INDEX

Introduction
Branding-Importance in Marketing
Types of Brands
Brand Positioning
Brands - Building a Brand
Brand Management
Brand Architecture
Brand Revival
Strategies for Brand Revival
Challenges while reviving a brand
Cases of Brand Revival
Celebrity Branding
Internet Branding
Challenges
Conclusion
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
IT IS THE MATTER OF GREAT PLEASURE AND PRIVILEGE TO
BE ABLE TO PRESENT THIS PROJECT REPORT ON PRODUCT AND
BRAND MANAGEMENT.

THE COMPILATION OF THE PROJECT IS A MILESTONE IN

THE LIFE OF THE MANAGEMENT STUDENT AND ITS EXECUTION IS
INEVITABLE WITH THE CO-OPERATION OF THE PROJECT GUIDE. I
WISH TO RECORD A DEEP SENSE OF RESPECT AND GRATITUDE TO
ITM EXECUTIVE-MBA FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO COURSE OF
MY WORK.

I CANNOT JUST CONDONE THE VALUABLE OPPORTUNITY

GIVEN TO ME BY THE ITM EXECUTIVE-MBA FOR COMPILING AND
SUBMITTING THE PROJECT, WHICH I FEEL IS AN OPPORTUNITY
TO EXPRESS MY VIEWS ABOUT PRODUCT AND BRAND
MANAGEMENT.

I ACKNOWLEDGE MY INDEBTNESS TO VARIOUS AUTHORS

FOR MAKING USE OF VALUABLE INFORMATION LIBERALLY.
 PREFACE
Product and Brand Management is a topic requiring deep study and
understanding for which I have tried my level best to analyze and incorporate
all the relevant information in this project. All the material contained is this
project is true and original to the best of my knowledge. All the pictures used
in the project are for representational purposes only.

I am greatly indebted to ITM Executive MBA for making me understand the

finer points of Marketing; And also acquainting us with the workings of the
Product and Brand Management.

It has been a great delight for me to work on this project. The knowledge I
have gained while working on this project will stay with me through all the
years of my professional life.
Introduction
Brand management is a philosophy and a total approach to managing
companies, and as such includes much about changing minds.

Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific

product, product line, or brand. It seeks to increase the product's perceived
value to the customer and thereby increase brand franchise and brand equity.
Marketers see a brand as an implied promise that the level of quality people
have come to expect from a brand will continue with future purchases of the
same product. This may increase sales by making a comparison with
competing products more favorable. It may also enable the manufacturer to
charge more for the product. The value of the brand is determined by the
amount of profit it generates for the manufacturer. This can result from a
combination of increased sales and increased price, and/or reduced COGS
(cost of goods sold), and/or reduced or more efficient marketing investment.
All of these enhancements may improve the profitability of a brand, and thus,
"Brand Managers" often carry line-management accountability for a brand's
P&L profitability, in contrast to marketing staff manager roles, which are
allocated budgets from above, to manage and execute. In this regard, Brand
Management is often viewed in organizations as a broader and more strategic
role than Marketing alone.
Meaning

What’s in
a brand?
How do you define a brand? The word is
frequently used, but with a number of different
meanings. As brand “guardians,”
marketers need to be aware that there
are at least three different definitions
and must understand the circumstances
where each definition is relevant.

A logo and associated visual elements. This definition focuses on the legally
protectable visual elements used to differentiate and stimulate demand for one
company’s products and services over another. The main legal elements covered
by this definition include trade names, trademarks, and trade symbols. In order to
add value, trademarks and trade symbols need to carry “associated goodwill,”
which is acquired by providing high-quality products and by giving good service
over along period. For trademarks and trade symbols to go on conveying value to
licensees, high-quality products and good service need to remain associated with
the trademarks or trade symbols.

A larger bundle of trademark and associated intellectual property rights. This

wider concept of brand includes marketing intangibles such as domain names,
product design rights, trade dress, packaging, and copyrights in associated colors,
smells, sounds, descriptors, logotypes, advertising visuals, and written copy. Many
of these legal rights can be registered or protected indifferent trade classes and
territories and, if registered or legally owned, can be traded, transferred, sold, or
licensed. When licensing a brand, an agreement on the bundling of these rights is
usually included. Some commentators have interpreted the intellectual property
rights included in this definition very widely indeed. In fact, tangible as well as
intangible property rights have been referred to as integral components of brands.
Some argue that the Mercedes brand would be incomplete if it were separated from
the other tangible and intangible assets used to build Mercedes products. We
identify four categories of intangible assets that may be required to deliver the
subject brand in an appropriate way:

o Knowledge intangibles. Among these are patents, software, recipes, specific

know-how, product research, and Information database.

o Business process intangibles-: These include unique ways of organizing the

business, including innovative business models, flexible manufacturing
techniques, and supply chain configurations.

o Market position intangibles-: Included here are retail listings and contracts,
distribution rights, licenses (such as landing slots), production or import quotas,
third-generation telecom, government permits and authorizations, and raw
materials sourcing contracts.

o Brand and relationship intangibles-: These includes trade names ,

trademarks and trade symbols and domain names, design names, design rights,
trade dress, packaging, copyrights over associated colors, smells, sounds,
descriptors, logotypes, advertising visuals and written copy. Associated
goodwill is also usually included.

Some people argue that a larger bundle of intangibles should be included in the
definition of brand because consumer loyalty is created over a long period by many
touch points and consumer experiences. This “360-degree” experience may require
the presence of any or all of the unique intangibles noted here to maintain brand
quality and integrity.

Protagonists of amore holistic definition of brand ask whether the Mercedes brand
would command such fierce loyalty and price premium without the benefit of the
Daimler Benz design, engineering and service. They argue that the Zantac brand
would be incomplete without the ranitidine patent. The Guinness brand would not
b Guinness without the Guinness recipe and production process. This more holistic
view is consistent with the opinion that brand is a much broader and deeper
experience than either the “logo and associated visual elements” or even the full
range of “brand and relationship intangibles” referred to here.

A holistic company or organizational brand- Under the third definition, brand

refers to the whole organization within which the specific logo and associated
visual elements, the larger bundle of “visual and marketing intangibles” and the
associated goodwill are deployed. A combination of all these legal rights together
with the culture, people and programs of an organization all provide a basis for
differentiation and value creation within the organization. Taken as a whole, they
represent a specific value proposition and create stronger customer relationships.
Their significance has led David Aaker, vice chairman of Prophet brand
consultancy and professor emeritus of marketing at Haas school of Business at
university of California at Berkley, to remark that the CEO is the ultimate brand
manager of the organization.

This broadest definition of brand stresses the need for consistent communication
with all stakeholder audiences. Rather than just increasing the preference of
customers for buying the company’s products and services, the brand becomes a
tool for affecting the preference of other audiences to do business with the
organization. For example the brand may favorably affect staff, suppliers, business
partners, the trade regulators and providers of capital. The benefits of a strong
organizational brand are increased demand and distribution but also include lower
costs of materials, personnel, debt and equity.

Brands are a means of differentiating a company’s products and services from

those of its competitors.

There is plenty of evidence to prove that customers will pay a substantial price
premium for a good brand and remain loyal to that brand. It is important, therefore,
to understand what brands are and why they are important.

Businesses that invest in and sustain leading brands prosper whereas those that fail
are left to fight for the lower profits available in commodity markets.
Definitions:
 Macdonald sums this up nicely in the following quote emphasizing the
importance of brands:

“…it is not factories that make profits, but relationships with customers, and it is
company and brand names which secure those relationships”

 Jeff Bezos defines brand as:

“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation
by trying to do hard things well."

 Interbrand - a leading branding consultancy - defines a brand in this

way:

“A mixture of tangible and intangible attributes symbolized in a trademark,

which, if properly managed, creates influence and generates value”.

Other definition:
 “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”.
 Branding-Importance in Marketing
Strategy
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or
design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or
group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.

Therefore it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your target market to
choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one
that provides a solution to their problem.

The objectives that a good brand will achieve include:

• Delivers the message clearly

• Confirms your credibility
• Connects your target prospects emotionally
• Motivates the buyer
• Concretes User Loyalty

To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your customers and
prospects. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your company at every point
of public contact.

Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It is the sum
total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you
cannot.

A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It's important to
spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After your entire brand is
the source of a promise to your consumer. It's a foundational piece in your marketing
communication and one you do not want to be without.

Brand Awareness and India

I think Indians always love good brands. They love the brand names such a way that they forget
(or don’t ever try to know what the product is) the product name. They recognize the product by
brand name. Let’s focus this interesting area of India!
Surf – a very old and popular brand in India. It’s considered to be one of the top brand among all
detergents. And I have heard most people using the word ‘Surf’ to refer detergent. They don’t
know or they never heard of the word ‘detergent’. Surf is a costly detergent, and there are many
other brands which are cheaper – like Wheel, Nirma, Tide (mid budget) etc. Most of the people
use these cheap detergents, but they call it ‘Surf’. You will go to a shop and ask “Give me a 500
gram Surf”, the shopkeeper will ask “Which Surf – Surf Excel or Ariel?”. The word ‘Surf’ is on
the tongue of many people, but I don’t think Hindustan Unilever – the manufacturer of Surf get
more advantage, however sometimes they get lucky and shopkeeper hands you over a Surf
packet without asking any question. Here I will say “Daag Achche Hain..”.

Now after detergent let’s talk about soaps. Most of the people use Lux and Lifebuoy soap, I am
not saying those are good soaps, but I see most people buying them. Those fall in bathing soap
category. In detergent soap category Rin, Sunlight, OK are most selling items. But I have never
seen anyone using these brand names for referring a bathing soap or detergent soap.

Now let’s talk about mosquito repellents. Most used mosquito repellents are coils, mats and
liquid mosquito repellents. And some popular brands are Good Knight (People never read the
name the same, and me too fall under that category, we call it as ‘Good Night’), Mortein, All Out
(only liquid repellent). For mats ‘Good Knight’ is the default (most used) name and for liquid
‘All Out’ is the default (most used) name, it does not matter which brand you actually use.

Oops! I did not tell the default name for Coils. Well, this is bit interesting. Let’s switch on the
time machine (I don’t believe time travel as shown in films and TV, I mean just recall those old
days) and go to around 16 years back. Then mosquito repellents are very less used products in
the market. People liked to use mosquito nets or burn dry cow dungs to get rid of mosquitoes. I
remember, there were two mosquito coil brands – Tortoise and Rooster and one mosquito mat
brand – Goog Knight available in market. And the famous punch line with some funny ads were
on TV was “kachua jalao machhar bhagao”. This tag line is so popular that it even flows in some
funny SMS. But I don’t see this product in market. In old days, mat machine was so costly that
few people use Good Knight mats on light bulbs, lanterns etc. But after All Out introduced liquid
mosquito repellent, the market for mats are down, but still available.

Here no one use the word ‘Mosquito Repellent’, all use a brand name of their own choice or
practice. Here no brand name rules like ‘Surf’.

Detergents, Soaps, then I should go to Tooth Paste, but I went to Mosquito Repellents, the reason
is that, here mosquitoes rule and my eye fell on All Out. Among all tooth pastes, Colgate is the
most popular one and a big part of people use the word Colgate to refer any tooth paste. Other
big part use the term ‘Paste’ to refer tooth paste and a very few say ‘Tooth Paste’.
 Types of Brands
There are two main types of brand – manufacturer brands and own-label brands.

 Manufacturer brands
Manufacturer brands are created by producers and bear their chosen brand name. The producer is
responsible for marketing the brand. The brand is owned by the producer.

By building their brand names, manufacturers can gain widespread distribution (for example by
retailers who want to sell the brand) and build customer loyalty (think about the manufacturer
brands that you feel “loyal” to).

 Own label brands

Own-label brands are created and owned by businesses that operate in the distribution channel –
often referred to as “distributors”.

Often these distributors are retailers, but not exclusively. Sometimes the retailer’s entire product
range will be own-label. However, more often, the distributor will mix own-label and
manufacturers brands. The major supermarkets (e.g. Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s) are excellent
examples of this.

Own-label branding – if well carried out – can often offer the consumer excellent value for
money and provide the distributor with additional bargaining power when it comes to negotiating
prices and terms with manufacturer brands.
Three other important terms relating to brands:
1. Brand Equity
“Brand equity” refers to the value of a brand. Brand equity is based on the extent to which the
brand has high brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality and strong product associations.
Brand equity also includes other “intangible” assets such as patents, trademarks and channel
relationships. E.g Nokia

2. Brand Image
“Brand image” refers to the set of beliefs that customers hold about a particular brand. These are
important to develop well since a negative brand image can be very difficult to shake off. E.g
Johnson & Johnson, despite competition from Wipro, Johnson & Johnson has managed to
maintain its Brand Image in the minds of the consumer.

3. Brand Extension
“Brand extension” refers to the use of a successful brand name to launch a new or modified
product in a new market. A successful brand helps a company enter new product categories more
easily.

For example, Fairy (owned by Unilever) was extended from a washing up liquid brand to
become a washing powder brand too and Garnier( Owned by Loreal) which has extended from
shampoo till deodorant.
 Brand Positioning
Positioning can be defined as follows:

“Positioning is how a product appears in relation to other products in the

market.”

Brands can be positioned against competing brands on a perceptual map.

A perceptual map defines the market in terms of the way buyers perceive key
characteristics of competing products.

The basic perceptual map that buyers use maps products in terms of their price and
quality, as illustrated below:
 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.

For example Hewlett-Packard (“HP”) has a broad product mix that covers many
segments of the personal and business computing market.

Managing brands is a key part of the product strategy of any business, particularly
those operating in highly competitive consumer markets.

Principles
A good brand name should:

• Be protected (or at least protectable) under trademark law

• Be easy to pronounce
• Be easy to remember
• Be easy to recognize
• Be easy to translate into all languages in the markets where the brand will be
used
• Attract attention
• Suggest product benefits (e.g.: Easy-Off) or suggest usage (note the tradeoff
with strong trademark protection)
• Suggest the company or product image
• Distinguish the product's positioning relative to the competition.
• Stand out among a group of other brands - like that one compared to the
others.
 Brands - Building a Brand
Professor David Jobber identifies seven main factors in building successful brands,
as illustrated in the diagram below:
 1. Quality
Quality is a vital ingredient of a good brand. Remember the “core benefits” – the
things consumers expect. These must be delivered well, consistently. The branded
washing machine that leaks, or the training shoe that often falls apart when wet
will never develop brand equity.

Research confirms that, statistically, higher quality brands achieve a higher market
share and higher profitability that their inferior competitors.

2. Positioning
Positioning is about the position a brand occupies in a market in the minds of
consumers. Strong brands have a clear, often unique position in the target market.

Positioning can be achieved through several means, including brand name, image,
service standards, product guarantees, packaging and the way in which it is
delivered. In fact, successful positioning usually requires a combination of these
things.

3. Repositioning
Repositioning occurs when a brand tries to change its market position to reflect a
change in consumer’s tastes. This is often required when a brand has become tired,
perhaps because its original market has matured or has gone into decline.

The repositioning of the Lucozade brand from a sweet drink for children to a
leading sports drink is one example. Another would be the changing styles of
entertainers with above-average longevity such as Kylie Minogue and Cliff
Richard.

4. Communications
Communications also play a key role in building a successful brand. We suggested
that brand positioning is essentially about customer perceptions – with the
objective to build a clearly defined position in the minds of the target audience.
All elements of the promotional mix need to be used to develop and sustain
customer perceptions. Initially, the challenge is to build awareness, then to develop
the brand personality and reinforce the perception.

First-mover advantage
Business strategists often talk about first-mover advantage. In terms of brand
development, by “first-mover” they mean that it is possible for the first successful
brand in a market to create a clear positioning in the minds of target customers
before the competition enters the market. There is plenty of evidence to support
this.

Think of some leading consumer product brands like Gillette, Coca Cola and
Sellotape that, in many ways, defined the markets they operate in and continue to
lead. However, being first into a market does not necessarily guarantee long-term
success. Competitors – drawn to the high growth and profit potential demonstrated
by the “market-mover” – will enter the market and copy the best elements of the
leader’s brand (a good example is the way that Body Shop developed the “ethical”
personal care market but were soon facing stiff competition from the major high
street cosmetics retailers.

5. Long-term perspective
This leads onto another important factor in brand-building: the need to invest in the
brand over the long-term. Building customer awareness, communicating the
brand’s message and creating customer loyalty takes time. This means that
management must “invest” in a brand, perhaps at the expense of short-term
profitability.

6. Internal marketing
Finally, management should ensure that the brand is marketed “internally” as well
as externally. By this we mean that the whole business should understand the brand
values and positioning. This is particularly important in service businesses where a
critical part of the brand value is the type and quality of service that a customer
receives.

Think of the brands that you value in the restaurant, hotel and retail sectors. It is
likely that your favorite brands invest heavily in staff training so that the face-to-
face contact that you have with the brand helps secure your loyalty.
A perfect example to emphasize the above points is BRAND-NOKIA

Nokia - Building A Powerful Technology Brand

The world of parity has hit the mobile phone market just as it has many other technology product
categories. The products range from the simple to the complex, but every manufacturer offers, of
course, the latest features. Leapfrogging in sales between brands frequently occurs based on
design. But overall the market is predictable, with Nokia, Motorola, and Ericsson fighting it out
at the top and several less successful brands like Samsung, Philips, Siemensand Panasonic trying
hard to make inroads into their top competitors' market share. So what makes the difference
between the most successful and less successful brands? It certainly is not what product features
are offered. How, then, do consumers choose? The answer seems to be what the brand names
mean to them.

Nokia Group the Finland-based manufacturer of mobile phones, has been steadily working on its
corporate brand name and the management of consumer perceptions over the last few years. Its
efforts have paid off, because it is now the number one brand in many markets around the world,
effectively dislodging Motorola from that position. The brand has been built using the principles
described above, and has been consistently well managed across all markets. Nokia has
succeeded in lending personality to its products, without even giving them names. In other
words, it has not created any sub-brands but has concentrated on the corporate brand, giving
individual products a generic brand personality. Only numeric descriptors are used for the
products, which do not even appear on the product themselves. Such is the strength of the
corporate brand.

Nokia has suceeded where other big brand names have so far failed, chiefly by putting across the
human face technology-taking and dominating the emotional high ground. It has done so in the
following way.
Nokia Brand Personality

Nokia has detailed many personality characteristics for its brand, but employees do not have to
remember every characteristic. They do, however, have to remember the overall impression of
the list of attributes, as you would when thinking about someone you have met. As the focus is
on customer relationships, the Nokia personality is like a trusted friend. Building friendship and
trust is at the heart of the Nokia brand. And the human dimension created by the brand
personality carries over into the positioning strategy for the brand.

Nokia Positioning

When Nokia positions its brand in the crowded mobile phone marketplace, its message must
clearly bring together the technology and human side of its offer in a powerful way. The specific
message that is conveyed to consumers in every advertisement and market communication
(though not necessarily in these words) is "Only Nokia Human Technolgy enables you to get
more out of life"

In many cases, this is represented by the tag line, "We call this human technology". This gives
consumers a sense of trust and consideration by the company, as though to say that Nokia
understand what they want in life, and how it can help. And it knows that technology is really
only an enabler so that you-the customer-can enjoy a better life. Nokia thus uses a combination
of aspirational, benefit-based, emotional features, and competition-driven positioning strategies.
It owns the "human" dimension of mobile communications, leaving its competitors wondering
what to own (or how to position themselves), having taken the best position for itself.

Nokia Product Design

Nokia is a great brand because it knows that the essence of the brand needs to be reflected in
everything the company does, especially those that impact the consumer. Product design is
clearly critical to the success of the brand, but how does Nokia manage to inject personality into
product design? The answer is that it gives a great deal of thought to how the user of its phones
will experience the brand, and how it can make that experience reflect its brand character. The
large display screen, for example, is the "face" of the phone. Nokia designers describe it as the
"eye into the soul of the product". The shape of phones is curvy and easy to hold. The faceplates
and their different colors can be changed to fit the personality, lifestyle, and mood of the user.
The soft key touch pads also add to the feeling of friendliness, expressing the brand personality.
Product design focuses on the consumer and his needs, and is summed up in the slogan, "human
technology."

Nokia now accounts for over half of the value of the Finland stock market, and has taken huge
market share from its competitiors. According to one brand valuation study carried out in mid-
1999, it ranked 11th on the world's most valuable brand list, making it the highest-ranking non-
U.S. brand. As has been pointed out, it has unseated Motorola. Nokia achieved its brilliant feat
through consistent branding, backed by first-class logistics and manufacturing, all of which
revolve around what consumers what.
 Brand Management
This involves managing the tangible and intangible aspects of the brand. For
product brands the tangibles are the product itself, the packaging, the price, etc. For
service brands (see Service Brands), the tangibles are to do with the customer
experience - the retail environment, interface with salespeople, overall satisfaction,
etc. For product, service and corporate brands, the intangibles are the same and
refer to the emotional connections derived as a result of experience, identity,
communication and people. Intangibles are therefore managed via the
manipulation of identity, communication and people skills.

Understanding Brand Management

Brand management is a process of used in marketing; in fact it comes under one of
the 4Ps of the marketing mix. This means that the brands of the company have to
be managed so as to create a positive image about the brand and the company in
the minds of the customers. This is a difficult task and one that has to be handled
delicately. The other purpose of brand management is to build customer loyalty by
means of creating an emotion bond between the customers and the brand itself.
People in the company responsible for brand management are the brand managers
who naturally must have an understanding of the market and customers. Brand
managers are responsible for creating a promise through a particular brand; the
promise could be healthy food and healthy lifestyle or something on those lines.
For the brand to be successful and for brand management also to be successful, it is
important that the promise is met and satisfied, else it is going to seriously damage
the brand image. This is what brand management is all about.
Tips for Brand Management
Here are some tips that should help in brand management:

Consistency – where brand management, brand building or branding is concerned there

should always be consistency, and it should be consistent with the ideologies of the brand itself.
People should be consistently be able to identify with the brand.

Brand Equity – an important aspect of brand management is brand equity. This is the
monetary value of the brand. Think of brand management as creating brand equity and making it
grow.

Be aware of other brands – one idea used in brand management is to use sub-brands,
while this is good, you do not want to confuse the customer with too many brands under one
brand name.

Do not be sidelined by profits – most companies work in a manner where they employ
different product managers, who have to work on target basis. It is important for them to make
profits, but brand managers have to be careful so as to not get sidelined by the money and
compromise the brand image.

Be Dynamic – an important aspect of brand management is to avoid stagnation and to be

continuously changing or dynamic. There is no place for stagnation in the corporate world or the
marketing world. Brands should continuously do something new to keep things fresh and the
customers interested.

In 2004, Titan, the world's sixth largest manufacturer brand of watches after Casio, Citizen,
Seiko, Swatch and Timex enjoyed a 58% market-share in the Indian watch market. The
company's watches were sold across India in over 1800 towns through some 7000 outlets. Of
these, 150 were exclusive World of Titan stores and another 136 were multi-brand TimeZone
outlets.

The company's watches were also sold in about 40 countries across the world through its
marketing subsidiaries.

Titan International Marketing Ltd. (TIML) based in London looked after the European
operations; Titan International (Middle East) took care of Titan's business in the Middle East and
Africa and Titan Watches and Jewelry (Asia Pacific) Ltd. based in Singapore, managed the
South Asian and South East Asian markets.

In a survey conducted by The Economic Times in 2000, Titan was voted the 'Most Admired
Brand' by consumers all over India across all product categories.
The Titan brand has three attributes - leadership, innovation and pride in the consumer's mind.
Research tells us that even to an up-market SEC A customer, Titan means style and elegance.
Where we fell short was in these "softer" attributes. Primarily because innovation was less
frequent and less visible from Titan in the last few years. However, we are back on the track with
innovation, which is the essence of Titan, apart from leadership and pride.

- Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries.

Why should businesses try to build

their brands?
There are many advantages to businesses that build successful brands. These
include:

• Higher prices
• Higher profit margins
• Better distribution
• Customer loyalty

Businesses that operate successful brands are also much more likely to enjoy
higher profits.

A brand is created by augmenting a core product with distinctive values that

distinguish it from the competition. This is the process of creating brand value.

All products have a series of “core benefits” – benefits that are delivered to all
consumers. For example:

• Watches tell the time

• CD-players play CD’s
• Toothpaste helps prevent tooth decay
• Garages dispense petrol.

Consumers are rarely prepared to pay a premium for products or services that
simply deliver core benefits – they are the expected elements of that justify a core
price.

Successful brands are those that deliver added value in addition to the core
benefits.
These added values enable the brand to differentiate itself from the competition.
When done well, the customer recognizes the added value in an augmented product
and chooses that brand in preference.

For example, a consumer may be looking for reassurance or a guarantee of quality

in a situation where he or she is unsure about what to buy. A brand like Mercedes,
Sony or Microsoft can offer this reassurance or guarantee.

Alternatively, the consumer may be looking for the brand to add meaning to his or
her life in terms of lifestyle or personal image. Brands such as Nike, Porsche or
Timberland do this.

A brand can usefully be represented in the classic “fried-egg” format shown below,
where the brand is shown to have core features that are surrounded (or
“augmented”) by less tangible features.
 Brand Management Research
The Market Intelligence Co. sees five main areas where research can
contribute to brand management within any business.
1. Brand distillation : offering clarity of brand essence and distilling
its value proposition.

2. Brand execution : assisting in the development and evaluation of

communication strategies which convey your brand both in/externally
(e.g. testing brand tag lines, logos, livery and brochures).

3. Brand change: evaluating the potential impact of a proposed

change to the brand (for example, brand livery, positioning, message and
name).

4. Brand alignment : assessing the alignment of the brand with the

business/markets to identify whether the brand is reflected in the internal
values, vision and culture of the organisation and is suited to its target
market segments.

5. Brand performance : assessing the contribution of the brand to the

business by measuring brand awareness, associations and competitive
market positioning.
 Brand Architecture
The different brands owned by a company are related to each other via brand
architecture. In product brand architecture, the company supports many different
product brands each having its own name and style of expression but the company
itself remains invisible to consumers. Procter & Gamble, considered by many to
have created product branding, is a choice example with its many unrelated
consumer brands such as Tide, Pampers, Ivory and Pantene. With endorsed brand
architecture, a mother brand is tied to product brands, such as The Courtyard
Hotels (product brand name) by Marriott (mother brand name). Endorsed brands
benefit from the standing of their mother brand and thus save a company some
marketing expense by virtue promoting all the linked brands whenever the mother
brand is advertised.. In the third model only the mother brand is used and all
products carry this name and all advertising speaks with the same voice. A good
example of this brand architecture, most often known as corporate branding, is the
UK-based conglomerate Virgin. Virgin brands all its businesses with its name
(e.g., Virgin Megastore, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Brides) and uses one style and
logo to support each of them.

Techniques
Companies sometimes want to reduce the number of brands that they market. This
process is known as "Brand rationalization." Some companies tend to create more
brands and product variations within a brand than economies of scale would
indicate. Sometimes, they will create a specific service or product brand for each
market that they target. In the case of product branding, this may be to gain retail
shelf space (and reduce the amount of shelf space allocated to competing brands).
A company may decide to rationalize their portfolio of brands from time to time to
gain production and marketing efficiency, or to rationalize a brand portfolio as part
of corporate restructuring.

A recurring challenge for brand managers is to build a consistent brand while

keeping its message fresh and relevant. An older brand identity may be misaligned
to a redefined target market, a restated corporate vision statement, revisited
mission statement or values of a company. Brand identities may also lose
resonance with their target market through demographic evolution. Repositioning a
brand (sometimes called rebranding), may cost some brand equity, and can confuse
the target market, but ideally, a brand can be repositioned while retaining existing
brand equity for leverage.

Brand orientation is a deliberate approach to working with brands, both internally

and externally. The most important driving force behind this increased interest in
strong brands is the accelerating pace of globalization. This has resulted in an ever-
tougher competitive situation on many markets. A product’s superiority is in itself
no longer sufficient to guarantee its success. The fast pace of technological
development and the increased speed with which imitations turn up on the market
have dramatically shortened product lifecycles. The consequence is that product-
related competitive advantages soon risk being transformed into competitive
prerequisites. For this reason, increasing numbers of companies are looking for
other, more enduring, competitive tools – such as brands. Brand Orientation refers
to "the degree to which the organization values brands and its practices are
oriented towards building brand capabilities” (Bridson & Evans, 2004).
 Brand Revival
Conventional marketing wisdom says that for every 100 brands that are born upto
90 could perish. In fact the life expectancy of many brands in countries like Japan
is an average 18 months.

The stronger brands, the ones that become heritage brands and occasionally
become larger than the companies that gave birth to them, they last longer
sometimes longer than the company itself.

However old age can take a toll on brands. At times seemingly invincible brands
age too often and too soon. Dalda vanaspati, Weston televisions, Kelvinator
refrigerators, Murphy radios, Polsen butter and Campa Cola are just some names
that no longer have the visibility in most Indian shops. However, about two- three
decades back shopkeepers could not do without these brands.

Can these brands that were snowed under in changing circumstances be revived?
Can a new proposition be built on the old legacy? That’s where the business of
brand revival comes in. Today it is the buzz word among the corporations who are
scrambling in carrying out those old fashioned yet still effective cost revenue
analysis in seeing if they can bring back the old! To get the heritage brands back to
the market.

The reason for this is not too difficult to see. Simply because businesses are
realizing that brands have a tremendous asset value or resale value. Also
companies in a passive thought are also revitalizing brands so that they can realize
more value from these before getting rid of these. And today if companies want to
sell off brands that make no strategic sense for them, there isn’t a shortage of
buyers for defunct brands either.

Sometimes, however, even if brands get a second chance to prove them at the altar
of consumerism it will not be a cakewalk. That’s because a reborn brand has a
much difficult task at hand than a new brand-- new brands take off from ground
zero but in the case of a dead brand then, company relaunching it has to first clean
up the negative baggage associated with the brand’s earlier failure before it lands
on the same level as the new brand. At the conceptual level, it is an uphill task.

E.g. -- When Dalda was introduced; it successfully entered most customer homes
as Indian households were looking for a cheaper alternative for ghee. However,
Dalda came with 2 negative labels stuck to its neck-- it was a cheaper alternative
and it was not the real thing.

As customers started preferring healthier alternatives like cooking oils, Dalda lost
popularity. Now even though Dalda is on its comeback trail in Indian markets, not
many consultants are impressed.
In short, they do what Lakshmi Mittal did in the steel industry, which is to say he
picks up the sick steel plants and has turned them around.

Generally a reviving of brand is made when:

• It is apparent to the marketer that the brand in question is losing share
because its physical qualities need a change.
• It is also possible that, in comparison to competition, the brand is looking
tired and old-fashioned, so that this could be a reason to strengthen the brand
communication.
• In addition to making changes to the product, there are many instances of
brands of products being re-launched in the market.
• The key factors that marketers review in order to decide whether a brand
needs a revival are a decline in its market share and the brand's strength
showing a decline.
• Very often, an expensive revive fails to be successful because it was done in
a hurry or the management actually did not take into account market
research evidence that the marketing mix was not fully satisfactory
• It could be the revive of an existing brand in order to make the consumer
look at the product in a different light
 BRANDS THAT NEED REVIVAL
1. Heritage Brands
These are the brands that were the first ones to come in the markets. They could be referred
to as the pioneers of the markets. These products are generally in the last stage or sometimes
in the second last stage of their product life cycle. However, just as Sir Hector Laing, Chief
Executive Officer, United Biscuits plc. remarked, “Buildings age and become dilapidated.
Machines wear out. People die. But what live on are the brands”; these brands too lived on.
However, their image among customers changes from that of a brand to a special brand. E.g.
- Hindustan Motors’ car Ambassador. It has become a heritage car with the memories of its
yesteryears. Anather e.g is “ Parle-G”

In the hit Bollywood movie Welcome, actor Nana Patekar, in a passing reference to Parle-G,
notes that even biscuits command respect and have to be addressed with a ji (a term of
respect in Hindi). His remark, while made in jest, is not far off the mark.

It is a heritage brand. We sell over 25 crore packets every month. That should reflect the
stature of the brand,” says Praveen Kulkarni, marketing head at Parle Products Pvt. Ltd.

Parle’s mantra has always been about repositioning the brand without tweaking the look and
feel of the product. “The brand is clearly an Indian brand and it straddles all economic strata.
The fact that it is a staple for everyone in the house keeps it going,” says Nirvik Singh,
chairman and president, Grey Global Group, South and South-East Asia, the agency that
handles the Parle-G account.

There was a time when Parle-G’s dominance was threatened by rival brands, especially the
Tiger brand from Britannia. “We found out that Tiger was getting stronger in the kids
segment, and we decided to change our positioning,” says Kulkarni. Later, when the
company sponsored the television show Shaktimaan on Doordarshan, it literally rescued
Parle-G.

The brand also had some innovative commercials involving young children with a new
punchline, G means Genius, which was an instant hit.While rivals have signed on celebrities,
Parle-G has managed to retain its leadership position with just a simple white-and-yellow
striped wrapper with a picture of a baby on it. “We don’t need celebrities as the brand equity
is so strong,” says Kulkarni.

The biggest concern is that the brand shouldn’t become outdated as it is a historic brand. The
brand has managed to retain its leadership position because it has evolved its campaign with
every consumption trend,” says Singh.

The last campaign, Hindustan ki Takat, (the strength of India) is a huge position which no
other brand can take so effortlessly.”
2. Orphan Brands
Orphan brands are the neglected ones. These are the brands that despite their high
recognition factors may suffer from poor market positioning, a lackluster business
environment, or just plain neglect from the parent.
Orphan brands also include those brands that after being neglected have also been disowned
from their parent manufacturers. A major example that could be cited in this regard is that of
the ointment Burnol. Burnol was originally a brand of Boots Company plc. It was bought
over by Knoll AG of Germany in 1995 and was then bought by Reckitt Piramal in 1998. It
re- launched Burnol as " Antiseptic Burnol plus" in 1994, which widened its usage from
minor burns category to an antiseptic cream. Now recently, Morepen labs ltd. acquired of the
brand Burnol from Reckitt Piramal ltd. for Rs. 8.95 crores. Anather e.g is Wimco Ltd-
WIMCO Ltd wholly owned subsidiary of Russell Credit was taken over by ITC Ltd. ITC's
matchboxes business (built on a 100 per cent outsourcing model) has entered a fresh phase of
consolidation, entailing both aggressive outsourcing from the over 44 SSI units in the
Sivakasi, Gudiyatham belts of Tamil Nadu, and upgradation of facilities at the existing units
of WIMCO. As of December 31, 2005, ITC has achieved volumes (through outsourcing)
close to 230 million matchboxes per month.Some of the popular brands of safety matches
marketed by ITC are `Aim', `I Kno', `Vaxlit' and `Delite'. But as a result WIMCO got
sidelined and resulted into a neglected brand.

3. Ghost Brands
Ghost Brands are brands that are shadows of their former selves. They may be existing in the
market or even sometimes phased out, but they continue to haunt the minds of the
consumers. These are the brands were once the top brands in their market, but have now been
overshadowed due to any of the various reasons, such as launch of new improved products,
or change in the consumer needs or preferences, etc. They walk the fine line between life and
death, and are often demoted to the bottom shelf, which is the death row in many stores.
E.g Kachua chaap mosquito coils. Before mosquito repellent products became big business,
consumer insights indicated the belief that creating smoke around the house by burning waste
wood outside and incense inside would drive mosquitoes away. The fusion of these practices
indicated a strong potential for a mosquito repellent coil that was burnt.

Kachua Chaap was the first brand to be launched in this category and now, a few decades
later, it is still generic to the category. It’s a strong example of the power of insights resulting
in sales conversion.

The nemesis of this category also came through insights. This time the insights indicated that
consumers wanted mosquito repellents that were safer, convenient and more trendy. The
result was mosquito repellent mats resulting to the entry of Good Knight ( owned by Godrej)
Then, research showed that changing the mats daily was and not knowing when the mat ran
out of the chemical was considered a drawback. Thus came the next stage of repellents: a
liquid in a bottle, attached to an electrical gadget.

Not only has consumer insights driven every stage of evolution in this category, it has also
grown the category and increased consumer satisfaction.

The companies, which own these brands, have four options:

Revive them,
Milk them,
Sell them, or
Kill them.

Reviving, in such cases, could be the best option as milking them won’t yield much and
eventually it would have to be killed. Also, selling would give the producer a much lower
price as compared to the profits that the buyer could make if he revives it. Hence, though
revival involves considerable costs to the companies, but it could yield those profits more
than their investments.
 THE PROCESS

1. Identify potential products

It is Important to identify and select the right brand to revive and choosing the right as not all
brands can be revived.
While reviving a brand many different considerations have to be taken into the mind like the
market in which the brand is to be revived, the targeted market, and the advertising strategies.
Thus in the brand revival process the first step is by far the most important step as all other
steps are directly dependent on the efficiency of the first step.

2. Listen to your consumers

They are the best source for information about products and needs. The Himmel Group has
effectively utilized the following consumer research tools to gather critical information: (1)
Brand Research Cards (BRC) questionnaires and on-line surveys used to collect consumer
feedback on every product, (2) Concept test research, (3) Focus groups, (4) Product use
research, (5) Toll free consumer hotline and consumer mail and emails. Management read all
consumer correspondence.

3. Create compelling creative messages that strike a chord with target

consumers

Focus attention on consumer needs and wants with single-minded, believable messages.
Create an advertising "hook" (in the case of medicines, a proprietary name for a medical
condition, and then create the solution through the Himmel brand) and have strong brand
registration. Control the creative process and cost by utilizing In-house creative development
and production resources and contract out manufacturing of products and utilize outside
consultants for research and development, medical expert advice, etc., to keep fixed costs
low.

4. Differentiate your product from the competition

Discover and exploit the unique selling proposition (USP) of the brand. Motivate consumers
to choose the Himmel brand over the competition by promoting brands 52 weeks a year.
Create an emotional connection with consumers and treat brands like children — they must
be "nurtured."
5. Advertise, Advertise, and Advertise. Maintain a heavy investment in
advertising

There is a direct correlation between investment in advertising and consumer awareness,

brand loyalty, market share, ability to resist price competition, and leverage with the retailer.
Maintained the frequency of advertising — advertising frequency creates awareness and
awareness creates sales by deliver advertising messages on television, radio, etc. Control cost
and maintained efficiency by utilize in-house media buying service.
 STRATEGIES FOR BRAND
REVIVAL
To make a brand comeback, successful, the first thing is to create a new economic value for the
customer, identify alternate distribution channels. For instance, brands can go online, get into
new organized retail format and so on. Today, channels are market makers. One must find
alternative ways of doing the 4Ps of marketing which may even require a modification of
packaging in certain cases.

The companies need to trace the ailments that led to the brand becoming defunct. Brands become
defunct for many reasons. Sometimes not enough effort is put behind them when they were first
launched. Otherwise they could have been ahead of time or not as relevant as it was conceived
for. For e.g. - If a product like a fabric softener was relaunched at present, it could find more
takers than the comeback of a “Neel” (the blue fabric after wash).

• Repositioning strategy
Sometimes global product portfolio rationalization could affect local brands. A case in point
is Kelvinator refrigerators which were put on a slow burner after it was taken over. But
Kelvinator’s strong brand proposition--“it’s the coolest one”-is timeless and would be
equally relevant to the customers at present.
In another instance, Dabur repackaged its Real fruit juice; the company’s flagship product; as
a natural, great tasting fruit juice for kids. They aligned the packaging, communication and
all elements of the marketing mix to communicate the brand’s benefit (i.e., “REAL-tastes
like eating a fruit”).

Following the rules & doing the basics right

This is the case with Lifebuoy, a brand that although did not disappear from shop shelves, but
nevertheless made a successful comeback. From just being a carbolic soap which would be
used in office toilets and dhabas, Lifebuoy has come to be‘family bathe soap’. They played
by the rules to win. For instance, the carbolic soap form of Lifebuoy had reached a state of
maturity. As the strong brand started to plateau, the company started to revamp and
reposition it. Importantly the relaunch of Lifebuoy was backed by consumer insights and
significant marketing spends, both of which are completely essential.

• Having new applications

Brands can also be revived by the marketers by developing or inventing some new and
innovative uses of their product. This worked wonders for the US based Arm & Hammer, a
baking soda company. For years the company stuck to its core business baking soda and
marketing it as it is; but then customers frequently baked at home. As lifestyles became
hectic, baking became a hobby and sales suffered. The company took its core product baking
soda and put it into new applications. At present it marketed it as it could not only be used for
baking but it is also a treat cleanser and odour killer and can kill odour in refrigerators. All
this exercise helped the brand to remain contemporary.

• Finding New segments

Sometimes just finding a new segment of users for the same brand can help in a successful
revival of the brand. For instance, the largest users of are actually adults as opposed to
children. That’s because customers who grew up with video games are continuing to play
and their tribe is increasing. In another instance, companies in US have revitalized the orange
juice industry from being only on the breakfast table to a juice for all occasions. It’s also
being touted as a healthy alternative since it has vitamin C. With bulk of population in US
being elders has broadened the product scope and has helped it make a comeback.

• Geographical segmentation

Even without new applications or new customer segments, a dwindling brand in one country
can find solace in another. Companies are increasingly putting their brands into a new
country or geography where they never existed. As there is no prior image of the brand in the
new geography, the company can market the brand in a way so as to create the image they
want customers to remember the brand as. Relevant example in this case could be that of
General Motors, who managed to make its passenger car Buick a hit in China when the sales
of the brand were not good in the US.

• Clever positioning

Clever positioning and promotions can be deciding factors in brand comebacks. A creative
approach to communications can revitalize the brand. E.g. -- Chewing gum brand Chiclets.
Previously a pack of Chiclets had eight pieces in a box. Naturally the unit price was high. But
price was not the problem for the brand. No consumer would eat eight gums at a go and
when consumers put the rest into their pockets, Chiclets would melt if the climatic conditions
were unfavorable. The recommendation was that if Chiclets had only 2 pieces in a packet it
would also bring the unit price down. After implementing these changes, the company came
with a ‘two of you’ campaign targeted at young couples. The Chiclets case had all the must
haves for the brand revitalization: a new economic value, new packaging and a new promise.
New strategies being followed

Some firms offer an outsourcing service to parent firms for the marketing and management
of old brands. The parent retains a stake in the business, so it shares in the profit when the
brands are revived.

 Saatchinvest, for example, holds a 51% majority stake in Complan globally, but Heinz
has retained a 34% share.
 Chartered brands started out with a full acquisition strategy for orphan brands, but now
take only minority stakes in them. They, in their words, ‘take risks, inject cash, manage
the process and share the benefits with the owners’.

Outsourcing marketing can make sense for both parties. First, the small firm does not need
to worry about the seller refocusing on a category. Second, the multinational does not sire a
new competitor.

In nutshell, consumers will buy a brand only if they find value and trust (which could be in the
form of past goodwill) in it. It does not matter if it has gone out of public view for a while. In
fact marketing consultants add that as long as consumers can be convinced about the value and
as long as they connect with a brand, sales will happen. But conditions apply. No strong
negatives must exist to be associated with a brand that’s awaiting revival.

CHALLENGES WHILE REVIVING A BRAND

• Understanding the market

If your product is aimed at a very specific target market then there is a good chance that this
product will require only basic modification from country to country. If your product is
aimed at a larger, more general market, there is a higher chance that wider-reaching changes
will have to be implemented in order to make the product suitable for mass marketing.

• Gathering intelligence
In order to achieve international success, a business must understand its target customers, not
only in measurable ways such as education levels and income, but on more intangible levels.
While customers may not be aware of their depth of response to design they do respond
 strongly to form, detail, colour and balance. Design relates to every aspect of the experience,
visual, tactile, and emotional. While your customer may not easily be able to articulate their
feelings about these aspects of your product, they are nevertheless extremely important.
When carrying out customer research it is essential that you formulate an approach that
allows you and your design team to understand what your customers actually need, rather
than what they say they need.
Over the past decade there has been an increasing interest from business in non-quantitative
customer research. Using techniques such as ethnography will not provide a clear set of
answers that can be presented in graphs. It is open-ended, holistic and discovery-orientated
and if used correctly will give incredible insight and knowledge into their customers’ needs
and desires that can then be used to inform and guide the subsequent design process.

• Understanding what you are selling

To understand what exactly a company is selling, many companies use the strategy called
'value exporters'. These companies have strong values that are often linked to national
characteristics. They use design as a tool to emphasize either their national origin or the set
of values that differentiate them from other products.
Then, some companies use a strategy called 'value collectors'. These companies may well
have a strong internal culture, but their outward style is less identifiable. They have to invest
more time and money in researching their potential markets and then use design in order to
create products to connect with their international customers. Understanding which of these
approaches is most applicable to your product is central to your approach to design for
international markets.

Managing the design process

A marketer maybe having the most brilliantly designed product in the world, but if he has
a poor understanding of the target audience, a poor business plan, or both; it would fail.
For good design to be good business it must be pursued as an integral part of a wider set
of activities.

For example, while a company may have invested in a successful industrial design and
engineering process it may have failed to consider the total customer experience. This
includes how the customer becomes aware of the product - will it be, for example, through
TV advertising, product promotion or product placement? And how will the customer take
ownership of the product? Will this be by ordering from a catalogue, purchasing online or in
store?
Considering all these areas and more leads to a significantly improved total customer
experience and the likelihood of success is dramatically improved.
 CASES OF BRAND REVIVAL
In the span of the last decade or so many companies over the world has taken to the
route of brand revival of its either popular brands or brands that didn’t click in its
first place. These companies have used different tactics, style, and methods to win
over the customers.
In the following pages an attempt has been made in this direction to find out these
companies, the product it relaunched and the general perception of the people
towards it.

CASE#1
Apple Computer Inc
In 1997, after reporting losses of $1billion, it was widely assumed that Apple
Computer was about to go out of business. The company had lost its way. Its
core market of creative’s and students had become alienated and were switching
over to cheaper PC products.

However later that year, the return of Steve Jobs as CEO changed all this. He
gave the company back its vision, and, working with the design team headed by
 British designer Jonathan Ive, he created a product driven identity for Apple
which is based around a high quality total product experience. With the iMac,
Apple redefined the home computer as a friendly domestic object. With the
iPod and iTunes music management software, it defined the digital music
market and currently holds about 80% of the hard drive-based portable music
player market in the USA and approximately 50% worldwide. At the end of
2005 Apple reported the highest revenue and earnings in the Company’s
history, and international sales accounted for 40 percent of the quarter’s
revenue.

Case#2
Electrolux
When CEO Hans Strasberg joined Electrolux in 2002 he took the helm of a
company in crisis. He faced spiraling costs while its middle market products
were gradually losing out to cheaper goods from Asia and Eastern Europe.
Strasberg knew that the only way that the company could hope to survive
amidst this ferocious competition was through innovation and design to create
products with good looks and clever features which people could understand
without having to pore through a thick users’ manual.
 To do this he broke down the traditional barriers between departments, forcing
marketing, designers and engineers to work together in cross-disciplinary teams.
These teams brainstorm and develop new product ideas – the most successful are
fast tracked into production.
To support this drive for innovation spending in R&D has been bumped from
0.8% of sales to 1.2% with the eventual goal of raising to 2%. This investment
is now beginning to show returns, after dropping for two straight years annual
sales rose 8% to $16.5 billion, in 2005. The number of product launches that
result in outsized unit sales is currently running at over 50% of all introductions
up from around 25% previously. The award winning Electrolux Pronto
commands 50% of the USA stick vacuum cleaner market despite being double
the cost of comparable models.
CELEBRITY BRANDING
Introduction
Indian advertising started with the hawkers who used to shout out their goods
right from the days when cities and markets first began. Since then, Indian
advertising has been converted into a strategic tool that enhances sales, more
profits and helps in the process of brand-building and product promotion. With
this evolved a strategy that tried to benefit from the emotional attachment of the
admirers or the fans of the celebrities; in the form of celebrity endorsement. It
does help in creating instant awareness and visibility; but for a cost.

Today, celebrity endorsement became a buzzword. Dabur Glucose endorsed

Amitabh Bachchan. T. V. S. Scooty introduced new hoardings with Preety
Zinta. Shahrukh is endorsed in Lux, Santro etc. Vivek Oberoi is endorsed in
Babool. Aishwarya Rai is endorsed in Coca Cola ad. It looks that without a
Film or Sports star, companies don't want to give you anything!

Why celebrities?
Why do corporate choose celebrities in their advertising? Amitabh endorsing
Reid & Taylor campaign was a much known endorsement. The objective was to
acquire faster brand recognition, association and emotional unity with the target
group. The Reid & Taylor ad showed the highest recall amongst fabric ads.
Similarly, when S Kumar’s used Hrithik Roshan, then the hottest advertising
icon for their launch advertising for Tamarind, they reckoned they spent 40 - 50
per cent less on media due to the sheer impact of using Hrithik. Ad recall was as
high as 70 per cent.

Basically, celebrity endorsements give a brand a touch of that personality, and

the hope that a famous face will provide added appeal and name recognition in
a crowded market. In the battle for the mind, you get the customer excited by
showing him a known face, and an effective demand is created. This would
normally work best when the concerned brand has close substitutes, or has a
need for differentiation, or requires quick entry in a short lifecycle category.
The trouble with celebrity branding
There are several viewpoints for troubles with celebrity branding as given
below.

1. One problem that the company faces from the advertisers' point of view is
that the celebrity being "larger" than the brand. For example, in B. P. L. ads
Amitabh Bachchan overshadowed the company.

2. The other problem is that of duration of endorsement and a possible

mismatch between the celebrity's life cycle and that of the brand. Owing to
unavailability of dates, sometimes long-term contracts are signed, but the
celebrity's life might be over soon. For example Vinod Kambli came in many
ads at his time, which was running even after he was not in the "Team India".

3. Multiple endorsements is even other problem. That is called 'lazy

advertising'. There is unfortunately a limited pool of celebrities who can
influence consumers. So you have the same celebrity endorsing several
categories, as in Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar, who are over-
exposed. Consumers may be confused in recalling the ads when they remember
the ads.

Celebrity Branding Conclusion

For advertisers, everything depends upon customers and the company's budgets.
Celebrities do wonder – no doubt! But, the company has to pay a huge cost too.
Though some problems are there, it is believed that celebrities work far better
than the traditional models.

INTERNET BRANDING
The advent of the Internet technology has made available to man a virtual
highway, a free medium to cross over, without leaving the base domain. The
 options to using the facility and optimizing the benefits are all free, and there are
no set or pre-determined maps involved.

With information and technology only a click away, it is intriguing that the Internet
and technology marketing avenues are still so underutilized. This is primarily due
to the fact that the technology harnessed is now not only free, but also sadly taken
for granted. This has resulted in the subsequent loss of strong-hold and potential
power. This complacency probably springs from the notion that man knows and
has tried everything and now, there is nothing further left to do. This is where the
magic of internet branding makes its presence known, by addressing the requisite
for a domain name, a web site and e-mail, for a business or personal pursuit to
flourish.

The speed at which changes within this new avenue unfold, it is little wonder that
it keeps getting reinvented and furthered every second! Most of the web sites
operative today are redundant and many, too old to be fixed or totally unfit to
ensure business targets and special industry-specific requirements. Today, the
technology gurus have redefined the approach, to make it more lucrative. This is
achieved under new rules of Internet branding that are designed to address the
current online business needs under e-commerce protocols. The internet branding
services offer customers around the world complete access to products, services
and a thorough understanding of core corporate management areas.

The internet branding services are able to efficiently incorporate new changes and
revolutionize the method and message delivery package. The entire gamut is
designed to ensure that the business witnesses a smooth transition, which doubles
the profits. New internet branding techniques involve a dedicated system of
developing a powerful and unique URL that is backed by trademark protection. For
proper implementation, the entire organization, at all levels, is required to first
understand the effect of successful Internet branding. The concept is best
understood and applied with streamlined educational support. The various
strategies to counter the e-commerce challenges and new technologies enable the
team to stay ahead of the curves!

Internet branding literally harnesses the intricacies globalization and expands your
local market base. The concept is your ticket to opportunity and a huge
international market. You are able to identify the potential customers searching for
you as their resource base and step out from behind the computer. Most online
business web sites carry confusing marketing messages, which are targeted to
multi group audiences and a combined, rather than dedicated effort. In this
wholesale approach, the poor customer is simply shut out. Dedicated internet
branding enables the business to be correctly highlighted amidst the fancy slogans
and effectively translate technology issues.

Corporations very often promote ideas in strange color schemes or single color
motifs. Instead of wasting time, money and energy towards this kind of kinky
color-specific branding theme to marketing problems, the internet branding option
should be considered for its functionality. With internet branding, the
concentration is on the business message and identity and not on the creation of
spinning, flashy sites. The concept allows entrepreneurs to cash in on the rewards
that accompany correct and simple content, instant accessibility and a concise
URL. Internet branding enables the businessman to expose the business to a wider
and more profitable global customer base.

The adherence to the international rules and standards and the development of a
clear corporate image and identity allow the entrepreneur to tap and navigate
global e-commerce. Internet branding helps the business to function without
constraint or any restriction. The strategy also helps with reputation management,
which is very critical in today’s internet market place. Any damage to the brand,
online or the absence of a strong and positive online brand ensuring strategy for the
company leads to the potential risk and loss of business. It has therefore become a
necessity to understand and adopt internet branding, both on and off line. With the
dedicated approach of the concept, the online presence of any business venture can
be turned into a successful brand experience, for the company, as well as the client.

Challenges
There are several challenges associated with setting objectives for a brand or
product category.

• Brand managers sometimes limit themselves to setting financial and market

performance objectives. They may not question strategic objectives if they
feel this is the responsibility of senior management.
• Most product level or brand managers limit themselves to setting short term
objectives because their compensation packages are designed to reward short
 term behavior. Short term objectives should be seen as milestones towards
long term objectives.
• Often product level managers are not given enough information to construct
strategic objectives.
• It is sometimes difficult to translate corporate level objectives into brand or
product level objectives. Changes in shareholders' equity are easy for a
company to calculate. It is not so easy to calculate the change in
shareholders' equity that can be attributed to a product or category. More
complex metrics like changes in the net present value of shareholders' equity
are even more difficult for the product manager to assess.
• In a diversified company, the objectives of some brands may conflict with
those of other brands. Or worse, corporate objectives may conflict with the
specific needs of your brand. This is particularly true in regard to the trade-
off between stability and riskiness. Corporate objectives must be broad
enough that brands with high risk products are not constrained by objectives
set with cash cows in mind (see B.C.G. Analysis). The brand manager also
needs to know senior management's harvesting strategy. If corporate
management intends to invest in brand equity and take a long term position
in the market (i.e. penetration and growth strategy), it would be a mistake for
the product manager to use short term cash flow objectives (ie. price
skimming strategy). Only when these conflicts and tradeoffs are made
explicit, is it possible for all levels of objectives to fit together in a coherent
and mutually supportive manner.
• Brand managers sometimes set objectives that optimize the performance of
their unit rather than optimize overall corporate performance. This is
particularly true where compensation is based primarily on unit
performance. Managers tend to ignore potential synergies and inter-unit joint
processes.
 CONCLUSION
Brands must make the product relevant and meaningful for the target customers. It
must enhance the product over and above the basic generic level. A product that
comes off the assembly line tends to be merely a physical object. Branding pushes
the product into a perpetual realm by integrating what it is. Branding gives the
customers reasons to buy and use the products. Brand rejuvenation gives a second
life for a brand.

More than 80% of the brands that are launched die off, a mere 8% of these brands,
which are retiring, try to rejuvenate/ revive the brand. Today Brand Revival is in
very high demand as companies realize that building a brand would take ten times
more money than reviving an existing brand. New product development tries to
create brand equity from a blank sheet of paper. But it can frequently be more
rewarding to start with a sheet already written on, with a hidden message we can
decode for a relatively small investment.

Many companies have identified the necessity of Brand Revival and entrepreneurs
have brought in “Brand Spas” to rejuvenate, indulge and refresh the brands. While
understanding the importance of brand revival

Most dead brands died not with a bang but a whimper. This paper has examined
the revitalization of established brands; a topic that has been overlooked for too
many years. Brand managers have numerous options for revitalizing the sales of an
established brand in a mature category. The strategies suggested here present
opportunities for many managers to salvage and leverage the equity that has been
built over the lifetime of the brand. Brands die because of neglect and consumer
indifference.

In this context what we basically identified as the reason why brand revival is a big
hot topic on the mind of the corporate world now and not 10 years back has been
the mental block of “taking out from the dustbin concept”.

Several companies particularly the big MNCs, FMCG haven’t even thought of
giving many of their failed brands a second chance which if they had would have
catapulted their brands into world class brands
In this paper we have examined and discussed many cases where in the brands that
were once written off have been successfully revived and now they are hugely
successful in the market

As part of our effort in getting the material, reading and understanding the matters
concerning the brand revival process we have in this process identified and
extracted a basic check list or the points that the marketer has to keep in mind
while reviving a brand.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Websites:
• www.brandrepublic.com
• www.brandchannel.com
• Wikipedia.org
• www.designcouncil.org
• cnn.com
• www.himmelgroup.com
• www.lornamead.com

Articles:
• Venkatesh Babu; “Issues in brand revival”
• “Nurturing brands back to health”; Indian Management- Journal of AIMA
• www.findarticles.com
• www.yahooanswers.com
• www.rediff.com
• icmr.icfai.org