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Section I
BRANDING
Article 1.
Brand Management - Meaning and Important Concepts
Brand management begins with having a thorough knowledge of the term “brand”. It includes developing a promise, making that promise and maintaining it. It means defining the brand, positioning the brand, and delivering the brand. Brand management is nothing but an art of creating and sustaining the brand. Branding makes customers committed to your business. A strong brand differentiates your products from the competitors. It gives a quality image to your business.
In marketing, brand management is the analysis and planning on how that brand is perceived in the market. Developing a good relationship with the target marker is essential for brand management. Brand management is a function of marketing that uses special techniques in order to increase the perceived value of a product. Based on the aims of the established marketing strategy, brand management enables the price of products to grow and builds loyal customers through positive associations and images or a strong awareness of the brand.
Brand management includes managing the tangible and intangible characteristics of brand. In case of product brands, the tangibles include the product itself, price, packaging, etc. While in case of service brands, the tangibles include the customers’ experience. The intangibles include emotional connections with the product / service.
Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; look, price, the packaging, etc. The intangible elements are the experience that the consumer has had with the brand, and also the relationship that they have with that brand. A brand manager would oversee all of these things.
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.
Strong brands reduce customers’ perceived monetary, social and safety risks in buying goods/services. The customers can better imagine the intangible goods with the help of brand name. Strong brand organizations have a high market share. The brand should be given good support so that it can sustain itself in the long run. It is essential to manage all brands and build brand equity over a period of time. Here comes importance and usefulness of brand management. Brand management helps in building a corporate image. A brand manager has to oversee overall brand performance. A successful brand can only be created if the brand management system is competent.
http://managementstudyguide.com/brand-management.htm
In 2001 Hislop[1] defined branding as "the process of creating a relationship or a connection between a company's product and emotional perception of the customer for the purpose of generating segregation among competition and building loyalty among customers." In 2004 and 2008, Kapferer and Keller respectively defined it as a fulfillment in customer expectations and consistent customer satisfaction.
The origin of branding can be traced to ancient times, when specialists often put individual trademarks on hand-crafted goods. The branding of farm animals in Egypt in 2700 BC to avoid theft may be considered the earliest form of branding, as in its literal sense. As somewhat more than half of companies older than 200 years old are in Japan, (see: List of oldest companies), many Japanese businesses are East Asian forms of brand or trademark. In the West, Staffelter Hof dates to 862 or earlier and still produces wine under its name today. By 1266, English bakers were required by law to put a specific symbol on each product they sold. Branding became more widely used in the 19th century, through the industrial revolution and the development of new professional fields like marketing, manufacturing and business management. Branding is a way of differentiating product from mere commodities and therefore usage of branding expanded with each advance in transportation, communication, and trade.
The modern discipline of brand management is considered to have been started by a famous memo at Procter & Gamble by Neil H. McElroy.
Interbrand's 2012 top-10 global brands are Coca-Cola, Apple, IBM, Google, Microsoft, GE, McDonald's, Intel, Samsung, and Toyota. The split between commodities/food services and technology is not a matter of chance: both industrial sectors rely heavily on sales to the individual consumer who must be able to rely on cleanliness/quality or reliability/value, respectively. For this reason, industries such as agricultural (which sells to other companies in the food sector), student loans (which have a relationship with universities/schools rather than the individual loan-taker), and electricity (which is generally a controlled monopoly) have less prominent and less recognized branding. Brand value, moreover, is not simply a fuzzy feeling of "consumer appeal," but an actual quantitative value of good will under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Companies will rigorously defend their brand name, including prosecution of trademark infringement. Occasionally trademarks may differ across countries.
Among the most highly visible and recognizable brands is the red Coca-Cola can. Despite numerous blind tests indicating that Coke's flavor is not preferred, Coca-Cola continues to enjoy a dominant share of the cola market. Coca-Cola's history is so replete with uncertainty that a folklore has sprung up around the brand, including the (refuted) myth that Coca-Cola invented the red-dressed Santa-Claus which is used to gain market entry in less capitalistic regions in the world such as the former Soviet Union and China, and such brand-management stories as "Coca-Cola's first entry into the Chinese market resulted in their brand being translated as 'bite the wax tadpole')[2] Brand management science is replete with such stories, including the Chevrolet 'Nova' or "it doesn't go" in Spanish, and proper cultural translation is useful to countries entering new markets.
Modern brand management also intersects with legal issues such as 'genericization of trademark.' The 'Xerox' Company continues to fight heavily in media whenever a reporter or other writer uses 'xerox' as simply a synonym for 'photocopy.' Should usage of 'xerox' be accepted as the standard English term for 'photocopy,' then Xerox's competitors could successfully argue in court that they are permitted to create 'xerox' machines as well. Yet, in a sense, reaching this stage of market domination is itself a triumph of brand management, in that becoming so dominant typically involves strong profit.
Answer the following questions to the article:
8. Compare different definitions of branding given in this article and choose one that you consider the most appropriate, explain your choice.
9. Speak about the early history of branding and its development.
10. Explain why some brands are less recognized than others.
11. Give the brief brand-management story of first entry of Coca-Cola into the Chinese market. What does it show? Can you remember another similar story? What was the outcome of it? (use different sources of information if you are out of the picture).
12. What does “genericization of trademark” mean? What does it give to the company? Give examples.
Exercises:
Ex.1. Select the appropriate expressions to complete the text:
Branding.
In a market containing several similar competing products, producers can augment their basic product with additional services and benefits such as customer advice, delivery, credit facilities, a warranty or guaranty, maintenance, after-sales service, and so on, (1)___________ distinguish it from competitors’ offers.
Most producers also differentiate their products by branding them. Some manufacturers, such as Yamaha, Microsoft, and Colgate, use their name (the “family name”) for all their products. Others market various products under individual brand names, (2) _________ many customers are unaware of the name of the manufacturing company. (3) _________, Unilever and Procter & Gamble, the major producers of soap powders, famously have a multi-brand strategy which allows them to compete in various market segments, and to fill shelf space in shops, (4) _________ leaving less room for competitors (5) ________ also gives them a greater chance of getting some of the custom of brand-switchers.
(6) ________ famous manufacturers’ brands, there are also wholesalers’ and retailers’ brands. (7) _______, most large supermarket chains now offer their “own-label” brands many of which are made by one of the better-known manufacturers.
Brand names should (8) _______ be easy to recognize and remember. They should also be easy to pronounce and, especially for international brands, should not mean something embarrassing in a foreign language!
(9) _________ a name and a logo, brands also have easily recognizable packaging. Of course packaging should also be functional: (10) ________, the container or wrapper should protect the product inside, be informative, convenient to open, inexpensive to produce, and ecological (preferably biodegradable).
| 1. | a. as a result of | b. in order to | c. thus |
| 2. | a. although | b. since | c. so that |
| 3. | a. Consequently | b. Despite | c. For instance |
| 4. | a. for example | b. however | c. thus |
| 5. | a. There | b. That | c. This |
| 6. | a. As a result of | b. In addition to | c. Owing to |
| 7. | a. For example | b. Furthermore | c. However |
| 8. | a. i.e. | b. of course | c. therefore |
| 9. | a. as well as | b. Despite | c. So as to |
| 10. | a. although | b. in other word | c. on account of |
Ex.2. Complete the following collocations:
1. to augment ________
2. __________ facilities
3. after-sales _________
4. multi-brand ________
5. to fill _____________
6. _________ chains
Ex.3.
A. Rearrange the letters to make words and phrases that are connected with branding:
1. nbard yitnedit _______________
2. ardnb eman _________________
3. dabrn igema ________________
4. won-drabn _________________
5. radbn nataviluo _____________
6. burnadden _________________
7. antilbinge stases ____________
8. andrb yallyot _______________
9. rempuim bdarn ______________
B. Complete each sentence with the correct word or phrase from A:
1. Coca Cola, Sony, Mercedes Benz: each of these is a famous ________________.
2. Deciding a financial value for a brand name is called ____________________.
3. Consumers usually expect to pay less for products that are ________________.
4. Products like Chanel or Chrisian Dior have a __________ which is more glamorous than that of many less well-known competitors.
5. In the 1990s most supermarkets began to sell _____________ products.
6. A brand name is valuable not only for the main products that are represented by the name, but also for the range of ______________ that accompany that name.
7. A key concern for marketers is to establish __________ among their customers so that they do not buy similar products made by other companies.
8. Consumers are often prepared to pay a high price for a ___________ which they believe represents high quality.
9. A new product must create a ___________ so that it is easily recognized and associated with specific qualities.
Article 2.
Brand Management Job Description
Professionals who are responsible for brand management functions in their company are called brand managers, product managers or product development managers.
Brand managers are the key people behind the success of any brand or product. They are responsible to improve the value of their brands or products, which in turn generate profitable returns for the company and shareholders. Many multinational companies spend millions on brand management and employ professional brand managers to develop, plan and implement marketing activities to increase the value of their brands.
Brand management is more than a marketing job. Brand managers are responsible for the overall performance of their brands, which includes managing and developing their brands P&L (Profit and Loss), image and positioning in relation to their competitors. They are the key persons to plan, develop and implement marketing initiatives and activities for their brand or products.
Brand managers lead marker research efforts to understand customers’ perception and behavior and formulate effective marketing strategies to endure their brands receive maximum visibility and perform better than their competitors.
Brand managers are also required to be creative and be updated with latest marketing trends as the job also involves coordinating events, marketing projects and advertising campaigns for their brands or products.
Brand managers work with a wide network of people such as advertising and media professionals, contractors and sales agents as well as their own internal marketing team members. As such they have to exhibit strong leadership abilities, good communication and social skills, strong analytical skills and the ability to multi task.
Brand managers are also a member of the management team having to report weekly results and activities during management meetings as well as to integrate corporate objectives into their brand management strategies.
Although the job description varies depending on the industry, company size and geographical area, the most common brand manager job descriptions include:
As seen above the tasks go beyond a typical marketing role, with responsibilities ranging from market research, product development, and managing the brand’s P & L.
http://jobdescriptions.net/business/brand-management/
Answer the following questions to the article:
Exercises:
Ex. 1. Fill each gap in the sentences with the correct word from the box:
| long-term launch external visionary support customized vision strategy elements comprise brand |
The aim of a brand strategy is to enhance the internal and _______1 opportunities of the brand. The brand strategy must be strategic, visionary and proactive rather than tactical and reactive. Each brand must find its own holy grail to success – in the shape of a unique and relevant ______2 identity and brand _______3, which are the first ________4 that must be in place when developing a brand strategy. The brand vision is brought to life through a _________5 brand strategy able to release the full potential of the brand. Brand managers must have _______6 rather than a short term focus. If the performance of the brand is based on quarterly sales figures, chances are that the brand strategy will end up being much more tactical than strategic, without enough _______7 thinking to drive the growth and the strength of the brand in the future.
A prerequisite for making the brand strategy work is that it is closely linked to the business ________8. This means that the brand and the brand strategy should not be perceived as something other than or as an addition to business strategy developed at late stages in a product _______9 for example. In an ideal world, business and brand strategy should be developed simultaneously and _______10 each other. The brand vision must also resonate with consumers and differentiate the brand from competitors. Once the brand vision has been established, a customized range of elements that _________11 the brand strategy should be prioritized and developed.
Ex. 2.
Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBgAbxhZP0Q
Write a powerful press release reporting on the benefits of working for this company and employees’ feelings about the company. Ex. of press release (see. Market Leader, 3-d edition Upper Intermediate, p. 128).
Article 3
“Characteristics and Dimensions of Brands”
Pre-reading discussion:
I. Read the text and answer the questions below:
CHARACTERISTICS OF BRANDS
'Brands are a part of the fabric of life’ (David Ogilvy)
'Just about the only thing brands have in common is a kind of fame.'(Jeremy Bullmore)
These two quotations, from two famous British advertising men of different generations, seem contradictory. McDonald's is part of life, but is it famous in the way Clint Eastwood is? Porsche is famous, but is it part of our lives?
Judie Lannon, another advertising person, relates anthropological findings on cult and ritual to some brands: "The brand is a cult object... it has charisma.' One can see the connection for brands she quotes such as Zippo lighters, Swatch watches or Mont Blanc pens. Perhaps it works also for more mundane brands such as Domestos, and may throw light on any brand if we look deeply enough.
An allied view is of 'the brand as hero'. Again, we can see this more easily for some brands than others. Heroic imagery is part of some brand advertising; this is obvious in the case of Marlboro cigarettes, where cigarette smoking can have overtones of rugged independence and individualism. Today, the hero is often female, as in advertising for Volkswagen and Nissan cars.
This leads us to ask, which is the hero - the brand or the user? In much British advertising, gentle humour disguises but does not conceal the hero. If heavy beer drinkers are hero-worshipping fantasists, as one study suggested, then much advertising is well targeted.
What these views all suggest is that a brand must be something different from a product. Arguably, all brands start as undifferentiated products; their success or failure in the market place depends on their functional quality. When soap came in large blocks from which your grocer cut off a slice when you asked for it, you judged it as soap. After Sunlight started to wrap uniform blocks in recognizable packaging you could begin to differentiate the Sunlight brand from ordinary soap as a product. When Virgin first started, it sold music as a product. Gradually, the Virgin brand was built up and now covers an astonishing array of product fields including airlines, cola, railways and financial services. Virgin is now quite definitely a brand, something different from any of its individual products. (We shall return later to the issue of brand extension and the Virgin phenomenon.)
A brand, then, has an existence that is more than an actual product or service: it has a life of its own that feeds on the original product, but can also carry its values and identity into new product areas.
As Stephen King put it, 'A product is something that is made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by a consumer' (1990). Charles Revlon, the founder of Revlon, made a similar point when he said that in the factory, he made cosmetics; in the store, his customers bought hope. Thomas Cook' means something to us; it carries with it associations and memories that are generically to do with travel (and perhaps with tradition and reliability), but which are not necessarily tied exclusively to shops or traveller's cheques. If electronic technology completely replaces existing cameras and film, Kodak could still be a leading brand, though one that represents excellence in image capture, storage and reproduction. Marks & Spencer can sell us financial services that have very little to do with its core business, because we have enormous trust in it as a brand. The brand, then, is a holistic combination of product and added values. As Jeremy Bullmore has pointed out:
It is in every human being's nature to invent and build brand values inside each individual head. We do it with people, we do it with animals - and we do it with inanimate objects. The skill of brand management is to see that each consumer is offered the right raw materials from which he or she will build the brand as the brand owner would prefer. A brand is not an objective fact; it is made up of a million or more individual and subjective assessments - a consensus of subjectivity.
(Bullmore, 1999)
Brands can exist in any field. Most of the examples given, and most well-known brands, are from the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) area, but we can also think of McDonald's, Singapore Airlines, Club Med, Holiday Inn, Disney, JCB, Caterpillar, the Prudential and many more. The very variety of the range of brands means that any single definition is likely to be either too limiting or very unwieldy. Some experts have even categorized brand definitions under six headings:
1. visual;
2. perceptual;
3. positioning;
4. added value;
5. image; and
6. personality (Hankinson and Cowking, 1993).
This gives an idea of the kinds of definitions available and the dimensions analysts use. No one definition will be adopted here, especially as there is not only a very wide range of brands, but also a range of types or levels of brand. This may seem to beg the question posed at the beginning of the section, but one study also found that leading consultants are not willing to limit themselves to a single definition (de Chernatony and Riley, 1996). Is there some litmus test that we can apply which will tell us infallibly whether something is a product or a brand? Is there a magic moment at which the beautiful brand butterfly emerges from the larva of a mere product?
The analogy with brands and products is that it is at the border between the two that disagreement is possible. Everyone agrees that Coca-Cola, Mars, Persil and so on are brands. The problem arises with newer or less well-established entities. It has been argued that Virgin is not a brand, because it depends almost entirely on the publicity generated by Richard Branson. Others have said that the Prudential, for example, is not a brand. My own view would be the opposite in both cases. The test must surely lie, not in the views of individual commentators, but in the collective opinion of the target customers and consumers. If they can perceive that a product has a unique identity that differentiates it from other similar products, and they can describe it and the unique set of benefits it offers, then it is a brand.
Certainly it is not the manufacturer or supplier who decides whether it is a brand or not. Some attempts to create brands - by British clearing banks, for instance - have manifestly not succeeded. To an outsider, the failure seems to have been due to their inability to persuade consumers that what they were offering really was unique and different. It is likely that at the time, the reality of bank services had not changed very much, and that of course was how consumers perceived matters. The 'branding' was just an expensive advertising campaign, making claims that no one believed. This underlines the point made at the beginning of the chapter, that branding is a matter for the whole firm, not just for the marketing department - particularly a weak and semidetached marketing department with no real influence on the firm's products and services.
What we can conclude is that there are strong, successful brands at one end of a spectrum; at the other end are failed attempts at branding, where consumers perceive no unique characteristics distinguishing the product from others; and in between are brands of varying strengths and weaknesses. To analyse them more fully, we need to look at the dimensions that describe brands.
DIMENSIONS OF BRANDS
As suggested earlier, there are many models of brands. There is no one correct model that everyone accepts - as is so often the case in marketing. Here we will look at two which are representative. First, let us distinguish between brand image and brand identity.
Brand image is a phrase used rather loosely, particularly by people outside marketing - 'Let's change the image', they say hopefully of a brand in trouble. In fact, the image of a brand is what exists in the minds of consumers. It is the total of all the information they have received about the brand - from experience, word of mouth, advertising, and packaging, service and so on - modified by selective perception, previous beliefs, social norms and forgetting. It may be messy and untidy, not what we would prefer; but it is what exists, and what we must work on and from.
Brand identity is what we transmit to the market place - it is what is under our control, provided that we understand the essence and expression of our brand. It is here that models can be useful. One model, shown in Figure 1, is from the Leo Burnett Brand Consultancy, and uses the dimensions: functions; personality/ image; source; and differences.
The dimensions form the brand's 'essence' at the centre. Brand identity will be strong when there is consistency between the dimensions, and they are supporting each other. If any dimension is weak or sending conflicting messages, then the resulting image in consumers' minds will be confused.
Functions Personality/image
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