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 1950’s.
• 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 brand’s 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 brand’s 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
brand’s 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 product’s 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