Brand Management
The Process of maintaining, improving, and upholding a brand so that the name is associated with positive Brand management involves a number of important aspects such S cost, customer satisfaction, in-store presentation, and competition. Brand management is a function of marketing that uses techniques to increase the perceived value of a product line or brand over time. Effective brand management enables the price of products to go up and builds loyal customers through positive brand associations and images or a strong awareness of the brand. Developing a strategic plan to maintain brand equity but focuses directly on the brand and how that brand can remain favorable to customers.
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.
For example, if a customer loves Britannia biscuits and trust the brand, that customer like to try other products offered by the same brand such as chocolate chip cookies.....
To a consumer, brand means and signifies:
Source of product
Delegating responsibility to the manufacturer of product
Lower risk
Less search cost
Quality symbol
Deal or pact with the product manufacturer
Symbolic device
concepts of brand management
• Basis of competitive advantage
• Way of bestowing products with unique associations
• Way of identification to easy handling
• Way of legal protection of products’ unique traits/features
• Sign of quality to satisfied customer
• Means of financial returns
Simply a Brand can be defined as a seller’s promise to provide consistently a unique set of characteristics, advantages, and services to the buyers/consumers. It is a name, term, sign, symbol or a combination of all these planned to differentiate the goods/services of one seller or group of sellers from those of competitors.
Some examples are iPhone, MC Donald’s, Samsung, Coca cola...etc...
A brand connects the four crucial elements of an enterprise- customers, employees, management and shareholders. Brand is nothing but an assortment of memories in customers mind. Brand represents values, ideas and even personality. It is a set of functional, emotional and rational associations and benefits which have occupied target market’s mind.
• Brand Name
Brand name is one of the brand elements which helps the customers to identify and differentiate one product from another. It should be chosen very carefully as it captures the key theme of a product in an efficient and economical manner. It can easily be noticed and its meaning can be stored and triggered instantly. Brand names are not necessarily associated with the product. In other sense brand names are based on places(Ex. Air india), animals(Tiger biscuit), birds (pigeon kitchen Applianes),
Features of a Good Brand Name
A good brand name should have following characteristics:
1. It should be unique / distinctive (for instance- Kodak, Mustang)
2. It should be extendable.
3. It should be easy to pronounce, identified and memorized. (For instance-Tide)
4. It should give an idea about product’s qualities and benefits (For instance- Swift, Quick fix, Lip guard).
5. It should be easily convertible into foreign languages.
6. It should be capable of legal protection and registration.
7. It should suggest product/service category (For instance Newsweek).
8. It should indicate concrete qualities (For instance Fire bird).
9. It should not portray bad/wrong meanings in other categories. (For instance NOVA is a poor name for a car to be sold in Spanish country, because in Spanish it means “doesn’t go”).
Process of Selecting a successful Brand Name
• Generation of multiple names - Any potential source of names can be used; organization, management and employees, current or potential customers, agencies and professional consultants.
• Screening of names on the basis of branding objectives and marketing considerations so as to have a more synchronized list - The brand names must not have connotations, should be easily pronounceable, should meet the legal requirements
• Gathering more extensive details on each of the finalized names - There should be extensive international legal search done. These searches are at times done on a sequential basis because of the expense involved
• On the basis of the above steps, management can finalize the brand name that maximizes the organization’s branding and marketing objectives and then formally register the brand name
• Brand attributes
Brand Attributes portray a company’s brand characteristics. They signify the basic nature of brand. Brand attributes are a bundle of features that highlight the physical and personality aspects of the brand. Attributes are developed through images, actions, or presumptions. Brand attributes help in creating brand identity.
A strong brand must have following attributes:
1. Relevancy- A strong brand must be relevant. It must meet people’s expectations and should perform the way they want it to. A good job must be done to persuade consumers to buy the product; else inspite of your product being unique, people will not buy it.
2. Consistency- A consistent brand signifies what the brand stands for and builds customers trust in brand. A consistent brand is where the company communicates message in a way that does not deviate from the core brand proposition.
3. Proper positioning- A strong brand should be positioned so that it makes a place in target audience mind and they prefer it over other brands.
4. Sustainable- A strong brand makes a business competitive. A sustainable brand drives an organization towards innovation and success. Example of sustainable brand is Marks and Spencer’s.
5. Credibility- A strong brand should do what it promises. The way you communicate your brand to the audience/ customers should be realistic. It should not fail to deliver what it promises. Do not exaggerate as customers want to believe in the promises you make to them.
6. Inspirational- A strong brand should transcend/ inspire the category it is famous for. For example- Nike transcendent Jersey Polo Shirt.
7. Uniqueness- A strong brand should be different and unique. It should set you apart from other competitors in market.
8. Appealing- A strong brand should be attractive. Customers should be attracted by the promise you make and by the value you deliver.
Brand Positioning
Brand positioning refers to “target consumer’s” reason to buy your brand in preference to others. It is ensures that all brand activity has a common aim; is guided, directed and delivered by the brand’s benefits/reasons to buy; and it focusses at all points of contact with the consumer.
Brand positioning must make sure that:
• Is it unique/distinctive vs. competitors ?
• Is it significant and encouraging to the niche market ?
• Is it appropriate to all major geographic markets and businesses ?
• Is the proposition validated with unique, appropriate and original products ?
• Is it sustainable - can it be delivered constantly across all points of contact with the consumer ?
Brand Positioning can be defined as an activity of creating a brand offer in such a manner that it occupies a distinctive place and value in the target customer’s mind . for ex Kotak Mahindra positions itself in the customer’s mind as one entity- “Kotak ”- which can provide customized and one-stop solution for all their financial services needs. It has an unaided top of mind recall. It intends to stay with the proposition of “Think Investments, Think Kotak”. The positioning you choose for your brand will be influenced by the competitive stance you want to adopt.
There are various positioning errors
1. Under positioning- This is a scenario in which the customer’s have a blurred and unclear idea of the brand.
2. Over positioning- This is a scenario in which the customers have too limited a awareness of the brand.
3. Confused positioning- This is a scenario in which the customers have a confused opinion of the brand.
4. Double Positioning- This is a scenario in which customers do not accept the claims of a brand.
• Brand Identity
Brand identity from the organization is responsible for creating a distinguished product with unique characteristics. It is how an organization seeks to identify itself. It represents how an organization wants to be perceived in the market. An organization communicates its identity to the consumers through its branding and marketing strategies. A brand is unique due to its identity. Brand identity includes following elements - Brand vision, brand culture, positioning, personality, relationships, and presentations.
Brand identity is the total proposal/promise that an organization makes to consumers. The brand can be perceived as a product, a personality, a set of values, and a position it occupies in consumer’s minds. Brand identity is all that an organization wants the brand to be considered as. It is a feature linked with a specific company, product, service or individual. It is a way of externally expressing a brand to the world.
Brand identity is the noticeable elements of a brand (for instance - Trademark colour, logo, name, symbol) that identify and differentiates a brand in target audience mind. It is a crucial means to grow your company’s brand.
• Brand Personality
Brand personality is the way a brand speaks and behaves. It means assigning human personality traits/characteristics to a brand so as to achieve differentiation. These characteristics signify brand behaviour through both individuals representing the brand . Infosys represents uniqueness, value, and intellectualism.
• Brand awareness
Brand awareness is the probability that consumers are familiar about the life and availability of the product. It is the degree to which consumers precisely associate the brand with the specific product. It is measured as ratio of niche market that has former knowledge of brand. Brand awareness includes both brand recognition as well as brand recall. Brand
There are two types of brand awareness:
1. Aided awareness- This means that on mentioning the product category, the customers recognize your brand from the lists of brands shown.
2. Top of mind awareness (Immediate brand recall)- This means that on mentioning the product category, the first brand that customer recalls from his mind is your brand.
• Brand Loyalty
Brand Loyalty is a scenario where the consumer fears purchasing and consuming product from another brand which he does not trust. It is measured through methods like word of mouth publicity, repetitive buying, price sensitivity, commitment, brand trust, customer satisfaction, etc. Brand loyalty is the extent to which a consumer constantly buys the same brand within a product category.
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 Association
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 Management | Best Branding Agency in Bangalore | branding agencies in Bangalore | branding and ad agencies in Bangalore | branding company in Bangalore
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