Brand Creation / Promotion Strategies in Retail Industries

Brand Promotion / Creation Strategies in Retail Industry:

What is a brand?
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “a name, term, sign,
symbol, or design or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services
of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate those of competitors.” A brand is
thus a product or service whose dimensions differentiate it in some way from other
products or services designed to satisfy the same need. These differences may be
functional, rational, or tangible – related to product performance of the brand. They
may also be more symbolic, emotional or intangible- related to what the brand
presents.

Why Branding in Retail?

The main aim of branding is to identify the goods or services of one seller.
Retail industry is an industry where the number of competitors is relatively high.
Creation and promotion of brand in retail industry is very much essential not only for
customer loyalty but also to sustain in the market in the dominant position. Branding
gives retailers a unique identity that attracts customers towards them if the value of
the retailer is successfully perceived by the user.

Brand Creation / Promotion Strategies:

The most important strategies both in the case of a retailer or any other sector
is effectively making customers well aware of the brand logo, symbol and tagline or
the message. A brand promise is the marketer’s vision of what the brand must be and
do for the consumers. At the end of the day, the true value and future prospects of a
brand rest with consumers, their knowledge about the brand, and their likely response
to marketing activity as a result of this knowledge. Every retailer must have a solid
vision that is achievable and must strive to promote the brand to achieve the vision
and mission statement.

Branding is one of the applications of marketing techniques used for

marketing a product or product line. It increases the product 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.
Strategic branding involves the design and implementation of marketing programs
and activities to build, measure, and manage brand equity. It is often viewed in
organizations as a border and more strategic role than marketing.
Today branding is more important due to increasing advertisement culture,
media fragmentation, product differentiation etc. Branding creates emotional
attachment to product and companies. Branding efforts create a feeling of
involvement, tangible and intangible qualities and symbol.
Branding efforts creates strategic awareness, where people easily recognize
brand and their distinct qualities. A strong brand influences on buying decision and
shapes ownership experience. Branding helps customer while making purchasing
decisions. Brand attracts firm's identity upon potential customers.

Branding can be explained as follows:

1. Total Approach: It starts with understanding "brand "concept. Brand Management
in retail starts with leaders of the company who define the brand and do the
management.
2. Creating Promise: This is also called as defining the brand. A good brand always
should be memorable to customers. A good brand promise evokes customers feeling.
For example, Volvo (buses in Asia) offers feeling of safety. If you hope for good
success you have to go with specific territory and make your promise unique and
different from the promises of other firms.
3. Making Promise: Once you created the promise, and then inject this into the minds
of customers. This step needs advertisements and PR activities.
4. Continue the Promise: Continue the promise means delivery of good quality of
products and motivate the people.
5. Perception: A good brand gives messages to customers such that they wait to
purchase the products again and again. This happens in the perception that is created
in the minds of both intended customers and innocent bystanders. Perception comes
from direct experience. Perception is the brand as experienced. Perception is not
reputation, but reputation is perception.
6. Communication: We communicate to customers and get their feedback on brands.
The Brand reputation may be viewed as socially constructed.
7. Decision: In the final analysis, the value of a brand comes in the simplification that
it brings to decision-making.

Most of the retail managers does brand management and their merchandise
mix is intended to improve overall gross margins and enhance retail brand awareness.
Most of the retailers have implemented their own brands, called private brands. The
private brands decrease prices to consumers, refer their prices with national brand
prices and get profits.

Branding by the leaders:

McDonald’s
McDonald's is the world's largest and fastest-growing food service
organisation, with more than 26,000 restaurants in 119 countries serving food and
drink to nearly 43m customers daily. In the UK McDonald's operates over 1,060
restaurants that generate a combined annual turnover of more than £1bn.

Brand vision for McDonald's was a simple

but effective consumer-driven premise: quality,
service, cleanliness and value (QSC&V). These
values remain the cornerstone of the brand and as a
result, McDonald's has become known as a
trustworthy brand that places the customer at the
centre of its world. One of the most important assets
of McDonald’s is its logo which has a worldwide recognition. It has been careful in
promoting its logo among its customers so that on seeing the logo one feels hunger
and feels a trustworthy place to dine.
Walmart
Wal-Mart has a very strong brand attribute of providing everyday low prices.
Wal-Mart advertises that it saves the average working family about $2,300 a year.
Wal-Mart grocery prices are 15% to 25% lower than traditional supermarkets. An
MIT study found that competing grocery stores lower prices by 5% when a Wal-Mart
store comes to town.
Wal-Mart is the largest corporate
contributor in the U.S., donating about $170
million annually to support communities and
local organizations. In addition, Wal-Mart
accomplished a large-scale and rapid
response to Hurricane Katrina. The company
made an immediate donation of 100
truckloads of merchandise, 100,000 meals,
and $20 million in cash.
The main promotion of branding by Walmart is the catchy phrase ‘Everyday
Low Prices, Always.’ The phrase also was true which attracted millions of customers
in US towards it making it the leader in the retail segment of US. It strengthened its
brand by helping the nation in times of crisis. Though it faced several complaints
about its wage policies and on its employee satisfaction levels, it came out of those
scandals successfully. It also offers life saving drugs at low prices that boosted up its
brand image much better.

Now Walmart is re-fashioning its image

as a global leader on the issue of sustainability.
Its new tagline, “save money, live better”
recognizes consumers want a brand story that
lives beyond just the rational value proposition.
GAP
The retail outlet and manufacturer of clothing Gap focused itself mainly on the
basic normal wear of the commons. It has done several efforts to create a brand
image. Initially it had its products under several brand names. Their products did not
gain brand awareness. Their first effort was to get a brand image. They closed all the
brand names and united them under a single name ‘GAP.’ They furnished their shop
with wood giving a unique look and followed it the format in all its retail outlets.
They entered into kids section too successfully.
Pantaloons
The group's lifestyle retailing
store under the brand "Pantaloons"
typically has a retailing space of 20,000
square feet. At present, Pantaloon's
retail initiative is under four brands --
Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar,
Fashion Station, E-zone, Depot and
Gold Bazaar. It has repute for offering
everything under one roof. It
concentrates mainly on providing a
convenient shopping experience. It
also buys in bulk and keeps its margin
low, which allows it to offer products at
low prices. It also has a strong presence in e-tailing. It increased its brand image by its
ad campaigns with Lara Dutta and Bobby Deol. It conducts FEMINA MISS INDIAN
every year in choosing the most beautiful Indian women that has created a huge
response from youth.

Pantaloons Miss Femina 2010

Reliance Fresh
Reliance Retail currently operates over 1,000 outlets across under 14 formats,
including Fresh (neighborhood stores), Super (supermarkets), Mart (hypermarkets),
Ranger Farms (cash-and-carry), Delight (non-vegetarian), Digital (consumer durables
and IT), Trends (apparel) and Footprint (footwear).
It has gained the name of the nearby organized retail outlet in the
neighborhood that provides all the items that are required in a month. It has branded
its own grocery items under Reliance brand and also offers other products of several
brands. It now promotes itself that it also gives several discount offers and prices its
items below the MRP. Now the Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Retail has undertaken a
new growth and brand strategy for its value formats as part of a five-year plan. Under
the plan, the company is adopting a brand expression 'Aapki Khushi Hamari Khushi'
while deciding to focus on four key areas to propel growth. These include
strengthening the presence of multi-formats and other retail channels, driving growth
through hypermarkets, pushing for leadership in fresh food, and enabling growth
through world-class quality and infrastructure. They concentrate to create a people-
centric culture and demonstrate their care and respect to the three key stakeholders--
customers, community and colleagues.
Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com
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http://feminamissindia.indiatimes.com
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http://www.gap.com
http://www.walmart.com
http://www.blackburnsdesign.com/web-content/brand_thinking.html
http://money.howstuffworks.com/mcdonalds3.htm
http://www.brandcenter.mcdonalds.com
http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/148903/Superbrands-case-studies-McDonalds
http://www.psfk.com/2010/06/four-storytelling-genres-of-brand-re-invention.html
http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/dec/17pantaloon.htm
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