Brand Image as Competitive Advantage.

• Author: Reyes, Gerardo Islas

INTRODUCTION

In this era of knowledge and globalization, since its appearance in the 19th century, brands have become the best representation of quality and competitiveness of companies. The industrial development of the time and the increase in mass production required a form of identification, which gave rise to the marking, understood as a mechanism to recognize the origin of the containers that transported the products, and later it was turned into an element to demonstrate the quality of them (Flores, 2012).

In this sense, the concept of competitiveness, whose essence is centered mainly on economic aspects, was established by David Ricardo in the 17th century. It requires that the brand be supported by a differentiation useful for its competitiveness, since competitive advantages are created from the differentiation of the product and the reduction of costs. This concept includes technology and innovation capacity, and specialized factors are vital. Such factors are not inherited; they are created and arise from specific skills derived from the educational system and from the exclusive legacy of know-how (Rojas & Sepulveda, 1999). In this sense, the brand must comply with characteristics that allow it to be recognized in the environment and it must respond to commercial and communicative needs, first as an appropriable product or service and then as an intelligible concept (Costa, 2015).

Furthermore, it is important to mention that, after the Second World War, especially in the United States of America when the global economy was more stable, it was not enough to present a product or service in terms of its characteristics. Brand image was essential for the appropriation and positioning of the product (Pena, 2013).

With the rise of the global economy, the social and technological transformations have been constant and even revolutionary for disciplines such as administration, design, and visual communication. In this context, the various visual manifestations associated with the brand of a company can sustain the quality of a product or service in the customers' experience. If the brand image is not properly developed in a creative and open manner and includes the different demands or circumstances of its historical context, it will be destined to failure, which is the problem this research focuses on and has as its main question: What are the elements of the organizational culture that support the brand image of a company? Likewise, the objective was to find the elements of the organizational culture existing in recognized restaurants in order to identify the management of the brand image and its contribution to generate its competitive advantage.

Proposition. Without a coherent organizational culture with quality products and services, the brand image will not be properly supported to achieve a competitive advantage for the company and its customers.

BRAND IMAGE

Historical Background

Brands, as we know them today, have not always been as they are now. Their history could be linked to any act related to marking a surface in order to make it identifiable and legible for other people, as Costas explains (Costa, 2015). Initially, its main purpose was to identify the containers and origin of transported products, which later became an element to demonstrate their quality, what is nowadays known as a brand, as Flores has stated (Flores, 2012)

At the beginning of the 20th century, different manifestations began to arise through groups, institutions, and countries in order to reclaim the collective identity imagery and thereby communicate with a large number of people, since its consolidation was linked to the development of mass media (press, cinema, and radio), which had the power to standardize and homogenize the ways of thinking. In this sense, it is important to highlight that although design is not considered a form of mass communication, it was present in the development of the media mentioned above, even though, historically, its participation is only recognized in commercial areas (Sparke, 2010).

After the Second World War, brand image was a determining factor in the appropriation and positioning of a product, as Pena notes (Pena, 2013). In this same context (Sparke, 2010), Sparke emphasized the necessity, at that time, to label the products and to grant them a particular and genuine identity due to the overproduction of products that either put them out of circulation or were susceptible to not being differentiated from the rest of the competitors.

Since the eighties, the phenomenon of globalization has caused a series of changes at corporate and production levels. On the one hand, due to the inclusion of new foreign products in the national market, the need has arisen to strengthen the identity of each of them at the local level, as a formation of appropriation and, above all, differentiation. At the corporate level, the identity manuals, from then up to the present time, have as a purpose a homogenous application of the brand idea (Sparke, 2010). At the beginning of the 20th century, at the same time Henry Ford implemented a historical decision on production, the division of work and assembly of the chain, in 1908 the German company Allgemeine Elektricitats-Gesellschaf (in English General Company of Electricity), AEG, launched a historical strategy, from the point of view of visual communication and design, as this company began to systematize and unify its corporate identity with the intention of positioning itself in the market of electrical products of the time.

Additionally, the Italian typewriter company Olliveti implemented design strategies, inherited from the AEG, in the design of each of its products. It manufactured 15 million typewriters for office and 9 million portable typewriters. However, it was not enough to have a production of millions if there was no visual identity in the product and a correct execution of the graphic design in the advertising campaigns that would position the product among the possible consumers (Sparke, 2010).

BRAND IMAGE AND COMPETITIVENESS

As Aaker established (2003), the same phenomenon of globalization has set the tone for large companies to seek to analyze and recognize in themselves which are the qualities that can determine a competitive advantage within a given market. In regards to intangible goods, it can be recognized in the brand as a symbol or icon of the company. One of the clearest examples, recognizing the influence of a logo converted into a brand, is complex. If it was possible to recognize what works or not in visual or representative terms of an image, it would generate many guarantees for all entrepreneurs, but so far it is not a simple issue. On the other hand, talking about brand image is talking about clearer references, from a dress code to the decoration of an office or even advertising and the media where they will be disseminated, which represents an opportunity for the image of the brand, i.e., the company.

Therefore, the brand image responds to everything that is related to a real or tangible physical agent that is related to its products or services. The image in appearance refers to the assessment or perception made by the public in the sum of the physical aspects, for example, the facilities with the representative elements (Pena, 2013).

In terms of competitiveness, it is the ability of a company to produce and market products in better conditions of price, quality and opportunity than its competitors, as defined by Porter (Porter, 1990).

Aaker (1992) states that there are certain factors that influence brand value: brand loyalty, awareness or brand recognition, perceived quality, brand associations among other company assets that may be associated with the brand with its patents and different economic variables. Of these concepts, awareness and brand recognition are highlighted when based on experiences as well as when it is exposed to various media both inside and outside. Also, Cortazar (2010), citing Aaker, suggests that partnerships are important because they can provide a brand value that is associated with experiences and positive emotions to customers, as well as both the brand personality and the different associations with the organization which influence the total value of the brand.

Kotler and Keller (2006) state that in order to support the brand value, it has to be based on the set of thoughts, feelings, images and beliefs that the...