Yavuz Tiryakioğlu yavuz@istekpatent.com History of Trademark Although it is claimed that trademark in today’s sense were used in pots in Ancient Egypt, the signs used by merchants to mark the scope of their trade in Middle Age Europe and the marks of craftsman showing that they were skilled artisans are the first examples of trademark practice in the world. The first examples of brand/trademark To Continue...
John Grant who carried out sensational projects such as Napster reborn, ethical and environmental initiatives of IKEA, re-marketing of Sweden as a leading information technologies country; the author of the book “After-image, Mind-altering Marketing” claims that in comparison with the real truth of the brand image, all said are a series of lies. He says that a brand is a “promise”, nevertheless, a brand image usually promises something unreal. He also comments that the brand image is a side reality and continues, “If your lover believes that your Chanel perfume makes you sexy, alluring, dazzling then it is so. If your friends say that you are cool because you drink Fosters beer then you are so.” He states that people want to believe that the brands are real because they spend money, time and a little of their personality to buy those brands. However, he also says that as the people, especially youth begin to object to the brand image, there has been a downturn of these thoughts and with the forming of the postmodern irony distance, the image brands start to be on shaky grounds.
How real and economic is the brand image?
“Starting from 1990s we have seen numerous times that a “strong” brand image can well be an impediment” says John Nash and claims that even the strongest brand of the world, Coca Cola, has lost its magic. He explains that behind all the expensive investments on a brand there are hopes such as “the value added will be over the costs, it will create a permanent brand loyalty, it will go beyond all product rings and by elevating the brands of the company it will increase the prices of the company’s stocks”. He states that the most striking of all is that the most powerful and successful brands achieve this by choosing the hard way. Grant considers this as a true evolution and indicates to the fact that the animals which could adapt themselves to changing environmental conditions still survive whereas those could no adapt were extinct and gives the perfect example of humans still surviving and dinosaurs long gone.
