How a Company Becomes a Brand

Companies get you to buy their products because they get the consumer to think certain things about them, and associate them with certain feelings.The biggest incentive a company can have to build a loyal customer base is establishing a brand, or a specific feeling and purpose for their company. The way that your company comes off, for example affordable, is the incentive that people need to buy your product.

Morgan Spurlock, a man who has spent his life making ground breaking documentaries like “Supersize Me”,argues in his Ted Talk that the way companies become so successful is because they spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours defining their brand, the message that their company wants the products to send. One of the biggest ways companies define their brand is by picking very specific and deliberate words that people will associate with their products. There are business firms, like Olson Zaltman Associates, that are paid to help companies discover their brand personality by having the CEOs take personality tests, and tests on what they want their brand to mean. In the documentary the deodorant company, Ban, is trying to find their brand. Olson Zaltman Associates makes the company see they want their company to be about feeling “fresh”, and so “fresh” becomes their brand. Business firms like these allows companies to become name brands, because they help to make their brand mean something.

Companies are always trying to increase sales, this is why advertising exists. Companies don’t just become name brands, they need to have product funding, advertising, and ultimately a reputation for what their products mean. Brand names exist because one of the brand personalities that they have strikes a chord with people, and makes them want to buy a product. For example, Walmart has developed their brand to revolve around saving money. Their slogan is “Save money, Live better”. This allows their brand to be about having cheap products, which attracts people to their business who can not spend a lot of money on groceries and other items. By crafting such a specific image for their brand, Walmart attracts new customers every day because they know where to go to find cheap products.


Future Research Question: How do companies re-brand themselves and decide what products to sell?