ASSIGNMENT

ELEMENTS OF BRANDING

SUBMITTED BY

FAHAD MUGHAL (BS-7)

SUBMITTED TO

SIR SABAHAT ALI KHAN

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI
BRAND

The word “brand” isn’t always well understood. Some people use the term
interchangeably with “company” as a kind of shorthand term. A “brand” is actually
something very specific. It is, in essence, a promise to the buyer about the kind of
product or experience they are purchasing, and how they will feel when they use it.
Coca-Cola is a well-known brand name. Coke’s brand tells you what to expect from
the experience of drinking a Coke and differentiates it from similar products. The
phrase “have a Coke and a smile” defines the Coke brand in the minds of many
consumers as an experience that will make them happy.

ELEMENTS OF BRANDING

1. TARGET AUDIENCE

In B2C, the target audience or market for your brand is the person who is most likely
to buy your product. In B2B, your target audience is still the most likely buyer for
your product or service, but because the nature of the purchasing process is more
complex in B2B, you’ll need to be looking not just at which companies are likely to
buy from you, but at who within those companies is going to make those decisions.

2. BRAND PROMISE

The brand promise is the message that speaks to your target audience. It tells them what to
expect from purchasing your product.

3. BRAND PERCEPTION

You’ll want to take a look at what the perception of your brand has been in the past,
what it is now, and what you want it to be in the future. One way to do this is to
survey your current customers to find out what they think of your brand. Do your
target customers know your brand? What do they think of yo u? What do
you want them to think of you? Understanding how your brand is perceived is
especially important if you are looking to change your business strategy: maybe
you’re looking to enter new markets, or you’ve been known as the low price provider
in the past, and you are looking to move up market.
4. BRAND VALUES

Clearly define what guides your company’s decision -making. These are the core
values that your brand seeks to embody.

5. BRAND VOICE

How does your brand "speak?" What is its personality? Is i t buttoned down and serious, or
more playful and fun? The answer to these questions will depend the audience you are trying
to engage, and there should be a fit between your audience and the voice you use to speak to
them.

6. BRAND POSITIONING

Brand positioning is defined as the position that a brand holds (or wants to hold) in
the mind of the customer. It can usually be boiled down into a one or two sentence
“positioning statement” that defines the target audience, who the brand competes
against, the benefits of using it, and a statement of proof for the brand promise. It
tells you what the brand’s position in the market is relative to its competitors, and
what sets it apart from the rest.

6. BRAND EXPERIENCE

Brand experience is a combination of everything that a customer goes through while

purchasing and using that brand. For example how does one feel while ordering food and
eating at KFC? How does the staff behave and how fast do they deliver and of course how did
the food taste? Also, since it has many outlets all over the world, all of them are expected to
maintain uniform standards of experience.

7. BRAND DIFFERENTIATION

Differentiation, as the word suggests is how a brand stands out in the crowd. For instance Dell
Computers lets people choose their components and assemble their own system, thus making
it different from others who just sell readymade machines at the shop with no scope for
customization.

8. BRAND COMMUNICATION

Brand communication is the message it delivers through various sources like adverts,
brochures, punch lines and hoardings. If the brand has to grow, it must be able to clearly
communicate its core benefits to the customers.
9. BRAND GAP

Brand gap is the difference between what a brand promises to deliver in its communications
and what it actually does. For its own sake, the gap should not be very high. A successful brand
must be able to deliver what it promises. No amount of advertising or content marketing
efforts can save a bad product.

10. BRAND EXTENSION

Brand extension is basically the idea of going beyond ones origins and exploring newer fields.
For example Google started as a search engine. But now it provides many other services
including emails and mobile operating systems. This is how it has extended the brand but it
must be done in a manner so that the existing operations complement the newer initiatives.
Google gained market intelligence through its search operations and this is what enabled it to
develop other services.

How to choose Branding Elements to build Brand Equity

There are 6 integral criteria for choosing your brand elements:

1) Memorability
2) Meaningfulness
3) Likability
4) Transferability
5) Adaptability
6) Protectability

1. Memorability: Brand elements that help achieve a high level of brand awareness or
attention to the brand, in turn facilitate the recognition and recall of a brand during
purchase or consumption.

2. Meaningfulness: Here a marketer needs to ensure that brand elements are

descriptive and suggesting something about the product category of the brand. This is
important to develop awareness and recognition for the brand in a particular product
category.
Secondly, the brand elements also need to have a persuasive meaning and suggest
something about the particular benefits and attributes of the brand. This is necessary
for defining the positioning of the brand in a particular category.
3. Likability: Brand Elements need to be inherently fun, interesting, colourful and not
necessarily always directly related to the product.
A memorable, meaningful and likable brand element makes it easier to build brand
recognition and brand equity, thus reducing the burden on the marketer and thereby
reducing the cost of marketing communications.

The above 3 criteria constitute the "Offensive Strategy" towards building brand equity

4. Transferability: is the extent to which brand elements can add brand equity to new
products of the brand in the line extensions. Another point, a marketer needs to keep
in mind is that the brand element should be able to add brand equity across
geographical boundaries and market segments. For example, brand names like “Apple”,
“Blackberry” represent fruits the world over, thus as a brand name it doesn't restrict
brands and product extensions.

5. Adaptability: Consumer opinions, values and views keep changing over a period of
time. The more adaptable and flexible brand elements are the easier it is to keep up
changing and up to date from time to time to suit the consumers liking and views. For
example, Coca -Cola has been updating it's logo over the years to keep up with the latest
trends, fashions and opinions.

6. Protectability: the final criteria in choosing a brand element is that it should be

protectable legally and competitively. Brand elements need to be chosen in such a way,
that they can be internationally protected legally, legally registered with legal bodies.
Marketers need to voraciously defend their trademarks from unauthorized competitive
infringements.