Branding Guru Lecture II

Brand Strategy

· Philip Kotler stressed on the importance of brand strategy. "It's more important than ever for marketers to prove they can deliver value, reading Brand Strategy can help you build a compelling case." Professor Philip Kotler - Marketing Department - Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
· Brand strategy is the marketing plan or ideas which based on the brand's vision and driven by the principles of differentiation and sustained consumer appeal. The brand strategy should influence the total operation of a business to ensure consistent brand behaviors and brand experiences.

Example

Nike has developing a brand strategy and the company thinks that they require some key components as below: -
· Knowing the target market by identifying for the market segment.
· Understanding and articulating the brand values in-house – Nike Stress on the “Just do it”
· Testing and refining brand values with the target market - conduct focus groups to validate the brand values and develop the strategic messaging.
· Communicating clearly and consistently across the right media formats at advertisement, internet media, event, promotion
· Delivering on the brand promise


Line Extension

A company introduces a brand line extension by using an established product’s brand name to launch a new, slightly different item in the same product category in terms of new flavors, package sizes, nutritional content or product containing special additives.

Line extension refers to the parent brand is used to target a new product that targets a new market segment within a product category currently served by the parent brand, Line extensions often involve a different flavour or ingredient variety.

Line Extension Benefits
- Expand company shelf space presence
- Gain more potential customers
- Offer customers more variety
- Greater marketing and production efficiency
- Increased profits

Line Extension Threats
- Potential for failure, which may damage products within the brand
- Possible intra-firm competition

Example

Diet Coke is a line extension of the parent brand Coke. While the products have distinct differences, they are in the same product category and the extension (Diet Cok) is very dependent initially on customer recognition of the brand name Coke.
Coca Cola (parent brand) and Coke Light (sub-brand).


Category Extension

Category Extension refers to the parent brand is used to enter a new product category from that currently served by the parent brand.

Example

Pepsi soft drinks (parent brand) and Pepsi shoes (category or brand extension).

Branding's Guru Lecture

Brand Value

Brand value refers to how much a brand is value and can be used as a good will in an accounting to gain capital for the companies.

Example:

Below is the table to show the Top 10 Brand and its value. This is the good will value for the companies.

Brand Equity

· Brand Equity is a concept refers to a significant value of product identification that it is well recognized and has positive associations in the mind of the consumer.
· Brand equity is a measurement of how much customers trust a brand, and are willing to pay above and beyond the price for other competitive brands with lower value perceptions
· Measurement of brand equity is to compare the expected future revenue from the branded product with the expected future revenue from an equivalent non-branded product.

Example

Apple iPOD and iPHONE has a brand equity that is known to all the music lover teenagers rather than others MP3 player due to the style and peer pressure factor. Brand equity can be viewed in three perspective, financial (Teenagers willing to pay higher price to get iPOD) , brand extensions( iPHONE a platform to launch related products since the there is brand awareness for Apple after the iPOD launching) and consumer-based. (Teenagers like iPOD since they build a strong association with the brand).


Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is the consumer's conscious or unconscious decision, expressed through intention or behavior, to repurchase a brand continually. It occurs because the consumer perceives that the brand offers the right product features, image, or level of quality at the right price. Consumer behavior is habitual because habits are safe and familiar.

Below are the categories for Brand Loyalty:-

i) Hard Core Loyals - who buy the brand all the time
ii) Soft Core Loyals - loyal to two or three brands
iii) Shifting Loyals - moving from one brand to another
iv) Switchers - with no loyalty (possibly `deal-prone', constantly looking for bargains or 'vanity prone', looking for something different)

Example

Tesco Hypermarket Loyalty card (Tesco Clubcard) for the consumers to redemption points or cash rebate will increase the Tesco brand loyalty. Tesco helps consumers to acquire new habits, and reinforce those habits by reminding consumers of the value of their purchase and encourage them to continue purchasing those products in the future.



Global Brand

A global brand is one that is available in many nations and, though it may differ from country to country, the localized versions have a common goal and a similar identity. The brand’s positioning, advertising strategy, personality, look and feel are, in most respects, the same but allow for regional customization.

Example

· Global brand has the characteristics of recognition – BMW serves as a global brand that have a strong awareness among consumers to symbolize “performance” in engineering and design while signifying that the owner has “arrived” on a personal and professional level.
· Global brand has the characteristics of emotion – Consumers believe that Nike can make them to perform better due to Nike strong awareness on the slogan “Just do it”.