make it easy for the target audience to remember. Finally, brand visual recognition should remain relatively stable for a long time. The ever-changing brand visual recognition is not easy for consumers to remember, which is not conducive to consumers to establish a clear brand image.

Not finished, please contact me if necessary.