Do brands benefit consumers?

Advertising exists to communicate information about, and promote, brands—using ‘brands’ in the broadest sense. Brand owners, it might be believed, are thereby promoting their own interests. This paper explores the extent to which consumers benefit. Brands provide economic value for money, functionality in developing the requisite quality of products to solve consumer problems and psychological satisfaction. Thus functional benefits are intrinsic to the brand and its component products, psychological benefits are in the mind of the consumer and economic benefits relate to the exchange transaction. Brands are diverse, offering different benefits in different ways to different consumers at different times. Any aggregation of brand (dis)benefits therefore needs to be treated with caution. The picture is not wholly positive and consumer concerns with branding need to be factored in. The defence is the marketplace itself: consumers are free to choose. Retailer brands meet the demand, where it exists, for alternatives to manufacturer brands. Some consumers are undoubtedly confused for part of the time but branding is a long-term investment. Manufacturer brand leaders fifty years ago are brand leaders today. They would not exist at all if enough consumers did not continue to buy them.

This article considers these consumer concerns alongside the arguments for brands, except for the last (values) which is outside its scope. In general, the economic case today is secure even though earlier economists considered brands restricted competition. The bottom line of any remaining concern is whether consumers are satisfied that brands provide value for money. If consumers feel satisfied, then they are satisfied whether or not others think they should be. General consumer satisfaction with brands' value for money is none the less an inference drawn from the literature and analysis. Similarly, functional and psychological benefits appear to outweigh disadvantages but empirical research is needed to establish the extent of consumer (dis)satisfactions.