1-What is Brand?

A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or a combination of them intended to identify the
goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those
of competition. For example, Coke, Nestle and Microsoft are well renowned brands. In
technical speaking whenever a marketer creates a name logo symbol he or she has created
a brand.

2-Why do Brands matters?

Brands really matter for both consumer and manufacturer.
From consumer’s point of view:

Identification of source of product

Assignment of responsibility to product maker
Risk reducer
Search cost reducer
Promise, bond, or pact with maker of product
Symbolic device
Signal of quality

Brands identify the source or maker of a product and allow consumers to assign
responsibility to a particular manufacturer. From an economic perspective, brands allow
consumers to lower search costs for products both internally and externally.

Consumers offer their trust and loyalty with the implicit understanding that the brand
will behave in certain ways and provide them utility through consistent product
performance and appropriate pricing, promotion, and distribution programs and actions.
Brands can serve as symbolic devices, allowing consumers to project their self-image.

Certain brads are associated with being used by certain types of people and thus reflect
different values or traits. Researched have classified products and their associated
attributes into three major categories: search goods, experience goods and credence
goods. There is difficulty in assessing and interpreting product attributes and benefits so
with experience and credence goods, brands may be particularly important signals of
quality. Brands can reduce the risk in product decisions. These risks involve functional,
physical, financial, social psychological and time risk.

From manufacturer’s point of view:

Means of identification to simplify handling

Means of legally protecting unique features
Signal of quality level to satisfied customers
Means of endowing products with unique associations
Source of competitive advantage
 Source of financial returns Brands help manufacturers to organize inventory and
accounting records. A brand also offers the firm legal protection for unique features of
the product. A brand can retain intellectual property rights, giving legal title to the brand
owner. Brands can signal a certain level of quality so that satisfied buyers can easily
choose the product again. This brand loyalty provides predictability and security of
demand for the firm and creates barriers of entry that make it difficult for other firms to
enter the market. The annual list of the world’s most valuable brands, published by
Interbrand and Business Week, indicates that the market value of companies often
consists largely of brand equity. Research by McKinsey & Company, a global consulting
firm, in 2000 suggested that strong, well-leveraged brands produce higher returns to
shareholders than weaker, narrower brands. Taken together, this means that brands
seriously impact shareholder value, which ultimately makes branding a CEO
responsibility.

Companies sometimes want to reduce the number of brands that they market. This
process is known as "Brand rationalization." Some companies tend to create more brands
and product variations within a brand than economies of scale would indicate.
Sometimes, they will create a specific service or product brand for each market that they
target. In the case of product branding, this may be to gain retail shelf space (and reduce
the amount of shelf space allocated to competing brands). A company may decide to
rationalize their portfolio of brands from time to time to gain production and marketing
efficiency, or to rationalize a brand portfolio as part of corporate restructuring.

3-What are the strongest Brands?

A list of top twenty strongest brands is as follows

2005 Brand Value

($million)
1 Coca-Cola U.S 67,525

2 Microsoft U.S 59,941

3 IBM U.S 53,376

4 GE U.S 46,996

5 Intel U.S 35,588

6 Nokia Finland 26,452

7 Disney U.S 26,441

8 Mc Donald U.S 26,014

9 Toyota Japan 24,837

10 Marlboro U.S 21,189

11 Mercedes-Benz Germany 20,006

12 Citi U.S 19,967

13 Hewlett Packard U.S 18,866

14 American Express U.S 18,559

15 Gillette U.S 17,534

16 BMW Germany 17,126

17 Cisco U.S 16,592

18 Louis Vuitton France 16,077

19 Honda Japan 15,788

20 Samsung S. Korea 14,956

Customer Based Brand Equity

Customer based brand equity model is that the power of a brand lies in what customers
have learned, felt, seen, and heard about the brand as a result of their experience over
time. Customer-based brand equity is defined as the differential effect that brand
knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand. There are three key
ingredients of this definition:
(1) “differential effect,”
(2) “brand knowledge,”
(3) “consumer response to marketing.”

Brand Equity as a Bridge

The power of a brand lies in the minds of consumers and what they have experienced
and learned about the brand over time. Consumer knowledge drives the differences that
manifest themselves in terms of brand equity. This realization has important managerial
implications. According to this view, brand equity provides marketers with a vital
strategic bridge from their past to their future. Brand equity can provide marketers with a
means to interpret their past marketing performance and design their future marketing
programs.
Building a strong Brand
There are four steps of building a strong brand. These are as follows:

1. Ensure identification of the brand with customers and as association of the brand in
customers’ minds with a specific product class or customer need.
2. Firmly establish the totality of brand meaning in the minds of customers by
strategically linking a host of tangible and intangible brand associations with certain
properties.
3. Elicit the proper customer responses to this brand identification and brand meaning.
4. Convert brand response to create an intense, active loyalty relationship between
customers and the brand.

These steps represent fundamental questions that customers can ask about brands as
follow:
1. Who are you? (Brand identity)
2. What are you? (Brand meaning)
3. What about you? (Brand responses)
4. What about you and me? (Brand relationship)

Brand Building Blocks

To provide some structure, it is useful to think of sequentially establishing six brand
building blocks with customers. These brand building blocks can be assembled in terms
of a brand pyramid. Each brand building block will be examined in the following section.

Brand Salience
Achieving the right brand identity involves creating brand salience with customers. It
relates to the aspects of the awareness of the brand, for example how often and easily the
brand is evoked under various situations? Brand awareness refers to customers’ ability to
recall and recognize the brand, as reflected by their ability to identify the brand under
different conditions.

Brand Performance
Designing and delivering a product that fully satisfies consumer needs and wants is a
prerequisite for successful marketing. To create brand loyalty and resonance consumer
experience with the product must at least meet. Brand performance relates to the ways in
which the product or service attempts to meet customers more functional needs.
Customers can view the performance of products or services in a broad manner.
Reliability refers to the consistency of performance over time and from purchase to
purchase. Durability refers to the expected economic life of the product. Serviceability
refers to the ease of servicing the product. Performance may also depend on sensory
aspects such as how a product looks and feels.
Brand Imagery
Brand imagery deals with the extrinsic properties of the product including the ways in
which the brand attempt to meet customer psychological needs. Brand imagery is how
people think about a brand abstractly rather than what they think the brand actually does.
Thus imagery refers to more intangible aspects of the brand.

Brand Judgments
Brand judgments focus on customers’ personal opinions and evaluation with regard to
the brand. To create a strong brand four types of brand judgments summary are particular
important: Quality, Credibility, Consideration and Superiority.

Brand Feelings
Brand feelings are customers’ emotional responses and reaction with respect to brand.
Brand feelings also relate to the social currency evoked by the brand. The following are
six important types of brand-building feelings
1. Warmth: The brand makes consumers feel a sense of calm.
2. Fun: The brand makes consumers feel amused, playful, and cheerful and so on.
3. Excitement: The brand makes consumers feel energetic and feel that they are
experiencing with something special.
4. Security: The brand produces a feeling of safety.
5. Self-respect: The brand makes consumers feel better about themselves.
6. Social approval: The brand results in consumers having positive feeling about the
reactions of others.

Brand Resonance
Brand resonance refers to the nature of the relationship and the extent to which customers
feel that they are “in sync” with the brand. Brand resonance can be broken down into four
categories
Behavioral Loyalty
Attitudinal Attachment
Sense of Community
Active Engagement
The fist dimension is behavioral loyalty in terms of repeat purchase. How often do
customers purchase a brand and how much do they purchase? Behavioral loyalty is
necessary but not sufficient for resonance to occur. To create resonance, there are also
needs to be a strong personal attachment. Customers should go beyond having a positive
attitude to viewing the brand as being something special. Creating greater loyalty requires
deeper attitudinal attachment, which can be generated by developing marketing programs
and products and services that fully satisfy consumer needs. Identification with a brand
community may reflect an important social phenomenon whereby customers feel
affiliation with other people associated with the brand. Strong attitudinal attachment or
social identity or both are typically necessary, however, for active engagement with the
brand to occur.
Identifying and Establishing Brand Positioning

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 customer’s minds. Positioning is
all about identifying the optimal location of a brand and its competitors in the minds of
consumers to maximize potential benefit to the firm. According to customer based brand
equity model, deciding on a positioning requires determining a frame of reference by
identifying the target market and the nature of competition and the ideal points-of-parity
and points-of-difference brand association.

Target Market
A market is the set of all actual and potential buyers who have sufficient motivation,
ability and opportunity to buy a product. Market segmentation involves dividing the
market into distinct groups of homogeneous consumers who have similar needs and
consumer behavior and thus require similar market mixes. All companies never target all
of its segments. There is a criterion under which segments are targeted.
Identifiably: Can segment identification be easily determined?
Size: Is there adequate sales potential in the segment?
Accessibility: Are specialized distribution outlets and communication media available
to reach the segment?
Responsiveness: How favorably will the segment respond to a tailored marketing
program? From manufacturer perspective the model segments users of a brand is divided
into four groups based on strength of commitment from low to high, as follows:
1. Convertible: High likely to switch brands
2. Shallow: Not ready to switch, but may be considering alternatives
3. Average: Comfortable with their choice; unlikely to switch in the future
4. Entrenched: Highly loyal; unlikely to change in the foreseeable future

From customer perspective the model also classifies nonusers of a brand into four groups
based on their openness to trying the brand from low to high, as follows:
1. Strongly unavailable: Strongly prefer their current brand
2. Weakly unavailable: Preference lies with their current brand, although not strongly
3. Ambivalent: As attracted to the other brand as to their current choice.
4. Available: Prefer the other brand but have not yet switched

Points of Parity
Points of parity are those associations that consumers view as being necessary to be a
legitimate and credible offering within a certain product category. A point of parity is
easier to achieve than points of difference. For example there is a minimal difference
between Surf excel and Ariel washing powder.
Points of Difference
Points of difference are attributes that consumers strongly associate with a brand
positively evaluate, and believe that they could not find to the same extent with a
competitive brand. For example when Telenor launch first time easy load it created points
of difference at that time. Points of difference may involve performance attributes. Many
top brands attempt to create a point of difference on overall superior quality.

Defining and Establishing Brand Values

Core Brand Values

Core brand values are those set of attributes that characterize the five to ten most
important aspects of a brand. Core brand values can serve as the basis of brand
positioning in terms of how they relate to points of parity and points of difference. Core
brand values can be identified through structured process. The first step is to create a
detailed mental map of the brand. A mental map accurately portrays in detail all salient
brand associations and responses for a particular target market. Mental maps must reflect
the reality of how the brand is actually perceived by consumers in terms of their beliefs,
attitudes, opinions, feelings, images and experiences.

Brand Mantras
A brand mantra is highly related to handing concepts such as brand essence used by
others. A brand mantra is an articulation of the heart and soul of the brand. Their purpose
is to ensure that all employees within the organization and all external marketing partners
understand what the brand most fundamentally is to represent with consumers so that
they can adjust their actions accordingly.
Brand mantras are powerful devices. They can provide guidance what ad campaigns to
run, where and how the brand should be sold and so on. Brand mantras can be broken
down into three terms brand functions, descriptive modifier and emotional modifier. The
brand functions describe the nature of the product. The descriptive modifier is a way to
circumscribe the business functions term to further clarify its nature. Finally emotional
modifier provides another qualifier in terms of how the brand delivers these benefits. For
example Nike brand function is performance, descriptive modifier is athletic and
emotional modifier is authentic.

Criteria for Choosing Brand Elements

There are six criteria in choosing brand elements which are as follows:

Memorability
Meaningfulness
Likeability
Transferability
Adaptability
Protect ability
Memorability
A necessary condition for building brand equity is achieving a high level of brand
awareness. There are certain names, symbols, logos and visual properties that make a
brand more attention getting and easy to remember and thus contribute to brand equity. In
other words brand name should be such which is easily recalled and recognized.

Meaningfulness
Brand elements can also be chosen whose inherent meaning enhances the formation of
brand associations. Two particularly important dimension of the meaning of a brand
element are the extent to which it conveys the following: General information about the
nature of the product category In terms of descriptive meaning, to what extent does the
brand element suggest something about the product category? Specific information about
particular attributes and benefits of the brand in terms of persuasive meaning, to what
extent does the brand element suggest something about the products

Likeability
Brand elements can be chosen that are rich in visual and verbal imagery and inherently
fun and interesting. In terms of first three criteria, a memorable, meaningful, and likable
set of brand elements offers many advantages. Because consumers often do not examine
much information in making product decisions, it is often desirable that brand elements
be easily recognized and recalled and inherently descriptive and persuasive.

Transferability
It is the fourth general criterion concerns the transferability of the brand element in both
a product category and geographic sense. First, to what extent can the brand element ad
to the brand equity of new products sharing the brand elements introduced either within
the product class. Second to what extent does the brand element add to brand equity
across geographic boundaries and market segments?

Adaptability
It is the fifth general criterion concerns the adaptability of the brand element. Due to
changes in customer values and opinions brand elements often must be updated over
time. The more adaptable and flexible the brand element, the easier it is to update it.

Protect ability
The final criterion concerns the Protect ability of the brand element both in legal and
competitive sense. Because suspicious persons ask sometimes detail about the product
before purchase. So manufacturers must legally protect their products by registered their
patents.
Five B’s from the Customer Perspective:
1. Basic: There are some basic things which are required by customers.
2. Background: Customers have background when they are going to purchase.
3. Beauty: Packaging should be such that attract customers.
4. Belief: Customer should be belief on the brand.
5. Benefit: Customers purchase those things which give them benefit.
Five B’s from Brand Manager Perspective:
1. Brave: He should be bold in respect of taking initiatives.
2. Brilliant: He should be adept in designing better brand strategies.
3. Backing: Company should support him in sensitive situations.
4. Bridge: He is a person that creates a link between customers and company and works
as a bridge.
5. Beneficial: He should provide benefit to his company in which he is working.

Options and Tactics for Brand Elements

A good brand name should

Be protected (or at least protect able) under trademark law

Be easy to pronounce
Be easy to remember
Be easy to recognize
Be easy to translate into all languages in the markets where the brand will be used
Attract attention
Suggest product benefits (e.g.: Easy-Off) or suggest usage (note the tradeoff with
strong trademark protection)
Suggest the company or product image
Distinguish the product's positioning relative to the competition.
Be super attractive

Stand out among a group of other brands < like that one compared to the others

Brand Names
The brand name is fundamentally very much important. It can be a key to success in the
market. Sometimes brand name becomes so closely tied to the product in the minds of the
consumers, however, it is very much difficult that brand element for marketers to
subsequently change. Consequently brand names are often systematically researched
before being chosen

Brand Awareness
Brand awareness improved the extent to which brand names are chosen that are simple
and easy to pronounce. To enhance brand recall, it is desirable for the brand name to be
simple and easy to pronounce. Pronunciation also affects the willingness of consumers to
order the brand orally. Ideally, the brand name should have a clear, understandable and
unambiguous pronunciation and meaning. The way a brand is pronounced can affect its
meaning.

Brand Association
It is necessary for the brand to have broader meaning to consumers than just the product
category it is in. Because the brand name is a compact form of communication, the
explicit and implicit meaning that consumers extract from the name can be critical. The
brand name may be chosen to reinforce an important attribute or benefit association that
makes up its product positioning. For example Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo was
also able to transport its “gentleness” association to a more adult audience when they
were forced to reposition in the 1970s when the birth rate declined.
URLs
URL stands for universal resource locator. It is also commonly referred to as domain
names. URL must register and pay for the name with a service such as Register.com. The
major issue today facing most of the companies with regard to URLs is protection of their
brands from unauthorized use in domain names. For example Nike not approve of its
name appearing in the URL of a fictitious fan site
www.nikerules.com

Logos and Symbols

There are many types of logos ranging from corporate names written in a distinctive
form. For example the strong word marks include Coca-Cola, Dunhill, and Kit-Kat.
There are some abstract logos which may be completely unrelated to the word mark.
These are called non-word mark logos. The non-word marks logos are also often called
symbols. Some logos are literal representations of the brand name, enhancing brand
awareness such as Apple logos and American Red Cross.

Characters
Brand characters typically are introduced through advertising and can play a central role
in these and subsequent ad campaigns. Brand characters come in many different forms.
Some brand characters are animated where as others are live-action figures. Consequently
brand characters can be quite useful for creating brand awareness. Characters often must
be updated over time so that their image and personality remains relevant to the target
market.

Slogans
Slogans are short phrases that communicate descriptive information about the brand.
Slogans often appear in advertising but can play an important role on packaging and in
other aspects of the marketing programs. Slogans can play off the brand name in a way to
build both awareness and image. Some slogans become so strongly linked to the brand
that it becomes difficult to subsequently introduce new ones. For example the slogan of
Haleeb milk is “the thickest milk”.

Product Strategy
The product itself is at the heart of brand equity because it is the primary influence on
what consumers experience with a brand, what they hear about a brand from others, and
what the firms can tell customers about the brand in their communications. To create
brand loyalty, consumers’ experiences with the product must at least meet once.
Perceived quality has been defined as customers’ perception of the overall quality of a
product to relevant alternatives and with respect to its intended purpose. There are some
general dimensions of product quality which are as follows:
 Performance: Levels at which the primary characteristics of the product operate.
Features: Secondary elements of a product that complement the primary characteristics.
Conformance quality: Degree to which the product meets specifications and is absent of
defects.
Reliability: Consistency of performance over time and from purchase to purchase.
Durability: Expected economic life of the product
Serviceability: Ease of servicing the product
Style and design: Appearance or feel of quality Total quality management reflecting the
importance of product quality. In total quality management all employees of the
organization work in coordination in order to improve the quality of both the organization
and the product.

Total Quality Management Tenets

1. Quality must be perceived by customers.
2. Quality must be reflected in every company activity.
3. Quality requires total employee commitment.
4. Quality requires high quality partners.
5. Quality improvement sometimes requires quantum leaps.
6. Quality does not always does not always cost more.
7. Quality is necessary but may not be sufficient.
8. A quality drive cannot save a poor product.

Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing attempts to provide a more holistic, personalized brand
experience to create stronger consumer ties. Relationship marketing is based on the
premise that current customers are the key to long term brand success. The importance of
customer retention can be seen by some of the benefits it provides:

Acquire new customers can cost five times more than the costs involved in satisfying
and retaining current customers.
The average company loses ten percent of its customers each year.
A five percent reduction in the customer defection rate can increase profits by twenty
five percent to eighty five percent, depending on the industry.
The customer profit rate tends to increase over the life of the retained customer.

Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs have become one popular means by which marketers can create
stronger ties to customers. There are some tips for building effective loyalty programs
follow:

Know your audience

Change is good
Listen to your best customers
Engage people
Pricing Strategy
The pricing strategy can dictate how consumers categorize the price of the brand and
how firm set that price. Consumers may infer the quality of a product on the basis of its
price. Many marketers have adopted value-based pricing strategies attempting to sell the
right product at the right price to better meet consumer wishes. From a branding
perspective, it is important to understand all price perceptions that consumers have for a
brand.
Setting Prices to Build Brand Equity
There are many different approaches to setting prices that depend on a number of
considerations. Many firms now are employing a value-pricing approach to set prices
and an everyday-low pricing approach to determine their discount pricing policy over
time.
Value Pricing
The objective of value pricing is to uncover the right blend of product quality, product
costs, and product prices that fully satisfies the needs and wants of consumers and the
profit targets of the firm. Several firms have been successfully by adopting a value-
pricing strategy. For instance, Wal-Mart’s slogan “we sell for less” describes the pricing
strategy that has allowed them to become the world’s largest retailer. In general, an
effective value-pricing strategy should strike the proper balance among the following:

Product design and delivery

Product costs
Product prices

Product Design and Delivery

The first key is the proper design and delivery of the product. Product value can be
enhanced through many types of well-conceived and executed marketing programs. The
value pricing point out that the concept does not mean selling the product at lower
prices. Consumers are willing to pay premium when they perceive added value in
products and services. Some companies actually have been able to increase prices in
some cases by introducing new products. For instance when Gillette introduced the
Mach III, it priced the cartridges at a fifty percent premium over its then-priciest blade,
despite the prevailing deflationary climate. The price increase did not deter customers,
and Gillette reached its highest market share, seventy one percent in 1962.

Product Costs
The secondary key to a successful value-pricing strategy is to lower costs as much as
possible. Meeting cost targets invariably requires additional cost savings through
productivity gains, outsourcing, material substitution, product reformulations, and
process changes and so on. For example, by investing in efficient manufacturing
technology, Sara Lee was able to maintain adequate margins for years on its L’ eggs
women’s hosiery with minimal price increases. The combination of low prices and the
strong L’eggs brand image resulted in an almost fifty percent market share. At the same
time, cost reductions cannot sacrifice quality.

Product Prices
The price suggested by estimating perceived value can often be used as a starting point
in determining actual marketplace prices, adjusting by cost and competitive
considerations as necessary. For example, General Motor’s Cadillac division has used
target pricing to arrive at the price of its luxury cars. GM marketers determined the
optimal price based on assumptions about the consumer and then figured out how to
make the car at the right cost to ensure the necessary profit.

Channel Strategy
The manner by which a product is sold can have a profound impact on the resulting
equity and ultimate sales success of a brand. Marketing channels are sets of
interdependent organizations involved in the process of making a product or service
available for use.

Channel Design
A number of possible channel types and arrangements exist. Broadly, they can be
classified into direct and indirect channels. Direct channels involve selling through
personal contacts from the company to prospective customers by mail, phone, electronic
means, in-person visits, and so forth. Indirect channels involve selling through third
party intermediaries such as agents, wholesales and retailers.

Indirect Channels
Indirect channels consist of a number of different types of intermediaries. Retailers tend
to have the most visible and direct contact with customers and therefore have the greatest
opportunity to affect brand equity.

Push and Pull Strategies

When manufacturers regain some of their lost power by creating strong brand through
some of the brand building tactics, for example, by selling innovative and unique
products at properly priced and advertised that consumers demand for it. In this way
consumer may ask retailers to stock and promote manufacturers products. By devoting
marketing efforts to the end consumer, a manufacturer is said to employee a pull
strategy. On the other side when marketers devote their selling efforts to the channel
members by providing direct incentives for stock to them and sell products to the end
customer. This approach is called push strategy. In pull strategy marketers use
advertisement and sales promotion but in push strategy they use trade discounts and
personal selling.

Direct Channels
To gain control over the selling process and build stronger relationships with customers,
some manufacturers are introducing their own retail outlets, as well as selling their
product directly to customers through various means. These channels can take many
forms. The most extensive form involves company-owned stores. Hallmark, Goodyear
and others have sold their own products in their own stores for years.

Overview of Marketing Communication Options

Marketing communication options includes the following:

Media advertising
Direct response advertising
Online advertising
Place advertising
Point of purchase advertising
Consumer promotions
Event marketing and sponsorship
Publicity and public relations
Personal selling

Media Advertising
Advertising is any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods
or services by an identified sponsor. Media advertising includes TV, radio, newspaper
and magazines. From brand equity perspective television advertising demonstrate
product attributes and consumer benefits. There are some benefits and drawbacks of TV,
radio, newspaper and magazines which are as under:

Medium Advantages Disadvantages

Television Mass coverage, Low selectivity,
Short message
life, High
absolute cost and
clutter
High reach, High prestige,
And attention getting

Radio Local coverage, Low cost,

High frequency, flexible
And low production cost
Audio only, Clutter,
Fleeting message and
low attention getting device
Newspaper High coverage, Low cost,
Short lead time for placing ads,
Timely and can be used for coupons
Short life, Clutter, Low
attention getting
 capabilities, and poor
reproduction quality
Magazines Segmentation potential, Quality Long lead time for ad
reproduction and
High information content
Placement, visual only
and lack of flexibility

Direct Response Advertising

Direct response advertising establish relationship with consumers and it helps to explain
to consumers new developments with their brands as well as allow consumers to provide
feedback to marketers as to their likes and dislikes. Direct marketing is often seeing as a
key component of relationship marketing. To implement an effective direct marketing
program, three critical ingredients are (1) developing an up-to-date and informative list
of current and potential future customers, (2) putting forth the right offer in the right
manner, and (3) tracking the effectiveness of the marketing program. Database
marketing helps firms to retain existing customers than to attract new ones. Direct
response advertising includes, mail, telephone, broadcast media, print media, computer
related and media related.

Online Advertising
Marketers can also promote their products through online advertising by developing
their own websites. Websites are low cost and contain much information about products.
It should be family friendly. Websites must be updated frequently and offer as much
customized information as possible, especially for existing customers.

Place Advertising
Place advertising also called out of home advertising that captures advertising outside
traditional media. Place advertising includes, billboards and posters, product placement
and movies, airlines. Billboards are very effective means for advertising. It is showing
up everywhere. Many marketers pay fee for their product placement in television
programs. Product place can be combined with special promotions to publicize a brand’s
entertainment tie-ins.

Point of Purchase Advertising

In-store advertising includes ads on shopping carts, cart straps, aisles, or shelves, as well
as promotion options such as in-store demonstrations, live sampling and instant coupon
machines.

Consumer Promotions
Consumer promotions are designed to change the choices, quantity and consumers’
product purchases. Consumer promotion includes samples, coupons, premiums, refunds
and rebates, contests and sweepstakes, bonus packs and price-offs. Sampling is seen as a
means of creating strong relevant brand associations.
Event Marketing and Sponsorship
Event marketing refers to public sponsorship of events. Event sponsorship provides a
different kind of communication option for marketers. Marketers report a number of
reasons whey they sponsor events
•To identify with a particular target market
•To increase awareness of the company
•To create consumer perceptions of key brand image associations
•To enhance corporate image dimensions
•To create experiences and evoke feelings
•To express commitment to the community
•To entertain key clients
•To permit merchandising opportunities

Public Relations and Publicity

Public relations and publicity relate to a variety of programs and are designed to
promote a company‘s image and its products. Publicity refers to non-personal
communications such as press releases, media interviews, press conferences, feature
articles, newsletters, photographs, films and tapes. Public relations may also involve
such things as annual reports, fund-raising and membership drives, lobbying, special
event management, and public affairs. There are three steps for designing an ad. It is
also known as 3M:

1. Model: A person who works as an ambassador of a product and convey its benefits to
target consumers.
2. Message: The objective of an ad which a company is intended to deliver to target
customers.
3. Masses: The target customers/market for whom an ad is designed.

Developing Integrated Marketing Communication Programs

Matching Communication Options

There are many ways to create integrated marketing communication programs. In
assessing the collective impact of an IMC program, the goal is to create the most
effective and efficient communication program possible. Toward that goal, six relevant
criteria can be identified:
1. Coverage
2. Contribution
3. Commonality
4. Complementary
5. Versatility
6. Cost

Coverage
Coverage relates to the proportion of the audience that is reached by each
communication option employed, as well as how much overlap exists among
communication options. The unique aspect of coverage relates to the inherent
communication ability of a marketing communication option, as suggested by the second
criterion. To what extent that there is some overlap in communication options.

Contribution
Contribution relates to the inherent ability of a marketing communication to create the
desired response and communication effects from consumer in the absence of exposure
to any other communication option. In other words, contribution relates to the main
effects of marketing communication option on the target audience.

Commonality
Marketing communication program should be coordinated to create a consistent and
cohesive brand image in which brand association share content and meaning.
Commonality means each and every communication option which a marketers use
should convey a common associations about the product.

Complementary
Complementary relates to the extent to which different associations and linkages are
emphasized across communication options. For instance, research shows that promotion
can be more effective when combined with advertising.

Versatility
Versatility refers to the extent that a marketing communication option is robust and
effective for different groups of consumers. There are two types of versatility:
communication and consumer. The ability of a marketing communication to work at two
levels effectively communicating to consumers who have or have not seen other
communications is critically important.

Cost
Finally evaluating the each communication option is also very much critical for a
marketer. The cost of each communication option varies in the market. Now the problem
is which communication option should be chosen and which is best. Communication
options vary in terms of their breadth and depth of coverage. To select one
communication option the marketer has to trade off the other.

The Brand Value Chain

The brand value chain is a structured approach to assessing the sources and outcomes of
brand equity and the manner by which marketing activities create brand value. The brand
value chain recognizes that numerous individuals within an organization can potentially
affect brand equity and must be cognizant of relevant branding effects.

Value Stages
Brand value creation begins with marketing activity by the firm that influences
customers in a way affecting how the brand performs in the marketplace and thus how it
is valued by the financial community.

Marketing Program Investment

In brand value chain marketer invest in a shape of by introducing new product, means
which he use to communicate, trade and employees to make the product best so that it
can be differentiated from others.

Program Multiplier
The ability of marketing program to affect the customer mindset will depend on the
quality of that program investment. Four particularly important factors are as follows:
1. Clarity: Do consumers properly interpret and evaluate the meaning conveyed by brand
marketing?
2. Relevance: Do consumers feel that the brand is one that should receive serious
consideration?
3. Distinctiveness: How unique is the marketing program from those offered by
competitors?
4. Consistency: How consistent and well integrated is the marketing program? Do all
aspects of the marketing program combine to create the biggest impact with customers?

Customer Mindset
There are five dimensions that have emerged to highlight the CBBE model as
particularly important measure of the customer mindset:
1. Brand awareness: The extent and ease with which customers recall and recognize the
brand and can identify the products and services with which it is associated.
2. Brand association: The strength, favorability and uniqueness of perceived attributes
and benefits for the brand.
3. Brand attitudes: Overall evaluations of the brand in terms of its quality and the
satisfaction it generates.

4. Brand attachment: How loyal the customer feels toward the brand. A strong form of
attachment, adherence, refers to the consumer’s resistance to change and the ability of a
brand to withstand bad news.
5. Brand activity: The extent to which customers use the brand, talk to others about the
brand, and seek out brand information, promotions and events.

Customer Multiplier
The extent to which value created in the minds of customers affects market performance
depends on various contextual factors external to the customer. Three such factors are as
follows:
1. Competitive superiority: How effective are the quantity and quality of the marketing
investment of other competing brands.
2. Channel and other intermediary support: How much brand reinforcement and selling
effort is being put forth by various marketing partners.
3. Customer size and profile: How many and what types of customers are attracted to the
brand.

Market Multiplier
The extent to which the value engendered by the market performance of a brand is
manifested in shareholder value depends on various contextual factors external to the
brand itself. These factors are as follows:

Marketing dynamics: What are the dynamics of the financial markets as a whole?
Growth potential: What are the growth potential for the brand and the industry in
which it operates?
Risk profile: what is the risk profile for the brand? How vulnerable is the brand likely
to be to those facilitating and inhibiting factors?
Brand contribution: How important is the brand as part of the firm’s brand portfolio
and all the brands it has?

Shareholder Value
Based on all available current and forecasted information about a brand as well as many
other considerations, the financial marketplace then formulates opinions and makes
various assessments that have direct financial implications for the brand value. Three
particularly important indicators are the stock price, the price earnings multiple, and
overall market capitalization for the firm.
Designing Brand Tracking Studies
Tracking studies involve collection of information from customers on a routine basis
over time. Tracking studies are a means of applying the brand value chain to understand
where, how much, and in what ways brand value is being created, thus offering
invaluable information about how well a positioning has been achieved. Tracking studies
play an important function for managers to facilitate their day to day decision making.
Tracking studies provide valuable diagnostic insights into the collective effects of a host
of marketing activities on the customer mindset, marketing outcomes, and perhaps even
shareholder value.

What to Track
This section provides some general guidelines for tracking. The tracking study is
necessary to customize tracking surveys to address the specific issues faced by the brand.

Product Brand Tracking

Tracking an individual branded product involves measuring brand awareness and image
for the particular brand. Awareness measures should move from more general to more
specific questions. A range o more general to more specific measures be employed in
brand tracking surveys to measure brand image, especially in terms of specific
perceptions and evaluations. It is also important to measure all association that may
distinguish competing brands. Brand associations should include all potential sources of
brand equity. At the same time it is also important to track more general, higher level
judgments, feelings, and other outcome related measures.

When and Where to Track

Tracking studies in general depends upon the frequency of product purchase and on
consumer behavior and marketing activity in the product category. One useful tracking
approach for monitoring brand associations involves continuous tracking studies in
which information is collected on continuous basis over time. When the brand has more
stable associations, tracking can be conducted on a less frequent basis.

How to Interpret Tracking Studies

Tracking measures must be reliable and sensitive as possible. One problem with many
traditional measures is that they do not change much over time. In this way they reflect
the fact. Marketers must identify the real value drivers for a brand that is, those tangible
and intangible points of difference that influence and determine consumers’ product and
brand choices.

Establishing a Brand Equity Management System

A brand equity management system is a set of organizational processes designed to
improve the understanding and use of the brand equity concept within a firm. Three
major steps an organization should take to implement a brand equity management
system: creating brand equity charters, assembling brand equity reports, and defining
brand equity responsibilities.

Brand Equity Charter

The brand equity charter provides relevant guidelines to marketing managers within the
company as well as key marketing partners outside the company. This document should
do the following:
Define the firm’s view of the brand equity concept and explain why it is important
Describe the scope of key brands in terms of associated products and the manner by
which they have branded and marketed.
Specify what the actual and desired equity is for brand at all relevant levels of the
brand hierarchy at both the corporate level and at the individual product level.

Explain how brand equity is measured in terms of the tracking study and the resulting
brand equity report.
Suggest how brand equity should be managed in terms of some general strategic
guidelines.
Specify the proper treatment of the brand in terms of trademark usage, packaging and
communication.
Outline how marketing programs should be devised in terms of some specific tactical
guidelines.
Brand equity charter may not change from year to year. As new products are introduced,
brand programs are changed, and other marketing initiatives take place.
Brand Equity Reports
Brand equity report is distributed to management on a regular basis. The brand equity
report should provide descriptive information as to what is happening with a brand as
well as diagnostic why it is happening. One section of the report should summarize
consumers’ perceptions of key attributes, preferences and reported behavior as revealed
by the tracking study. Another section of the report should include more descriptive
market level information such as the following:

Product shipments and movement through channels of distribution

Relevant cost breakdowns
Price and discount schedules where appropriate
Sales and market share information broken down by relevant factors.
Profit assessments

Brand equity is an intangible asset that depends on associations made by the consumer.
There are at least three perspectives from which to view brand equity

Financial - One way to measure brand equity is to determine the price premium that a
brand commands over a generic product. For example, if consumers are willing to pay
$100 more for a branded television over the same unbranded television, this premium
provides important information about the value of the brand. However, expenses such as
promotional costs must be taken into account when using this method to measure brand
equity.

Brand extensions - A successful brand can be used as a platform to launch related

products. The benefits of brand extensions are the leveraging of existing brand
awareness thus reducing advertising expenditures, and a lower risk from the perspective
of the consumer. Furthermore, appropriate brand extensions can enhance the core brand.
However, the value of brand extensions is more difficult to quantify than are direct
financial measures of brand equity.

Consumer-based - A strong brand increases the consumer's attitude strength toward the
product associated with the brand. Attitude strength is built by experience with a
product. This importance of actual experience by the customer implies that trial samples
are more effective than advertising in the early stages of building a strong brand. The
consumer's awareness and associations lead to perceived quality, inferred attributes, and
eventually, brand loyalty

Brand Equity Responsibilities

To develop a brand equity management system that will maximize long term brand
equity organizational responsibilities and process with respect to the brand must be
clearly defined. This section considers internal issues related to assigning responsibilities
and duties for properly managing brand equity. There must be a chief brand officer in
every organization who reports directly to the chief executive officer of the company and
who protect the brand –the way it looks and feels. The chief brand officer recognizes that
the brand is the sum total of everything a company does. He should not only help to
build the brand but also plans, anticipates, researches, probes, listens, and informs.

Comparative Methods
Comparative methods involve experiments that examine consumer attitudes and
behaviors toward a brand directly estimate the benefits arising from having a high level
of awareness and strong, favorable, and unique brand associations. There are two types
of comparative methods.

Brand-based Comparative Approach

Marketing-based Comparative Approach

Brand-based Comparative Approach

Brand-based comparative approaches examine consumer response based on changes in
brand identification. These measurement approaches typically employ experiments in
which one group of consumers responds to questions about the product in its marketing
program when it is attributed to the brand and other groups respond to question asked
about the same brand. Comparing the responses of the two groups provide some useful
insights into the equity of the brand. Consumer responses may be based on beliefs,
attitudes, intentions, and actual behavior.

Marketing-based Comparative Approach

Marketing-based comparative approaches hold the brand fixed and examine consumer
response based on changes in the marketing program. Marketing-based comparative
approaches can be applied in other ways. Consumer responds to different advertising
strategies and executions.

Holistic Methods
Holistic methods attempt to place an overall value on the brand in either abstract utility
term. Thus holistic methods attempt to net out various considerations to determine the
unique contribution of the brand. The residual approach attempts to examine the value of
the brand by subtracting consumer’s preferences for the brand based on physical product
attributes alone from their overall brand preferences. The valuation approach attempts to
place a financial value on brand equity for accounting purposes, mergers and
acquisitions.

The Brand Product Matrix

The brand product matrix is a geographical representation of all the brands and products
sold by the firm. The rows of the matrix represent brand product relationships and
capture the brand extension strategy of the firm in terms of the number and nature of
products sold under the firm’s brands. A brand line consists of all products original as
well as line and category extensions sold under a particular brand. The columns of the
matrix represent product brand relationships and capture the brand portfolio strategy in
terms of the number and nature o brands to be marketed in each category. The brand
portfolio is the set of all brands and brand lines that a particular firm offers for sale to
buyers in a particular category.

Breadth of a Branding Strategy

The breadth of a branding strategy concerns the number and nature of different products
linked to the brands sold by a firm. There are some steps which can be used to measure
include aggregate market factors, category factors, and environmental factors.

Aggregate Market Factors

Aggregate market factors include the market size, market growth, stage in product life
cycle, sales cycle, seasonality and profits.

Category Factors
Category factor is considered attractive if it is the case that the threat of new entrants is
low due to the barriers of entry from economies of scale, bargaining power of buyers is
low e.g. when the product bought is a small percentage of buyers costs, current category
rivalry is low when there are few competitors in fast growing markets and few close
product substitutes exist in the eyes of consumers and the market is operating at near
capacity.

Environmental Factors
External forces unrelated to the product’s customers and competitors that affect
marketing strategies. A host of technological, political, economic, regulatory, and social
factors will affect the future prospects of a category and should be forecasted.

Depth of a Branding Strategy

The depth of a branding strategy concerns the number and nature of different brands
marketed in the product class sold by a firm. For example Procter & Gamble is widely
recognized as popularizing the practice. P&G became proponents of multiple brands
after recognizing that introducing its new detergent brand as an alternative to its already
successful tide detergent resulted in higher combined product category sales.

Brand Hierarchy
A brand hierarchy is a means of summarizing the branding strategy by displaying the
number and nature of common and distinctive brand elements across the firm’s products.
A brand hierarchy is a useful means of graphically portraying a firm’s branding strategy.
The highest level of the hierarchy technically always involves one brand the corporate
brand. For some firms the corporate brand is virtually the only brand used e.g. as with
General Motors and Hewlett-Packard. At the next lower level, a family brand is defined
as a brand that is used in more than one product category but is not necessarily the name
of the company itself. An individual brand is defined as a brand that has been restricted
to essentially one product category, although it may be used for several different product
types within the category. For example General Motor is a corporate brand, under
General Motor Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac and GMC are family
brands. Under these brands there are an individual brands like Alero, regal, cutlass, sun
fire etc. Corporate brand equity is the differential response by consumers, customers,
employees, other firms or any relevant constituency to the words, actions,
communications, products or services provided by an identified corporate brand entity.

Corporate Image
Corporate image plays very much important role in any brand strategy. There are some
important corporate image associations which are as follows:

Common Product Attributes, Benefits

A high quality corporate image association involves the creation of consumer
perceptions that a company makes products of the highest quality. A number of different
organizations rate products and companies on the basis of quality. An innovative
corporate image association involves the creation of consumer perceptions of a company
as developing new and unique marketing programs, especially with respect to product
introductions. Being innovative is seen in part as being modern and up to date investing
in research and developing employing the most advanced manufacturing capabilities and
introducing the newest product features. Perceived innovativeness is also a key
competitive weapon and priority for firms in other countries.

People and Relationships

Corporate image associations may reflect characteristics of the employees of the
company. Thus a customer focused corporate image association involves the creation of
consumer perceptions of a company as being responsive to and caring about its
customers. A company seen as customer focused is likely to be described as listening to
customers and having their best interests in mind.

Values and Programs

Corporate image associations may reflect values and programs of the company that do
not always directly relate to the products they sell. Firms can run corporate image ad
campaign as a means to describe to consumers, employees, and others the philosophy
and actions of the company with respect to organizational, social and political issues.

Corporate Credibility

Corporate credibility depends upon three factors:

1. Corporate expertise: The extent to which a company is seen as able to competently

make and sell its products or services.
2. Corporate trustworthiness: The extent to which a company is seen as motivated to be
honest, dependable and sensitive to customer needs.
3. Corporate likeability: The extent to which a company is seen as likable, attractive,
prestigious, dynamic and so forth.

Designing a Branding Strategy

Before designing a branding strategy if a firm does not identify its weaknesses in the
research, might be it has negative effect on customers. When a firm’s product cannot
satisfy the needs of the consumers they never purchase it again and as a result they have
negative relationship with the product and in future might be they never purchase of any
product of that company on the basis of previous experience.

Combining Brand Elements from Different Levels

If multiple brand elements from different levels of the brand hierarchy are combined to
brand new products, it is necessary to decide how much emphasis should be given to
each brand element. For example if a sub-brand strategy is adopted, how much
prominence should individual brands be given at the expense of the corporate brand?
There are many different ways to connect a brand element to multiple products. The
principle of commonality states that the more common brand elements shared by
products, the stronger the linkages between the products. The simplest way to link
products is to use the brand element as is across the different products involved. For
example, a common prefix of a brand name may be adapted to different products.
Hewlett-Packard capitalized on its highly successful Laser Jet computer printers to
introduce a number of new products using the “Jet” prefix, for example, the DeskJet,
Paint Jet, Think Jet, and Office Jet printers.

Corporate Image Campaigns

To maximize the probability of success, however, the objective of a corporate image

campaigns must be clearly defined and results must be carefully measured against these
objectives. A number of different objectives are possible in a corporate brand campaigns.

Build awareness of the company and the nature of its business

Create favorable attitude and perception 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.

New Products and Brand Extensions

For any company new products and brand extensions are vital and play very much
important role in the growth of the company. It entirely depends on the situation and the
time where they should be induction of a new brand or to extent the existing brand. When
a company introduces a new product, it has three main choices as to how to brand it: 1. It
can develop a new brand, individually chosen for the new product. 2. It can apply, in
some way, one of its existing brands. 3. It can use a combination of a new brand with an
existing brand.
Managing Multiple Brands

Different companies have opted for different brand strategies for multiple products.
These strategies are:

Single brand identity- a separate brand for each product. For example, in laundry
detergents Procter & Gamble offers uniquely positioned brands such as Tide, Cheer,
Bold, etc.
Umbrella- all products under the same brand. For example, Sony offers many different
product categories under its brand.
Multi-brand categories- Different brands for different product categories. Campbell
Soup Company uses Campbell's for soups, Pepperidge Farm for baked goods, and V8 for
juices.
Family of names- Different brands having a common name stem. Nestle uses Nescafe,
Nesquik, and Nestea for beverages.

A brand extension is when a firm uses an established brand name to introduce a new
product. An existing brand that gives birth to a brand extension is referred to as the parent
brand. There are seven general strategies for establishing a category extension:
1. Introduce the same product in a different for. For example, Haleeb Dairy Queen
2. Introduce products that contain the brand’s distinctive taste, ingredient, or component.
For example, Cornetto Ice Cream
3. Introduce companion products for the brand. For example, McDonald offers free Pepsi
with its fast food.
4. Introduce product that relevant to the customer franchise of the brand. For example,
Mobilink Black berry.
5. Introduce products that capitalize on the firm’s perceived expertise. For example, Sony
TV.

6. Introduce products that reflect the brand’s distinctive benefit, attribute. For example,
Safeguard.
7. Introduce products that capitalize on the distinctive image or prestige of the brand. For
example, Coca Cola

Advantages of Brand Extensions

 There are different advantages of brand extension for a company. Some of them are as
follows:

What is a brand extension?

It’s simply a manner of leveraging the success and popularity of an existing brand name
to support the launch of a new product. For example,
Nike started out selling shoes and later extended the brand into different types of shoes
(i.e., line extensions) and different product categories like clothing (i.e., category
extensions). As a businessperson and marketer, it’s important to understand the reasons
why extending your brand can help your company.
Kellogg on Branding includes a great chapter about brand extensions from which I
extracted the following top 5 reasons to extend brand:
1) Brand extensions can reduce the costs and risks associated with launching a new
product. Since the brand name is already known and (hopefully) popular, using that
brand name on a new product (particularly when it’s in the same line as the original
product) immediately communicates the same level of awareness and perception.
2) Brand extensions typically garner more shelf space than unknown new product brands.
Simply stated, retailers are more likely to stock a new product with a known brand name
on it. Again, it’s less risky, and a familiar brand comes with ready-made awareness and
perceptions.
3) Brand extensions may require a lower advertising investment. Consumers are already
aware of the brand name, so advertising to create brand awareness and recognition is not
necessary. Instead, advertising dollars can be invested in more targeted messaging.
4) Brand extensions can boost the parent brand by creating increased interest in the brand
as a whole and possibly growing the brand’s customer base across the board.
5) Brand extensions reduce a company’s dependency on one product which could
become less popular in the future.

Facilitate New Product Acceptance

Improve brand image

Reduce risk perceived by customers
Increase the probability of gaining distribution and trial
Increase efficiency of promotional expenditures
Reduce cost of introductory and follow up marketing programs
Avoid cost of developing a new brand
Allow for packaging and labeling efficiencies
Permit consumer variety seeking

Provide Feedback Benefits to the Parent Brand and Company

Clarify brand meaning

Enhance the parent brand image
Bring new customers into brand franchise and increase market coverage
Revitalize the brand
Permit subsequent extensions
Disadvantages of Brand Extensions

Can confuse customers

Can encounter retailer resistance
Can fail and hurt parent brand image
Can succeed but cannibalize sales of parent brand
Can succeed but diminish identification with any one category
Can succeed but hurt the image of parent brand
Can dilute brand meaning
Can cause the company to forgo the chance to develop a new brand.

Evaluating Brand Extension Opportunities

1. Define actual and desired consumer knowledge about the brand.

2. Identify possible extension of brand on the basis of parent brand associations and
overall similarity.
3. Evaluate the potential of extension brand to create equity according to the three factor
model:
Salience of parent brand associations
Favorability of inferred extension associations
Uniqueness of inferred extension associations

4. Evaluate extension feedback effects according to the four factor model:

How compelling the extension evidence is
How relevant the extension evidence is
How consistent the extension evidence is
How strong the extension evidence is

5. Consider possible competitive advantages as perceived by consumers and possible

reactions initiated by consumers.
6. Design marketing campaign to launch extension
7. Evaluate extension success and effects on parent brand equity