BRAND BUILDING AND MANAGEMENT

Introduction

The process by which marketers attempt to optimise the 'Marketing mix' for a specific

brand. Branding involves decisions that establish an identity for a product with the goal of

distinguishing it from competitors' offerings.What is a Brand In Principles of Marketing, by

Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong a brand is defined as a name, term, sign symbol or a

combination of these, that identifies the maker or seller of the product.

Brand Switching

A consumer that purchases multiple brands of a product. For example, a consumer that

Purchases Pepsione week and Coke then ext week.

Brand Impact

A technique used to measure the effectiveness of advertising.

Brand manager the individual that in an organization which is responsible for planning,

implementing, and controlling the marketing program for a particular brand. Brand managers

are sometimes referred to as product managers.

Brand building model

The 4 Steps of brand building :4 Steps of brand building Building brands, according to

CBBE model, can be thought of as a sequence of steps, in which each step is contingent on

successfully achieving the previous step: Ensure identification of the brand with customers &

an association of the brand in customers’ mind with a specific product class or customer need

Firmly establish the totality of brand meaning in the minds of customers by strategically

linking a host of tangible & intangible brand associations with certain properties Elicit the

proper customer responses to this brand identification & brand meaning Convert brand

responses to create an intense, active loyalty relationship between customers & the brand

4 Steps of brand building:4 Steps of brand building.

These 4 steps constitute fundamental questions customers ask about brands

Who are you?

What are you?

What about you?

What do I think or fee lab out you?

What about you and me?

Brand building blocks

Brand building blocks Resonance Judgement Feelings Performance Imagery Salience

1. Identity Who are you?

2. Meaning What are you?

3. Response What About you?

4. Relationship What about you & me?

Sub dimensions of brand building model :Sub dimensions of brand building model

Loyalty Attachment Community Engagement Quality Warmth, Fun Credibility Excitement

Consideration Security Superiority Social approval, Self-respect Primary characteristics &

User profiles Secondary features Purchase & usage situations Product reliability Personality

& values Durability & serviceability History, heritage Service effectiveness & Experiences

Efficiency & empathy Style & design, Price Category identification Need satisfied

Brand building blocks :Brand building blocks Salience Performance Imagery

Judgment Feelings Resonance

Brand salience : Brand salience What basic function does the brand provide to

customers? Breadth & depth of awareness Product category structure

Breadth & depth of awareness (eg Tropicana)

At the most basic level, its necessary that consumers recognise the Tropicana brand

when it is presented or exposed to them Beyond that, consumers should think of Tropicana

whenever they think of orange juice, particularly when they are thinking of purchase in that

category Additionally, consumers ideally would think of Tropicana whenever they were

deciding which type of beverage to drink, specially when seeking a “tasty but healthy”

beverage some of the needs presumably satisfied by orange juice Thus , consumers must

think of Tropicana in terms of satisfying a certain set of needs whenever those needs arise.

Product category structure (beverages)

Product category structure(beverages) Beverages Water Flavour Alcoholic

Nonalcoholic Milk Juices Wine Distilled spirit Hot beverages Soft drinks Beer.

Product category structure

Product category structure To fully understand brand recall, it is important to

appreciate product category structure, or how product categories are organised in memory,

for example beverages: As the configuration for beverages show, consumers often make

decisions in top down fashion Implications: Understanding the hierarchy gives a clue on how

to increase awareness, as well as position the brand In some cases, the best route for

improving sales for a brand is not by improving consumer attitudes toward the brand but,

instead, by increasing the breadth of brand awareness & situations in which consumer would

consider using the brand. For example:to increase consumption, Tropicana is extending

orange drink to occasions beyond breakfast

Brand performance

Brand performance product itself is at the heart of brand equity, because it is the

primary influence on what consumers experience with a brand, what they hear about a brand

from others, & what the firm can tell customers about the brand in their communications:

Designing & delivering a product that fully satisfies consumer needs & wants is a

prerequisite for successful marketing To create brand loyalty & resonance, consumers’

experiences with the product must at least meet, if not actually surpass, their expectations

Brand imagery

Brand imagery Brand imagery is how people think about a brand abstractly, rather

than what they think brand actually does. Imagery associations can be formed: Directly: from

consumers own experiences & contact with product, brand, target market, or usage situation

Indirectly: depiction of these same considerations as communicated in brand advertising or

by some other source of information, such as W.O.M. 4 categories can be highlighted:

User profiles

Purchase & usage situations

Personality & values

History, heritage & experiences

Brand judgement

Brand judgement how customers put together all the different performance & imagery

associations of the brand to form different kinds of opinions. Four types of summary

judgments particularly important:

Brand quality

Brand credibility

Brand consideration

Brand superiority.

Brand feelings

Brand feelings emotions evoked by a brand can become so strongly associated that

they are acessible during product consumption or use: Researchers have defined

transformational advertising as advertising designed to change consumers’ perception of the

actual usage experience with the product Following are 6 important types of brand-building

feelings: Warmth Fun Excitement Security Social approval Self-respect First 3 types of

feelings are experiential and immediate, increasing in level of intensity later three are private

& enduring,increasing in level of gravity.

Brand resonance

Brand resonance resonance is characterised in terms of intensity, or depth of the

psychological bond that the customers have with the brand, as well as the level of activity.

Engendered by this loyalty

Behavioural loyalty Attitudinal attachment Sense of community Active engagement

Finally, perhaps the strongest affirmation of brand loyalty is when customers are willing to

invest time, energy, money, or other resources in the brand beyond those expended during

purchase or consumption of the brand Strong attitudinal attachment or social identity or both

are typically necessary, however, for active engagement with the brand to occur.

Brand building implications

Brand building implications

Customers own brands

Don’t take short-cuts with brands

Brands should have duality

Brands should have richness

Brand resonance provides important focus

Brands should have duality

Brands should have duality strong brands blend product performance & imagery to

create a rich, varied, but complementary set of consumer responses to the brand by appealing

to both rational & emotional concerns, a strong brand provides consumers with multiple

access points to the brand while reducing competitive vulnerability.

Brand should have richness

Brand should have richness the various associations making up the brand image may

be reinforcing, helping to strengthen or increase the favorability of other brand associations,

or may be unique, helping to add distinctiveness or offset some potential deficiencies: Strong

brands thus have both breadth & depth At the same time brands should not necessarily be

expected to score high on all the various dimensions & categories making up each core brand

value.

Building blocks can have hierarchies

Building blocks can have hierarchies Brand awareness

It is typically important to first establish category identification in some way before

considering strategies to expand breadth via needs satisfied or benefits offered.

Brand performance

Often necessary to first link primary characteristics & related features before

attempting to link additional, more peripheral associations.

Brand imagery

Often begins with fairly concrete initial articulation of user & user imagery that, over

time, leads to broader, more abstract brand associations of personality, value, history,

heritage, & experience.

Brand judgment

Usually begin with positive quality & credibility perceptions that can lead to brand

consideration & then perhaps assessment of brand superiority.

Brand feelings

Usually start with either experiential ones or inward ones.

Brand resonance

Behavioral loyalty is a starting point but attitudinal attachment or a sense of

community is almost always needed for active engagement to occur.

Brand resonance provides important focus

Brand resonance provides important focus brand resonance is the pinacle of cbbe

model & provides important focus & priority for decision making- regarding marketing: To

what extent is marketing activity affecting the key dimensions of brand resonance? Is

marketing activity creating brand performance & imagery associations & consumer

judgments & feelings that will support these brand resonance dimensions? In a application of

CBBE model, the M.R. firm, Knowledge Network, found that brands that scored highest on

loyalty & attachment were not necessarily same that scored high on community &

engagement. However, by defining the proper role for the brand, higher levels of brand

resonance should be obtainable.

Principles

A good brand name should:

• Be protected under trademark law.

• Be easy to pronounce.

• Be easy to remember.

• Be easy to recognize.

• Be easy to translate into all languages in the markets where the brand will be used.

• Attract attention.

• Suggest product benefits or suggest usage.

• Suggest the company or product image.

• Distinguish the product's positioning relative to the competition.

• Be attractive.

• Stand out among a group of other brands.

Brand management begins with having a thorough knowledge of the term “brand”. It

includes developing a promise, making that promise and maintaining it. It means defining the

brand, positioning the brand, and delivering the brand. Brand management is nothing but an

art of creating and sustaining the brand. Branding makes customers committed to your

business. A strong brand differentiates your products from the competitors. It gives a quality

image to your business.

Brand management includes managing the tangible and intangible characteristics of

brand. In case of product brands, the tangibles include the product itself, price, packaging,

etc. While in case of service brands, the tangibles include the customers’ experience. The

intangibles include emotional connections with the product / service.

Branding is assembling of various marketing mix medium into a whole so as to give

you an identity. It is nothing but capturing your customers mind with your brand name. It

gives an image of an experienced, huge and reliable business.

It is all about capturing the niche market for your product / service and about creating

a confidence in the current and prospective customers’ minds that you are the unique solution

to their problem.

The aim of branding is to convey brand message vividly, create customer loyalty,

persuade the buyer for the product, and establish an emotional connectivity with the

customers. Branding forms customer perceptions about the product. It should raise customer

expectations about the product. The primary aim of branding is to create differentiation.

Strong brands reduce customers’ perceived monetary, social and safety risks in buying

goods/services. The customers can better imagine the intangible goods with the help of brand name.

Strong brand organizations have a high market share. The brand should be given good support so

that it can sustain itself in long run. It is essential to manage all brands and build brand equity over a

period of time. Here comes importance and usefulness of brand management. Brand management

helps in building a corporate image. A brand manager has to oversee overall brand performance. A

successful brand can only be created if the brand management system is competent.

Symbols

Symbols help customers memorize organization’s products and services. They help

us correlate positive attributes that bring us closer and make it convenient for us to purchase

those products and services. Symbols emphasize our brand expectations and shape corporate

images. Symbols become a key component of brand equity and help in differentiating the

brand characteristics. Symbols are easier to memorize than the brand names as they are

visual images. These can include logos, people, geometric shapes, cartoon images, anything.

For instance, Marlboro has its famous cowboy, Pillsbury has its Poppin Fresh doughboy,

Duracell has its bunny rabbit, Mc Donald has Ronald, Fed Ex has an arrow, and Nike’s

swoosh. All these symbols help us remember the brands associated with them.

Brand symbols are strong means to attract attention and enhance brand personalities

by making customers like them. It is feasible to learn the relationship between symbol and

brand if the symbol is reflective/representative of the brand. For instance, the symbol of LG

symbolize the world, future, youth, humanity, and technology. Also, it represents LG’s

efforts to keep close relationships with their customers.

LOGOS

A logo is a unique graphic or symbol that represents a company, product, service, or

other entity. It represents an organization very well and make the customers well-acquainted

with the company. It is due to logo that customers form an image for the product/service in

mind. Adidas’s “Three Stripes” is a famous brand identified by it’s corporate logo.

Features of a good logo are :

It should be simple.

It should be distinguished/unique. It should differentiate itself.

It should be functional so that it can be used widely.

It should be effective, i.e., it must have an impact on the intended audience.

It should be memorable.

It should be easily identifiable in full colours, limited colour palettes, or in black and

white.

It should be a perfect reflection/representation of the organization.

It should be easy to correlate by the customers and should develop customers trust in

the organization.

It should not loose it’s integrity when transferred on fabric or any other material.

It should portray company’s values, mission and objectives.

The elements of a logo are:

Logotype - It can be a simple or expanded name.

Icon - It is a name or visual symbol that communicates a market position.

Slogan - It is best way of conveying company’s message to the consumers.

TRADEMARKS

Trademark is a unique symbol, design, or any form of identification that helps people

recognize a brand. A renowned brand has a popular trademark and that helps consumers

purchase quality products. The goodwill of the dealer/maker of the product also enhances by

use of trademark. Trademark totally indicates the commercial source of product/service.

Trademark contribute in brand equity formation of a brand. Trademark name should be

original. A trademark is chosen by the following symbols:

Registration of trademark is essential in some countries to give exclusive rights to it.

Without adequate trademark protection, brand names can become legally declared generic.

Generic names are never protectable as was the case with Vaseline, escalator and thermos.

Some guidelines for trademark protection are as follows:

Go for formal trademark registration.

Never use trademark as a noun or verb. Always use it as an adjective.

Use correct trademark spelling.

Challenge each misuse of trademark, specifically by competitors in market.

Capitalize first letter of trademark. If a trademark appears in point, ensure that it

Brand loyalty can be developed through various measures such as quick service,

ensuring quality products, continuous improvement, wide distribution network, etc. When

consumers are brand loyal they love “you” for being “you”, and they will minutely consider

any other alternative brand as a replacement. Examples of brand loyalty can be seen in US

where true Apple customers have the brand's logo tattooed onto their bodies. Similarly in

Finland, Nokia customers remained loyal to Nokia because they admired the design of the

handsets or because of user friendly menu system used by Nokia phones.

Brand loyalty can be defined as relative possibility of customer shifting to another

brand in case there is a change in product’s features, price or quality. As brand loyalty

increases, customers will respond less to competitive moves and actions. Brand loyal

customers remain committed to the brand, are willing to pay higher price for that brand, and

will promote their brand always. A company having brand loyal customers will have greater

sales, less marketing and advertising costs, and best pricing. This is because the brand loyal

customers are less reluctant to shift to other brands, respond less to price changes and self

promote the brand as they perceive that their brand have unique value which is not provided

by other competitive brands.

Brand loyalty is always developed post purchase. To develop brand loyalty, an

organization should know their niche market, target them, support their product, ensure easy

access of their product, provide customer satisfaction, bring constant innovation in their

product and offer schemes on their product so as to ensure that customers repeatedly purchase

the product.

Conclusion

Thus the brands do not exist without consumer and consumer do not exist without

brands. Brands serve as a temptation that utilizes other intermediaries to lure the customers

from whom value is extracted. Customers serve as a profit-medium for brands to encash their

brand value. Both the concepts are highly co-related.