Unit 3

Brand Concept

One complete definition of a brand is as follows:
“A name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these, that is intended to identify the goods and services of one business or group of businesses and to differentiate them from those of competitors”. Three other important terms relating to brands should be defined at this stage: As we discussed earlier it is very important to be clear about the difference between Brands and products Brands are rarely developed in isolation. They normally fall within a business’ product line or product group. A product line is a group of brands that are closely related in terms of their functions and the benefits they provide. A good example would be the range of desktop and laptop computers manufactured by Dell. A product mix relates to the total set of brands marketed by a business. A product mix could, therefore, contain several or many product lines. The width of the product mix can be measured by the number of product lines that a business offers.

Brand image is defined as consumers’ perceptions as reflected by the associations they hold in their minds when they think of your brand.

Brand awareness is when people recognize your brand as yours. This does not necessarily mean they prefer your brand (brand preference), attach a high value to, or associate any superior attributes to your brand, it just means they recognize your brand and can identify it under different conditions. Brand awareness consists of both brand recognition, which is the ability of consumers to confirm that they have previously been exposed to your brand, and brand recall, which reflects the ability of consumers to name your brand when given the
product category, category need, or some other similar cue. Aided awareness occurs when you show or read a list of brands and the person expresses familiarity with your brand only after they hear or see it. Top-of-mind awareness occurs when you ask a person to name brands within a product category and your brand pops up first on the list. When you think about fast foods and Luxury cars, Mc Donald’s and Mercedes Benz come to mind? These brands enjoy strong top-of-mind awareness in their respective categories.

Branding
Branding is the business process of managing your trademark portfolio so as to maximize the value of the experiences associated with it, to the benefit of your key stakeholders,
especially current and prospective:
· employees
· customers
· stock/share holders
· suppliers
· intermediaries
· opinion leaders
· local communities
· purchasers and licensees
Experts argue as to which stakeholders should be the main focus of the branding process, but this is probably the wrong question as their experiences are all inter-related:
· Employees - the more your employees value your brands and understand what to do to build them, the more your customers, suppliers, local communities and opinion
leaders will value them. The more attractive your brands are to potential employees, the more they are likely to want to work for you
· Customers - the more your customers value your brand, the more they will buy your products and services, and recommend them to other people. They will also pay a
premium for them and make the lives of your employees easier. This, in turn, will enhance the value of your brands to prospective purchasers and licensees. Research has shown
that strong brands are more resistant to crises of reputation
· Stock/share holders - strong brands multiply the asset value of your company (90% of the asset value of some major corporations lies in their intellectual property), and
assure them that your company has a profitable future. They also allow you to afford to give competitive dividends to your current stock/share holders
· Suppliers - suppliers like to be associated with strong brands as this benefits their own reputation in the eyes of other current or potential customers. You are therefore likely
to get better service at a lower total acquisition cost
· Intermediaries - retailers, distributors and wholesalers value strong brands as they improve their own profit margins. They are likely to give you more “air time” and
shelf space, thus enhancing further the value of your brands in the eyes of your current and prospective customers
· Opinion leaders - the media, politicians and nongovernment organisations are more respectful of strong brands
· Local communities - supportive local authorities can make your life easier in many ways, and offer you better deals, if you have prestigious brands. Your local communities
provide you with your work force and can be highly disruptive if they perceive you as damaging their environment
· Purchasers and licensees - the question prospective purchasers and licensees ask is “how much more profit can I get for my products and services sold under this brand than under any brand I might build?” Strong brands can be spectacularly valuable.

Slogan
How are you going to describe the essence of the brand to your customers in one short, memorable, and motivating sentence? This should hint at the central organizing thought, without necessarily stating it. As an example, the central organizing thought of the BMW
brand is “competitive achievement”, but the slogan is “the ultimate driving machine”.

The Personality of the Brand
If the brand were indeed human, what sort of person would it is - jovial, serious, sporty, aristocratic, and cunning? (Liril Girl)

The Values of the Brand
What does the brand stand for? What does it believe in? What would it make a stand on?

Tastes/Appearance
What does the brand like? What does it look like? What does it wear? How does it speak?
This will include the iconography of the brand - the icons, the symbols, the trade dress, the typeface, and the look and feel.

Heritage
All great brands have stories about them. Some are favorable, some are less favorable, but all of them work to explain what the brand is all about. Telling stories about the brand is one of
the strongest ways of communicating the essence of your brand.

Emotional Benefits
What does the brand do for its customers?
These can usually be classified into:
· Avoids pain
· Reduces pain
· Gives pleasure

Hard Benefits
What does the brand offer its customers in tangible, quantifiable terms?

These are the benefits as in “Features, Advantages and Benefits”.

Brand Awareness is not Everything
Brand awareness is vitally important for all brands but high brand awareness without an understanding of what sets you apart from the competition does you virtually no good. Many
marketers experience confusion on this point. Strategic awareness occurs when not only does the person recognize your brand, but they also understand the distinctive
qualities that make it better than the competition. Strategic awareness occurs when you have differentiated your brand in the mind of your market. This distinction as to why your brand
is unique in your category is also referred to as your Unique Selling Proposition or USP. Your USP tells your target market what you do and stand for that is different from all of your
competitors. Brand preference occurs when consumers prefer your brand to
competing brands. Brand preference might be considered “the holy grail” of branding because it is the result of consumers knowing your brand, understanding what is unique about your

Establishing a Brand
Public relations are the way a strong brand is truly established and advertising is how the brand is maintained. If a brand is successful in making a connection with people and
communicating its distinct advantage, people will want to tell others about it and word-of-mouth advertising will develop naturally-not to mention writers in the press will want to write
about the brand. Once that type of differentiation is established in the market’s mind, advertising can help maintain and shape the brand.
What you need to do in branding is to communicate what the brand distinctively stands for using as few words or images as possible.
So remember, branding is all about creating singular distinction, strategic awareness, and differentiation in the mind of the target market-not just awareness. When you have been successful, you will start building equity for your brand.

Brand Extension

Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. Organisations use this strategy to increase and leverage brand equity (definition: the net worth and long-term sustainability just from the renowned name). An example of a brand extension is Jello-gelatin creating Jello pudding pops. It increases awareness of the brand name and increases profitability from offerings in more than one product category.

Types of product extension
Brand extension research mainly focuses on the consumer evaluation of extension and attitude of the parent brand. Following the Aaker and Keller’s (1990) model, they provide a sufficient depth and breadth proposition to examine consumer behaviour and conceptual framework. They use three dimensions to measure the fit of extension. First of all, the “Complement” is that consumer takes two product (extension and parent brand product) classes as complement to satisfy their specific needs. Secondly, the “Substitute” indicates two products have same user situation and satisfy their same needs which means the products class is very similar so that can replace each other. At last, the “Transfer” is the relationship between extension product and manufacturer which “reflects the perceived ability of any firm operating in the first product class to make a product in the second class”.The first two measures focus on the consumer’s demand and the last one focuses on firm’s ability.
From the line extension to brand extension, however, there are many different way of extension such as "brand alliance",co-branding or “brand franchise extension”. Tauber (1988) suggests seven strategies to identify extension cases such as product with parent brand’s benefit, same product with different price or quality, etc. In his suggestion, it can be classified into two category of extension; extension of product-related association and non-product related association. Another form of brand extension, is a licensed brand extension. Where the brand-owner partners (sometimes with a competitor) who takes on the responsibility of manufacturer and sales of the new products, paying a royalty every time a product is sold.

Brand Equity
Brand Equity is the sum total of all the different values people attach to the brand, or the holistic value of the brand to its owner as a corporate asset. Brand equity can include: the monetary value or the amount of additional income expected from a branded product over and above what might be expected from an identical, but unbranded product; the intangible value associated with the product that can not be accounted for by price or features; and the perceived quality attributed to the product independent of its physical features. A brand is nearly worthless unless it enjoys some equity in the marketplace. Without brand equity, you simply have a commodity product.

Understanding Brand Equity
In today’s environment, building strong brands and stablishing brand equity is becoming more and more challenging. Increased pressures to compete on price,increased competition through product introductions and store brands, and the fragmentation of advertising and market segments are just a sample of the pressures being faced by companies in today’s highly competitive environment.

There are many different definitions of Brand Equity, but they do have several factors in common:
Monetary Value.

The amount of additional income expected from a branded product over and above what might be expected from an identical, but unbranded product. For example, grocery stores frequently sell unbranded versions of name brand products. The same companies produce the branded and unbranded products, but they carry a generic brand or store brand label like Hawkins. Store brands sell for significantly less than their name brand counterparts, even when the contents are identical. This price differential is the monetary value of the brand name.
Intangible.

The intangible value associated with a product that cannot be accounted for by price or features. Pepsi and Coke have created many intangible benefits for its products by associating them with film stars. Children and adults want to consume their products to feel some association with these stars. It is not the ingredients or the features that drive demand for their products, but the marketing image that has been created. Buyers are willing to pay extremely high price premiums over lesser-known brands, which may offer the same, or better, product quality and features.
Perceived Quality.

The overall perceptions of quality and image attributed to a product, independent of its physical features. Mercedes and BMW have established their brand names as synonymous with high-quality, luxurious automobiles. Years of marketing, image building, brand nurturing and quality manufacturing has lead consumers to assume a high level of quality in everything they produce. Consumers are likely to perceive Mercedes and BMW as providing superior quality to other brand name automobiles, even when such a perception is unwarranted.

In short, Brand Equity is a set of assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by the product or service to a firm and/or to that of firm’s customers.
So overall we can say Brand Equity incorporates the ability to provide added value to your company’s products and services. This added value can be used to your company’s advantage to charge price premiums, lower marketing costs and offer greater opportunities for customer purchase. A badly mismanaged brand can actually have negative Brand Equity, meaning that potential customers have such low perceptions of the brand that they prescribe less value to the product than they would if they objectively assessed all its attributes/features. One of the best examples of Brand Equity is in the soft drink industry. Without a brand name and all of the marketing money that has gone into, Coca-Cola would be nothing more than flavored water. Due to the company’s long-term marketing efforts and protection, enhancement and nurturing of their brand name, Coke is one of the most recognizable brands in the world and Pepsi in India. However, even this marketing giant has trouble capitalizing on its own Brand Equity when handled improperly (e.g. New Coke). If someone suddenly took their brand name and Brand Equity away from them, Coke would lose hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars. This includes lost sales, lost marketing budget and lost promotions, additional marketing costs to promote a new brand, and significantly
lower awareness and trial rates for their new brand.

How Do I Use Brand Equity to My Advantage?
Brand Equity can provide strategic advantages to your company in many ways:
· Allow you to charge a price premium compared to competitors with less brand equity.
· Strong brand names simplify the decision process for lowcost and non-essential products.
· Brand name can give comfort to buyers unsure of their decision by reducing their perceived risk.
· Maintain higher awareness of your products.
· Use as leverage when introducing new products. Often interpreted as an indicator of quality.
· High Brand Equity makes sure your products are included in most consumers’ consideration set.
· Your brand can be linked to a quality image that buyers want to be associated with. Can lead to greater loyalty from customers. Offer a strong defense against new products and new competitors.
· Can lead to higher rates of product trial and repeat purchasing due to buyers’ awareness of your brand, approval of its image/reputation and trust in its quality. Brand names are company assets that must be invested in, protected and nurtured to maximize their long-term value to your company. Brands have many of the same implications as capital assets (like equipment and plant purchases) on a company’s bottom line, including the ability to be bought and sold and the ability to provide strategic advantages.

How Do You Measure Brand Equity?
Most evaluations of Brand Equity involve utility estimation. Specifically, we attempt to measure the value (utility) of a product’s features and price level and also measure the overall utility of a product when including brand name. The difference between total utility and the utility of the product features is the value of the brand. In other situations, the utility of the brand is measured directly and added to the feature utilities to produce an overall utility for the product. Besides utilities, contributing factors such as current awareness levels of each Brand, overall perceptions of each Brand, and Brands currently used should be measured. It is also useful to obtain estimates of marketing, advertising and promotional expenses for the major Brands in the market. Together with utility estimates, this information provides a more complete picture of the relative value of each Brand and allows you to understand the major forces driving Brand Equity: product features, price, market awareness, market perceptions and expenditures to build and support those Brands.

The Benefits of a Strong Brand

Here are just a few benefits you will enjoy when you create a strong brand:
- A strong brand influences the buying decision and shapes the ownership experience.
- Branding creates trust and an emotional attachment to your product or company. This attachment then causes your market to make decisions based, at least in part, upon emotion- not necessarily just for logical or intellectual reasons.
-A strong brand can command a premium price and maximize the number of units that can be sold at that premium.
-Branding helps make purchasing decisions easier. In this way, branding delivers a very important benefit. In a commodity market where features and benefits are virtually indistinguishable, a strong brand will help your customers trust you and create a set of expectations about your products without even knowing the specifics of product features.
-Branding will help you “fence off” your customers from the competition and protect your market share while building mind share. Once you have mind share, your customers will automatically think of you first when they think of your product category.
-A brand is something that nobody can take away from you. Competitors may be able to copy your products, your patents will someday expire, trade secrets will leak to the competition, your proprietary manufacturing plant will eventually become obsolete, but your brand will live on and continue to be uniquely yours. In fact, a strong brand name may be your most valuable asset. Brands help people connect with one another.
-Have you ever witnessed the obvious bond between people using the same brand of product? If a person wearing a Benetton T-shirt finds another person wearing a Benetton product, she will have instant rapport with her and immediately begin talking about their experiences with the brand. How is it that we can feel such a connection with complete strangers? The answer lies in the psychological connection people have with a particular brand.
-A strong brand can make actual product features virtually insignificant. A solid branding strategy communicates a strong, consistent message about the value of your company. A strong brand helps you sell value and the intangibles that surround your products.
-A strong brand signals that you want to build customer loyalty, not just sell product. A strong branding campaign will also signal that you are serious about marketing and that you intend to be around for a while. A brand impresses your firm’s identity upon potential customers, not necessarily to capture an immediate sale but rather to build a lasting impression of you and your products.
-Branding builds name recognition for your company or product.
-A brand will help you articulate your company’s values and explain why you are competing in your market.

Brand Value and personality

People’s personalities are determined largely through the values and beliefs they have, and other personality characteristics they develop. An example of a value or belief is honesty. Many people believe in being honest in everything they do and say. An example of a characteristic is confidence. This is not a belief, but more of a behaviour. There are, of course, many values/beliefs and characteristics that a person may have, but there are some that are particularly likeable. It is to these likeable values and characteristics that people are inevitably attracted. Examples of these include dependability, trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, friendliness, caring, and fun-loving. There are about two hundred words that describe personality characteristics, and these can be used for putting personality into brands. To illustrate how people think in personality terms when making judgments about brands, here are the results of consumer research into how people feel about two companies. When asked the question: “If these two companies were people, how would you describe them?” their replies were:

Company A - sophisticated, arrogant, efficient, self-centred, distant, disinterested.

Company B - easy going, modest, helpful, caring, approachable, interested.

These two companies are actually competitors in a service industry. If you were asked which of these two companies you would like to be your friend, you would probably choose Company B, as did 95% of other respondents. It is not surprising that the service level of Company B can be a better experience for customers than that of Company A. It is also easy to conclude that if consumers consistently experience these differences between the two companies, then the brand image of Company B will be much better than that of Company A. A further point of interest arising out of this research is that people tend to prefer brands that fit in with their self-concept. Everyone has views about themselves and how they would like to be seen by others. And they tend to like personalities that are similar to theirs, or to those whom they admire. Thus, creating brands with personalities similar to those of a certain group of consumers will be an effective strategy. The closer the brand personality is to the consumer personality (or one which they admire or aspire to), the greater will be the willingness to buy the brand and the deeper the brand loyalty.

Creating Brand Personality
Whether a brand is a product or a company, you as a manager have to decide what personality traits your brand is to have. There are various ways of creating brand personality. One way is to match the brand personality as closely as possible to that of the consumers or to a personality that they like. The process will be
· define the target audience
· find out what they need, want and like
· build a consumer personality profile
· create the product personality to match that profile
This type of approach is favored by companies such as Levi Strauss, who research their target audience fastidiously. For Levis the result is a master-brand personality that is:
· original
· masculine
· sexy
· youthful
· rebellious
· individual
· free
· American
A related product brand personality (for a specific customer group) such as Levi’s 501 jeans is:
· romantic
· sexually attractive
· rebellious
· physical prowess
· resourceful
· independent
· likes being admired
Both profiles appeal mostly to the emotional side of people’s minds - to their feelings and sensory function. This profiling approach aims to reinforce the self-concept of the consumers and their aspirations. The approach is ideal for brands that adopt a market-niche strategy, and can be extremely successful if a market segment has a high degree of global homogeneity, as is the case with Levis. Adding personality is even more important if the task is to create a corporate as opposed to a product brand, as every encounter with the customer gives the opportunity to put across the brand personality. Brand and Brand Users Galore!

Branding is Image Building
Today, businesses are fighting out their marketing warfare not merely at the product attributes level or at the advertising campaigning level, but it is also happening at several other levels. It is at the totality of the image that brands create in the minds and hearts of their customers. Marketers are concentrating on building Brand Values, images, power and authority centered around customers - their self esteem., their dreams and aspirations - whether the fight is between Coke and Pepsi, HLL and P&G, Siemens and L&T.

Consumer Brands and Brand Personalities
Consumer Brand creators concentrate around creating brand personalities around their products. If Gold Flake were a person, how could he be? Do you not picture him as being more suave? More successful? More gracious? What kind of personality do we attribute to Charms and Coke? Would not Mr. Charms be younger, more fun-loving? Would he not be like your college-going son? For that matter, would Mr. Coke not be smart, fun-loving, bright, full of spirit and success?
If we look around, we find hundreds of examples. The Marlboro Cigarette gave birth to the Marlboro man – the ultimate specimen of manhood from the Marlboro country. Camel brands’ Camel Cartoon Mnemonic has captured such a strong “I am cool” personality that in US children recognize this cartoon far more than even Mickey mouse. Also look at the personalities of our local brands; the strong associations of Liril, personified by Kren Lundl with the effervescent image of the water nymphet; that of Rasna with the lovable child offering her tired daddy Rasna and that of Onida evoking the hidden devil in us or Lalitaji insisting that it makes better sense to buy Surf because of good logic developed on her own.