Basic and prime purpose of clothing is protection from external atmosphere. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are in the order of Physiological, Safety, Social, Esteem, and Self-actualization. Brands come in the third and fourth level of this hierarchy. Brands are generally associated with Society (sense of belonging and love) and Esteem (Self-esteem, recognition, and status). Customer lifestyle has also changed a lot during the past two decades. Moreover, with the advent of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) combined with improved financial status of consumers, brands once considered to be for all people. The old conception that brands are only for elite people is gone. Nowadays these brands are being used by entire spectrum of population. Thanks to globalization, which made the things simple yet complex. Now, customers have plenty of brands to choose from local, national, and international brands. This presents a challenging task for each and every brand manager to create, sustain, and improve positive interactions and associations with customers.

Moments of Truth:

Every interaction of customer with brand can be considered as a moment of truth for the brand, because ultimately the customers want the brands to be truthful. These interactions include pre-sale, during sale, and post-sale interactions. It could be naming the brand, logo & slogan, packaging design, sales approach i.e., advertising, marketing, distribution, and retailing and post sales interactions. For example, let us take a scenario where a customer visits a branded outlet. The location of the outlet and area for parking itself is one moment of truth. The nearer the outlet to the customer, the more is the delight for the customer. Just at the entrance of the outlet, wishing by security person is another moment of truth. This moment of truth can be positive or negative also. If the security personnel wishes a customer, then definitely it’s a positive moment of truth, else it is a negative moment of truth. The brand has wasted a golden moment of truth in building positive interaction in the customer's mind by not wishing. Once the customer enters the outlet, asking the customer to sit and enquire about their purchase, giving information on new styles/varieties/offers is again another moment of truth. Offering chairs and water or drink is one more moment of truth. Arrangements for trial wear and easy billing along with discounts or gift vouchers are also moments of truth. All these moments of truth cumulatively build a great impact on branded outlet and brand.

Brands and Emotional Charge:

Brand is more and more related with experience. These experiencing can be good, beautiful, satisfying, and unique, etc. Unique and positive experience plays a vital role in branding. Experience is attached with emotion, which puts one in motion. People get emotionally attached to brands and the extent to which these brands can create and sustain positive emotional charge, to that extent brands can survive in the market. Satisfaction or pleasure in use is the starting point; it goes with a promise of performance in use, a guarantee of authenticity, and culminates with a social expression. Table 1 elaborates on the main issue for customer and role of brand.

Brand as a Personality:

Considering a brand as mere commodity or product is a wrong conception. Brand is more than it, it’s all about experience, social expression, performance, satisfaction, and authenticity. To make the brand more than a commodity, the best thing is to personalize the brand or create associations with famous personality. The personality can be a movie star, sports person, politician, writer, poet, game show host, TV personality, some accomplished personality, model, etc. By attaching a brand with these personalities, customers attach all their positive attributes to the brand also. Endorsing Adidas brand by Sachin Tendulkar is a fit case for justification. Being a great sports person, run machine, humble, gentle, master blaster, performance par excellence, family man all his qualities will be automatically attributed to the brand also. It means, now the brand is also par excellence, durable, gentle, comfortable, etc.

Brand as a Mark of Loyalty:

Loyalty is simply being faithful. It’s a two-sided affair i.e., from the customer and from the brand also. Now the million-dollar question is how a brand can expect loyalty from a customer? Just a simple example will throw some light on this. A customer always and repetitively purchases a product named XYZ. When the customer goes to a shop for the next purchase, and if that brand is out of stock, a customer with true loyalty will not purchase any other brand. Instead, the customer goes to another store for purchasing that brand or when the brand comes to that store only then he purchases. This is true loyalty. It’s this true loyalty that makes the customers purchase often.

Levels of Loyalty:

Loyalty has plenty of levels, the common being the given below:

Actively loyal- Definitely goes for brand only

Passively loyal- Seeks an easy choice

Enquiringly loyal- Seeks assurance and value

Promiscuously loyal- Seeks value for money

Name:

The famous idea on the name from Shakespeare's lyrical tale of "Romeo and Juliet” ,"What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet." can’t truly justify the significance of the name. The name is the most powerful way a brand can create the very first and positive impression on customers. Different aspects of naming are given below:

Naming brands with foreign origin makes a brand global

E.g: Van Heusen, Louis Philippe, Peter England

Names synonymous to God

E.g.: Nike- Greek goddess of victory

Names of a person who invented it

E.g.: Gucci- Designer name

Names that give sociality about their product

E.g.: Google- Amount of information-Googol i.e., 1 100 calculations-Huge amount of calculations.

Names that evoke some emotional attachment

E.g.: Reliance – Reliability on the brand Trigger – triggers the desire to wear Splendor, Passion, Yahoo, etc…

Logos and Slogans:

Logos convey more information than textual names. A good design along with nice color mixing is a good blend of expression of brand.

This Nike logo represents the wing of the Greek Goddess. It’s a symbol of positive and correct mark. The solid corporate logo design check was registered as a trademark in 1995. It’s an abstract wing, designed by Carolyn Davidson, was an appropriate and meaningful symbol for a company that marketed running shoes. The "JUST DO IT" slogan and logo design campaign communicated such a strong point of view to their target market that the meaning for the logo design symbol evolved into a battle cry and the way of life for an entire generation.

Packaging:

Many people argue whether Packaging is required or not. If packaging is required, to what extent? The primary reason behind packaging is protection and preservation. The other reasons are: to identify, to store and to ship. People in general, don’t recognize the emotional appeal this packaging emotes. A well-crafted packaging is a means of building and sending positive interaction with the customer.

E.g.: Transparent packaging indicates what is inside, without the need for opening. A very good association with the customer. Beautifully packed garment evokes more emotional appeal to customers.

Customer Relationship:

The customer is the king and branding is all about making the customer experiencing always positive. A Customer may have plenty of queries about the brand before purchase, during purchase, and after purchase. Unless and until a brand takes all these things into account it’s going to be doomed. The widespread notion that brands take care of customers till purchase but later on they won’t care is a wrong notion. The customer can come for re-purchasing the branded item, if and only if, it serves its purpose and customers get the assistance whenever they required. A branded item may be serving its purpose but during the course of time, if the customer is not happy with the service they received by the brand, these unpleasant memories can haunt a customer and it may go to the extent of purchasing a different branded product. Maintaining a very good and harmonious relationship with the customer paves the way for sustained and repeated purchase of the brand.

New Interactions and Associations:

Internet giant Google’s recent print campaign has raised eyebrows every nook and corner. Everybody felt that, Google, being the pioneer in the internet, can’t have print campaign. This print campaign vividly shows that customer associations with only the medium can’t serve the purpose to the fullest. Multifold, multi-level, and multi-associations are required to keep a customer glued to the brand. The following mediums can be used for this purpose.

P-media:

P-media stands for print media. It includes newspapers, magazines, journals, pamphlets, brochures, etc. Print media can reach places where e-media can’t have access. The advantage of P-media, it creates vivid impressions on the customer.

E-media:

Electronic media is abbreviated as e-media. E-mail, company websites, comparison websites, e-commerce, social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, and micro-blogging sites like Twitter, etc. will come under this category. Nowadays with the widespread usage of the internet, this medium has gained popularity over P-media. The company’s website is the best means of creating a positive association. With the customers becoming judgmental and comparative, a special set of websites is available where comparisons of different brands or products or services are possible. Social networking sites are the order of the day and the face of the world also. These social networking sites give a platform to share the customer’s experiences and vent out their emotions with the other users. This is one area where other users can very be easily affected either positively or negatively. This creates a very difficult situation for brands; even if one moment of truth i.e., association or experience goes wrong, it spreads like a wildfire in the forest and makes it tough for the brand. The latest updates from micro-blogging sites are important information for net users to come to a conclusion about the brand.

M-media:

Mobile media is simply called as M-media. Sending birthday wishes or information about offers or discounts or reminding about purchases is a great way to build positive associations with the customer.

In a nutshell, finding, building, and sustaining new and positive interactions and associations with customers are a continuous and never-ending process. The brand's success depends largely on the extent of these interactions and associations. Brands can make use of visual merchandising techniques along with electronic / print / mobile media to get the maximum advantage from these resources.

The author is associated with the Department of Textile-Fashion Technology, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, India