I. Introduction
Social Value of Brand is defined for users as the extent to which people share information about a brand as part of their everyday social lives according to Michael Bartl and for companies, it is the share of brand’s equity which result from social interaction among brand users. It occurs when there is interface between consumers and the brand. Nowadays, consumers are more interconnected with value of the brand they consumed and see different aspects with it. For example, when consumers think about Burger King, some of them will think of it as one of the delicious and comfort food for people, but on the other hand, other consumers may think of the brand as a crippling part of health and a cause of obesity. It is not true that brand social role is always positive in this society. There are seven factors that represents one of the most powerful at our disposal for positive social change which is called the Seven Social Wins. The Seven Social Wins include the ff: 1. Brands foster customer loyalty that leads more reliable company earnings and more sustainable levels of employment and wealth creation. 2. Brands are a spur to innovation. 3. Brands provide a reliable mechanism for consumer protection. 4. Brands create pressure for corporate social responsibility. 5. Brands provide a platform for corporate social leadership. 6. Brands play a progressive social role that create for the not-for-profit sector. 7. There is a sense in which brands promote social cohesion.

This paper tackles several questions that argue the very things that are easiest to dislike about brands regarding their cultural power, their economic clout and their global reach. These may serve as positive forces for good and see how we offer a positive re-evaluation in the role of brands in society nowadays.

II. Brand and Wealth Creation

Wealth creation is a process normally associated with capitalism. It is believed that capitalism couldn’t exist without a consumer society and a consumer society is close to impossible without brands. The rise of the consumer society has been often criticized but rarely praised for its contribution in the generating wealth and sustaining social progress.

Brand was established in the 19th century as a form of consumer protection in the industrial age which led to the global prosperity and higher living standards in the continents of North America and Europe. It is no coincidence that these continents still are one of the world’s richest countries. These countries are at the highest standard in terms of health care and education as well as having more opportunities as opposed to other continents around the globe. Brand is an effective tool in having a more progressive society because it gives consumers their own interpretation and personal knowledge and biases of the different producers in the market. Instead of selling a product in a small pool of local customers, with the help of branding, a business could expand in a global scale because of customer loyalty and customer recognition. Without brands, there is no customer loyalty, no reliable earnings, less investment and less employment which will lead to less wealth created. In line with this, the government will have less receipts to tax which would lead to a low government fund that can affect the entire country as a whole.

III. Brands and Socially Beneficial Innovation
Socially Beneficial Innovation refers to how companies develop or rather innovate a product or service for the betterment of society. Your product or service will have a positive contribution to society where it encourages personal and community well-being. Although it was explained by Hilton that in order for innovation to happen, you must associate your product with a brand. In having a brand, companies are willing to risk for innovation because continuous improvement is necessary for your brand to flourish as it enables you to keep up with the fast-paced world we live in today.
Innovation is necessary as it can be aimed to social development where it will directly lead to better social outcomes. Companies would not risk innovating if a brand doesn’t exist, because they would not be able to associate their new products and services with the company’s own investments. Procter and Gamble’s Pampers brand of diapers. If you take away the brand ‘Pampers’, you are taking away any incentive for the company to develop new products or services in fulfilling the needs of babies and mothers all around the world.
The Pampers brand offers a valuable social benefit to its consumers where their diapers focuses on the idea that “a dry baby is a happy baby.” Through this marketing strategy, Pampers brand is able to make mothers all over the world live a happier life because their babies are also happy and comfortable because of their diapers. Through associating your brand with Socially Beneficial Innovation, companies are able to gain more profit through strengthening their brand by creating new products and services that will improve lives.

IV. Brand and Consumer Protection

Consumer Protection is the means of ensuring the quality of goods and services offered by companies. It is often assumed that regulations are the only means of protecting consumers, but this is not true. Brands may also act as a means to protect customers by offering the best quality of products and services. They also perform a positive role in society, which in turn creates customer loyalty. Take for example Coca-Cola. They may pollute public space with various ads, logos, and images, but they ensure that each and every Coca-Cola product is safe, harmless, and of good quality.

V. Brand Pressure for Corporate Social Responsibility

Due to risks from their own behavior and society’s, along with other factors, brands are now facing the pressure to be more socially responsible in their business activities in order to reduce negative impacts and to minimize unwanted incidents arising from their social and environmental performance. Brands commit to CSR because it has been proven to be a necessity in building a successful brand.
There are two ways that brands are pressured into commitment with CSR: commercial and defensive. The commercial process involves the efforts of the brand to build a reputation seen by the society as an overall socially responsible brand. They put an effort not just for maintaining a consistent visual identity and coming up with memorable advertising campaigns but more of building an image as a decent place to work, a trustworthy business partner and a good neighbor. The second way is the defensive process, where external factors such as society’s changing expectations are considered more. This pressure is driven by the need to meet or exceed customers’ expectations of how companies should behave. Since the pressure to be socially responsible has a critical impact on the overall social value of a company, brands are now working to help improve not only their own social and environmental performance, but also that of their business partners in order to not risk being associated to an unfavorable image.

VI. Brands and Corporate Social Leadership

The three most important ways in which brands create social leadership opportunities for corporations are: * Harnessing the cultural power of brands for positive social change.
This is when a certain brand has found a way to build trust within their consumers and they use that trust to create social change for the better. They help change how people think, react and respond to certain things in such a way that would help society function better.

* Harnessing innovation for social gain Innovation,being able to create new things to earn a profit is a norm in society. But creating something for the purpose of making the world better at the same time maintaining business is another matter. A great example for this, would be hybrid cars that were made to help save the environment. * Applying brand power to the urgent task of spreading the benefits of globalisation more widely This would be hardest to achieve among the three, but it would also be the most fulfilling. Brands have a way of reaching different types of people and if there was a way to bridge the gap, or the differences those people have. That would be a tremendous achievement.

VII. Social Brand

The paper has focused on the social value formed by brands in the commercial sector. But in the not-for-profit sector too, brands mold a value for society by enabling charities, non-governmental organisations (ngos) and multilateral institutions to accomplish their goals more effectively. There are three important ways in which brands confer benefits to not-for-profit organisations, and thereby to society. They are all linked to trust, the essential component of brand strength in any sector.

1. Giving NGOs a role as social arbiters

Trust in ngo brands gives them a high role as arbiters in complicated social and environmental problems where competing claims are being made. This may be either because information is limited and these organisations have first-hand, on-the-ground information and expertise, or because other organisations have a vested interest in one particular outcome, whereas these social brands are assumed to be motivated by the best interests of society. This independent, arbiter role is essential in a world of quick information, and is only made possible by the brand itself.
Another important manifestation of social brands’ arbiter role is in their interactions with the private sector. Commercial brands looking to thread their way through the minefields of corporate social responsibility are increasingly turning to trusted NGO brands to serve as their guide. This trend towards constructive engagement and open dialogue rather than the traditional confrontation is now seen as best practice in the private sector. It extends to companies seeking the public endorsement of trusted ngo brands for their corporate responsibility activities. Many company social and environmental reports now feature commentary, some of it critical, from social brands.
Without doubt, this changing relationship between companies and not-for-profit organisations needs to be taken care of carefully. NGOs need to show that their trust is not at risk by sacrificing their independence and credibility in exchange for a seat at the boardroom table or a sizeable corporate donation. Fairly, businesses need to make sure that in an effort to accommodate their critics, they do not lurch into an unthinking acceptance of often highly partisan, unrepresentative and essentially political points of view. But overall, there can be no doubt that real social value is being created by the application of social brands’ experience and expertise to the social and environmental challenges faced by business, and that in an increasingly complicated and interconnected world, social brands often perform an important arbiter role.

2. Providing a campaigning platform

The second way in which social brands deliver social value is through their campaigning platform. By using their trust and credibility to raise awareness of important public issues, they make a vital contribution to tackling those issues. it is the platform provided by the brands associated with these causes that ensures the effectiveness of the campaigns. A lone scientist, however well qualified, would struggle to make an impact on public consciousness, regardless of the merits of his or her case. Backed by the Greenpeace brand, however, the impact would be transformed.

3. Enabling the provision of beneficial social services

The third way in which social value is created by brands in the not-for-profit sector is through their role in enabling beneficial social services (and sometimes products) to be provided directly. At a grass-roots level, charities around the world are working at the sharp end of the social problems that policymakers seek to tackle. To do this they need income, just as a business needs sales to deliver its products and services. And just as commercial organisations use branding to compete for consumer expenditure, so charities are increasingly using their brands to compete for philanthropic spending, either in the form of direct donations from citizens, or through partnerships and contractual arrangements with companies and government. The reasons brands are valued by charities in this regard are exactly the same as in the private sector, for they serve as signals of quality, effectiveness and trust. VIII. Brands and Social Cohesion The last component of brands’ social value is perhaps the least tangible, but it relates to a fundamental human desire: to come together with other people. The important point to remember is that if to some extent they do this, it is because individual people have chosen to do it. Brands promote social cohesion, both nationally and globally, by enabling shared participation in aspirational and democratic narratives. The greatest brands in the world today seek to be social unifiers; such as Coca-Cola, Nike, Nokia, Lux soaps, Budweiser, etc. In the years ahead, the challenge for brands will be to champion new ideas, new stories, and new and more inclusive ways to achieve social solidarity. In so doing, they will continue to make an incalculable contribution to social improvement.

IX. References

Clifton, R. (2003). The Social Value of Brands. In Brands and Branding (pp. 47-65). London: Profile Books.
Lexicon. (n.d.). Retrieved July 12, 2015.
Boches, E. (2010, April 22). Social Brand Value and How to Build It. | Creativity Unbound. Retrieved July 12, 2015
The Social Value of Brands / Sharing Knowledge / Home - Corporate Excellence. (n.d.) Retrieved July 12, 2015
The Making-of Innovation | by Michael Bartl. (n.d.). Retrieved July 12, 2015.