Previous research into Brands

Brand Identity
Brand Identity is a combination of the following factors:
1. Brand Essence - a way of summing up the significance of the brand to stockholders and consumers alike of the brand in one simple sentence
2. Brand Slogan - a public way of identifying the brand for consumers - often associated with a logo
3. Brand Personality - marketeers can describe their brand as though it were a person, with likes and dislikes and certain behaviour
4. Brand Values – what does it stand for/against?
5. Brand Appearance - What does it look/sound/taste like?
6. Brand Heritage - how long has it been around? does it have customers who have been loyal to it for many years?
7. Emotional benefits – how it avoids/reduces pain or increases pleasure
8. Hard benefits – bigger? better? cheaper? washes whiter?

Meaning transfer
Most advertising is about linking a particular product or brand to a particular set of qualities or benefits in the consumer's mind. This linkage is often achieved through juxtaposition — the simple imposition of the qualities on the product, in the hope that the consumer will make that connection themselves. This is a process known as aestheticization, carried out through
· Similarity
· Metaphor
· Contiguity
The second stage of meaning transfer is that the qualities will shift from the product to the consumer once they have bought it. The consumer is therefore aestheticized too.
Basically, this means that we define who we are by what we own — and advertising is the route through which we gain a particular identity.
Regulations
In order to monitor and control advertising a number of different regulatory bodies have been established. Many countries have an Advertising Standards Authority, whose job it is to listen to complaints from the public, and establish whether or not a particular ad or campaign should be withdrawn. In the UK the situation is complex, as each medium is governed by a different regulatory body:
Non-Broadcast Advertising is dealt with by the Advertising Standards Authority
TV Advertising complaints are referred to the Independent Television Commission
All advertising in the UK is subject to the Committee of Advertising Practice's Code (known as the CAP Code) and also to the Code of the European Advertising Standards Alliance.