Chapter Two

Overview of brand management

 2.1 Introduction of brand management and its
definition
• The term brand comes from the word ’’brandr‟ which
means to burn it was taken from the practice of ancient
farmers to put marks on their animal by burning their
body to identify them.
• The nucleus of branding seems to be uniformity; people
needed to put seal on their items because their properties
were similar to others properties and differentiation
becomes difficult.
• Branding is imperative when identity is lost due to
homogeneity.
• The first brands were take the name of the owner or
producers like Ford, Sears, Waterman etc.
 …cont

• Next brands started to take names of places, famous

people and animals in attempt to strengthen association
between product and brand.
• Branding advanced in the middle of 20thC When
industrialization brought mass production of
homogeneous items the central objective of brands being
differentiation.
• What is brand?
• The American Marketing Association (AMA) defined
the brand in 1960 as: Brand is aname, term, sign, symbol,
or design, or a combination of them which is intended to
identify the goods or services.
 …cont

• A brand is perceptual entity that lives in the consumers

mind.
• The brand is not just a name but an image in the mind of the
customers. The image is associated with reliability,
credibility and quality that gives a sense of satisfaction to
the customers.
• A successful brand is a name , term, sign, symbol, design or
combination of this which identifies a product of a given
firm as having sustainable differential advantage.
• Branding makes customers to discriminate among
marketers‟ offers in a way it creates value to the product.
• A Brand is valuable asset of a firm that is legally protected.
A brand is the perception customers have as a result of
marketer‟s positioning effort about a distinguishable offer
 2.3 Type of brand name

• Product naming is the discipline of deciding what a

product will be called and is very similar in concept and
approach to the process of deciding on a name for
company or organization.
• Brand naming is considered a critical part of the
branding process, which includes all marketing activities
that affect the brand image. The process involved in
product naming can take months or years to complete.
• Some key steps include specifying the objective of
brand, developing the product name itself, evaluating the
name through target market testing and focus group,
choosing a final product name, and finally identifying it
as trademark for protection.
 …cont

• The major classifications of brand names

• Personal name of investor or inventor-
• Name of places
• Scientific names
• Appealing words
• Descriptive words
• Arbitrary name/subjective naming
• Acronym (IBM)
• Invented name (exxon,kodak)
 2.4 Relation and difference of Brand and product

• A product is anything that can be offered to market to satisfy

customers’ needs. It is a physical entity.
 2.5 The benefit of strong brand

• A brand is a product with unique character ,for instance in

design or image. It is consistent and well recognized. The
advantages of having a strong brand are:
• Brand inspire customer loyalty leading to repeat sales and
word of mouth recommendation
• The brand owner can usually charge higher prices, especially
if the brand is the market leader
• Retailers or service sellers want to stock top selling brands.
With limited shelf space it is more likely the top brands will
be on the shelf than less well known brands
• Some brands are so strong that they have become global
brands. This means that the product is sold in many countries
and the contents are very similar. Examples of global brand
include: Microsoft, coca cola, Disney, Mercedes and so on.
 …cont
• The strength of brand can be exploited by a business to develop new
products. This is known as brand extension –a product with some
of the brands characteristics. Example include dove soap and dove
shampoo.
• Brand stretching is where the brand is used for a diverse range of
products, not necessarily connected. Example: virgin airlines and
virgin cola, marks and spencer clothes and food.
2.6 Why do brand matter?
• The importance of branding can be:
1. Importance to customer :
The importance of branding to the customer can be described from the
following points:
• Product identification:
• Price stability :
• Quality stability :
• Prestige:
 2.7 Brand challenge and opportunities

• Although brands may be as important as ever to

consumers, in reality brand management may be more
difficult than ever.
Savvy/knowledged/ Customers
• Increasingly, consumers and businesses have become
more experienced with marketing, more knowledgeable
about how it works, and more demanding. A well-
developed media market pays increased attention to
companies‟ marketing actions and motivations.
• One of the key challenges in today‟s marketing
environment is the vast number of sources of information
consumers may consult. For these and other reasons,
many believe that it is more difficult to persuade
consumers with traditional communications than it used
 …cont

Economic Downturns
• Affecting the choices consumer make when purchasing,
research showing people buying lower-priced brands and
switching to less expensive products.
Brand Proliferation/propagation
• Spurred by the rise in line and brand extensions, a brand
name may now be identified with a number of different
products with varying degrees of similarity. Marketers of
brands such as Coke, Nivea, Dove, and Virgin have
added a host of new products under their brand
umbrellas in recent years.
 …cont
Media Transformation
• Another important change in the marketing environment
is the erosion or fragmentation of traditional advertising
media and the emergence of interactive and
nontraditional media, promotion, and other
communication alternatives.
Increased Competition
• One reason marketers have been forced to use so many
financial incentives or discounts is that the marketplace
has become more competitive. Both demand-side and
supply-side factors have contributed to the increase in
competitive intensity.
 …cont

Increased Costs
• At the same time that competition is increasing, the cost of
introducing a new product or supporting an existing product has
increased rapidly, making it difficult to match the investment and
level of support that brands were able to receive in previous
years.
2.8 Strategic brand management
• Strategic brand management involves the design and
implementation of marketing programs and activities to build
measure, and manage brand equity. We can define strategic brand
management process as involving four main steps :
• Identifying and establishing brand positioning and values
• Planning and implementing brand marketing programs
• Measuring and interpreting brand performance
• Growing and sustaining brand equity
 …cont

A. Identifying and Establishing Brand Positioning and

values
• The strategic brand management process starts with a clear
understanding as to what the brand is to represent and how
it should be positioned with respect to competitors.
• As Kotler defines it “Brand positioning is the act of
designing the company‟s offer and image so that it occupies
a distinct and valued place in the target customer‟s mind.”
• The goal is to locate the brand in the minds of consumers
such that the potential benefit to the firm is maximized.
• Competitive brand positioning is all about creating brand
superiority in the minds of consumers.
• Fundamentally, positioning involves convincing consumers
of the advantages of a brand vis-à-vis competitors.
 …cont

• Positioning often involves a specification of the

appropriate core brand values and brand mantra.
• Core brand values are those set of abstract associations
(attributes and benefits) that characterized a brand.
• A brand mantra is a short three-to-five-word
expression of the most important aspects of a brand and
its core brand values. It can be seen as the enduring
“brand DNA” (the most important aspects of the brand
to the consumer and the company.
 …cont

B. Planning and Implementing Brand marketing programs

• Building brand equity requires creating a brand that
consumers are sufficiently aware of and with which they have
strong, favorable, and unique band associations. In general,
this knowledge-building process will depend on three factors:
 The initial choices for the band elements or identities
making up the brand:
• A number of options exist, and a number of criteria are
relevant for choosing brand elements.
• The most common brand elements are brand names, logos,
symbols, character, and slogans.
• Brand elements can be chosen to enhance brand awareness or
facilitate the formation of strong, favorable, and unique brand
associations.
 …cont

 Integrating the Brand into marketing Activities and the

Supporting Marketing Program.
• Although the judicious choice of brand elements can make
some contribution to building brand equity, the primary
input comes from the marketing activities related to the
brand. Strong, favorable, and unique brand associations
can be created in a variety of different ways by marketing
programs.
 Leveraging Secondary Associations
• The third and final way to build brand equity is to
leverage secondary associations. Brand associations may
themselves be linked to other entities that have their own
associations, creating secondary brand associations.
 …cont

• In other words, a brand association may be created by

linking the brand to another node or information in
memory that conveys meaning to consumers.
• For example, the brand may be linked to certain source
factors, such as the company (through branding
strategies), countries or other geographic regions
(through identification of product origin), and channels
of distribution (through channel strategy), as well as to
other brands (through ingredients or co-branding).
Characters (through licensing), Spokespeople (through
endorsements), sporting or cultural events (through
sponsorship), or some other third-party sources (through
awards or reviews).
 …cont
• Because the brand becomes identified with another
entity, even though this entity may not directly relate to
the product or service performance, consumers may
infer that the brand shares associations with that entity,
thus producing indirect or secondary associations for
the brand.
• In essence, the marketer is borrowing or leveraging
some other associations for the brand to create some
associations of the brand‟s own and thus help build its
brand equity.
 …cont
C. Measuring and interpreting Brand performance
• To understand the effects of brand marketing programs, it is
important to measure and interpret brand performance.
• A useful tool in that regard is the brand value chain. The brand
value chain is a means to trace the value creation process for
brands to better understand the financial impact of brand
marketing expenditures and investments.
• The brand value chain helps to direct marketing research efforts.
Profitable brand management requires successfully designing and
implementing a brand equity measurement system.
• A brand equity measurement system is a set of research
procedures designed to provide timely, accurate, and actionable
information for marketers so that they can make the best possible
tactical decisions in the short run and the best strategic decisions
in the long run.
 …cont
D. Growing and sustaining Brand Equity
• Through the skillful design and implementation of
marketing programs that capitalize on a well-conceived
brand positioning, strong brand leadership positions can
be obtained.
• Maintaining and expanding on that brand equity
however, can be quite challenging.
• Managing brand equity involves managing brands within
the context of other brands, as well as managing brands
over multiple categories, over time, and across multiple
market segments.
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