Brands are built by spending billions, proving the product/service performance, controlling the market structure, keeping the competition at bay and enticing the customers to be loyal. Is it real or just a myth? It is both. It depends on product/service, the segment/Socio-Economic Classification (SEC) to which a brand offers the value proposition. This article discusses the immunity that brands enjoy like a virtual fence that restricts competitors to do any damage. It also throws light on the ability of certain brands to cut across the distribution value chain for deeper penetration and reach without diluting the brand value.

Brand is an entity which provides life to a product/service. It has several dimensions, viz. Building/influencing perception, ensuring the Reliability, creating Attitude (definitely a positive one for an effective brand), appropriate Name which consumers could easily recall and to instigate Desire to buy a product/service. It is like a human being who plays a vital role in instructing, guiding and satisfying consumers' buying behavior and decision. Consumers would wary of choosing an unknown brand, as they feel anxious about the performance. Consumers would choose the brands with proven track record, i.e. learned from their own experience or educated or influenced by peer or reference groups. Hence, the vital role of the brand is to capture the Top-of-mind (TOM) share of potential consumers through providing expected value proposition. Brands with sustainable life expectancy and performance have no issues in capturing TOM share of the consumers. It also depends on the level at which the brand communicates and attracts the different SEC of consumers. Certain brands, viz. Colgate, Lipton, Pepsi, Coke, Gillette, etc., cut across the different SEC classes and influence them to buy. The brands, viz. Garnier, Glister, Christian Dior, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, etc., focus on the selective or exclusive SEC classes. Hence, the brands are communicating to their respective target groups for which they have been created to perform their job. It vividly shows the capability of brands in attracting the respective SEC classes. This calls for the companies to position the brands in the respective channels to reach the prospective end-users. An array of vital questions linger in the minds of the companies like how to sell high-end brands through middle or low-end channel outlets and how would this appeal to the target group? Would it create a positive or negative impression? Would it alienate the target group or create disbelief among the different SEC classes to which the brands are not targeted for? Would there be brands which could sell across different channel outlets, viz. high, middle and low-end channel outlets? These questions lead to the inception of a new concept viz., Brand Immunity, i.e. the ability of a brand to be accepted by different SEC classes and cut across the different channel outlets.

Advertising Express Magazine, Brand Immunity, Market Structure, Product/Service, Brand Personalities, Brand Ambassadors, Distribution Channels, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, FMCG Category, Louis Philippe, Business & Management Practices, Brand Strategy, Business Information, Human Brands.