ACE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

Strategic Brand Management

Assignment 2
7/2/2013

Submitted to: Mr. Pradeep Raj Pandey

Submitted by: Shubhekchha Neupane MBAe Term VI

Strategic Brand Management 2013

Pick one brand and attempt to identify its sources or brand equity
A brand is a product, service, or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services, or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. A brand name is the name of the distinctive product, service, or concept. Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name. Branding can be applied to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and service names. Brands are usually protected from use by others by securing a trademark or service mark from an authorized agency, usually a government agency. Brands are often expressed in the form of logos , graphic representations of the brand.

Today, operating a brand is more like handling marketing activities; organizations or individuals are more willing to create value and create benefits from their products and services by implementing brand strategies. Brand strategies can be conducted in many ways, for example by enhancing ones brand equity, by strengthening brand identity, or by increasi ng brand value.

Brandy Equity
Brand equity is about the knowledge that brand reflects to customers, whose buying behavior and feedback are also affected by marketing activities. Companies can create brand equity for their products by making them memorable, easily recognizable and superior in quality and reliability. Mass marketing campaigns can also help to create brand equity. If consumers are willing to pay more for a generic product than for a branded one, however, the brand is said to have negative brand equity. This might happen if a company had a major product recall or caused a widely publicized environmental disaster.

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Manchester United Brand Equity

Sport is a global industry, whose turn-over amounts to three percent of the worlds total economic activity. In the view of business, football is a growing sport of business among different forms of sports. There are more members in FIFA (Fdration Internationale de Football Association) than in UN.

Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester that plays in the Premier League. Manchester United has won many trophies in English football, including a record 20 league titles. In 1998-99, the club won a Treble of the Premier League, the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League, an unprecedented feat for an English club.

Manchester United has become one of the most famous and financially successful football clubs in the world. The brand of Manchester United is estimated with brand equity of $ 285 million and intellectual property of $300 million. As a brand, Manchester United is one of the most famous and recalled name in sport area.

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Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is the likelihood that consumers recognize the existence and availability of a company's product or service. Creating brand awareness is one of the key steps in promoting a product. Brand awareness is an important way of promoting commodity-related products. This is because for these products, there are very few factors that differentiate one product from its competitors. Therefore, the product that maintains the highest brand awareness compared to its competitors will usually get the most sales.

Manchester United became a global power brand after the Munich Air Tragedy in 1958. In a period of 1970s-1980s when British culture dominated world style with the figures like Beatles and James Bond, Manchester United was also improving its international appearance. The clubs brand is enhanced through that time, and its brand equity was starting to build. Certainly, people would think that Munich disaster pushed for Manchester Uniteds popularity. Fans not only remained loyal followers, but also converted others to be supporters of the club. Awareness of the club began increasing in masses and currently the situation is such that people all over the world are aware of the brand if not a fan of it.

Brand Image
Brand image is the current view of the customers about a brand. It can be defined as a unique bundle of associations within the minds of target customers. It signifies what the brand presently stands for. It is a set of beliefs held about a specific brand. In short, it is nothing but the consumers perception about the product. It is the manner in which a specific brand is positioned in the market. Brand image is the overall impression in consumers mind that is formed from all sources. Consumers develop various associations with the brand. Based on these associations, they form brand image. The idea behind brand image is that the consumer is not purchasing just the product/service but also the image associated with that product/service.

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Manchester United has largely retained its image as a team that is exciting to watch and a brand that is a pride to follow. The club has featured the likes of Giggs, Beckham, Scholes, Neville, Wes Brown, etc players who have either developed through the clubs youth scheme or been brought to the club while very young. Thus even though these players now have international experience they have all been associated with the club from a young age and thus promote the imagery of youthful endeavor developed by the brand. The final contribution to the development of the clubs image is the effort made to position the club as a sophisticated transnational brand. The decision to partner with a global brand such as Nike is a good example of this.

Brand Positioning
The strategic brand management process begins with the identification and establishment of the position of the brand. Brand positioning refers to target consumers reason to buy your brand in preference to others. It is ensures that all brand activity has a common aim; is guided, directed and delivered by the brands benefits/reasons to buy; and it focuses at all points of contact with the consumer. Positioning is an act of placing a companys brand in consumers mind over and against competitors in terms of characteristics and benefits that the brand does and does not offer.

A core attribute of the Manchester United brand is an essence of fan ownership, which means that fans and supporters are core positioning of Manchester United. Such real ownership is considered as an emotional bond that makes Manchester United brand an advantage than any other football clubs. Manchester United brand is growing faster and further beyond other traditional sport brands world wide.

Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty refers to the level of commitment that customers feel towards a given brand, as represented by their continuing purchase thereof. It is a form of repeat purchasing behavior based on a conscious decision to continue buying a product with a particular brand or
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trademark. Building brand loyalty involves continuing to serve a customer in a satisfactory way. Managing brand loyalty is thus a key to achieving strategic success, as well as brand equity.

Manchester United has a strong fan following. A recent study showed that the club enjoys more than 659 million fan base (71 million fans in the Americas, 90 million in Europe, 173 million in Middle East and Africa, 325 million in Asia Pacific, including 108 million in China) and it is ever growing. It is certainly not an easy task retaining the loyalty of such a huge number but the club has managed to do so. The club has been repeatedly performing well in the Barclays Premier League leaving its fans with a thrilling match finish in most of its matches. The constant good performance has made it possible for the brand to retain its followers and enjoy a grand send of consumer loyalty. It is loyalty towards the brand itself which makes the fans buy the clubs jersey and any other products with the Manchester United logo.

Brand Attributes
Brand Attributes portray a companys brand characteristics. They signify the basic nature of brand. Brand attributes are a bundle of features that highlight the physical and personality aspects of the brand. Attributes are developed through images, actions, or presumptions. Brand attributes help in creating brand identity.

Referring to the brand characteristics and attributes, Manchester United brand is categorized as distributor brand, since it sells football-related costumes and accessories meanwhile gets sponsor from other field of business. Manchester United is always committed to attractive victory matches and so the fans are willing to be influenced and are tied with their love when they are purchasing MU costume, MU sport equipment, MU accessories, MU homeware, and whatever criteria of commodities. 1. United brand attributes: Manchester United is a victorious football club in England, therefore its brand attributes are football, England, champions and glory.
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2. United brand benefits: The attributes transfer functional and emotional benefits. The theme merchandises that fans purchase to use express functional benefits. The teams spirit that impact fans and its leading status in England football history that fascinates fans expresses emotional benefits. 3. United brand culture: Uniteds brand culture from its historical stories and temporarys performances on the field 4. United brand personality: Its personality sometimes can be its culture: We believe! Lift it high! Glory Glory ManUnited! 5. United brand user: Fans from all over the world. There is no defined status, no region, and no background limitations.

Conclusion
Manchester United is one of the wealthiest brand in the world. In January 2013, Manchester United became the first sports team in the world to be valued at $3 billion. Forbes Magazine valued the club at $3.3 billion $1.2 billion higher than the next most valuable sports team.

The way the club has managed its brand equity is the leading criteria which led the club to be one of the leading sports brand in the world. In implementing its international strategy, Manchester United

has been the pathfinder for many other sports and clubs seeking to establish global identities in the international marketplace.

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References
http://www.managementstudyguide.com http://www.investopedia.com/ http://whatis.techtarget.com
Amis, John & Cornwell, T. Bettina. 2005. Global Sport Sponsorship. New York. NY, USA: Berg. Schwartz, Peter J, Maidment, Paul & Ozanian, Michael K. 2010. The Business Of Soccer www.forbes.com

www.manutd.com

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