MANAGING BRANDS

OVER TIME
Learning Objectives
Understanding the Long-Term Effects of
Marketing Actions on Brand Equity
Reinforcing Brands
Q: How to reinforce equity over time?
A– generally through mktg actions consistently conveying B meaning to
customers which reflect in the form of Per & Img

Question to be considered by Marketers:

A. What P does brand represent? What benefits supplies and what needs
satified?

B. How does brand make those P superior? What strong, Unq, & Fav
associations
Reinforcing BE by actions consistently conveying the
same meaning

Consistency in firm’s general approach to product

development, branding strategies, and nature and
amount of other marketing programs to address
strategic concerns…
Reinforcing Brands:
Maintaining Brand Consistency
- consistency in the nature & amount of marketing support the
brand receives

-Consistency is critical to maintain b associations

-Shrinking R&D and IMC budget runs risk (Running the brands
without a LICENCE…..playing with fire…)
Maintaining Brand Consistency
Maintaining Brand Consistency
 Protecting Sources of Brand Equity
 Unless some changes in consumer behavior, competition or
company makes the strategic positioning of the brand less
powerful, there is: Retro
 Little need to deviate from a successful positioning branding

 Brands should always look for potentially powerful new

sources of brand equity
 Top priority is to preserve and defend those that already exist

 Key sources of brand equity are of enduring value (Intel

Story)
Protecting Sources of Brand Equity

1994
Pentium
calculation
crisis

safet
Y

PoWer
 Fortifying versus Leveraging
 Marketers can design marketing programs that mainly try
to capitalize on or maximize brand awareness and image
(such as reduce advt expense, raise price premium, intro
brand extensions but can neglect and diminish brand & its
sources of BE)

 Without its sources of brand equity, the brand itself may

not continue to yield valuable benefits (Zodiac journey)
Zodiac ZOD!  Z3
Fine-Tuning the Supporting Marketing Program

 Product-related performance associations (Timex,

Gillette)

 Non-product-related imagery associations (MTV,

Coach)

Yuppies/Status  Safety/engineering

It’s all about the beer  Give yourself a good name

To Sum Up…
 Reinforcing brand equity requires consistency in
the amount and nature of the supporting marketing
program for the brand
 Product innovation and relevance are paramount in
maintaining continuity and expanding the meaning
of the brand
 Revitalizing Brands
 Often, the first place to look in turning around the fortunes of a
brand is the original sources of brand equity: profiling brand
knowledge structures
 which key brand associations are still adequately functioning as
points-of-difference or points-of-parity to properly position the
brand.
 Are positive associations losing their strength or uniqueness?

 Have negative associations become linked to the brand, for

example, because of some change in the marketing environment?
 Revitalization strategies obviously run along a continuum, with
pure back-to-basics at one end and pure reinvention at the other.
Many campaigns combine elements of both
Revitalizing Brands
Expanding Brand Awareness
Improving Brand Image
 Identifying the Target Market
1. Retaining vulnerable customers
2. Recapturing lost customers
3. Identifying neglected segments
4. Attracting new customers (Gillette, HD)
Adjustments to the Brand Portfolio
Brand Reinforcement Strategies
Brand Revitalization Strategies
To Sum Up…
 Effective brand management requires taking a
long-term view
 Dictates proactive strategies designed to maintain and
enhance customer-based brand equity over time
 Marketers reinforce brand equity by actions that
consistently convey the meaning of the brand
 Most important consideration in reinforcing brands
is consistency in the nature and amount of
marketing support
To Sum Up..
 The strategy for reinforcing brand meaning depends
on the nature of the brand association
 In managing brand equity, managers have to make
trade-offs between those marketing activities that:
 Fortify the brand and reinforce its meaning,
 Attempt to leverage or borrow from its existing brand
equity to reap some financial benefit
 Revitalizing a brand requires marketers to either
recapture lost sources of brand equity or establish new
ones