Developing Marketing Strategy

Managing Products & Brands

The Product and the Product Mix

• Brand decisions– What is a brand?

• Attributes• Benefits• Values• Culture• Personality• User

Meaning of a brand

• Commonly used research approaches to determine brand meaning:– Word associations…what comes to your mind– Personifying the brand…. what do you identify the

brand with– Laddering up the brand essence

• Brand essence…deeper reason for buying• Laddering up…. building further on the reasons

Building Brand Identity

– Brand bonding• Brands are not built by advertising

but by the brand experience• Everyone in the company lives the brand• Three ways to carry on internal branding –

Employees must– Understand– Desire, and – Deliver on the brand promise

Clarify the corporation’s basic values and build the corporate brand.– Use brand managers to carry out the tactical work.– Develop a more comprehensive brand-building plan.– Define the brand’s basic essence to be delivered

wherever it is sold.– Use the brand-value proposition as the key driver of the

company’s strategy, operations, services, and product development.

– Measure their brand-building effectiveness, not by the old measures of awareness, recognition, and recall, but by a more comprehensive set of measures including customer-perceived value, customer satisfaction, customer share of wallet, customer retention, and customer advocacy.

Building Brands in the new economy

Brand Equity

• Brand Equity– Brand awareness– Brand acceptability– Brand preference

• Aaker’s five levels of customer attitude:– The customer will change brands, especially for

price reasons. No brand loyalty.– Customer is satisfied. No reason to change brands.– Customer is satisfied and would incur cost by

changing brand.– Customer values the brand and sees it as a friend.– Customer is devoted to the brand.

Brand Equity

– Value of Brand Equity• Brand valuation• Competitive advantages of high brand equity:

– The company will have more leverage in bargaining with distributors and retailers because customers expect them to carry the brand.

– The company can charge a higher price than its competitors because the brand has higher perceived quality.

– The company can more easily launch extensions because the brand name carries high credibility.

– The brand offers some defense against price competition.

• Branding Challenges– Branding Decision: To Brand or Not to Brand?

An Overview of Branding Decisions

The Product and the Product Mix

Why branding ????

– Branding gives the seller several advantages:• Brand name makes it easier for the seller to process

orders and track down problems• Seller’s brand name and trademark provide legal

protection of unique product features• Branding gives the seller the opportunity to attract a loyal

and profitable set of customers.• Branding helps the seller segment markets.• Strong brands help build corporate image, making it

easier to launch new brands and gain acceptance by distributors and consumers.

Brand Sponsors

– Brand-Sponsor Decisions• Manufacturer brand• Distributor brand• Licensed brand name

What’s in a name?

– Desirable qualities for a brand name• It should suggest something about the product’s benefits• It should suggest the product or service category• It should suggest concrete, “high imagery” qualities• It should be easy to spell, pronounce, recognize, and

remember• It should be distinctive• It should not carry poor meanings in other countries and

languages

A Brand Must be More Than a Name

• A brand must trigger words or associations (features and

benefits).

• A brand should depict a process (McDonald’s, Amazon).

• A great brand triggers emotions (Harley-Davidson).

• A great brand represents a promise of value (Sony).

• The ultimate brand builders are your employees and

operations, i.e., your performance, not your marketing

communications.

Brand-Name Decision

• Four available strategies:– Individual names…Dove, LUX– Blanket family names….Amul– Separate family names for all products in a

category…Maggi– Corporate name combined with

individual product names…Cadbury’s

Tools for Building Brands

• Advertising (e.g.,Absolut Vodka)

• Sponsorships (e.g., Kodak and Olympics)

• Clubs (e.g. Nestle’s Maggi Club)

• Company visits (e.g., Cadbury’s)

• Trade shows

• Traveling exhibits

• Worldwide web casts of presentations, roundtables, entertainment

• Distribution outlets (e.g., Haagen-Dazs)

• Public facilities

• Social causes ( Tata Memorial Hospital)

• High value for the money ( Ikea.)

• User community building ( Harley-Davidson)

• Founder’s personality ( Colonel Saunders- KFC)

• Celebrity spokespersons

Branding Components

• Name– Short, suggestive, memorable, unique,

pronounceable• Slogan• Logo and typeface• Colors• Music (Jingles)• Theme lines (Pure for Sure!)• Stationery and business cards• Offices• Trucks• Dress code

There is No Such Thing as a Commodity: Differentiate by Segments

• Mobil conducted a study of 2,000 gasoline buyers and identified five segments:– Road Warriors (always driving)

– True Blues (brand or dealer loyal)

– Generation F3 (liked convenience store aspect)

– Homebodies (fills up at nearest station)

– Price Shoppers (20% of all the buyers)

• Mobil rolled out Friendly Serve: cleaner property, bathrooms, better lighting, well-stocked stores, and friendlier personnel.

• Mobil charged $.02 more and sales increased by 20-25 percent.

Branding Strategy

– Brand Strategy Decision– Functional brand...to satisfy a functional need– Image brand…to convey an image “Cross Pens”– Experiential brands…need to experience it

“Barista”• Line Extensions

– Introducing additional items in the same product category…Clinic, Clinic Plus

• Brand extensions– Using existing brand to enter newer categories e.g

Dettol soap, Dettol antiseptic lotion– Wills cigarettes & Wills lifestyle apparels

Don’t Overuse Advertising to Build a Brand

People don’t pay that much attention to ads anymore.

Some exceptional TV ads grab attention but do not provide motivation. e.g Ericsson ad

Advertising doesn’t have much credibility or believability.

The existence of so much advertising makes advertising less effective. Yet the cost of advertising keeps rising.

Multi-Branding

• Multibranding--- New Brands, and Co-Brands

– Multi-branding» Flanker Brands

– Co-branding (Dual branding)» Ingredient co-branding» Same-company co-branding» Joint venture co-branding

Packaging & Labeling

• Packaging and Labeling– Packaging– Package

• Primary Package• Secondary Package• Shipping Package

– Factors which have contributed to the growing use of packaging as a marketing tool

• Self-Service• Consumer affluence• Company and brand image• Innovation opportunity

Packaging & Labeling

– Labeling• Functions

– Identification– Grading– Description

• Consumerists have lobbied for:– Open dating– Unit pricing– Contents labeling

What Are the Most Frequent Causes of Brand Failure?

• Failure to live up to the brand promise.• Failure to adequately support the brand.• Failure to adequately control the brand.• Failure to properly balance consistency and change with

the brand.• Failure to do brand equity measurement and

management.