Brand Management
Brand and Branding
Understanding Brand - What is a Brand?
Brands are different from products in a way that brands are
“what the consumers buy”, while products are “what concern/companies make”.
Brand is an accumulation of emotional and functional associations. Brand is a
promise that the product will perform as per customer’s expectations. It shapes
customer’s expectations about the product. Brands usually have a trademark which
protects them from use by others. A brand gives particular information about
the organization, good or service, differentiating it from others in
marketplace. Brand carries an assurance about the characteristics that make the
product or service unique. A strong brand is a means of making people aware of
what the company represents and what are its offerings.
According
to American Marketing Association brand defines as, “a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended
to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate
them from those of competitors.”
Some examples of well-known brands are Mc
Donald’s’, Mercedes-Benz, Sony, Coca Cola, Kingfisher, etc.
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
Brands simplify consumers purchase decision. Over a
period of time, consumers discover the brands which satisfy their need. If the
consumers recognize a particular brand and have knowledge about it, they make
quick purchase decision and save lot of time. Also, they save search costs for
product. Consumers remain committed and loyal to a brand as long as they
believe and have an implicit understanding that the brand will continue meeting
their expectations and perform in the desired manner consistently. As long as
the consumers get benefits and satisfaction from consumption of the product,
they will more likely continue to buy that brand. Brands also play a crucial
role in signifying certain product features to consumers.
To a seller, brand means and signifies:
·
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
A brand, in short, 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.
What is branding?
Branding is the
management process by which a product is branded.
Branding is the process
of creating, maintaining, strengthening or changing a brand.
Branding is a powerful and sustainable marketing
strategy that we use to influence and manage the way people perceive and
respond to your brand, and thereby influence their buying decisions.
We do this by:
·
creating an affinity or emotional connection with
the consumer
·
providing justification for paying a premium price
for a service or product
·
creating loyalty to the product or organization
·
demonstrating the quality & benefits of a
service or product and the company behind it.
Acquiring loyal customers (who are happy to pay a
premium price) is what many successful businesses strive for, and that’s what
the marketing strategy called branding is all about.
Functions of Branding
Following
are the major functions of the branding:
1.
It helps in product identification and gives distinctiveness to a product.
2.
Indirectly, it denotes the quality or standard of a product.
3.
It eliminates imitation products.
4.
It ensures legal right on the product.
5.
It helps in advertising and packaging activities.
6.
It helps to create and sustain brand loyalty to particular products.
7.
It helps in price differentiation of products.
Brand Evolution
Brand evolution is a baby steps in
response to customers feedback, design trends, the market place and internal
change too.
The ‘Theory of Brand Evolution’ is a
five-phase theory that explains how brands might go from zero to
hero. It charts how brands evolve from genesis to billion-dollar
turnover and beyond.
The five phases are:
1. Birth
2. Nurture
3. Extend Land
4. Extend Product
5. Status
Here we use sports performance brands to
explain how this is achieved using some of our clients as
examples. This is essential reading for any aspirant brand builder.
PHASE 1 – BIRTH
Establish Meaning
Phase 1 is all about establishing a
brand’s meaning.
This comes from one or all of three
areas:
a. Product and its creation
b. Behaviour and how it shapes brand
character
c. The newness the brand brings to the
market
The
act of establishing the brand authority within a mature market can take a brand
from zero to ₹10million.
PHASE 2- NURTURE
Gain Traction
Phase 2 is all about commercialization.
Traction is necessary in three areas:
a. Geographical traction
b. Channel traction
c. Product traction
The
energy needed to ensure brand traction is huge. In performance, brands gaining
traction within a mature market can take a brand from ₹10million to ₹30million.
The critical characteristic of this phase
is that the brand is still focusing on selling a single, specific product for a
specific use, to a specific customer. However, in this stage growth is being fueled
in the domestic market with third party sales and vertically with online sales
PHASE 3 – EXTEND LAND
Land
Phase 3 is all about converting the
traction in the domestic market into opportunities overseas.
The three areas of focus here are:
a. Reinforcing the domestic market
b. Establishing the international market
c. Turning up the volume on presence
There
is still no need to redefine a brand’s meaning at this phase. It should be
about making introductions and engendering presence. The land grab in
performance brands should take a brand from ₹30million to north of ₹100million.
PHASE 4 – EXTEND
PRODUCT
Product
Phase 4 is all about sharpening the
brand’s meaning to enable wider product reach.
There are three areas of focus:
a. Sharpen the brand meaning to broaden
its appeal
b. Sharpen the insights into the
consumer’s life
c. Broaden the product offer to occupy a
broader share of that life
This is the phase where most brands come
unstuck. In order to widen their product offer, extend their consumer audience
and grow their share, they broaden their brand’s meaning. This is where it
usually falls apart! In broadening the brand’s meaning it becomes diluted and
weaker.
This
phase is all about sharpening a brand’s meaning and then strengthening its product
reach. A sharper brand focus with extended reach can take a brand from ₹100m to
a ₹ billion.
PHASE 5 – STATUS
Aspiration
Phase 5 is all about selling products
that convey a status and aspiration beyond their function. Statistics vary but
the conventional wisdom is that much of Nike’s products are never used for
their prescribed end-use function. Herein lies the route to being a ‘super
brand’.
Again, there are three areas of focus:
a. Retain a sharp brand meaning and focus
b. Acknowledge that whilst the brand
meaning does not shift, its appeal must
c. Brand communication must evolve from a
quality-driven delivery to a status-driven delivery
Brand meaning and brand content stay the
same but brand communication must now orient around conveying status. Simply
put, the brand’s new customer isn’t consuming the product for its end-use
design purpose; they are consuming the product because it confers a status on
them.
The critical characteristic of this phase
is that the brand is still focusing on selling multiple products to multiple
customers. Growth is being fueled by global sales, and the products are being
consumed non-specifically as lifestyle products that convey status. A ‘super
brand’ will see growth extend way beyond a ₹billion and into the ₹billions.
Levi’s is an example of this:
a. Levi’s is the authentic jeans brand
b. Levi’s jeans are worn for everyday use
way beyond their original workwear design purpose
c. Levi’s authenticity conveys a “truth”
and a “credibility” that elevates their consumers’ status.
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