The importance of the brand has increased in recent years in Romania, even if we are talking about a relatively recent history of the private business environment. Competition is increasingly fierce, the market is filling up with more and more products and companies have to put a stronger name on the market. Under these circumstances, ZF asked several local business people about how important the brand is, how it is built and how much its importance has grown in recent years. Is there a sector where this doesn't matter?
Whether we are discussing bread, detergent, hotels, electronics, video games or even building materials, inevitably we are also talking about the brand. But what is the brand and how important is it? “The brand is born at the intersection of several action vectors in the business — product/service, place/method of exposure, promotion, people/company — and has the role of organizing and transmitting in a distinct way a series of information about goods/services and organization, with the aim of creating connections with audiences (external or internal) and prompting them to perform certain actions (recognition, purchase/purchase, localization, etc.), to the advantage of both parties (business and audience)”, explains Mona Ursu, CEO of branding agency brandfusion, who has handled, among other things, the positioning or packaging design of businesses such as Adams Supplements, Bravito (Agricola Group) and Donna Medical Center.
She adds that the intentional activation or not of any vector, a combination of them or all of them, transmits information and creates experiences that will be found in the minds of audiences. And their effect and their performance will be able to be measured by brand metrics.
In addition, Mona Ursu gives the example of OTCs (over-the-counter drugs) in the pharmaceutical industry, where both promotion and policies to encourage distribution “propel” one brand or another. On the other hand, she says that in the industrial area, for example, the brand activates predominantly on the vectors of product or service and very little on the intensity of promotion.
“In conclusion, the brand matters in any industry. However, each sector uses a certain mix of vectors and a certain intensity of their use to help businesses grow at the desired pace.”, she pointed out.