Brand Functions

In the United States, virtually anything can be registered as a trade mark or service mark with the Patent and Trademark Office. The statutory definition of trade mark in the Trade Mark Act of 1946, as amended (the Lanham Act) includes “any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof. Courts have interpreted this language very broadly allowing protection for the overall look of a product, including its size, shape, color or color combinations, texture, even perfumes and graphics (Cantor and Chestek, 2000). Thus, a manufacturer’s brand name, trade or service mark is “a graphic sign meant to distinguish the products or services of a physical or moral person”. The brand can, therefore, be considered as a distinctive sign, but also as a symbol, a design or a combination of these different elements which identify the product and confer upon it a durable competitive advantage: “A winning brand is a brand that consumers want to buy and distributors want to sell” (Doyle, 1990). Its strength is defined by its equity: the sum of “all the strong and transmissible brand associations, and their capacity to influence behavior” (Leuthesser, 1988).