MOD 2

Concept

Customers trust what matters for a BRAND

 BRAND trust may vary across generations

 Customers expectation of BRAND benefit could be in the short term and/or long term

 Viewpoints about a brand are not standard /similar across its customer base

 Price of a brand may supercede all its benefits/features/attributes/associations among certain customer base

 Strong brands may remain strong in spite of no/negligible advertising support for quite some year

 At the market place it Is the survival of the differentiated brand

 A strong brand can be an entry barrier for new brands

 Differentiation of a brand may not be based on aspects within it , but even without it ita imagery

Why do brands matter?

Strong brands are important to both marketers and customers Marketers
Provide relatively higher return on sales Have higher loyalty than their weaker competitors Provide opportunities for brand extension Can bounce back after a mistake Means of identification to simplify handling or tracing

 Means of legally protecting unique features Signal of quality level to satisfied customers Means of endowing products with unique associations Source of competitive advantage Source of financial returns

 Brands are important to customer

Identification of source of product Assignment of responsibility to product maker Risk reducer Search cost reducer Promise ,bond or pact with maker of the product Symbolic device Signal of quality Find it easy to choose Have a perceived consistent quality about which acts as a benchmark for brand consideration/choice

 - a brand is something that resides in the mind of the consumer -the key to branding is that consumers perceive differences among brand in a product category

 Branding in Business to Business category

Build corporate brand around brand intangibles Branding should be directly tied to value delivery strategy Educate all members of the organization as to the value of branding and their role in delivering brand value

 Branding in services
Handling issues like intangibility and variability

Retailers and distributors Online products and services People and organization Sports, Arts and Entertainment Geographic Location Ideas and Causes

Branding Challenges and Opportunities

Savvy customers More complex brand families and portfolios More sophisticated and increasing competition Difficulty in differentiating Decreasing brand loyalty in many categories Growth of private labels Increasing trade power

Emerging new communication options Increasing promotional expenditures Decreasing advertising expenditure Short term profits

Strategic Brand Management Process

Involves the design and implementation of marketing programs and activities to build,measure and manage brand equity

Identifying and Establishing Brand Positioning

Clear understanding of what brand is to represent and how it should be positioned with respect to competitors Positioning convinces consumers of advantages or points of difference a brand has over its competitors or possible disadvantages or points of parity

Identifying and Establishing Brand Positioning

Positioning also often specifies the appropriate core brand associations and brand mantra A mental map is a visual depiction of different type of associations linked to the brand in the minds of consumer Brand mantra what a brand represents or core brand essence or core brand promise

Planning and Implementing Brand Marketing Programs

Initial choices of brand element making up the brand and how they are mixed or matchednames ,logos,symbols ,characters,packaging and slogans Integration of brand with marketing and supporting marketing programs Leveraging secondary associations like company name ,country of origin ,channel of distribution or another brand(co branding),through endorsements,sponsorship ,awards review etc.

Measuring and Interpreting Brand Performance

A Brand Audit is a comprehensive examination of a brand to asses its health ,uncover its sources of equity and suggests ways to improve and leverage that equity. To understand the effect of marketing programs ,marketers should measure and interpret brand performance through marketing research-----brand value chain

Measuring and Interpreting Brand Performance

Brand Value Chain is a means to trace value creation process of brands ,to better understand the financial impact of brand marketing expenditures and investments. Brand equity measurement system Brand Tracking

Growing and Sustaining Brand Equity

Define the branding Strategy-general guidelines about which brand elements to apply across its products Tools are brand product matrix-is a graphical representation of all the brands and products sold by the company
Brand hierarchy-displays the number and nature of common and distinctive brand components across the firms product-potential branding relationship among the different product

Growing and Sustaining Brand Equity

Brand Portfolio-is the set of all brands and brand lines that a particular firm offers for sale to buyers in a particular category Managing Brand Equity over time Managing Brand Equity over Geographic Boundaries ,cultures and market segment

Strategic Brand Management Process

Involves the design and implementation of marketing programs and activities to build measure and manage brand equity