Branding of on Online Fashion

Branding of on Online Fashion Institute

In defining the branding strategy for an online university tutoring for students studying high-end couture clothing design, the decision to pursue a brand name one that created specifically for the school or a functional one has far-reaching effects on advertising effectiveness and awareness. The decision needs to be based on the innate strengths and value that the school can deliver to students, exceeding their expectations consistently in the process. The foundation of any effective branding strategy is one that effectively promotes the customer experience in terms of expectations while underscoring that expectation with strong emotion (Leventhal, 22). In defining the brand of the online university, there must be a focus on delivering the core value of what education offers, which is freedom to get to career and educational goals.

Defining the Brand Strategy for the Proposed Online University

For any brand to be effective it must immediately connect with the perceptions, values and beliefs of the target audience and potential customers of interest, it must be intuitive and emotive in its approach to be effective (Phau, Cheong, 220, 221). Instead of concentrating on just the functional benefits or the purely logical aspects of a service, say for example in this instance the focus just on the courses in the online university, drastically reduces the impact of a branding strategy (Leventhal, 21). Studies also indicate that attempting to extend a common brand through associations and implied values is unproductive and loses its impact over time as the primary brand gets diluted from this strategy as well (Phau, Cheong, 222, 223). The decision of whether to create an entirely new brand name or to attempt to define a functional one also has to take into account how brand archetypes define mediated and lived experiences as well (Phau, Cheong, 223, 224). Figure 1, Brand Archetype Model Shows How Brand Icons Are Created shows how critical it is to create a brand that capitalizes on the consumer imagination and archetypal representation of a brand concept.

Figure 1: Brand Archetype Model Shows How Brand Icons Are Created

Source: (Phau, Cheong, 216)

Conclusion