Brand Management

Exam

customer value

it is based upon the consumer's assessment of the product's overall capacity to satisfy needs and wants. Customers purchase based on value perception.

What is a brand for AMA

a name, sign, term, symbol, or design, or a combination , intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition. These different components of a brand that identify and differentiate it are brand elements.

What is a brand for managers

They refer to a brand as more than that— as something that has actually created a certain amount of awareness, reputation, prominence, and so on in the marketplace.

What is a product

It is anything we can offer to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want.
It may be a physical good, a service, a retail outlet, a person, an organization, a place, or even an idea.

five levels of product meaning

1. core benefit level

2. generic benefit level

3. expected benefit level

4. augmented benefit level

5. potential benefit level

importance of brands to consumers

▪ Identification of the source of the product
▪ Assignment of responsibility to product maker
▪ Search cost reducer
▪ Promise, bond, or pact with product maker
▪ Symbolic device
▪ Signal of quality

importance of brands to firms

• can be bought and sold

• provide the opportunities for revenues

• capable of influencing consumer behavior

• SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

• in a typical FMCG company tangible assets account for 10% and intangible around 70% - attributed to brands

importance of brand management

brands are ALWAYS vulnerable, even when they are strong

brand value

A brand's worth in terms of income, potential income, and prestige. it is what the brand is worth to shareholders and management

brand equity

a set of perceptions, knowledge and behavior on the part of customers that creates demand and a price premium for a branded product. a set of elements that help distinguish one brand from another.

Brand Equity (Keller)

A brand has positive customer- based brand equity when
consumers react more favourably to a product and the way it is marketed when the brand is identified than when it is not

benefits of brand equity

▪ greater customer loyalty
▪ less vulnerability to competitive marketing
actions
▪ larger margins
▪ more favorable customer response to price changes
▪ greater trade or intermediary support and cooperation
▪ increased marketing communication effectiveness
▪ licensing and line or brand extension opportunities

competitive advantage

• through product performance

• through non-product-related means

non-product-related means

Understand consumers motivations and wants and create brand images around products

power of the brand

▪ Brand equity arise from differences in consumer response. The differences are a result of consumers' knowledge about the brand
▪ What the consumers have ▪ Learned▪ Felt▪ Seen
▪ Heard
▪ about the brand as a result of experiences over time

challenges for marketers

▪ Ensure that consumers have the right type ofexperience with the product
▪ Develop marketing programms that ensure that the desired thoughts, feelings, image, beliefs etc are linked to the brand

brand knowledge

composed by brand awareness and brand image

brand awareness

Extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers, and is correctly associated with a particular product. (brand recognition and recall)
▪ Learning advantages
Register the brand in the minds of consumers
▪ Consideration advantage
Likelihood that the brand will be a member of the
consideration set
▪ Choice advantages
Affect choices among brands in the consideration set

How do you create Brand Awareness?

▪ Increasing the familiarity of the brand through repeated exposure (for brand recognition)
▪ Forging strong associations with the appropriate product category or other relevant purchase or consumption cues (for brand recall) for new brands - important to link with product category
▪ The more the consumers experiences the brand (seeing it, hearing about it, thinking about it - name, logo, symbol - ads, promos, sponsorship etc) the more likely they are to register the brand in her memory.
▪ Consumption cues = e.g., slogan, jingle

brand image

The consumers' beliefs about the company and/or its goods or services often in terms of quality, price, and value.
Strong, favorable, and unique brand associations.
•Forms of brand associations:
• Brand attributes (features): Descriptive features that characterize a product or service.
• Brand benefits: The personal value and meaning that consumers attach to the product or service attributes.

Creating a Positive Brand Image

▪ Brand Associations
▪ Does not matter which source of brand association
▪ Need to be favorable, strong, and unique
▪ Marketers should recognize the influence of all sources of information by both managing them as well as possible and by adequately accounting for them in designing communication strategies.

Sources of brand equity

▪ Word-of-mouth
▪ Sales People
▪ Consumer Reports
▪ Personal Experience

brand association map

A visual illustration that shows the different associations that a consumer has with a brand. competitors, products, related concepts, and brand attributes are listed

brand positioning

▪ Act of designing the company's offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the targetcustomers' minds
▪ Finding the proper "location" in the minds of consumers or market segment
▪ Allows consumers to think about a product or service in the "right" perspective

target market

▪ A market is the set of all actual and potential buyers who have sufficient interest in, income for, and access to a product.
▪ Market segmentation divides the market into distinct groups of homogeneous consumers who have similar needs and consumer behavior, and who thus require similar marketing mixes.
▪ Market segmentation requires making tradeoffs between costs and benefits.

Market Segmentation

different segmentation bases:

• behavioral

• demographic

• geographic

• psychographic

benefit segmentation

the process of grouping customers into market segments according to the benefits they seek from the product
Example of the tooth paste market
▪ Four main segments:
Sensory: Seeking flavor and product appearance
Sociables: Seeking brightness of teeth
Worriers: Seeking decay prevention
Independent: Seeking low price

Criteria for Segmentation

▪ Identifiability: Can we easily identify the segment?
▪ Size: Is there adequate sales potential in the segment?
▪ Accessibility: Are specialized distribution outlets and communication media available to reach the segment?
▪ Responsiveness: How favorably will the segment respond to a tailored marketing program?

PODs

attributes or benefits that consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate, and believe that they could not find to the same extent with a competitive brand.

POPs

are not necessarily unique to the brand but may in fact be shared with other brands.

Determining a frame of reference

Marketers need to know:
▪ Who the target consumer is (segment)
▪ Who the main competitors are
▪ How the brand is similar to these competitors
▪ How the brand is different from them

Nature of Competition

▪Often defined when deciding to target a certain type of consumer
▪ Do not define it too narrowly
▪ Ex: a luxury good with a strong hedonic benefit like stereo equipment may compete as much with a vacation as with other durable goods like furniture

key issues for optimal brand positioning

▪ Defining and communicating the competitive frame of reference
▪ Choosing and establishing points-of-parity and points- of-difference

Defining and Communicating the Competitive Frame of Reference

it is used to determine category membership for a brand positioning
The preferred approach to positioning is to inform consumers of a brand's membership before stating its point of difference in relationship to other category members.

Choosing POP's & POD's

Desirability criteria (consumer perspective)
▪ Personally relevant
▪ Distinctive and superior
▪ Believable and credible
Deliverability criteria (firm perspective)
▪ Feasible
▪ Profitable
▪ Pre-emptive, defensible, and difficult to attack

Factors and Dimensions

▪Top of the range ▪ Service▪Value for money ▪ Reliability
▪ Attractiveness ▪Country of origin▪Brand name

Attribute and Benefit Trade-offs

▪ Price and quality▪ Convenience and quality▪ Taste and low calories▪ Efficacy and mildness▪ Power and safety▪ Ubiquity and prestige▪ Comprehensiveness (variety) and simplicity ▪ Strength and refinement

Strategies to ReconcileAttribute and Benefit Trade-offs

▪ Establish separate marketing programs▪ Leverage secondary association (e.g., co-brand)▪ Re-define the relationship from negative to positive

ladder concept & strategies

each represents a different product category/subcategory each step represents the companies market share position in the category

▪ Create a new one either by product innovation or by Branding
▪ Is the position important and meaningful to the customer?
▪ If no new X is possible, reposition the competition

positioning

▪ Developing a positioning statement
▪ Positioning statements summarize the company or brand positioning
▪ EXAMPLE: To (target segment and need) our (brand) is (concept) that (point-of-difference).
▪ Communicating the chosen position

messaging

how you articulate the positioning verbatim in the advertising campaigns you create for specific segments and audiences.

It is creative (positioning is strategic.), campaign-specific (positioning is enduring.), and localized (positioning is global.)

Brand Equity Pyramid

top- consumer brand resonance (relationships)
3rd - consumer judgments & consumer feelings (response)
2nd- brand performance & brand imagery (meaning)
bottom- brand salience (identity)

Salience

Measures various aspects of the awareness of the brand:
• To what extent is the brand top-of-mind and easily recalled or recognized.
• How pervasive is this brand awareness?

Product category structure: How product categories are organized in the consumer's memory.
▪ To fully understand brand recall, we need to appreciate product category structure, or how product categories are organized in memory.

brand preference

which brands are preferred under assumptions of equality in price and availability

brand relevance

creating new categories or subcategories that alter the way that existing customers look at the purchase decision

brand performance

Describes how well the brand:
▪ Meets customers' more functional needs
▪ Rate on objective assessments of quality
▪ Satisfies utilitarian, aesthetic, and economic customer needs and wants in the product or service category

performance dimensions

Product reliability, durability, and serviceability. • Reliability: Measures the consistency of performance over time and from purchase to purchase. • Durability: Is the expected economic life of the product. • Serviceability: The ease of repairing the product if needed.

• style and design

• price • Consumers may organize their product category knowledge in terms of the price tiers of different brands.

performance dimensions of service

Service effectiveness, efficiency, and empathy
• Effectiveness: Measures how well the brand satisfies
customers' service requirements.
• Efficiency: Describes the speed and responsiveness of service.
• Empathy: Is the extent to which service providers are seen as trusting, caring, and having the customer's interests in mind.

Judgement Dimensions

brand quality, brand credibility, brand superiority, brand consideration

brand quality

Specific attributes and benefits of the brand that help
develop consumer attitudes toward the brand.
Important consumer attitudes relate to its perceived quality and to customer value and satisfaction.
measures are inherent in many approaches to brand equity.

brand credibility

Extent to which customers see the brand as credible in terms of perceived:
• Expertise - Competence, innovation, and ability to lead.
• Trustworthiness - Dependability and keeping customer
interests in mind.
• Likability - Fun, interesting, and worth spending time with.

brand consideration

• How personally relevant customers find the brand.
• Crucial filter in terms of building brand equity.

Brand Superiority

Extent to which customers view the brand as unique and better than other brands.
• Critical to building intense and active relationships with customers.
• Depends to a great degree on the number and nature of unique brand associations that make up the brand image.

Brand imagery

• User profile/imagery

• Purchase and usage situations/imagery

• Brand personality and values

• Brand history, heritage, and experiences

brand feelings

customers' emotional responses and reactions with respect to the brand
can be:
Experiential and immediate
Warmth - Soothing feelings that make consumers feel a
sense of calm or peacefulness.
Fun - Upbeat feelings that make consumers feel amused, lighthearted, joyous, playful, and cheerful.
Excitement - Ability of the brand to make consumers feel energized and experience something special.

Private and enduring
Security - Ability of a brand to produce a feeling of
safety, comfort, and self-assurance.
Social approval - Gives consumers a belief that others look favorably on their appearance and behavior.
Self-respect - Brand makes consumers feel better about themselves.

Brand Resonance

behavioral loyalty, attitudinal attachment, sense of community, active engagement

brand elements

Brand names, logos, symbols, characters, slogans, jingles, packaging, and URLs
**they usually choose to be easy for consumers to recognize and remember.

Purpose:
▪ Identify & differentiate the brand
▪ Helping to form strong, positive and unique brand associations
▪ Do they enhance brand awareness (recognition and recall)?
▪ Do they stand the test of time?

Branded House

company applies its brand name to multiple, often unrelated services

House of Brands Strategy

A collection of individual brands all with different names

brand relationship spectrum

the degree to which brands are separated in consumer's minds the less the separation in consumers minds, the more transfer of associations

• branded house

• subbrands

• endorsed brands

• house of brands

Brand Hierarchy Levels

corporate brand --> family brand --> individual brand --> modifier: item or model

Criteria for choosing brand elements

1. Memorable

2. Meaningful

3. Likable

4. Transferable (How useful is the brand element for line or category extensions? To what extent does the brand element add to brand equity across geographic boundaries and market segments?)

5. Adaptable

6. Protectable

brand names

▪ Captures the central theme or key associations of a product in a very compact and economical fashion
▪ Most difficult element for marketers to change
▪ Closely tied to the product in the minds of consumers

Brand Naming Guidelines

1. Brand Awareness

• Simplicity and ease of pronunciation and spelling

• Familiarity and meaningfulness,

• Differentiated, distinctive, and uniqueness

2. Brand Associations

• The explicit and implicit meanings consumers extract from it are important. In particular, the brand name can reinforce an important attribute or benefit association that makes up its product positioning.

Types of Brand Names

• descriptive

• acronyms

• invented (Created specifically to represent a brand. The best invented brand names are based on phonetically constructed names.)

• experiential (like positioning statements.)

five characteristics to test brand name

▪ Distinctive: How does the name stand out amongst the competition?
▪ Sound: Say the name out loud. How does it sound? Is it easy to say? Is it poetic?
▪ Stickiness: Is the name easy to remember? How many times do you have to hear it before you remember it?
▪ Expression: Does the name demonstrate what your brand is all about? Does it fit your brand's personality?
▪ Appearance: What does the word look like in print? Does it look as good as it sounds?

Brand Naming Procedures

• Define objectives

• Generate names

• Screen initial candidates

• Study candidate names

• Research the final candidates

• Select the final name

URLs

specify locations of pages on the web and are also commonly referred to as domain names.

logos and symbols

▪ Play a critical role in building brand equity and especially brand awareness
▪ They range from corporate names or trademarks (word marks with text only) written in a distinctive form, to entirely abstract designs that may be completely unrelated to the word mark, corporate name, or corporate activities

Anthropomorphism

an interpretation of what is not human or personal in terms of human or personal characteristics : humanization

slogans

▪ short phrases that communicate descriptive or persuasive information about the brand.
▪ They are powerful branding devices because, like brand names, they are an extremely efficient, shorthand means to build brand equity ▪ It's memorable.
▪ It includes a key benefit.▪ It differentiates the brand.▪ It imparts positive feelings about the brand.

Jingles

▪ They are musical messages written around the brand. Typically composed by professional songwriters, they often have enough catchy hooks and choruses to become almost permanently registered in the minds of listeners—sometimes whether they want them to or not!
▪ They are perhaps most valuable in enhancing brand awareness.

packaging

From the perspective of both the firm and consumers, this brand element must achieve a number of objectives:
▪ Identify the brand
▪ Convey descriptive and persuasive information
▪ Facilitate product transportation and protection
▪ Assist at-home storage
▪ Aid product consumption

It can influence our taste

brand identity

▪ The entire set of brand elements makes up part of the brand identity, the contribution of all brand elements to awareness and image.
▪ The cohesiveness of the brand identity depends on the extent to which the brand elements are consistent.

Semiotics

▪ It is an investigation into how meaning is created and how meaning is communicated, how signs and symbols (visual and linguistic) create meaning.
▪ Understanding how culture in which we live has a massive impact on all of us unconsciously

▪ IT IS Useful FOR CATEGORIES WHERE BRAND DIFFERENCES CANNOT BE SPELLED OUT THROUGH LANGUAGE:
▪ MATURE CATEGORIES WHERE PRODUCTS HAVE VERV FEW FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENCES.
▪ COMPLEX CATEGORIES WHERE PRODUCT DIFFERENCES ARE DIFFICULT TO CONVEVY CONCISELY IN LAYMEN ' S TERMS (e.g. TECHNOLOGY, FINANCIAL SERVICES).
▪ IT IS ALSO USEFUL FOR ENSURING OPTIMAL COMMUNICATION IN DIFFERENT CULTURAL CONTEXTS.

leverage the brand

Firms are seeking to build "power" or "mega" brands that establish a broad market footprint appealing to multiple customer segments with multiple products all underneath the brand umbrella.

developing a brand architecture strategy

Helps marketers determine which products and services to introduce, and which brand names, logos, and symbols to apply to new and existing products.

Step 1: Defining Brand Potential
Step 2: Identifying Brand Extension Opportunities
Step 3: Branding New Products and Services

Defining Brand Potential

• the brand vision

• the brand boundaries

• the brand positioning

Core Brand Values

Set of abstract concepts or phrases that characterize the five to ten most important dimensions of the mental map of a brand

Brand Mantra

A short, three to five word phrase that captures the irrefutable essence or spirit of the brand positioning

Designing a Brand Mantra

The term brand functions describes the nature of the product or service or the type of experiences or benefits the brand provides

The descriptive modifier further clarifies its nature.

The emotional modifier provides another qualifier— how exactly does the brand provide benefits, and in what way?

Identifying Brand Extension Opportunities

Brand extension is a new product introduced under an existing brand name
▪ Line extensions: New product introductions within existing categories
▪ Category extensions: New product introductions outside existing categories
▪ Equity implications of each extension needs to be understood in terms of:▪ Points-of-parity (credibility in new category)
▪ Points-of-difference (is the existing PoD useful in the new category)

branding new products and services

New products and services must be branded in a way to maximize the brand's overall clarity
▪ Branded house and house of brands strategy

Brand Extension Strategy

1. Similar product in a different form from the original parent product.

2. Introduce products that contain the brand's distinctive taste,ingredient, or component. Example: Philadelphia cream cheese snack Hershey chocolate milk

3. Introduce companion products for the brand. Example: Duracell flashlights

4. Introduce products that capitalize on the firm's perceived expertise.Example: Honda lawn mowers

5. Introduce products that capitalize on the distinctive image or prestige of the brand. Example: Porsche sunglasses ▪ 6. Benefit/attribute/feature owned. ▪ 7. Vertical extensions. Some brand extensions are vertical extensions of what they currently offer. A brand can use their"ingredient/component" heritage to launchproducts in a more (or sometimes less) finished form.

When are brand extensions appropriate?

If they see some basis of "fit" or similarity between the proposed extension and parent brand

The major mistake in evaluating extension opportunities is failing to take all of consumers' brand knowledge structures into account.

Often, marketers mistakenly focus on only one brand association and ignore other potentially important brand associations in the process.

The extended interactive market communication model

1. traditional one-way approach (bowling)

2. customer-driven interaction (one-to-one)

3. social media marketing (viral marketing)

4. social media marketing (pinball approach)

earned media

a category of promotional tactic based on a public relations or publicity model that gets customers talking about products or services (WoM)

paid media

a category of promotional tactic based on the traditional advertising model, whereby a brand pays for media space

owned media

a new category of promotional tactic based on brands becoming publishers of their own content in order to maximize the brands' value to customers

Influencer Tiers

mega
macro
mid tier
micro
nano

direct marketing

sales and promotional techniques that deliver promotional materials individually

permission marketing

In Direct marketing, it is the act of getting consent from a subscriber to send them commercial marketing messages.
Two types
implied
express

brand communication

▪ It happens when the consumer meets the brand, no matter how.
▪ Ensure that every 'brand meeting' builds the brand