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INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY, NAGPUR

BRAND MANAGEMENT

Group Assignment

On

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Prof. Rajeev Kamble Shambhavi (201600207)


Twinkle Kumari (201610309)

Nikunj Rallabhandi(201601308)

Anushree Shrivastava (201600115)


Dhurjyoti Chaudhary (201601332)
1. JBL MARKET STANDING

1.1 History

JBL is an American audio electronics company founded in 1946 by James Bullough


Lansing, after whom the company was named. Their primary products
are loudspeakers and associated electronics. There are two independent divisions within
the company JBL Consumer and JBL Professional. The former produces audio
equipment for the consumer home market while the latter produces professional
equipment for the studio, installed sound, tour sound, portable sound (production and
DJ), and cinema markets. JBL was introduced in India as a brand of Harman
International Pvt Ltd five years ago with other bands like Harman Kardon, Mark
Levinson and Infinity. No other company has consistently contributed more to the
evolution of audio reproduction in professional, home, automotive, personal audio and
multimedia applications.

1.2 Current Scenario

In India, consumer electronics brands are moving very fast. If we speak about speakers,
they are creating emerging trends in the current market; every brand is coming up with
new innovations. The multimedia speaker market has woken up to the demands of
wireless-enabled audio devices such as speakers, sound-bars, headphones and
microphones. The customer demand for such devices arise not only from the home and
consumer ends but also from commercial and other niche applications such as defence
and automotive. The wireless audio technology is a revolution in audio experience
which will certainly be showing growth in every part of the globe as well as in India.

JBL is one of the leaders in the consumer audio category; they are also the most
preferred choice for large venue sound such as - The Royal Opera House, the Global
Vipassana Pagoda, the Kempegowda International Airport, Kingdom of Dreams,
Wonderla theme parks. Moreover, over 50 per cent of the country's PVRs and INOXs are
powered by JBL. As a key player in Harman's extensive portfolio of legendary brands,
JBL contributed to an overall sales increase of 18 per cent in India for the entire lifestyle
audio division in the 2016 fiscal year.
2. COMPETITIVE MARKET SCENARIO

2.1 MAJOR COMPETITORS


The major competitors of JBL are:

Phillips
Sennheiser
Bose

2.2 DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE COMPETITORS

Brand JBL Bose Philips Sennheiser

Value Proposition Hear the Truth Better Sound Sense and The Pursuit of
Through Simplicity Perfect Sound
Research

USP Continuous High Technology Changing Customer Service


innovation Perception

Segment Youth category premium audio Home-Audio Semi-premium


audio brand. and Entertainment Audio
entertainment Brand Entertainment
brand Brand

Target Group middle-class Upper-middle Middle class Urban


section and rich class and rich section Population
class class section

Positioning Category Producer of Trusted brand Provide


Creator high- end audio committed to consumers with
product quality and the opportunity
innovation to make
purchases for
themselves or as
gifts for others
3. BRAND STRATEGIES

3.1 BRAND PERSONALITY


Brand Name and Logo: The JBL logo is one of the highly recognized in audio industry
worldwide. The logo is designed in stencil fashion which acts as a protective grille on a
professional sound reinforcement loudspeaker system.

3.2 VALUE PROPOSITION


JBLs value proposition is Hear the Truth. They deliver a high sound quality. JBL being
one of the top audio companies in the world entered into India through its Parent
company Harman International Pvt. Ltd. They have maintained the same value
proposition since beginning.

JBL is a premium audio brand, borne from the desire to capture the energy and emotion
of a live performance and deliver music the way its meant to be heard. At JBL, design
and quality are and will continue to be paramount; regardless of a products price point.

3.3 BRAND ASSOCIATION


JBL - The brand is best known for its high-definition audio speakers and audio docks.
JBL in India has been associated with A.R. Rahman-one of the finest and top leading
singer of India. JBL wanted itself to be recognized as the finest and the superior quality
product. The brand carries a premium feel.

Lately, to connect to the youth they featured Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra in one
of their ad campaign Just Be Loud in 2014.
3.4 LINE EXTENSION
Line extension refers to the expansion of an existing product line. JBL (speakers) market
under the different line categories:

Portable/Bluetooth Speakers
Loud Speakers
Car Speakers
Home Theatres
Soundbars

3.5 BRAND EXTENSION:


Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a
product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product
category. Following are the different under JBL:

EARPHONES
Headphones

JBL stands very high on all 4 parameters of Brand equity (i.e.) brand awareness,
perceived quality, brand associations and brand loyalty.

4. COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

JBL has maintained a low key in the marketing department since it came in India but
that didnt stop the company to become popular in the Indian audio industry market. It
is one of those brands which leverages on the brand USP heavily for revenue and sales.
JBL has always focused over its high definition sound and quality.

One of its campaigns was to rope the worlds most prominent and prolific music
composer of recent times, Indian music icon A.R. Rahman to promote its Hear the truth
campaign. The campaign was directed toward exciting music lovers across the world,
while showcasing some of the greatest performers in the world who trust their sound to
JBL. By roping him in they gave a very strong message that they believed in providing
good quality music to music lovers giving the brand a premium feel. JBL banks heavily
on outdoor communication like organizing jam sessions and OOH. The brands core
message is received by consumers through its brilliant products, consistent quality
standards and continuous innovation.

JBL is not only inviting consumers to play along and showing them marketing they can
identify with the company is selling a solution to a real-world problem.

5. BRAND CATEGORISATION

According to the analysis done by our group, we came to the conclusion that JBL is a
PROMISING BRAND. A promising brand is the one which has started off well and has
tremendous potential. JBL has become a standard part of life for many music lovers in
India. It has ingrained itself into the Indian audio industry well enough to sustain and
have its own identity. Even being a very new entrant into the market with only 5 years
of experience, JBL has created its own niche. It is very popular in the wireless speaker
domain and movie theatre/outdoor event sound. The management also ensures that the
franchisees are given appropriate trainings so that the brand value remains undiluted.
JBL is a premium audio brand, borne from the desire to capture the energy and emotion
of a live performance and deliver music the way its meant to be heard. At JBL, design
and quality are and will continue to be paramount; regardless of a products price point.
No other company has consistently contributed more to the evolution of audio
reproduction in professional, home, automotive, personal audio and multimedia
applications. With 9 exclusive Harman JBL group stores across India, JBL is trying to
cater to its rich consumer base by providing real time experience though it needs to
increase its market promotions. It has managed to develop a status quotient factor with
its target audience which is one of the greatest strengths of JBL.

6. SOLUTIONS

6.1 STRATEGIC BRAND PLAN


The Expansion Strategy that should be adopted by JBL is market expansion and it should
attempt to achieve high growth as compared to its past achievements in US market. It should
aim to grow considerably by broadening the scope of its business for its existing and potential
customers. The reason for the expansion will be higher profits, increased prestige and larger
market share.

The brand JBL is growing well in Indian Market. It has reached to a wide-spread market in a
shorter span of time. However, our research reflected facts that the brand is popular in tier-1
cities and is rapidly growing its popularity in the tier-2 and tier-3 cities. We also found that
people purchase JBL because of status and style quotient.

Many people do not know about the JBL store. There are only 9 JBL retail stores in different
cities across India.

Hear the truth' is the positioning for brand JBL for the past decade and it should continue with
the same positioning. However, new strategy of the company should be - to focus on promoting
the different offerings.

Currently, JBL is doing well. As it positioned itself as the category creator it actually creates the
new product and sub-product category. The brand is the one to bring new technologies in
speakers category. JBL has splash proof speakers, portable speakers, Speakers which can be
connected by 3 devices at a time etc. The JBL speakers also come in different shapes, colours,
types and sizes at different prices covering various customer groups.

JBL has very strong distribution channel because of which it has grown rapidly in such a short
period of time and competing against big competitors in India such as Sony, Phillips etc.

JBL is quite popular among the youngsters of the age group 22-35 years. The only problem we
saw during our research is the brand lacks the brand visibility in the market. If we compare it to
its competitor Bose, Sony then JBL lacks the proper visibility amongst its target group. Ads
attract the customers and also ensure that whenever the customer purchases this kind of
product the brand should be the first one to recall.

The brand promises to provide a different lifestyle to its customers by using different
technologies. It provides a wide range of product extension. Ads will ensure that new launches
and the existing launches make it more connected to the people.

Currently, the brand mostly uses modern techniques of promoting itself. It should also consider
the traditional way of promoting itself. Traditional methods of promotion include T.V
commercials, Jingles, newspaper ads, and hoardings etc. These campaigns will also act as a
reminder. But more importantly it will also highlight that JBL from here will grow, as it will start
paying attention to all of its product range.

The brand can also come up with more retail stores in tier-1 and tier-2 cities. This will increase
the brand visibility and brand awareness. This will also ensure that the people know correctly
about the different product sub-types. Opening new stores will also ensure the customer can
easily approach them in case of any problem. Hence, it is the right time for the company to show
itself as a solution provider.

Some of the people will think that we can simply expand the offerings at showrooms/outlets but
without advertising. This may be possible but then only people who visit The JBL Store will come to
know about this increased offering and still be unaware that all of the product range belongs to the
JBL.

Another new product offering which can be looked into is accessories for speakers such as speaker
cases, covers, standing sets, different attractive speaker stickers. In India, JBL can launch new
product category during Diwali time as mostly electronics are purchased during Diwali. It can also
use any other festival also. As JBL focuses on creating a different lifestyle therefore it should
maintain that position.

6.2 TIME-LINES FOR IMPLEMENTATION AND INVESTMENT PLAN

For this scenario, we have considered a total time of 5 months (from August 2017 to December 2017)
which have been divided into 4 phases.

The table below describes each of the phases along with the objective and the investment plan for
implementing that phase.
INVESTMENT PLAN FOR
PHASE OBJECTIVES
TIMELINE IMPLEMENTATION

Phase 1 August 2017 Opening new retail outlets in more cities. 10 Cr for bringing in
Restructuring the stores. various electronics and
Proper merchandising in shops to make it accessories.
look good. 2 Cr for increasing
distributors.
Phase 2 September Release new TV commercials on all 2 Cr for Ad Campaign.
2017- Mid national channels. 1 Cr for new TVC.
October 2017 Make sure the ads are present in all 1 Cr for promotional
regions of India. activities.
Release ad campaigns 50 Lakhs for website
upgrade and digital
marketing campaigns.

Phase 3 October 2017- Start aggressive promotional campaigns 5 Cr for new TVC.
November to convert brand recall into purchase in 2 Cr for promotional
2017 Tier-1 and Tier 2 Cities. activities.

Phase 4 December Make sure the awareness is maintained 1 Cr for TVC.


2017 throughout.

6.3 EXPECTED OUTCOME


With new strategies in place, JBL will expect to increase in revenue and sales. These campaigns will
also help JBL to be more associated with the customers.

As the shop will fulfil more needs of the customers, they will be willing to spend more time and buy a
high-end sub-type and accessories. This way the company will be able monetize the JBL brand
effectively.

One example of service can also be giving suggestions to customer which type to buy and which
accessories will go with the speakers they have purchased. In doing so people will start believing that
JBL is also connected with their customers. Opening more stores will help customers in believing the
value proposition of JBL - Hear the truth, which will help JBL in charging premium price.
Therefore, resulting in higher margin in this category and thus the bottom line would be benefitted.
6.4 FUTURE BRAND STRATEGIES

The task of turning JBL into a true lifestyle brand is still work in progress and hence should be
focused upon. It should also take steps for Digital Integration on customer loyalty programme and
invest in ad campaigns. It should make it more visible in sponsoring some college events, it can also
sponsor or become brand partner of few music festivals. It should also focus more on OOH (Out Of
Home) Media advertising.

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