page_title: Brand management
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Brand management / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Cave des amphores
context_page_description: In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is perceived as planned and secures its objectives. Developing a good relationship with target markets is essential for brand management. Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; its look, price, and packaging, etc. The intangible elements are the experiences that the target markets share with the brand, and also the relationships they have with the brand. A brand manager would oversee all aspects of the consumer's brand association as well as relationships with members of the supply chain.
context_section_description: The earliest origins of branding can be traced to pre-historic times. The practice may have first begun with the branding of farm animals in the middle East in the neolithic period. Stone Age and Bronze Age cave paintings depict images of branded cattle. Egyptian funerary artwork also depicts branded animals. Over time, the practice was extended to marking personal property such as pottery or tools, and eventually some type of brand or insignia was attached to goods intended for trade.
  Around 4,000 years ago, producers began by attaching simple stone seals to products which, over time, were transformed into clay seals bearing impressed images, often associated with the producer's personal identity thus giving the product a personality. Bevan and Wengrow have argued that branding became necessary following the urban revolution in ancient Mesopotamia in the 4th century BCE, when large-scale economies started mass-producing commodities such as alcoholic drinks, cosmetics and textiles. These ancient societies imposed strict forms of quality control over commodities, and also needed to convey value to the consumer through branding. Diana Twede has argued that the "consumer packaging functions of protection, utility and communication have been necessary whenever packages were the object of transactions" (p. 107). She has shown that amphorae used in Mediterranean trade between 1500 and 500 BCE exhibited a wide variety of shapes and markings, which provided information for purchasers during exchange. Systematic use of stamped labels dates appears to date from around the fourth century BCE. In a largely pre-literate society, the shape of the amphora and its pictorial markings functioned as a brand, conveying information about the contents, region of origin and even the identity of the producer which were understood to convey information about product quality.
  A number of archaeological research studies have found extensive evidence of branding, packaging and labelling in antiquity.  Archaeologists have identified some 1,000 different Roman potters' marks of the early Roman Empire, suggesting that branding was a relatively widespread practice.
  In Pompeii (circa 35 CE), Umbricius Scauras, a manufacturer of fish sauce (also known as garum) was branding his amphora which travelled across the entire Mediterranean. Mosaic patterns in the atrium of his house were decorated with images of amphora bearing his personal brand and quality claims. The mosaic comprises four different amphora, one at each corner of the atrium, and bearing labels as follows:
  1. G(ari) F(los) SCO[m]/ SCAURI/ EX OFFI[ci]/NA SCAU/RI   Translated as "The flower of garum, made of the mackerel, a product of Scaurus, from the shop of Scaurus"
  2. LIQU[minis]/ FLOS     Translated as: "The flower of Liquamen"
  3. G[ari] F[los] SCOM[bri]/ SCAURI    Translated as: "The flower of garum, made of the mackerel, a product of Scaurus"
  4. LIQUAMEN/ OPTIMUM/ EX OFFICI[n]/A SCAURI    Translated as: "The best liquamen, from the shop of Scaurus"
  Scauras' fish sauce was known to be of very high quality across the Mediterranean and its reputation travelled as far away as modern France.  Curtis has described this mosaic as "an advertisement... and a rare, unequivocal example of a motif inspired by a patron, rather than by the artist".
  In Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum, archaeological evidence also points to evidence of branding and labelling in relatively common use. Wine jars, for example, were stamped with names, such as  "Lassius" and "L. Eumachius;" probably references to the name of the producer. Carbonized loaves of bread, found at Herculaneum, indicate that some bakers stamped their bread with the producer's name and other information including the use, price or intended recipient. These markings demonstrate the public's need for product information in an increasingly complex market-place.
  In the East, evidence of branding also dates to an early period. Recent research suggests that Chinese merchants made extensive use of branding, packaging, advertising and retail signage. From as
caption: In pre-literate societies, the distinctive shape of amphorae served some of the functions of a label, communicating information about region of origin, the name of the producer and may have carried product quality claims
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