What is a brand?

Brands are names generally assigned to a product or service or a group of complementary products. It is different from the corporate image which covers every aspect of the company. HLL: power brands

Brand is
An effective brand name allows a company to charge more for its product. Strong brands provide customers with assurance of quality and reduction of search time in the purchasing process. In mature markets,few tangible distinctions exist between competing brands

Observations on branding
In a mature market,if a substantial product improvement appears,competitors usually quickly copy it. HSBC/ICICI Most brands cannot afford to just be one image and have one selling message to one huge homogeneous market. Target specific customers,with specific messages.

Target selection decision

Segmentation and positioning Deciding which consumers the advertisement should be aimed is critical. Brand Positioning:The goal is to set a product apart from its competitors. What is that one thing the brand can stand for,the consumers recognize, and that is salient to consumers. E.g SOTC(Sanjeev kapoor) , Thomas cook(heritage/honest prices), Raj Travels(upmarket trip)

Cont
When the tasks are successfully completed,more powerful brand recognition occurs. In many product categories,even minor variations are hard to find. Salient features are unique to a brand.

Brand Development
A brand name develops strength in the market place when many consumers choose the brand because they consider it salient,memorable and noteworthy. Once brand recognition is achieved,the next step is to prolong its success. The secret to a long brand life is finding one USP and sticking with it.

Develop a segmentation strategy

Objective is to identify a group of consumer that are not being served well presently by competition and are therefore likely to try the brand Segment is large enough,or growing in size and Segment is most likely to respond positively to the benefits offered by the new brand keeping in mind:Age, gender,income,geographical location,usage, attitudes and benefits, lifestyle,culture and ethnic subculture.

Segmentation
The term was coined in the late 1950s. Basic Idea: All potential customers are not identical and a firm must develop different marketing programs. Involve the development and pursuit of market programs directed at sub-group of the population that an organization or firm could potentially serve.

Cont
There are different ways in products and services can be developed and positioned. Distribution channels can be selected to reach certain group. Pricing strategy is worked around.

Strategies
Concentration V/s Differential strategy Concentration in which the organization focuses on only one sub-group and develops a market program directed to it. Differential:Two or more population subgroups are identified and marketing programs are developed for each.

Conclusion
If segmentation is not employed and a single marketing program is developed and applied to all groups, the resulting marketing strategy is termed undifferentiated.

Answer questions to Develop a Strong Brand

Begins with discovering why consumers buy a brand and why they rebuy a brand What are the most compelling benefits What emmotions are elucidated by the brand either during or after the purchase? What one word best describes the brand What is important to consumer in purchase of the product?

Branding

Air Deccan

Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi

Processes
Two important processes that help establish stronger brand prestige. Repetition to capture individual attention Associate the brand most prominent characteristic. Coke: refreshing, BMW: performance driving.

Brand Positioning
A brands position is a set of associations the consumer has with the brand. These may cover physical attributes or lifestyles,or use occasion or user image, or stars that carry it. A brands position develops over years, through advertising, publicity and word of mouth and usage experience and can be sharp or diffuse,depending on the consistency of that brands advertising over the years.

Brand Positioning
When positioning, think of every consumer as having a mental map of the product category.The location of your brand in that map,relative to that of your competitors,is your position.

Brand Positioning Strategies

Positioning involves a decision to stress only certain aspects of any brand, and not others. The key idea is that the consumer must have a clear idea of what the brand stands for in the product category, and that a brand cannot be sharply and distinctly positioned if it tries to be everything to everyone.

Seven approaches to positioning

Using product characteristics or customer benefits. Price quality approach The use or application approach Product user approach Product class approach The cultural symbol approach The competitor approach

Use or application
Another way to communicate an image is to associate the product with a use,or application. Maggi soups for many years positioned itself as a tea-time beverage. AT&T associated long distance calling with communicating with loved ones in its

Cont
Product User:The expectation is that the model or personality will influence the products image by reflecting the characteristics and image of the model or personality communicated as a product user. Product Class: Dove positioned itself apart from the soap category as a cleansing cream product,for women with dry skin.

Cont
Cultural Symbols: Marlboro: American cowboy Use cultural symbols to differentiate their brand from competitors. Use a symbol that is meaningful to people that other competitors are not using and associate the brand with that symbol.

Cont
Positioning by competition: An explicit or implicit frame of reference in one or more competition. Use as a benchmark:HT vs TOI.

Determining the positioning strategy

Identify the competitor Determine how the competitors are perceived and evaluated Determining the competitors positions Analyze the customers Select the position Monitor the position.

Cont
Brands marketing communications is important but marketers have to look at its distribution, pricing,packaging and actual product features. Positioning is not what you do to the product,but what you do to the consumers mind,through various communication.

Conclusion
A brand must be positioned in a way that is maximally effective in attracting the desired target segment.

Some common brands

Spoil yourself

Bond with the Best