do companies have to invest in brand building or offering superior quality product with customer service is enough to build brand itself rather than investing separately for brand building

A superior quality product with good customer service to back it is good till there is no competition but once competition knocks on your door, it is brand building which is going to help you.

Building a brand is investing in its future. A good brand can survive even a dull phase in its life cycle as its brand power alone will pull it through. No better example than Sony. In the television market dominated by the korean brands that aggressively marketed its product, sony held on gamely and didnt sink becuase it had built up a good brand image.

Today with a little bit of innovation, fine tuning and price reduction they are again in the fray. Needless to say it is equally important to have a good quality product with adequate service back-up but it leans slightly on the former as brand building is very much an important aspect in todays world especially.

Logesh,you have to understand "brand". The word is offshoot of 'burning' or 'straight from the fire'. It  therefore  suggests that  the product must meet stringent manufacturing specifications so that what has been promised of does not falter.Of course,in my view both brand building with superior quality with customer support is must for brand building. Investment in brand building is essential to stay afloat and engaging the customers.

Thanks ,Mr Natteraja for referral.

I accept your point Mr.Saurabh Awasthi.

How the customers come to know that this is a quality product. How they prefer to buy that product. Hence the brand building exercises becomes to play the dominant role to create the awareness of the products through various sales promotional activities. Then only the customers make the efforts to buy and use as a trial basis. If they are happy with the quality it will lead to repeat purchase.Moreover considering the present competitive environment, the companies have to do or focus on Brand building.

Thanks Mr.Virag Shah for the referral.

If quality of product is good then it helps to create a brand image.

As per my knowledge and experience companies dont need to invest seperately for brand  building. Its like spending money to create a value for a product which is not there or which doesnt live upto the brand image company is trying to potray. There are many successful brands around us which have established themselves as a trustworthy brand. In some cases brand value is so great that it has become synonymous with certain service or commodity or certain product. For e.g. LIC is synonymous with insurance. colgate is become synonymous with brushing your teath. Bisleri is become synonymous with mineral water. Eureka Forbes is synonymous with water purifier. Johson & Johnson for baby products, cadbury for chocolates, Godrej for locks. Hero Honda has become synonymous with motorcyles. Maruti for small cars. There are plenty of such examples. In all the above examples no company has spent a lot of money first to create a brand image but they provided impeccable service or excellent quality product or commodity over a great length of time period and the brand value has got created. And they are maintaining it.

                           Just create an excellent product or service backed by uncompromising after sales service will automatically create a solid image of the brand and its value. And one should not confuse it with advertising which is mainly done to create awareness and give info about the product.

Quality is most important,  company has to invest in quality rather thant brand building. Once quality will become good, brand will automatically build itself in market. After quality, you can up to some extent level invest ob build brand if required. But, in this scenario, it required to invest. But first priority to make superior quality then on brand building.