Q1

Brand

A brand is an identifying symbol, mark, logo, name, word, and/or sentence that companies use
to distinguish their product from others. A combination of one or more of those elements can be
utilized to create a brand identity. Legal protection given to a brand name is called a trademark.

Importance of brand

Why is branding important? Branding is the nuanced art of actively shaping your brand. With
creativity, skill and strategy, a brand can establish an identity that sets itself apart from the
competition and sparks a connection with its audience.

Branding is what gives you a reputation and, ultimately, a future. Because of the importance of
branding, businesses and organizations should build a strong brand right from the start so they
can consistently maintain it as they grow.

If you’re asking why branding is important, we’d challenge you with a counter-argument: Is
there any time branding isn’t important?

Branding is everything. Here are the main reasons why branding matters.

1. Great branding shows customers what makes you, you

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Imagine that an audience is being introduced to your brand for the first time. Well-executed
branding has a lot to say.

Branding tells your story in an instant

Build your identity by establishing brand-defining keywords and using these words to shape the
company voice, tone and aesthetic.

Check out the Fair Harvest Coffee logo. Even at a quick glance, the brand shows who they are
and what they love most: coffee, social consciousness, the earth and the environment.
Every great brand should be easily explained with a few solid descriptors.

Branding builds an emotional connection

By establishing yourself as a brand, you can deeply connect with customers, employees and the
general public. This connection is a gradual process which happens with time, but it starts by
establishing a good reputation, letting your audience get to know you and ultimately finding 
memorable ways to communicate.

Branding builds confidence

Great branding takes guts, strategy, intelligence—and sometimes—risk. To tell your customers
what makes you “you,” confidence is essential.

Great branding gives you purpose and direction

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Whatever your brand may be, make sure there are goals and meaning behind it. Great branding is
more than just your logo, font and colors.

Branding connects your values to a like-minded audience

Highly successful businesses have well-established missions, visions and values. But it’s not just
for big companies and do-gooder nonprofits. Smaller brands can take a more casual approach
while still developing a core set of brand principles.
Brand Equity Concept
Brand equity refers to a value premium that a company generates from a product with a
recognizable name when compared to a generic equivalent. Companies can create brand equity
for their products by making them memorable, easily recognizable, and superior in quality and
reliability. Mass marketing campaigns also help to create brand equity.

When a company has positive brand equity, customers willingly pay a high price for its products,
even though they could get the same thing from a competitor for less. Customers, in effect, pay a
price premium to do business with a firm they know and admire. Because the company with
brand equity does not incur a higher expense than its competitors to produce the product and
bring it to market, the difference in price goes to margin. The firm's brand equity enables it to
make a bigger profit on each sale.

Understanding Brand Equity

Brand equity has three basic components: consumer perception, negative or positive effects, and
the resulting value. Foremost, consumer perception, which includes both knowledge and
experience with a brand and its products, builds brand equity. The perception that a consumer
segment holds about a brand directly results in either positive or negative effects. If the brand
equity is positive, the organization, its products, and its financials can benefit. If the brand equity
is negative, the opposite is true.

Finally, these effects can turn into either tangible or intangible value. If the effect is positive,
tangible value is realized as increases in revenue or profits and intangible value is realized as
marketing as awareness or goodwill. If the effects are negative, the tangible or intangible value is
also negative. For example, if consumers are willing to pay more for a generic product than for a
branded one, the brand is said to have negative brand equity. This might happen if a company
has a major product recall or causes a widely publicized environmental disaster.
Effect on Profit Margins
When customers attach a level of quality or prestige to a brand, they perceive that brand's
products as being worth more than products made by competitors, so they are willing to pay
more. In effect, the market bears higher prices for brands that have high levels of brand equity.
The cost of manufacturing a golf shirt and bringing it to market is not higher, at least to a
significant degree, for Lacoste than it is for a less reputable brand.

However, because its customers are willing to pay more, it can charge a higher price for that
shirt, with the difference going to profit. Positive brand equity increases profit margin per
customer because it allows a company to charge more for a product than competitors, even
though it was obtained at the same price.

Brand equity has a direct effect on sales volume because consumers gravitate toward products
with great reputations. For example, when Apple releases a new product, customers line up
around the block to buy it even though it is usually priced higher than similar products from
competitors. One of the primary reasons why Apple's products sell in such large numbers is that
the company has amassed a staggering amount of positive brand equity. Because a certain
percentage of a company's costs to sell products are fixed, higher sales volumes translate to
greater profit margins.

Customer retention is the third area in which brand equity affects profit margins. Returning to the
Apple example, most of the company's customers do not own only one Apple product; they own
several, and they eagerly anticipate the next one's release. Apple's customer base is fiercely loyal,
sometimes bordering on evangelical. Apple enjoys high customer retention, another result of its
brand equity. Retaining existing customers increases profit margins by lowering the amount a
business has to spend on marketing to achieve the same sales volume. It costs less to retain an
existing customer than to acquire a new one.

Examples of Brand Equity

A general example of a situation where brand equity is important is when a company wants to
expand its product line. If the brand's equity is positive, the company can increase the likelihood
that customers might buy its new product by associating the new product with an existing,
successful brand. For example, if Campbell's releases a new soup, the company is likely to keep
it under the same brand name rather than inventing a new brand. The positive associations that
customers already have with Campbell's make the new product more enticing than if the soup
has an unfamiliar brand name.

Here are some other examples of brand equity: Manufactured since 1955 by McNeil (now a
subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson), Tylenol ranks above average in the pain relief category,
according to the Mayo Clinic. EquiTrend studies show that consumers trust Tylenol over generic
brands. Tylenol has been able to grow its market with the creations of Tylenol Extra Strength,
Tylenol Cold & Flu, and Tylenol Sinus Congestion & Pain.
Q2. Strategic Brand Management Process
Strategic brand management process is important for creating and sustaining brand equity.
Developing a strategy that successfully sustains or improves brand awareness, strengthens brand
associations, emphasizes brand quality and utilization, is a part of brand management.
Strategic Brand Management Process has four main steps:

1. Identify and Establish Brand Positioning and Values

2. Designing and implementing brand marketing programs
3. Measuring and interpreting brand performance
4. Growing and sustaining brand equity

Source: Strategic
Brand Management – Kevin Lane Keller
Identify and Establish Brand Positioning and Values
The first step of the strategic brand management process starts with a clear and concise
understanding of what the brand is to represent and how it should be positioned with respect to
competitors.

Brand Positioning is defined as “the act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it
occupies a distinct and valued place in the target consumer’s mind.”

Brand planning uses the following three interlocking models

1. Brand positioning model: describes how to guide integrated marketing to maximize

competitive advantages.
2. Brand resonance model: describes how to create intense, activity loyalty relationships
with customers.
3. Brand value chain: means to trace the value creation process for brands, to better
understand the financial impact of brand marketing expenditures and investments.
Q4. Product Strategy

A product strategy is a high-level plan describing what a business hopes to accomplish with its
product, and how it plans to do so. This strategy should answer key questions such as who the
product will serve (personas), how it will benefit those personas, and what are the company’s
goals for the product throughout its lifecycle.

Positioning strategy

What key words come to your mind when you think about companies such as Apple, Walmart
and Disney? Most consumers would say that innovative products, competitive pricing and
excellent service are synonymous with these companies. An important step in developing key
operational strategies depends upon how a company positions itself in the marketplace. Every
company can't satisfy every customer and also be competitive in areas like quality, cost,
flexibility, speed, innovation and service.

A positioning strategy is when a company chooses one or two important key areas to
concentrate on and excels in those areas. A firm's positioning strategy focuses on how it will
compete in the market. An effective positioning strategy considers the strengths and weaknesses
of the organization, the needs of the customers and market and the position of competitors. The
purpose of a positioning strategy is that it allows a company to spotlight specific areas where
they can outshine and beat their competition.

Product life cycle

he term product life cycle refers to the length of time a product is introduced to consumers into
the market until it's removed from the shelves. The life cycle of a product is broken into four
stages—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. This concept is used by management and by
marketing professionals as a factor in deciding when it is appropriate to increase advertising,
reduce prices, expand to new markets, or redesign packaging. The process of strategizing ways
to continuously support and maintain a product is called product life cycle management.

How Product Life Cycles Work

Products, like people, have life cycles. A product begins with an idea, and within the confines of
modern business, it isn't likely to go further until it undergoes research and development (R&D)
and is found to be feasible and potentially profitable. At that point, the product is produced,
marketed, and rolled out.

As mentioned above, there are four generally accepted stages in the life cycle of a product—
introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.

 Introduction: This phase generally includes a substantial investment in advertising and

a marketing campaign focused on making consumers aware of the product and its
benefits.
 Growth: If the product is successful, it then moves to the growth stage. This is
characterized by growing demand, an increase in production, and expansion in its
availability.
 Maturity: This is the most profitable stage, while the costs of producing and marketing
decline.
 Decline: A product takes on increased competition as other companies emulate its
success—sometimes with enhancements or lower prices. The product may lose market
share and begin its decline.