4.brand plan

Brand Plan

Mr. Pankaj Kusum Ramdas Khuspe Page 1

Brand Plan

Syllabus:

Importance of brand plan

Basic elements of brand plan

Objectives: Upon completion of this Chapter, you will be able to:

Definition of Brand,

Importance of brand plan

Basic elements of brand plan

Which strategies to be used for elements.

Mr. Pankaj Kusum Ramdas Khuspe M. Pharmacy (Pharmaceutics)

Brand Plan


Brand: Definition:

“A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design which is intended to identify the goods or

services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of

competitors.”

Or

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is a “name, term, sign,

symbol, or design, 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.”

Or

“Technically speaking, then, whenever a marketer creates a new name, logo, or symbol for

a new product, he or she has created a brand.”

Brands – meaning and definition:

A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol (such as logo, trademark, or package

design) intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers,

and to differentiate those goods or services from those of competitors. A brand thus

signals to the customer the source of the product, and protects both the customer and the

producer from competitors who would attempt to provide products that appear to be

identical. Brands provide the basis upon which consumers can identify and bond with a

product or service or a group of products or services.

Different sources and levels of knowledge such as awareness, attributes, benefits, images,

thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and experiences get linked to a brand and its understanding by

the consumer. The brand, in a sense, acts as a credible guarantee for that productor service,

allowing the consumer clearly to identify and specify products which genuinely offer

added value Powerful brands provide long-term security and growth, higher sustainable

profits, and increased asset value because they achieve competitive differentiation,

premium prices, higher sales volumes, economies of scale and reduced costs, and greater

security of demand.

In fact, however, many practicing managers refer to a brand as more than that—as

something that has actually created a certain amount of awareness, reputation,

prominence, and so on in the marketplace.

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A brand’s value proposition is a statement of the functional benefits, emotional benefits,

and self expressive benefits delivered by the brand that provide value to the customers.

Functional benefits are the most common basis for a value proposition, based on a

product attribute that provides functional utility to the customer and relate directly

to the functions performed by the product for the customers.

Emotional benefits are positive feelings the customer has about the brand and is

related to the experience of owning and using the brand. Most functional benefits

have a corresponding feeling or a set of feelings.

Self-Expressive benefits focus on person’s self- concept, aspirations, and provide a

way for a person to communicate his or her self image. Brands evolve over time.

The first level pertains to express the identity of the producer (i.e. label). The second

level is known as functional superiority (perceived by customer as differentiation).

While the third level is referred to as emotional touch, fourth level pertains to the

Power of self expression. At the top of the pyramid, the highest level (i.e. fifth level) is

known as cult.

A short history of brands

The word brand comes from the Old Norse “brandr”, meaning to burn, and from these

origins made its way into Anglo-Saxon. It was of course by burning that early man stamped

ownership on his livestock, and with the development of trade buyers would use brands as

a means of distinguishing between the cattle of one farmer and another.

A farmer with a particularly good reputation for the quality of his animals would find his

brand much sought after, while the brands of farmers with a lesser reputation were to be

avoided or treated with caution. Thus the utility of brands as a guide to choice was

established, a role that has remained unchanged to the present day.

WHAT IS A BRAND?

In the twenty-first century, branding ultimately will be the only unique differentiator

between companies. Brand equity is now a key asset. Much of the skill of marketing and

branding nowadays is concerned with building “equity” for products whose characteristics,

pricing, distribution and availability are really quite close to each other.

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Take cola drinks, for example. Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola are able to dominate the

worldwide cola market. The power of their bottling and distribution systems no doubt plays

a part in this, but the main factor is the strength and appeal of the two brands to consumers.

The strong, instantly recognizable names, logos and colours of these two brands

symbolise their makers’ promise that consumers’ expectations will be fulfilled,

whatever the subtleties of these might be.

Brands allow the consumer to shop with confidence, and they provide a route map

through a bewildering variety of choices. The customer does not have to be an expert on

the complexities of mobile telecommunications to choose between one service supplier and

another. The brand name, the tariff and the method of payment are all that is required to

make an informed choice. And as tariffs and methods of payment are largely the same

among competing companies, it is the brand – and consumers’ appreciation of its

underlying appeals – that will ultimately drive the purchase decision. It is the inculcation of

these “underlying appeals” – the bedrock of brand equity – that concerns brand owners

and has become the subject of unceasing attention and investment. Brands with strong

equity embed themselves deeply in the hearts and minds of consumers.

The real power of successful brands is that they meet the expectations of those that buy

them or, to put it another way, they represent a promise kept. As such they are a

contract between a seller and a buyer: if the seller keeps to its side of the bargain, the

buyer will be satisfied; if not, the buyer will in future look elsewhere.

Brands as business assets

The value to businesses of owning strong brands is incontestable. Brands that keep their

promise attract loyal buyers who will return to them at regular intervals. The benefit to the

brand owner is that forecasting cash flows becomes easier, and it becomes possible to

plan and manage the development of the business with greater confidence. Thus brands,

with their ability to secure income, can be classed as productive assets in exactly the same

way as any other, more traditional assets of a business (plant, equipment, cash, investments

and so on).

The asset value of brands is now widely recognized, not just by brand owners but by

investors. Brands can generate high-quality earnings that can directly affect the overall

performance of the business and thus influence the share price.

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The stock market value of The Coca-Cola Company, for example, was around $136 billion

in mid-2002, yet the book value (the net asset value) of the business was only $10.5 billion.

Benefit of Brand:

Consumers

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

Manufacturers

Means of identification to simplify handling or tracing

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

Challenges to Brand Builders:

Savvy customers

More complex brand families and portfolios

Maturing markets

More sophisticated and increasing competition

Difficulty in differentiating

Decreasing brand loyalty in many categories

Growth of private labels

Increasing trade power

Fragmenting media coverage

Eroding traditional media effectiveness

Emerging new communication options

Increasing promotional expenditures

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Decreasing advertising expenditures

Increasing cost of product introduction and support

Short-term performance orientation

Increasing job turnover

Pronounced economic cycles.

STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Strategic brand management involves the design and implementation of marketing

programs and activities to build, measure, and manage brand equity. The strategic brand

management process as having following main steps:

1. Identifying and developing brand plans

2. Designing and implementing brand marketing programs

3. Measuring and interpreting brand performance

4. Growing and sustaining brand equity

Strategic Brand Management Process:

1. Identify and Establish Brand Positioning and Values:

a. Mental maps.

b. Competitive frame of reference.

c. Points-of-parity and points-of difference.

d. Core brand associations.

e. Brand mantra

2. Plan and Implement Brand Marketing Programs:

a. Mixing and matching of brand elements.

b. Integrating brand marketing activities.

c. Leveraging secondary association

3. Measure and Interpret Brand Performance:

a. Brand value chain.

b. Brand audits.

c. Brand tracking.

d. Brand equity management system

4. Grow and Sustain Brand Equity:

a. Brand architecture.

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b. Brand portfolios and hierarchies.

c. Brand expansion strategies.

d. Brand reinforcement and revitalization.

Understand that successful brand management nowadays is a complex task. It requires

skills not normally associated with the traditional marketing function. The ability to

brief market research companies, advertising agencies and designers, to liaise with the sales

and distribution people and to survive the odd skirmish with the “bean counters” is no

longer enough. Brand managers certainly need to be adept in all these areas, but they also

need to understand how a brand can be managed for the benefit of shareholders. This

requires an understanding of how, in financial terms, a brand contributes to the success of a

business and the creation of shareholder value. Managers of services brands need to

become adept at internal communication and training, to ensure that customer satisfaction

is delivered consistently in support of their brand’s promise. And if the brand is the

corporation, the brand manager needs to understand not just the subtle art of corporate

communications but the infinitely more demanding role of stakeholder accountability.

Brand elements (Elements of the brand) :

Sometimes called brand identities, are those trademarkable devices that serve to identify

and differentiate the brand & brands are intrinsically striking and that their role is to

create an indelible impression. Intrinsically striking the visual distinctiveness of a brand

may be a combination of any of the following: name, letters, numbers, a symbol, a

signature, a shape. The main ones are brand names, URLs, logos, symbols, characters,

spokespeople, slogans, jingles, packages, and signage.

The marketers should choose brand elements;

To enhance brand awareness;

To facilitate the formation of strong, favorable, and

To unique brand associations; or elicit positive brand judgments and feelings.

The test of the brand-building ability of a brand element is what consumers would think or

feel about the product if they knew only that particular brand element and not anything else

about the product and how else it would be branded or marketed.

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Choosing Brand Elements

Marketers should choose brand elements to build as much brand equity as possible. The

test is what consumers would think or feel about the product if the brand element were all

they knew. Based on its name alone, for instance, a consumer might expect Snack Well’s

products to be healthful snack foods and Panasonic Tough book laptop computers to be

durable and reliable.

The best test of the brand-building contribution of a brand element is what consumers

would think about the product or service if they knew only its brand name or its associated

logo or other element. Because different elements have different advantages, marketing

managers often use a subset of all the possible brand elements or even all of them.

CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING BRAND ELEMENTS:

In general, there are six criteria for brand elements:

1. Memorable

2. Meaningful 3. Likable

4. Transferable 5. Adaptable

6. Protectable

1. Memorable

Easily recognized

Easily recalled

2. Meaningful

Descriptive

Persuasive

3. Likable

Fun and interesting

Rich visual and verbal imagery

Aesthetically pleasing

4. Transferable

Within and across product categories

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Across geographic boundaries and cultures

5. Adaptable

Flexible

Updatable

6. Protectable

Legally

Competitively.

The first three criteria—memorability, meaningfulness, and likability—are the

marketer’s offensive strategy and build brand equity.

The latter three - transferable, adaptable & protectable- play a defensive role for

leveraging and maintaining brand equity in the face of different opportunities and

constraints.

Let’s consider each of these general criteria.

1. Memorability

A necessary condition for building brand equity is achieving a high level of brand

awareness. Brand elements that promote that goal are inherently memorable and

attention-getting and therefore facilitate recall or recognition in purchase or consumption

settings. For example, a brand of propane gas cylinders named Blue Rhino featuring a

powder-blue animal mascot with a distinctive yellow flame is likely to stick in the minds

of consumers.

2. Meaningfulness

Brand elements may take on all kinds of meaning, with either descriptive or persuasive

content.

The brand names can be based on people, places, animals or birds, or other things or

objects. Two particularly important criteria are how well the brand element conveys the

following:

• General information about the function of the product or service: Does the brand

element have descriptive meaning and suggest something about the product category, the

needs satisfied or benefits supplied? How likely is it that a consumer could correctly

identify the product category for the brand based on any one brand element? Does the

brand element seem credible in the product category?

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• Specific information about particular attributes and benefits of the brand: Does the

brand element have persuasive meaning and suggest something about the particular kind

of product, or its key points-of-difference attributes or benefits? Does it suggest

something about some aspect of the product performance or the type of person who might

use the brand?

The first dimension is an important determinant of brand awareness and salience; the

second, of brand image and positioning.

3. Likability

Independent of its Memorability and meaningfulness, do customers find the brand

element aesthetically appealing? Is it likable visually, verbally, and in other ways? Brand

elements can be rich in imagery and inherently fun and interesting, even if not always

directly related to the product.

A memorable, meaningful, and likable set of brand elements offers many advantages

because consumers often do not examine much information in making product decisions.

Descriptive and persuasive elements reduce the burden on marketing communications to

build awareness and link brand associations and equity, especially when few other

product-related associations exist. Often, the less concrete the possible product benefits

are, the more important is the creative potential of the brand name and other brand

elements to capture intangible characteristics of a brand.

4. Transferability

Transferability measures the extent to which the brand element adds to the brand equity

for new products or in new markets for the brand. There are several aspects to this

criterion. First, how useful is the brand element for line or category extensions? In

general, the less specific the name, the more easily it can be transferred across categories.

For example,

Amazon connotes a massive South American river and therefore as a brand can be

appropriate for a variety of different types of products. Books “R” Us obviously would

not have afforded the same flexibility if Amazon had chosen that name to describe its

original line of business.

5. Adaptability

The fifth consideration for brand elements is their adaptability over time. Because of

changes in consumer values and opinions, or simply because of a need to remain

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contemporary, most brand elements must be updated. The more adaptable and flexible

the brand element, the easier it is to update it. For example, logos and characters can be

given a new looking or a new design to make them appear more modern and relevant.

6. Protectability

The sixth and final general consideration is the extent to which the brand element is

protectable — both in a legal and a competitive sense.

Marketers should;

(1) Choose brand elements that can be legally protected internationally,

(2) Formally register them with the appropriate legal bodies, and

(3) Vigorously defend trademarks from unauthorized competitive infringement.

Another consideration is whether the brand is competitively protectable. If a name,

package, or other attribute is too easily copied, much of the uniqueness of the brand may

disappear.

OPTIONS AND TACTICS FOR BRAND ELEMENTS:

What would an ideal brand element be like? Consider brand names—perhaps the most

central of all brand elements. Ideally, a brand name would be easily remembered, highly

suggestive of both the product class and the particular benefits that served as the basis of its

positioning, inherently fun or interesting, rich with creative potential, transferable to a wide

variety of product and geographic settings, enduring in meaning and relevant over time,

and strongly protectable both legally and competitively.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to choose a brand name—or any brand element, for that

matter—that satisfies all these criteria. The more meaningful the brand name, for example,

the more difficult it may be to transfer it to new product categories or translate it to other

cultures. This is one reason why it’s preferable to have multiple brand elements.

Let’s look at the major considerations for each type of brand element.

Brand Names:

The brand name is a fundamentally important choice because it often captures the central

theme or key associations of a product in a very compact and economical fashion. Brand

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names can be an extremely effective shorthand means of communication. Whereas an

advertisement lasts half a minute and a sales call could run to hours, customers can notice

the brand name and register its meaning or activate it in memory in just a few seconds.

Because it is so closely tied to the product in the minds of consumers, however, the brand

name is also the most difficult element for marketers to change. So they systematically

research them before making a choice.

The days when Henry Ford II could name his new automobile the “Edsel” after the name of

a family member seem to be long gone.

Is it difficult to come up with a brand name? Although that may seem to allow a lot of

choices, each year tens of thousands of new brands are registered as legal trademarks. In

fact, arriving at a satisfactory brand name for a new product can be a painfully difficult and

prolonged process. After realizing that most of the desirable brand names are already

legally registered, many a frustrated executive has lamented that “all the good ones are

taken.”

In some ways, this difficulty should not be surprising. Any parent can probably sympathize

with how hard it can be to choose a name for a child, as evidenced by the thousands of

babies born without names each year because their parents have not decided on—or

perhaps not agreed upon—a name yet.

When it was chosen as the actual name for the car, Ford saved thousands and thousands of

dollars in additional research and consulting expenses.

Brand Awareness:

Brand names that are simple and easy to pronounce or spell, familiar and meaningful, and

different, distinctive, and unusual can obviously improve brand awareness. Simplicity,

ease of pronunciation and spelling are very important.

Ideally, the brand name should have a clear, understandable, and unambiguous

pronunciation and meaning.

Familiarity and Meaningfulness:

The brand name should be familiar and meaningful so it can tap into existing knowledge

structures. It can be concrete or abstract in meaning.

Because the names of people, objects, birds, animals, and inanimate objects already exist in

memory, consumers have to do less learning to understand their meanings as brand names.

Links form more easily, increasing memorability.

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Differentiated, Distinctive, and Unique:

Although choosing a simple, easy-to-pronounce, familiar, and meaningful brand name can

improve recallability, to improve brand recognition, on the other hand, brand names should

be different, distinctive, and unusual. The recognition depends on consumers’ ability to

discriminate between brands, and more complex brand names are more easily

distinguished. Distinctive brand names can also make it easier for consumers to learn

intrinsic product information.

A brand name can be distinctive because it is inherently unique, or because it is unique in

the context of other brands in the category.

Brand Associations:

Because the brand name is a compact form of communication, the explicit and implicit

meanings consumers extract from it are important. Naming is a new peer-to-peer

communication technology. The brand name can be chosen to reinforce an important

attribute or benefit association that makes up its product positioning.

Meaningful names are not restricted to real words. Consumers can extract meaning, if they

so desire, even from made-up or fanciful brand names.

Marketers generally devise made-up brand names systematically, basing words on

combinations of morphemes.

A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit having meaning. There are 7,000 morphemes in

the English language, including real words like “man” and prefixes, suffixes, or roots. For

example, Nissan’s Sentra automobile is a combination of two morphemes suggesting

“central” and “sentry.” By combining carefully chosen morphemes, marketers can

construct brand names that actually have some relatively easily inferred or implicit

meaning.

Brand names raise a number of interesting linguistic issues. Even individual letters can

contain meaning that may be useful in developing a new brand name. Research has shown

that in some instances, consumers prefer products with brand names bearing some of the

letters from their own name.

The sounds of letters can take on meaning as well.

One study found a relationship between certain characteristics of the letters of brand names

and product features: As consonant hardness and vowel pitch increased in hypothetical

brand names for toilet paper and household cleansers, consumer perception of the

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harshness of the product also increased. The actual font or logotype used to express the

brand name may also change consumer impressions.

Brands are not restricted to letters alone. Alphanumeric names may include a mixture of

letters and digits (WD-40), a mixture of words and digits (Formula 409), or mixtures of

letters or words and numbers in written form (Saks Fifth Avenue). They can also designate

generations or relationships in a product line like BMW’s 3, 5, and 7 series.

URLs: URLs (uniform resource locators) specify locations of pages on the Web and are also

commonly referred to as domain names. Anyone wishing to own a specific URL must

register and pay for the name. As companies clamored for space on the Web, the number of

registered URLs increased dramatically. Every three-letter combination and virtually all

words in a typical English dictionary have been registered. The sheer volume of registered

URLs often makes it necessary for companies to use coined words for new brands if they

wish to have a Web site for the brand.

For example, when Andersen Consulting selected its new name, it chose the coined word

“Accenture” in part because the URL www.accenture.com had not been registered.

Another issue facing companies with regard to URLs is protecting their brands from

unauthorized use in other domain names. A company can sue the current owner of the URL

for copyright infringement, buy the name from the current owner, or register all

conceivable variations of its brand as domain names ahead of time.

Many sources list the current total of registered domain names at or close to the 200 million

mark. As the domain name market has exploded, ICANN—a nonprofit that governs the

industry—announced it would begin accepting applications to register customized and

unlimited URLs. This decision could have a significant impact for companies, which can

now register brand URLs.

Brand recall is critical for URLs because it increases the likelihood that consumers easily

remember the URL to get to the site. Many of these “common noun” sites failed, however,

and were criticized, among other things, for having names that were too generic. Many

firms adopted names that started with a lowercase e or i and ended in “net,” “systems,” or,

especially, “com.” Most of these names became liabilities after the Internet bubble burst,

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forcing firms such as Internet.com to revert to a more conventional name, INTMedia

Group.

Typically, for an existing brand, the main URL is a straightforward and maybe even literal

translation of the brand name, like www.shell.com, although there are some exceptions and

variations, such as www.purplepill.com for the Nexium acid-reflux medication Web site.

Logos and Symbols: Although the brand name typically is the central element of the brand, visual elements also

play a critical role in building brand equity and especially brand awareness. Logos have a

long history as a means to indicate origin, ownership, or association.

Logos range from corporate names or trademarks (word marks with text only) written in a

distinctive form, to entirely abstract designs that may be completely unrelated to the word

mark, corporate name, or corporate activities.

Examples of abstract logos include the Mercedes star, Rolex crown, CBS eye, Nike

swoosh, and Olympic rings. These non–word mark logos are also often called symbols.

Many logos fall between these two extremes. Some are literal representations of the brand

name, enhancing brand meaning and awareness, such as the Arm and Hammer, American

Red Cross, and Apple logos. Logos can be quite concrete or pictorial in nature like the

American Express centurion, and Ralph Lauren’s polo player.

Certain physical elements of the product or company can become a symbol, as did the

Goodyear blimp, McDonald’s golden arches, and the Playboy bunny ears.

Like names, abstract logos can be quite distinctive and thus recognizable. Nevertheless,

because abstract logos may lack the inherent meaning present with a more concrete logo,

one danger is that consumers may not understand what the logo is intended to represent

without a significant marketing initiative to explain its meaning. Consumers can evaluate

even fairly abstract logos differently depending on the shape.

Characters:

Characters represent a special type of brand symbol—one that takes on human or real-life

characteristics. Brand characters typically are introduced through advertising and can play

a central role in ad campaigns and package designs. Some are animated characters like the

Pillsbury Doughboy, Peter Pan peanut butter, and numerous cereal characters such as Tony

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the Tiger and Snap, Crackle & Pop. Others are live-action figures like Juan Valdez

(Colombian coffee) and Ronald McDonald.

One character has been both in its lifetime.

Slogans:

Slogans are short phrases that communicate descriptive or persuasive information about

thebrand. They often appear in advertising but can play an important role on packaging and

in other aspects of the marketing program.

When Snickers advertised, “Hungry? Grab a Snickers,” the slogan also appeared on the

candy bar wrapper itself.

Slogans are powerful branding devices because, like brand names, they are an extremely

efficient, shorthand means to build brand equity. They can function as useful “hooks” or

“handles” to help consumers grasp the meaning of a brand—what it is and what makes it

special. They are an indispensable means of summarizing and translating the intent of a

marketing program in a few short words or phrases.

Jingles: Jingles are musical messages written around the brand. Typically composed by

professional songwriters, they often have enough catchy hooks and choruses to become

almost permanently registered in the minds of listeners—sometimes whether they want

them to or not! During the first half of the twentieth century, when broadcast advertising

was confined primarily to radio, jingles were important branding devices.

We can think of jingles as extended musical slogans, and in that sense classify them as a

brand element. Because of their musical nature, however, jingles are not nearly as

transferable as other brand elements. They can communicate brand benefits, but they often

convey product meaning in a nondirect and fairly abstract fashion. Thus the potential

associations they might create for the brand are most likely to relate to feelings and

personality and other intangibles. Jingles are perhaps most valuable in enhancing brand

awareness. Often, they repeat the brand name in clever and amusing ways that allow

consumers multiple encoding opportunities.

Consumers are also likely to mentally rehearse or repeat catchy jingles after the advertise is

over, providing even more encoding opportunities and increasing memorability.

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Packaging Packaging is the activities of designing and producing containers or wrappers for a

product. Like other brand elements, packages have a long history. Early humans used

leaves and animal skin to cover and carry food and water. Glass containers first appeared in

Egypt as early as 2000 B.C.

From the perspective of both the firm and consumers, packaging must achieve a number of

objectives:

• Identify the brand.

• Convey descriptive and persuasive information.

• Facilitate product transportation and protection.

• Assist in at-home storage.

• Aid product consumption.

Marketers must choose the aesthetic and functional components of packaging correctly to

achieve marketing objectives and meet consumers’ needs. Aesthetic considerations govern

a package’s size and shape, material, color, text, and graphics. Innovations in printing

processes now permit eye-catching and appealing graphics that convey elaborate and

colorful messages on the package at the “moment of truth”—the point of purchase.

Functionally, structural design is crucial.

For example, innovations over the years have resulted in food packages that are resealable,

tamperproof, and more convenient to use—easy to hold, easy to open, or squeezable.

Summary:

Each brand element can play a different role in building brand equity, so marketers

“mix and match” to maximize brand equity.

For example, meaningful brand names that are visually represented through logos are easier

to remember with than without such reinforcement.

The entire set of brand elements makes up the brand identity, the contribution of all brand

elements to awareness and image. The cohesiveness of the brand identity depends on the

extent to which the brand elements are consistent. Ideally, marketers choose each element

to support the others, and all can be easily incorporated into other aspects of the brand and

the marketing program.

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A brand as a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or some combination of these

elements, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of

sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.

The different components of a brand (brand names, logos, symbols, package

designs, and so forth) are brand elements.

Brand elements come in many different forms.

A brand is distinguished from a product, which is defined as anything that can be

offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy

a need or want.

A product may be a physical good, service, retail store, person, organization, place,

or idea.

A brand is a product, but one that adds other dimensions that differentiate it in some way

from other products designed to satisfy the same need. These differences may be rational

and tangible—related to product performance of the brand—or more symbolic, emotional,

or intangible—related to what the brand represents. Brands themselves are valuable

intangible assets that need to be managed carefully. Brands offer a number of benefits to

customers and the firms.

The key to branding is that consumers perceive differences among brands in a product

category.

Marketers can brand virtually any type of product by giving the product a name and

attaching meaning to it in terms of what it has to offer and how it differs from competitors.

A number of branding challenges and opportunities faced by present-day marketing

managers were outlined related to changes in customer attitudes and behavior, competitive

forces, marketing efficiency and effectiveness, and internal company dynamics.

The strategic brand management process has four steps:

1. Identifying and developing brand plans

2. Designing and implementing brand marketing programs

3. Measuring and interpreting brand performance

4. Growing and sustaining brand equity

Brand elements can both enhance brand awareness and facilitate the formation of strong,

favorable, and unique brand associations.

Six criteria are particularly important.

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1. First, brand elements should be inherently memorable, easy to recognize, and easy to

recall.

2. Second, they should be inherently meaningful to convey information about the nature

of the product category, the particular attributes and benefits of a brand, or both. The

brand element may even reflect brand personality, user or usage imagery, or feelings

for the brand.

3. Third, the information conveyed by brand elements does not necessarily have to

relate to the product alone and may simply be inherently appealing or likable.

4. Fourth, brand elements can be transferable within and across product categories to

support line and brand extensions, and across geographic and cultural boundaries and

market segments.

5. Fifth, brand elements should be adaptable and flexible over time.

6. Finally sixth, they should be legally protectable and, as much as possible,

competitively defensible. Brand Focus outlines some of the key legal considerations

in protecting the brand.

Questions ask till date:

1. Write importance of brand plan? (3)

2. Explain the different brand elements? (4)

3.

4.

5.

Brand Plan


Characteristics of Successful Brands/Components for a Comprehensive Branding Strategy: With the volume of competition that businesses face in most industries, it’s never been more

important to stand out and develop a unique identity and value proposition through strategic

branding. While it’s obviously important to offer a quality product or service, effective branding is

often at the heart of the companies that thrive.

According to Jerry McLaughlin, “brand is the perception someone holds in their head about you, a

product, a service, an organization, a cause, or an idea. Brand building is the deliberate and

skillful application of effort to create a desired perception in someone else’s mind.”

Let’s explore the common characteristics of successful brands, so you can build your brand

accordingly.

1) Purpose

"Every brand makes a promise. But in a marketplace in which consumer confidence is low

and budgetary vigilance is high, it’s not just making a promise that separates one brand

from another, but having a defining purpose," explains Allen Adamson, chairman of the

North America region of brand consulting and design firm Landor Associates.

While understanding what your business promises necessary when defining your brand is

positioning, knowing why you wake up every day and go to work carries more weight. In

other words, your purpose is more specific, in that it serves as a differentiator between you

and your competitors.

Purpose can be viewed in two ways:

Functional: This concept focuses on the evaluations of success in terms of immediate

and commercial reasons -- i.e. the purpose of the business is to make money.

Intentional: This concept focuses on success as it relates to the ability to make money and

do good in the world.

2) Consistency The key to consistency is to avoid talking about things that don’t relate to or enhance your

brand. Added a new photo to your business' Facebook Page? What does it mean for your

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jerrymclaughlin/2011/12/14/a-simple-blueprint-for-a-successful-brand/

http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/11/brand-defining-marketing-cmo-network-allen-adamson.html

http://www.hubspot.com/Beyond-the-Facebook-Business-Page/

Brand Plan


company? Does it align with your message, or was it just something funny that would,

quite frankly, confuse your audience?

In an effort to give your brand a platform to stand on, you need to be sure that all of your

messaging is cohesive. Ultimately, consistency contributes to brand recognition, which

fuels customer loyalty.

3) Emotion Customers aren't always rational.

How else do you explain the person who paid thousands of dollars more for a Harley rather

than buying another cheaper, equally well-made bike? There was an emotional voice in

there somewhere, whispering: “Buy a Harley.”

People have a basic psychological need to feel closely connected to others, and that caring,

affectionate bonds from close relationships are a major part of human behavior."

Not to mention, belongingness -- the need for love, affection, and being part of groups --

falls directly in the middle of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which aims to categorize

different human needs.

The lesson to be learned? Find a way to connect to your customers on a deeper, more

emotional level. Do you give them peace of mind? Make them feel like part of the family?

Do you make life easier? Use emotional triggers like these to strengthen your relationship

and foster loyalty.

4) Flexibility In this fast-changing world, marketers must remain flexible to stay relevant. On the plus

side, this frees you to be creative with your campaigns.

While consistency aims to set the standard for your brand, flexibility enables you to make

adjustments that build interest and distinguish your approach from that of your

competition.

In other words, "effective identity programs require enough consistency to be identifiable,

but enough variation to keep things fresh and human.”

5) Employee Involvement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

Brand Plan


As we mentioned before, achieving a sense of consistency is important if you wish to build

brand recognition. And while a style guide can help you achieve a cohesive digital

experience, it's equally important for your employees to be well versed in the how they

should be communicating with customers and representing the brand.

6) Loyalty If you already have people that love you, your company, and your brand, don’t just sit

there. Reward them for that love.

These customers have gone out their way to write about you, to tell their friends about you,

and to act as your brand ambassadors. Cultivating loyalty from these people early on will

yield more returning customers -- and more profit for your business.

Loyalty is a critical part of every brand strategy, especially if you're looking to support

your sales organization. At the end of the day, highlighting a positive relationship between

you and your existing customers sets the tone for what potential customers can expect if

they choose to do business with you.

7) Competitive Awareness Take the competition as a challenge to improve your own strategy and create greater value

in your overall brand. You are in the same business and going after the same customers,

right? So watch what they do.

Do some of their tactics succeed? Do some fail? Tailor your brand positioning based on

their experience to better your company.

8) Audience Knowledge The best brands have a thorough understanding of the demographics of their target market,

what their interests are, and how they communicate. Unless it’s a mega chain like Wal-

Mart, most businesses have a specific target audience they’re pursuing. Understanding the

target market is critical because it provides direction for the tone and reach of a marketing

campaign, along with the overall identity of a brand, while helping to create an organic,

human connection between a business and its audience.

Trying to appeal to everyone (ie, ignoring the concept of a target market) can be

counterproductive, causing a company’s brand to become diluted. Finding the right

branding approach requires first understanding the target market.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31373/11-Ways-to-Give-and-Get-Customer-Love.aspx

http://www.business2community.com/social-media/why-its-important-to-humanize-your-brand-on-social-media-0445512

http://www.business2community.com/social-media/why-its-important-to-humanize-your-brand-on-social-media-0445512

Brand Plan


9) Uniqueness

Establishing a brand identity requires something distinctive. For instance, Apple has

become known worldwide for their innovative products and minimalistic, aesthetic appeal.

Creating an identity within a niche doesn’t demand a revolutionary idea. It simply needs to

have one special thing that separates it from the competition. In reality, it’s possible to be

“a one trick pony” as long as that trick is really good. Once a company figures out what

that is, it can concentrate on it and should gain recognition in time.

Do you know what your unique product, service, or selling point is within your niche? If

not, start there when building your branding strategy.

10) Passion

While it’s certainly possible to build a brand in the short-term without passion, it’s almost

impossible to sustain it in the long run. When you examine massively successful people

like Steve Jobs, they all have a serious passion that keeps propelling them to work hard and

continually deliver greatness. That passion leads to enthusiasm and genuine joy, which is

infectious.

Consumers often become just as enthusiastic about a product or service, leading to word of

mouth advertising and referrals. Passion also helps businesses persevere through inevitable

setbacks.

11) Exposure

Another big part of being recognized as a distinctive, successful brand is the ability to

reach consumers through multiple channels. Obviously, larger companies have an

advantage gaining exposure because they usually have a bigger marketing budget and more

existing connections. They can pay for television commercials, be featured in globally-

recognized magazines, and rank highly in search engine results pages.

However, the Internet and social media have narrowed the gap between small companies

and large ones. There are more tools than ever before which offer any company a chance at

establishing their brand. By developing a presence on networks like Facebook, Twitter,

LinkedIn and Google+, anyone is able to reach almost any consumer.

Successful brands share these seven common characteristics. How does your brand measure up?

Did I miss any characteristics? Let me know in the comments below.

Brand Plan


Brand Element

Criterion Brand Names URLs

Logos and Symbols Characters Slogans and

Jingles Packaging and

Signage

Memorability Can be chosen to

enhance brand recall and recognition

Generally more useful for brand

recognition


recognition

Can be chosen to enhance brand recall

and recognition


recognition

Meaningfulness

Can reinforce almost any type of

association, although sometimes only

indirectly

Can reinforce almost any type of

association, although sometimes

only indirectly

Generally more useful for non- product-related

imagery and brand personality

Can convey almost any type of association explicitly

Can convey almost any type of association explicitly

Likability Can evoke much verbal imagery

Can provoke visual appeal

Can generate human qualities

Can evoke much verbal imagery

Can combine visual and verbal appeal

Transferability Can be somewhat

limited Excellent Can be somewhat limited

Can be somewhat limited Good

Adaptability Difficult Can typically be redesigned

Can sometimes be redesigned Can be modified Can typically be

redesigned

Protectability Generally good, but

with limits Excellent Excellent Excellent Can be closely copied

Critique of Brand Element Options

BEST OF LUCK

4.brand plan

Education