Brand= A Name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them, intended to identify the gods or services of a seller and to differentiate them from other sellers.
Role of Brands:- Identify the source of goods and/ or service
- Help company in product handling and tracing
- Provide legal protection to the firm
- Is a promise of a certain level of quality to the customers
- Helps producer getting a premium of 20-25% more on the product
- Strong brands help stock price of the compnay by having better sales.
Scope of Brands
- Branding is to create a difference as compared to others by teaching the customers "who" the product is, "what" it does and "why" the customer should care.
- Convincing the customer about existance of meaningful differences between brands in a prduct category.
Brand Equity
It is the added value endowed to products and services. It relflects in how consumers feel, think and react with respect to the product. It is an intangible asset with financial and psychological value for company.
- Customer based brand equity: The differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand.
- Brand knowledge: Consists of all thoughts, feelings, iages, experiences and beliefs associated with the brand.
- Brand Promise: marketer's vision of what the brand must be and do for the customer
Brand Equity Models
- Brand Asset Evaluator (DREK): 4 key components or pillars- Differentiator (measured the degree to which a brand is seen different from others), Relevance (measures the breadth of a brand's appeal), Esteem (measures how wel the brand is regarded and respected) and Knowledge (measures how familiar and intimate consumers are with the brand).
- Aaker's Model: Brand Equity is a set of five brand assets and loaylities linked with a brand- Brand Loyalty, Brand Awareness, Perceived Quality, Brand Associations, Other Proprietery assets like patents, trademarks and channel relationships. According to Aaker a imporant concept for building brand equity is Brand Identity that he says consists of 12 dimensions organized around 4 perspectives: Brand-as-a-product (product scope, product atribute, quality/value, uses, users, country of origin), brand-as-an-organization (orgnizational attributes, loacl versus global), brand-as-a-person (brand personality, brand-customer relationships) and Brand-as-symbol (visual imagery/metaphors and brand heritage)
Builiding Brand Equity: There are three main drivers of building the brand equity
- Choosing Right Brand Elements: Brand Names, Logos, Symbols, Characters, Spokespeople, slogans, jingles, packages and signages. Brand elements can be chosen on the following criteria- Memorable, Meaningful, Likeable, Transferrable, Adaptable, Protectible.
- Brand Elements are accompanied by appropriate marketing activities and supporting marketing programs (Personalization: Custom-made marketing through mediums like the net, Integration: Mixing and matching various arketing activities to maximise their effect, Internalization: to help inform employees and other internal stakeholders).
- Other associations are indirectly transferred to brand by linking it to some other entity like a person, place or being:
Measuring Brand Equity:
- Brand Audits
- Brand Tracking
- Brand Valuations
Managing Brand Equity
- Brand Reinforcement: An established, successful brand moving formward in the right direction. Not deviating from a established position unless it is extremely needed.
- Brand Revitalization: An old forgotten brand being revived for their earlier positioning amongst the target customers
- Brand Crisis: MAy arise due to some untoward incident (Worms in Cadbury, potentially explosive Nokia batteries). Can be handled if managed carefully.
Devising a Brand Strategy
Three main choices that a company has while devising a brand straegy
- To develop new brand elements for new product
- To apply some of its existing brand elements
- To use a combination of new and existing brand elements
Brand Extension: Using an established brand to introduce another product
Line Extension: Introducing a new product within the product category with an established brand
Category Extension: Same brand is used for entering an entirely new product category.
