Global brands and

corporate brands
MODULE 3.3 AND 3.3
Syllabus:

• 2.Global Brands: Emergence of global brands, Advantages and

Disadvantages, Global leadership brands and position ,

• 3.Corporate Building through brands: Corporate Image in

Contemporary Management, image Advertising and Corporate Image
 Global Brands
• Global brands were defined as brands that were identical everywhere in all
but brand name or would be evolving in that direction, guided by the same
brand identity involving five components—the benefits it provides, its
values and personality, the reasons to believe, its discriminators, and its
brand essence. E.g., Coca-Cola, Apple
• A number of well-known global brands have derived much of their sales
and profits from non-domestic markets for decades, including Coca-Cola,
Shell, Bayer, Rolex, Marlboro, Pampers, and Mercedes-Benz, to name a
few. Apple computers, L’Oréal cosmetics, and Nescafé instant coffee have
become fixtures on the global landscape. Their successes are among the
forces that have encouraged many firms to market their brands globally.
 Building global brand equity: emergence of global brands

• In building global brand equity, we often must create different marketing programs
to satisfy different market segments. Therefore, we must:
• 1. Identify differences in consumer behavior—how consumers purchase and use
products and what they know and feel about brands—in each market.
• 2. Adjust the branding program accordingly through the choice of brand elements,
the nature of the actual marketing program and activities, and the leveraging of
secondary associations.
• The third way to build global brand equity, leveraging secondary brand associations
(co-branding, character, events, country) , is probably the most likely to require
change across countries because the entities linked to a brand may take on very
different meanings in different countries.
• For example, U.S. companies such as Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss, and Nike
traditionally gained an important source of equity in going overseas by
virtue of their U.S. heritage, which is not as much of an issue or asset in
their domestic market. Harley-Davidson has aggressively marketed its
classic U.S. image, customized for different cultures, to generate about 30
percent of its sales from abroad.
• Understanding how consumers form their impressions of country of origin
and update their brand knowledge can be challenging. The design,
manufacture, assembly, distribution, and marketing of products often
involve several countries. Apple’s iPhone is designed and owned by a
U.S. company and assembled and shipped from China from parts
produced largely in several Asian and European countries.
 Understand local behavior before going global
• One reason many companies ran into trouble initially going overseas is that they unknowingly—
or perhaps even deliberately—overlooked differences in consumer behavior. E.g., Starbucks,
Dunkin's. Because of the relative expense and sometimes unsophisticated nature of the
marketing research industry in smaller markets, many companies chose to forgo basic consumer
research and put products on the shelf to see what would happen. As a result, they sometimes
became aware of consumer differences only after they fail. To avoid these types of mistakes,
marketers may need to conduct research into local markets.
• In many cases, however, marketing research reveals that product differences are not justified for
certain countries. At one time, Palmolive soap was sold globally with 22 different fragrances,
packages, nine shapes, and numerous positionings. After conducting marketing analyses to reap
the benefits of global marketing, the company chose to employ just seven fragrances, one core
packaging design, and three main shapes, all executed around two related positionings (one for
developing markets and one for developed markets).
 Advantages and disadvantages
• ADVANTAGES OF GLOBAL MARKETING PROGRAM:
• 1. Economies of Scale in Production and Distribution: From a supply-side or cost
perspective, the primary advantages of a global marketing program are the
manufacturing efficiencies and lower costs that derive from higher volumes in
production and distribution. The more economies of scale in production and distribution
from a standardized global marketing program will prevail by increase in production.
• Lower Marketing Costs: Another set of cost advantages arises from uniformity in
packaging, advertising, promotion, and other marketing communication activities. The
more uniform, the greater the potential savings. A global corporate branding strategy
such as Sony’s is perhaps the most efficient means of spreading marketing costs across
both products and countries. Branding experts maintain that using one name can save a
business tens of millions of dollars a year in marketing costs.
Example

• L’Oréal has pursued an aggressive global growth strategy, prompting one

business writer to christen the company “the United Nations of beauty.” Its
Maybelline line is the best-selling brand in many Asian markets, while eastern
Europeans prefer L’Oréal’s French brands, and African immigrants in Europe go
for the U.S. brand Dark and Lovely. L’Oréal ensures its business remains sound
on a local level by establishing national divisions. Because Brazilian women
traditionally bought their cosmetics from door-to-door sales reps, the company
introduced personal beauty advisers at department stores there. As the one-time
head of L’Oréal’s head of luxury products said, “You have to be local and as
strong as the best locals but backed by an international image and strategy.”
• Power and Scope: A global brand profile can communicate credibility. Consumers
may believe that selling in many diverse markets is an indication that a
manufacturer has gained much expertise and acceptance, meaning the product is
high quality and convenient to use. An admired global brand can also signal
social status and prestige.
• Consistency in Brand Image: Maintaining a common marketing platform all over
the world helps maintain the consistency of brand and company image; this is
particularly important where customers move often, or media exposure transmits
images across national boundaries. For example, American Express
communicates the prestige and utility of its card worldwide.
• Ability to Leverage Good Ideas Quickly and Efficiently: One global marketer
notes that globalization can increase sustainability and “facilitate continued
development of core competencies with the organization . . . in manufacturing, in
R&D, in marketing and sales.
 DISADVANTAGES OF GLOBAL MARKETING
PROGRAM
• Differences in Consumer Needs, Wants, and Usage Patterns for Products: Differences in
cultural values, economic development, and other factors across nationalities lead
customers to behave very differently. For example, the per capita consumption of alcoholic
beverages varies dramatically from country to country: in liters consumed per capita
annually, the Czech Republic (8.51) and Ireland (7.04) drink the most beer; France (8.14)
and Portugal (6.65) drink the most wine; and South Korea (9.57) and Russia (6.88) drink
the most distilled spirits.
• Different product strategies: Product strategies that work in one country may not work in
another. Tupperware, which makes the bulk of its annual sales overseas—57 percent from
emerging markets—needed to adjust its products to satisfy different consumer behavior. In
India, a plastic container paired with a spoon becomes a “masala keeper” for spices.
• In Korea, stain-resistant canisters are ideal for kimchi fermentation. Larger boxes work as safe,
airtight “kimono keepers” in Japan. In France, its more expensive cookware line does much
better than in the United States, where customers buy more plastic containers.
• Differences in Consumer Response to Branding Elements: Linguistic differences across
countries can twist or change the meaning of a brand name. Sound systems that differ across
dialects can make a word problematic in one country but not another. Cultural context is key.
Customers may respond well to a name with potentially problematic associations. The questions
are how widespread the association is, how immediate it is, and how problematic it would be.
• http://clearwordstranslations.com/language/en/10-brands-change-their-names-for-local-markets/
• https://www.usmagazine.com/food/pictures/food-brands-changing-their-racially-insensitive-na
mes-pics/sambos/

• E.g., Pepsodent toothpaste was a failure in South-East Asia because the company promised that
persons who used it would have whiter teeth, which caused the communications campaign to
fail, since persons from this part of the world saw black or yellow teeth as symbols of prestige.
• https://thunderbird.asu.edu/thought-leadership/insights/its-peach-not-stork-how-pg-recovered-p
ampers-fail-japan
 Leadership brand
• Leadership brand is a reputation for developing exceptional managers with a
distinct set of talents that are uniquely geared to fulfill customers' and
investors' expectations. A company with a leadership brand inspires faith that
employees and managers will consistently make good on the firm's promises.
E.g., Parents who take their kids to a Disney theme park assume that ride
operators and restaurant personnel will be upbeat, friendly, and gracious.
• A leadership brand conveys your identity and distinctiveness as a leader. It
communicates the value you offer. ... A strong personal leadership brand
allows all that's powerful and effective about your leadership to become
known to your colleagues, enabling you to generate maximum value.
• Brand leadership refers to the techniques and strategies that
organizations use to market a product or service. Usually, the brand
leader is a best-selling product or service and one that is recognized in
a certain market segment. Leading brands are identified as such when
they are relevant, unique, and exciting.
• A leadership brand is also embedded in the organization’s culture,
through its policies and its requirements for employees.
• For example, the tagline of Lexus is “the pursuit of perfection.”
Internally, the Lexus division translates that promise into the
expectation that managers will excel at managing quality processes.
Five principles of brand leadership

• Building a strong leadership brand requires that companies follow five

principles. First, they have to do the basics of leadership like setting
strategy and grooming talent well. Second, they must ensure that
managers internalize external constituents’ high expectations of the
firm. Third, they need to evaluate their leaders according to those
external perspectives. Fourth, they must invest in broad-based
leadership development that helps managers hone the skills needed to
meet customer and investor expectations. And finally, they should
track their success at building a leadership brand over the long term.
Globalization and Global Brand Positioning
• Marketers make decisions whether to standardize or localize a brand for a new market is
globalization of brands.
• To best capture differences in consumer behavior, and to guide our efforts in revising the
marketing program, we must revisit the brand positioning in each market. Recall that brand
positioning means creating mental maps, defining core brand associations, identifying points-
of-parity and points-of-difference, and crafting a band mantra. In developing a global brand
positioning, we need to answer three key sets of questions:
• 1. How valid is the mental map in the new market? How appropriate is the positioning?
What is the existing level of awareness? How valuable are the core brand associations,
points-of-parity, and points-of-difference?
• 2. What changes should we make to the positioning? Do we need to create any new
associations? Should we not recreate any existing associations? Should we modify any
existing associations?
• 3. How should we create this new mental map? Can we still use the same marketing
activities? What changes should we make? What new marketing activities are necessary?
• Because the brand is often at an earlier stage of development when going abroad, it often
must first establish awareness and key points-of-parity. Then it can consider additional
competitive considerations. In effect, we need to define a hierarchy of brand associations
in the global context that defines which associations we want consumers in all countries
to hold, and which we want consumers only in certain countries to have. We must
determine how to create these associations in different markets to account for different
consumer perceptions, tastes, and environments. Thus, we must be attuned to similarities
and differences across markets.
• Balance Standardization and Customization: One implication of similarities and
differences across global markets is that marketers need to blend local and global
elements in their marketing programs. The challenge, of course, is to get the right
balance—to know which elements to customize or adapt and which to standardize.
Mental map, POP and POD example
• Understand Similarities and Differences in the Global Branding
Landscape The first and most fundamental guideline is to recognize
that international markets can vary in terms of brand development,
consumer behavior, marketing infrastructure, competitive activity,
legal restrictions, and so on.
• Almost every top global brand and company adjusts its marketing
program in some way across some markets but holds the parameters
fixed in other markets.
 Corporate image:

• A corporate image will depend on a number of factors, such as the products a company
makes, the actions it takes, and the way it communicates to consumers.
• A corporate brand is distinct from a product brand in that it can encompass a much wider
range of associations. As, a corporate brand name may be more likely to evoke
associations of common products and their shared attributes or benefits, people and
relationships, programs and values, and corporate credibility.
• These associations can have an important effect on the brand equity and market
performance of individual products. For example, one research study revealed that
consumers with a more favorable corporate image of HUL were more likely to respond
favorably to the claims made in an ad for Surf Excel and therefore actually buy the
product.
• Building and managing a strong corporate brand image, however, can
necessitate that the firm keep a high public profile, especially to influence
and shape some of the more abstract types of associations. The CEO or
managing director, if associated with a corporate brand, must also be
willing to maintain a more public profile to help communicate news and
information, as well as perhaps provide a symbol of current marketing
activities. E.g., Steve Jobs, Ratan Tata have maintained public image and
communicate specially in the launch of the product.
• At the same time, a firm must also be willing to subject itself to more
scrutiny and be extremely transparent in its values, activities, and
programs. That helps them to maintain corporate image in public.
Corporate brands thus have to be comfortable with a high level of
openness.
• Corporate brand equity is the differential response by consumers, customers,
employees, other firms, or any relevant community to the words, actions,
communications, products, or services provided by an identified corporate brand
entity.
• In other words, positive corporate brand image occurs when a relevant community
responds more favorably to a corporate ad campaign, a corporate-branded product
or service, a corporate-issued PR release, and so on than if the same offering were
attributed to an unknown or fictitious company.
• Corporate image dimensions:
• Common Product Attributes, Benefits, or Attitudes: Like individual brands, a
corporate or company brand may evoke in consumers a strong association to a
product attribute (Hershey with “chocolate”), type of user (BMW with
“youngsters”), usage situation (McDonalds’ with “fun times”), or overall
judgment (Sony with “quality”).
Two specific product-related corporate image associations—high quality
and innovation deserve special attention.

• A high-quality corporate image association creates consumer perceptions that a

company makes products of the highest quality. Quality is one of the most
important, if not the most important, decision factors for consumers.
• An innovative corporate image association creates consumer perceptions of a
company as developing new and unique marketing programs, especially with
respect to product introductions or improvements. Keller and Aaker
experimentally showed how different corporate image strategies—being
innovative, environmentally concerned, or involved in the community—could
affect corporate credibility and strategically benefit the firm by increasing the
acceptance of brand extensions. Interestingly, consumers saw a company with an
innovative corporate image as not only expert but also trustworthy and likable.
 Advertising and corporate image
• Corporate image campaigns are designed to create associations to the
corporate brand as a whole; consequently, they tend to ignore or downplay
individual products or sub-brands. As we would expect, some of the biggest
spenders on these kinds of campaigns are well-known firms that use their
company or corporate name prominently in their branding strategies, such as
GE, Toyota, Unilever, IBM, etc.
• Corporate image campaigns have been criticized as an ego-stroking waste of
time, and they can be easy for consumers to ignore. However, a strong
campaign can provide invaluable marketing and financial benefits by allowing
the firm to express itself and embellish the meaning of its corporate brand and
associations for its individual products, as Philips did.
• To maximize the probability of success, however, marketers must clearly
define the objectives of a corporate image campaign and carefully
measure results against them. A number of different objectives are
possible in a corporate brand campaign:
• Build awareness of the company and the nature of its business.
• Create favorable attitudes and perceptions of company credibility.
• Link beliefs that can be leveraged by product-specific marketing.
• Make a favorable impression on the financial community.
• Motivate present employees and attract better recruits.
• Influence public opinion on issues.
• A corporate image campaign can enhance awareness and create a more
positive image of the corporate brand that will influence consumer
evaluations and increase the equity associated with individual products
and any related sub-brands. In certain cases, however, the latter three
objectives can take on greater importance.
• A corporate image campaign may be useful when mergers or
acquisitions transform the company.
Pappu pass ho jaega!!!