“We need good branding!”, “We want to be a brand!”, “We want to be a different brand in the perception of our target audience.” “These and many similar sentences are heard frequently in our industry. Well, what does brand mean? How long has the concept of brand developed in our lives?
I want to tell you a little bit about these in today’s article. “Marka” is used in Turkish and “brand” or “branding” is used in English. When we investigate the origins of the word brand, we are greeted by the old Norwegian word “brandr”. If you are wondering what this word means, let me explain right away, it means “burn”. It means to give personality to the product by burning and tattooing.
The origins of the word brand show us that contrary to popular belief, brand and branding is not a trend that entered our lives after the 2000s!
Wine containers with the inscription “Vesuvinum” are encountered during archaeological excavations in Pompeii. What is interesting and valuable in terms of marketing history is the deliberate combination of the name Vesuvius mountain with the word Vinum, which means wine in Latin. We are talking about thousands of years ago.
When we come to the 1000’s, we encounter stigma and brand promotions in India and Rome. We see that in the UK of the 1200s, jewelers were stamped to show the quality and identity of their products. We also know that in Italy of the same period, papers were stamped called watermarks.
We know that Procter & Gamble, the brand we are familiar with, used branding to ensure the quality of soaps produced in the 1800s and to increase their sales in this way.
Marketing, promotion and all efforts to communicate with the target audience is one of the deepest issues in the world. I wanted to explain that neither brand nor branding is a new concept at all, it always requires expertise and intelligence, and convey what I know to you.
Dwt Mandalina / Nurettin YAY / Head of the Agency
