What a Brand Actually Is

A product is just a product, until a brand makes it an "experience".

A brand is not just a product, but it instead sells a type of lifestyle and quality with the name. When it comes to food labels, people are willing to spend more on the name brands than the generic brand, but why is that?

It's because as a society, we associate brands with quality. Companies like Heinz or Kraft advertise themselves as brands that have been there since your childhood instead of selling themselves as products that taste better or last longer. This "nostalgia" type of selling works. These brands don't use statistics saying they're better, but since we grew up with these brands with associate them with being of better quality.

Brands are one thing when it comes to food, but a completely different story when it comes to clothing or other brands. This is when the "lifestyle" aspect of a brand comes into play. 

Brands do what other generic clothing can't, along with their product they sell an "image". What I mean by that is that people will pay extra for a brand, to live the lifestyle they believe the brand fits.

Some examples:

Hurley is famous for being a surf sponsor  They sell beach-like apparel and when you buy their products you may feel like you're associating yourself with the surf/beach culture. This is a huge selling point for Hurley.

I'm not too familiar with Roca Wear but I know they sell an rapper inspired clothing, which can be seen through this ad. Look at this cool guy with three pretty ladies in a jet plane. Roca Wear sells to a more rap cultured audience and their brand sells that too.

This is the last example I'll talk about, Louis Vuitton. People pay over a grand for these designer handbags. Not only are people paying for the purse, but the high class lifestyle that goes along with it. When you carry a Louis, people know you cashed out big bucks for a purse. This high class lifestyle is what keeps brands like this going.

To sum it all up, people will interact with brands all their life. Brands set up an image for themselves and that's how they sell their products. Clothes are just pieces of fabric but a brand sets an image with those clothes. Ketchup is just ketchup but Heinz makes it Heinz Ketchup.