What is a Brand?

Perhaps the most distinctive skill of professional marketers is their ability to create, maintain, protect, and enhance brands. Marketers say that branding is the art and cornerstone of marketing. The American Marketing association defines a brand as follows A Brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.

In essence, a brand identifies the seller or market. It can be a name, trademark, logo, or other symbol. Under trademark law, the seller is granted exclusive rights to the use of the brand name in perpetuity. Thus brands differ from other assets such as patents and copyrights, which have expiration dates.

A brand is essentially a sellers promise to consistently deliver a specific, set of features, benefits, and services to the buyers. The best brands convey a warranty of quality. Brand is perhaps the single most important element on the package, serving as a unique identifier. A good brand name can evoke feeling of trust, confidence, security, strength, and many other desirable characteristics.

Many companies make use of branding strategies in carrying out market and product development strategies. The line extension approach uses a brand name to facilitate entry into a new market. An alternative to line extension is brand extension. In third form of branding is franchise extension or family branding where by a company attaches the corporate name to a product either to enter a new market segment or a different product class. Companies may also choose to assign different or multiple brand names to related products. By doing so, the firm makes a conscious decision to allow the product to succeed or fail on their own merits. Major advantages of using multiple brand names are that: i. The firm can distance products from other offerings it markets; ii. The image of one product ( or set of products) is not associated with other products the company markets; iii. The products can be targeted at a specific market segment; and

iv. Should the products fail, the probability of failure impacting on other company products is minimized.

The major disadvantage of this strategy is that because new names are assigned there is no consumer brand awareness and significant amounts of money must be spent familiarizing customers with the brands.

Increasingly, companies are finding that names are one of the most valuable assets they possess. Successful extensions of an existing brand can lead to additional loyalty and associate profits. Conversely a wrong extension can cause damaging associations, as perceptions linked the brand name are transferred back from one product to the other.

Perceived Quality Name Awareness

Brand Association

Brand Loyalty

Brand Equity

Other Brand Assets

Name Symbol

Provides value to customer by enhancing customers: Interpretation processing of information Confidence in the purchase decision Use satisfaction

Provides value to firm by enhancing: Efficiency and effectiveness of marketing program Brand loyalty Price margins Brand extension Trade leverage

Fig. 7.2 Elements of brand equity

Brand Equity Brand equity can be viewed as the set of assets (or liabilities) linked to the brand that add (or subtract) value. The value of these assets is dependent upon the consequences or results of the market places relationship with a brand. Figure 8-2 lists the elements of brand equity. Brand equity is determined by the consumers and is the culmination of the consumers assessment of the product, the company that manufactures and markets the product, and all other variables the impact on the product between manufacturing and consumer consumption.

A brand name needs to be carefully managed so that its brand equity doesnt depreciate. This requires maintaining or improving over time brand awareness, brand perceived quality and functionality, positive brand associations, and so on. These tasks require continuous R & D investment, skillful advertising, and excellent trade and consumer services.

Some analysiss see brands as outlasting a companys specific products and facilities. They see brands as the companys major enduring asset. Yet every powerful brand reality represents a set of loyal customers. Therefore, the fundamental asset underlying brand equity is customer equity. This suggests that the proper focus of marketing planning is extending loyal customer lifetime value, with brand management serving as a major marketing tool.

Activity 4 What are the benefits of brand? State the advantages of multiple branding systems.

7.1.4 Packaging and Labeling Decisions Many physical products going to the market have to be packaged and labeled. Packaging can play a minor role (e.g. inexpensive hardware items) or a major role (e.g. cosmetics). Some packages-such as the coke bottle are world famous. Many marketers have called packaging a fifth P, along with price, product, place, and promotion. Most marketers, however, treat packaging and labeling as an element of product strategy.

Packaging We define packaging as follows: Packaging includes the activities of designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product.

The container or wrapper is called the package. The package might include up to three level of material. Thus, old spice after-shave Lotion is in a bottle (primary package) that is in a cardboard box (secondary package) that is in a corrugated box (shipping package) containing six-dozen boxes of old spice.

In recent times, packaging has become a potent marketing tool. Well-designed packages can create convenience value for the consumer and promotional value for the producer. Various factors have contributed to packaging growing use as a marketing tool.

Self-service: An increasing number of products are sold on a self-service basis in supermarkets. The package must perform many of the sales tasks. It must attract attention, describe the products features, create consumer confidence, and make a favorable overall impression.

Consumer affluence: Rising consumer affluence means consumers are willing to pay a little more for the conveniences, appearance, and prestige of better packages.

Company and brand image: Companies are recognizing the power of well-designed packages to contribute to instant recognition of the company or brand.

Innovation Opportunity: Innovative packaging can bring large benefits to consumers and profits to producers. The first companies to put their soft drinks in pop-top cans and their liquid sprays in aerosol cans attracted many new customers.

Developing an effective package for a new product requires several decisions. The first task is to establish the packaging concept. The packaging concept defines what the package should basically be or do for the particular product. Should due packages main functions be to offer superior product protection, introduce a novel dispensing method, suggest certain qualities about the product or the company, or something else?

Once the packaging concept has been determined, decisions must be made on additional packaging elements size, shape, materials, color, text, and brand mark. Decisions must be made on how much or little text, cellophane or other transparent films, a plastic or a laminate tray, and so on. Where a product safety issue is involved, decisions must be made on tamperproof devices. The various packaging elements must be harmonized; size interacts with materials, colors, and so on. The packaging elements must also be harmonized with decisions on pricing, advertising, and other marketing elements.

After the packaging is designed, it must be tested, Engineering tests are conducted to ensure that the package stands up under normal conditions; visual tests, to ensure that the script is legible and the colors harmonious; dealer tests, to ensure that dealers find the packages attractive and easy to handle; and consumer tests, to ensure favorable consumer response. In spite of these precautions, a packaging design occasionally gets through with some basic flaw.

Developing effective packaging may cost lots of money and take from a few months to a year. The importance of packaging can not be overemphasized, considering the functions it performs in attracting and satisfying customers. Companies must pay attention, however, to the growing environmental and safety concerns about packaging.

Activity 5