what is a brand?

Apple shop


I think the apple shop does really well in drawing people in to the shop because, as the shop is basically one big glass window so that you can see into, it makes people look at it and see what is inside. Also everything you see inside the shop you can use and try out, this makes people want to go in and play on everything. Everything is hands on.

Also you see a big apple logo outside shop indicating that it is an apple shop, although I dont think they really need that because you can tell its an apple shop just by looking at it. By the way everything is white and light shades of grey, all of their products are layed out on some sort of prop to hold them up like a piece of art work. Hinting that there unique and special compared to anything else. This makes people buy them because they want to stand out from everyone else, and be able to say 'look at me, I've got an ipod'.

Apple have made copies of other products, such as computers they made a mac, which is basically a computer but with different buttons and other pointless little things. They made an ipod, which is basically an MP3 player, and they've made an Iphone, which is a phone, but as its got the 'I' before suddenly makes it much more than a phone (to some people). They've done all of this because they want to be different and have there version of something that already exists, but try to make it slightly better so people will buy it and be able to say 'hey look at me i got an I-phone' When really that is just the same as any smart phone out there.


Hmv


Hmv is one of those shops where if you want to buy a dvd, someone will say look in hmv, or I want to buy a game, look in hmv. Hmv sells rather quite a lot, from cd's to games to books and laptops. In a way it's a shop for teenagers who are into games and dvd's or music. Also recently they have started putting latest release games  out on show so that you can play them, this is a good way to draw people into there shop. Also they put all there deals in the window which makes people come into the shop.





Analysing Brands 


Mc Donalds
Mc Donalds was first founded and built in 1940 by the mcdonald brothers Dick and Mac. Ray Kroc became the first franchise appointed by Mac and Dick in San Bernardino, California. In 1955 Ray Kroc opened his first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illnios and the McDonalds corporation was created. By 1959 the 100th Mcdonalds opened in chicago. In 1961 Ray Kroc bought all rights to the McDonalds concept from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million. In the next four years McDonald restaurants had grown five times more than 1959. In 1964 the filet-o-fish sandwich was introduced, and by 1970 they had a restaurant in every US state, one year later the egg McMuffin sandwich was test marketed in the US as Mcdonalds first breakfast menu item, and McDonalds opened up in Japan, Holland, Australia, Germany, Panama and Guam.

In 1974 the 3000th McDonalds restaurant was opened in woolwich (south east london) in october, the first in the UK. Then one year later the first ever drive through opened. In 1983 the chicken nugget  got released. In 1984 the founder Ray Kroc dies, In 1984 McDonalds is serving 17 million customers a day which at the time is equivalent to serving the entire population of Australia and New Zealand. If McDonalds lined up all the hamburgers sold since 1955, they would circle the equator 103.75 times and reach the moon and back five times.

In 1991 McDonalds were responsible for a serious food poisoning outbreak in preston, when several customers were hospitalised as a result of eating undercooked burgers contaminated by potentially deadly E.coli 0157H bacteria.

Different media is used to communicate with the customer by using things like a website where you can see what they sell, offers, and other things that you might need to know. They could do adverts on the tv, and magazines, or make posters.

I think the meaning of the brand is trying make people happy whoever eats there products, I also think that there target audience is mostly children. Because they have things like happy meals, which are for kids, and they have a lot of meals which are for kids, also you can tell children love eating there because they always get excited about it. Maybe because of the fact that they get a free toy with a happy meal?

Playstation
In 1994 electronics giant sony, enters the highly competitive games console market. Self explanatory name playstation, this 32-bit, cd-based system hit japan in december and faced tough competition from 'the big two' in the from of sega's fundamentall similar saturn, and nintendo's upcoming ultra 64. However, its relatively sleek grey frame, ergonomic controller - not to mention an arcade perfect port of namco's popular arcade driver ridge racer attracted avid games players and started sony computer entertainment on the path to becoming a serious rival to the veterans.

1997 with playstation now firmly established as europes number one console, SCEE started to get really serious. The new year was kicked off with the introduction of the platinum range of budget priced best sellers. April of 1998 saw the launch of the next evolution of the playstation controller: the analog controller, or duelshock as its known by most. This provided scope for superior control in future titles, while the built in vibration function meant that you could now effectively feel the effects of the action on screen. This was later announced the standard controller for the console.

In the year 2000, everyone new that playstation 2 was well on the way and in 2001 - 2002 it got launched selling over 1.68 million units in europe alone. The conbined sales of both machines were now so huge that it was estimated that one out of every five housholds in europe owned a playstation of playstation 2.
 One year later, with people happily playing the playstation 2, sony wanted people to play eachother without having a large scale sleepover. The network adapter, releashed across europe between june and october, offered slightly more practical solution, allowing gamers to connect their PS2 to a broadband connection and play a host of compatible titles against players across the rest of the continent.

After playstations first successful decade, the arrival of the playstation 3 was being brought out in 2006, it promises to herald a new revolution in home entertainment bringing with it the most powerful technologies we've ever ever seen in a computer entertainment system.

I think the audience for the playstation would be from children to adults. Because people who are interested in games would obviously use this. But they have now got the playstation move, which is basically sony's version of the WII so that extends its audience quite a lot because it would encourage other people to play the playstation.