Brand Management

Brand Strategy Development

BRAND MANAGEMENT

Benefits of Branding

Provides benefits to buyers and sellers

TO BUYER:

Help buyers identify the product that they like/dislike.

Identify marketer

Helps reduce the time needed for purchase.

Helps buyers evaluate quality of products especially if unable to judge a products characteristics.

Helps reduce buyers perceived risk of purchase.

Buyer may derive a psychological reward from owning the brand, IE Rolex or Mercedes.

TO SELLER:

Differentiate product offering from competitors

Helps segment market by creating tailored images, IE Contact lenses

Brand identifies the companys products making repeat purchases easier for customers.

Reduce price comparisons

Brand helps firm introduce a new product that carries the name of one or more of its existing products...half as much as using a new brand, lower co. designs, advertising and promotional costs.EXAMPLE, Gummy Savers

Easier cooperation with intermediaries with well known brands

Facilitates promotional efforts.

Helps foster brand loyalty helping to stabilize market share.

Firms may be able to charge a premium for the brand.

What is Intangible Brand Value?

There has always been a struggle between marketers trying to convince corporate senior management that the companys brand is its most valuable asset and should be included in the companys overall investment strategy to ensure it works its magic. However, what do you say when the men and women in the corner offices ask you to quantify your argument for why the company should invest in branding initiatives? The challenge for marketers has always been finding metrics to measure the value of a brand. Certainly, one can point to brands like Apple and make the argument that the value of branding is too obvious to ignore. However, ignore it they will unless you can prove its worth.

Next time you head into a meeting in an attempt to secure budget for internal and external brand-building campaigns, use the list below to help you make your case. Use each item in the list below and attach at least one real-world example to it, particularly from your own companys or your competitors experiences. You might not win your first argument, but you might just open some eyes about the intangible value of a brand.

A strong brand creates a sense of security among consumers.

Theyre more comfortable with an existing, established brand, are more likely to trust it, buy it, and tell their friends about it. It brand extensions within the same category a leg up on the competition because the awareness marketing of the brand is already done.

A strong brand boosts new product awareness and credibility.

If your brand launches into a new market where its a new player, you can leverage the power of your brand in other markets where consumers may already be familiar with its reputation.

A strong brand helps salespeople close deals with business partners and customers.

If a new client is trying to decide between two sales proposals with all things fairly equal, a strong brand can help that client move in your direction simply because they know what to expect based on the brand reputation.

A strong brand can help the human resources department attract top talent.

Many prospective employees can be tempted by the prospect of working for a company that owns well-known brands. Much of it is a prestige move, because people like to be associated with the market leader.

A strong brand can help a company secure investments.

A well-known brand name can help you not just get your foot in the door but also secure financing for large-scale ventures. Investors and lenders like to feel secure in their investments and companies with strong brands are typically viewed as companies that wont disappear anytime soon.

A strong brand can shelter a company from a public relations disaster.

Think of the Tylenol poisoning scandal in the 1980s. Had the companys brand not been so trusted, the company may not have rebounded as quickly as it did.

Brand positioning

Brand positioning refers to target consumers reason to buy your brand in preference to others. It is ensures that all brand activity has a common aim; is guided, directed and delivered by the brands benefits/reasons to buy; and it focuses at all points of contact with the consumer.

Brand positioning must make sure that:

Is it unique/distinctive vs. competitors?

Is it significant and encouraging to the niche market?

Is it appropriate to all major geographic markets and businesses?

Is the proposition validated with unique, appropriate and original products?

Is it sustainable - can it be delivered constantly across all points of contact with the consumer?

Is it helpful for organization to achieve its financial goals?

Is it able to support and boost up the organization?

In order to create a distinctive place in the market, a niche market has to be carefully chosen and a differential advantage must be created in their mind. Brand positioning is a medium through which an organization can portray its customers what it wants to achieve for them and what it wants to mean to them. Brand positioning forms customers views and opinions.

Brand Positioning can be defined as an activity of creating a brand offer in such a manner that it occupies a distinctive place and value in the target customers mind. For instance-Kotak Mahindra positions itself in the customers mind as one entity- Kotak - which can provide customized and one-stop solution for all their financial services needs. It has an unaided top of mind recall. It intends to stay with the proposition of Think Investments, Think Kotak. The positioning you choose for your brand will be influenced by the competitive stance you want to adopt.

Brand Positioning involves identifying and determining points of similarity and difference to ascertain the right brand identity and to create a proper brand image. Brand Positioning is the key of marketing strategy. A strong brand positioning directs marketing strategy by explaining the brand details, the uniqueness of brand and its similarity with the competitive brands, as well as the reasons for buying and using that specific brand. Positioning is the base for developing and increasing the required knowledge and perceptions of the customers. It is the single feature that sets your service apart from your competitors. For instance- Kingfisher stands for youth and excitement. It represents brand in full flight.

There are various positioning errors, such as-

1.Under positioning- This is a scenario in which the customers have a blurred and unclear idea of the brand.

2.Over positioning- This is a scenario in which the customers have too limited a awareness of the brand.

3.Confused positioning- This is a scenario in which the customers have a confused opinion of the brand.

4.Double Positioning- This is a scenario in which customers do not accept the claims of a brand.

5 Factors of Brand Positioning

Lets take a look at the 5 main factors that go into defining a brand position.

1. Brand AttributesWhat the brand delivers through features and benefits to consumers.

2. Consumer Expectations

What consumers expect to receive from the brand?

3. Competitor attributesWhat the other brands in the market offer through features and benefits to consumers.

4. PriceAn easily quantifiable factor Your prices vs. your competitors prices.

5. Consumer perceptionsThe perceived quality and value of your brand in consumers minds (i.e., does your brand offer the cheap solution, the good value for the money solution, the high-end, high-price tag solution, etc.?).

Effective Brand Positioning

Positioning a brand in the consumer's mind is critical to brand success. In age sameness, a brand must tout a variety of product or brand features and benefits, by drawing attention to them and promoting their value to the consumer.

The act of developing certain brand characteristics and promoting them is one of the few ways a brand can be differentiated. Your own market is probably saturated with products that all look similar and offer the same benefits. Since most products or brands have a variety of features, such as speed, accuracy, size, functionality, cost, style, specs, and more, each of these can be emphasized if they are truly critical to a segment of the consumer market. If you want your brand to be known for a subset of the potential features and benefits it offers, then you are fixing or positioning the product brand in consumer's minds as being about those attributes. You position a brand in order to establish your product as a superior choice to competitors.

What's important to know is that many of your competitors will position their products and brands the same way you intend to. That's when brand credibility comes into play. If you can communicate your brand positioning better, then consumer's will view yours as the most attractive or most credible. The credibility factor might only be delivered via the style of your brand communications.d What is Brand Equity?

Brand Equity is defined as the values and impressions, both long-lasting and fleeting, which affect consumers choice of brand to purchase. These values and impressions are created by their:

Prior experience with the brand

New experiences with the brand (including innovations, line extensions, new channels and new forms):

Reception of and reaction to the brands communications.

Consumers receive the brands message through

Planned and paid efforts in:

Advertising

Promotions

Packaging

Public relations

Sponsorships

Partnerships

Unpaid and unplanned channels such as:

Word-of-mouth

Third party endorsements

The consumers' relationship with the brand is established by these brand experiences (prior and new) and communications. This means that Brand Equity is built (or diminished) in essentially every touch point where the consumer interacts or experiences the brand.

Example: brands with strong equities Consider the values and impressions you associate with these brands:

Adidas

Boeing

Cadburys or Hersheys

Dell computers

Dolce & Cabana

Jet Blue or Easy Jet

Manchester United

Michelin

Porsche or Aston Martin

Pringles potato chips

Sony

The New York Times or The Economist

Virgin

Volvo

Why is Brand Equity important?

Brand Equity is important for three major reasons:

Brand Equity creates shareholder value

Brand Equity Building creates competitive advantage

Brand Equity management creates business growth opportunities.

Brand Equity creates shareholder value

Building Brand Equity establishes a bond with consumers and drives the desired consumer behavior.

Identifying, rationalizing, and taking steps to own the Brand Promise can ensure that the brand is emotionally connected with consumers, which establishes loyalty and commitment. Brands with high loyalty and commitment levels can command a premium price.

High brand equity therefore drives higher, faster, more profitable and less risky cash flows for the business.

Examples of Brands strong Brand Equity:PanteneHealthy Hair

DoveRestoring Femininity

Heinz Ketchup (2001+)Fun, family and entertainment

VolvoAbility to protect loved ones

NikeSelf realization through athletic activity

These brands have created long-term, consumer-preferred franchises that deliver reliable streams of revenue and profit to their brand owners.

Brand Equity Building creates competitive advantage

Few brands manage their equity consistently and at every consumer touch point.

Even fewer link their Brand Equity to marketplace and financial performance indicators.

Brand Equity is a facet of the brand that is often misunderstood and under-used.Developing a process to consistently measure, plan and develop Brand Equity is the true path to building strong brands and a sustainable competitive advantage.

Brand Equity management creates business growth opportunities

The process of defining a Brand Vision (the second phase of the Brand Equity Process) requires an in-depth consumer understanding. The vision reveals the opportunities for the brand, both within the current business category and in new categories and businesses.

ExampleDoves enhanced self-image through skin care equity enabled them to extend from soap into moisturizer and other beauty care categories (where growth and margins are higher).

Virgin's Good deal for consumers equity enabled them to extend to categories as diverse as insurance, phones, airlines, and even wedding dresses.

How do you develop Brand Equity?

Brand Equity is based on three components:

Brand Promise

Category-specific Equities

General Equities

Brand Promise

The highest level, differentiating, emotional consumer benefit that the brand stands for (or intends to stand for) in the minds of consumers.

It is derived from the Hierarchy of Needs developed for each Consumer Domain.

the brand seeks to stand for this Brand Promise to own this Equity.

Category-specific Equities:

A specific set of performance or expectations that contribute to the categorys success.

For example, in the oral care category, these could include cavity prevention and tooth whitening benefits. These are essential functional benefits that a winning oral care brand will need to deliver. In addition, the benefit of say oral centered self confidence is also an important emotional benefit that the brand will need to deliver.

Category specific equities are required qualifications that must be earned and maintained before the brand can own its Brand Promise.

General Equities:

Differentiation

Relevance

Appreciation (likeability, trust, leadership, innovation)

Knowledge

Value

Quality (product satisfaction)

By measuring General Equities you can benchmark the brand with others in any product category and compare it to other brands.

Brand Equity is a critical driver of two financial performance indicators:

Top line revenue growth

Brand Gross Margin

You measure these three equity components individually and then combine the results into a single Brand Equity scorecard. If Brand Equity scores rise relative to competitive brands and to benchmarks set for it, the brands financial performance should improve (measured in top line revenue growth and brand gross margin).

4 Steps to Creating Brand Equity

Brand equity stems from the customers experiences with your product or service. When a customer has used your product over and over again, that builds equity, or value, in your brand. Your value to the customer is what separates you from your competition. Its what makes customers loyal to your brand and motivates them to refer to their friends.

Many try to create the level of brand equity those great companies like Coca-Cola and Sony have. It takes hard work to get to that level, but its not impossible, especially when you implement the following steps in your marketing plan.

1. Define your positioning. This is the one thing your company stands for in the minds of your customers. You need to clarify your positioning in the market among your competitors. One is the important word here. You must define your brand position with just one element. Ask yourself and your employees, what is the one thing that makes you different and better than the competition?

2. Let everyone know your story and bring it to life. Position statements are often internal statements that need to be made external. The way to do that is by telling a story. Document your best corporate stories, which are likely to come from the founder, that best reflect your positioning statement.

Cracker Barrel, a well-known restaurant that serves old country food and has old country stores that shelve nostalgic brands of candy in nostalgic wrappers, is positioned to bring that old country feeling back to people. Everything about their restaurants and stores reminds people of a time long gone. Their Web site and their menus tell the story of how the first store and restaurant opened in Tennessee in the 1960s to give travelers a place to get a good meal and pick up candy for their kids on their way home. These old time stores often had a barrel of saltine crackers that the community members would gather around to visit with friends. And so Cracker Barrel was born and its story is told through the menus, Web site and everything that is in the store, down to the old look of the labels on the candy and other products. Cracker Barrel tells its story in text on its Web site and in everything it does in its stores, including the label printing.

3. Build the brand before the transaction. Before the customer gets to the cash register, or even to the store, start branding. The easiest way to do this is to give something away that has your branding on it. It doesnt have to be something big; it could be a free notepad at the door or even an email coupon for a free item in customers email inboxes. As long as the coupon has your logo and elements of your brand on it, it counts toward building your brand equity.

4. Measure efforts. You can simply ask customers when they come into your store what they think of your brand, or you can do some research on your own. You can send out surveys to customers and prospects in the area or you can check the social media conversations going on about your brand. Consumers are quite active on forums, blogs and chats, especially when they are unhappy about a product or service, so check out what people are saying about you online.

Vendor-rating Web sites Technorati.com and Yelp.com are great places to start.

By implementing these steps, the road to building brand equity will be a lot smoother and a lot shorter. And the great thing about these steps is that you can get started on that road today

CONTROL ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.10 Experiential Branding: Using 5 Senses to Build Brand Equity Today's consumers are confronted with countless choices and a multitude of information to consider when they buy products or services. Traditional promotional methods like advertising in magazines or on TV are no longer as effective as before. How can a company help their brand stand out? What will make their brand communication effective? In light of these questions and many others, brand experience has emerged as an innovative and compelling way to build a brand in the minds of consumers.

What is brand experience and experiential branding?

Brand experience can be thought of as sensations, feelings, perceptions, and behavioural responses evoked by brand-related stimuli. The more powerful the experience is, the stronger the brand impression. Brand experience also affects consumer satisfaction and loyalty; it allows the brand to sell products at a premium and to create competitive entry barriers.

Experiential branding is a process by which brands create and drive sensory interactions with consumers in all aspects of the brand experience to emotionally influence their preferences and to actively shape their perceptions of the brand. Interactions involve communication, brand space, and product and service elements. These elements work together to affect brand equity.

How does brand experience build brand equity?

The combination of all interactions with communication, brand space, and product and service elements, make up a customer's brand experience. The customer will then form a brand evaluation and perception based on these interactions. This is what builds brand equity in the consumer's mind, and it is composed of four key dimensions: differentiation, relevance, esteem and knowledge. Various experiential branding methods impact different dimensions of brand equity, which must be carefully considered by marketers or brand managers when utilizing these methods.

The Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) is a database of consumer perception of brands created and managed by Brand Asset Consulting, a division of Young & Rubicam Brands to provide information to enable firms to improve the marketing decision-making process and to manage brands better. BAV/Brand Experience measures the value of a brand along four dimensions of brand equity and provides specific examples of experiential branding for each one, in order to discover how this creative branding activity can be used successfully.

Differentiation: Perceived distinctiveness of the brandDifferentiation is a brand's ability to stand apart from others, and to gain consumer choice, preference and loyalty. It is the degree to which consumers find a brand unique. A compelling and memorable brand experience can attract customers' attention and maintain their interest, and therefore contribute to brand differentiation.In recent years, companies like Nokia, Apple, Barbie, and Gucci have opened flagship stores in China to provide more consumer-brand interaction opportunities. The newly-built Barbie Store in Shanghai is a 6-floor mega store with a spa, design centre, caf and interactive activities designed for girls. It became a hot spot in Shanghai very quickly, with thousands of girls now visiting the store every day. The branded experiences provided by the Barbie store will undoubtedly serve to differentiate the brand from others.Flagship stores are one way that companies can connect and interact with customers to participate in experiential branding. They are also places to display limited edition products and unique service experiences, which can communicate the companies' culture and brand values in ways traditional media cannot.

Relevance: Personal appropriateness of the brandRelevance refers to how meaningful a brand is to their target consumers. Relevant brands are both appropriate and appealing. Niche and growing brands may choose to focus first on differentiation and then on relevance, whereas leading brands will excel on all four dimensions.Adidas Brand Centre in Beijing is both experiential and meaningful for customers, so it contributes to brand relevance. The retail centre features a range of interactive zones including miCoach Core Skills, the recently launched miOriginals, mi Adidas, a juice bar, a dedicated 'Urban' area for exhibitions and events, a basketball court on the rooftop, a Concierge Desk and a children's area. As you can see, there are products and interactions offered for Adidas' various targeted market segments, ensuring that the customer's experiences of the Adidas brand are highly relevant.

Esteem: Regard for the brand

Esteem measures the degree to which the target audiences regard and respect a brand. Esteem in short, how well it is liked. When companies grow larger and become more mature, brand esteem becomes more and more important. Today, companies often use indirect experiential branding methods to build brand esteem. One way to do this is through the Internet and social networking websites.With the recent popularity of social networking services (SNS) such as Face book, Twitter, Kaixin001, Renren, and many more, forward-thinking companies place their brand inconspicuously in the pages, games, and posts, of these sites. SNS websites are a new media which stimulate increased interaction with users. In the first half of 2009, Kaixin001 became China's most popular SNS with over 83 million registered. Brands, media agencies, and organizations have used different approaches to connect with the community and target its netizens. An impressive and representative case is Lohas juice. It successfully promoted its brand in the popular SNS game "Kaixin Garden". Through this interactive game, the juice brand not only promotes its products, but also portrays a lifestyle and an attitude which influences the customers' brand perception.

Knowledge: Understanding of What the Brand Stands forKnowledge determines whether there is a true understanding of what a brand stands for. Brand awareness is a sub-component of knowledge. The level of brand knowledge is a signal of the company's past performance, as well as a foundation for its further development. Positive and accurate understanding of the brand amongst target consumers results in brand loyalty. However, it is not enough for a brand to tell consumers what their brand means, they have to show them, and what better way to do this than through brand experience.This is what Nokia is doing with its global customer service and experience centre in Shanghai, which opened in August, 2009. The centre provides hardware repair and software services to users of its mobile phones. The Shanghai experience centre is a place for customers to learn more about their Nokia cell phones and experience what Nokia brand stands for. Helping their customers develop a deep and comprehensive understanding of their company will help Nokia consolidate their customer loyalty and brand equity.Therefore we learn that experiential branding, a creative branding process through customer experience, contributes to brand differentiation, esteem, relevance, and knowledge, and therefore is an effective way to build brands. Through interactive technologies, innovative retail spaces, and indirect online brand communication methods, consumers can now see, touch, hear, taste, and smell brands in ways they never could before. Flashy advertising and price-slashing product promotions are often not sustainable methods for brand building. Experiential branding, with the objective of building brand equity, has emerged as a promising and viable alternative.

Brand Equity PyramidA standard tool for understanding a brands associations to customers response. The strongest brands exhibit both duality (emotional and functional associations) and richness (a variety of brand associations or equity at every level, from salience to resonance).

How to Build a Brand From the traditional branding point of view, the brand building process is best represented by the Brand Equity model (Brandt and Johnson, 1997) as follows:

The Brand Building Matrix

EXPERIENCE

Customer perceptions

Customer service

Actions of sales & delivery people etc.

Brand evolution over the years, changes to any aspect of the brand must reflect the changing market demandsQUALITY

Tastes & levels of service

Ingredients & raw materials used etc.

Product/service durability

Guarantees and warrantees

Cutting edge technology

IDENTITY

Strong & visible

Memorable names

Logos & color

Sponsorships

Packaging etc.

Shelf position & display

Vehicle displays and branding

Corporate uniforms COMMUNICATION

PR & Advertising strategies

Quality letterheads & writing materials.

Internet presence

News Releases, sponsored press articles etc.

Other verbal and non-verbal means used in communicating

The Importance of Assets for Product Manager

Most brand managers focus on tangible, easily quantified assets. When you combine that with "next-quarter-it is," the national penchant for focusing on short-term numerical goals regardless of the impact on brand equity, you get systemic long-term problems. While its most apparent in publicly-traded companies, its contagious. In this mind set, for example, volume will always seem more important than market share, and easy-to-measure quarterly results will matter more than hard-to-measure customer satisfaction.

Add to those institutional biases the short-term perspective of Brand Managers at General ____ (fill in the blank) who know theyll be on X Brand for 18 months, tops, before moving on to Y Brand (or field sales, or something). They know their career path is paved with short-term fixes. Is it any wonder that budgets for indiscriminate high-value couponing (and other brand demotions) are growing far faster than budgets for brand-building?

Come, let us audit together.

Pick a brand, any brand. If you have more than one to choose from, pick the one that makes you lose sleep at night. Grab a pencil and keep score as we review sixteen of your brands vital assets. Use a separate piece of paper if you want someone else to go through this for the sake of comparison.

1. Name

A brands most valuable asset can be the name itself. For one thing, a name can have inherent selling power when the word(s) stand for something, showcasing and explaining the uniqueness of the product or service. By this measure, for example, "Vapo-Rub" is more valuable, more descriptive, than "Formula 44," and Mercury "Cougar" promises more than Buick "Century."

But this value of "name" pales in comparison with the enormous power of those brands that have built equity after decades of consistent brand-building activities. "Diet Rite," for example, no matter how descriptive and colorful, cant approach the equity in "Diet Coke," a heritage built on a billion dollars of investment ad spending.

In any brand asset audit, we give a lot of weight to the use (and occasional misuse) of a name. Investigating the practical limits of line extensions, for example, forces us to distinguish between those new product efforts that re-invest brand equity and those that dilute it.

In box #1 on your scorecard, give your brand anywhere from 0 to 5 points for the salesmanship built into the meaning of the name plus anywhere from 0 to 10 points for top-of-mind awareness, a fair measure of the value of the brands history of investment.

2. Packaging

Its the ultimate final dialogue with the consumer. It must call attention to itself, set the product apart from the category and other products in its own line. We dont know why packaging is so often regarded as separate from the selling process, a stepchild in the marketing family. Thinking of packaging and P.O.P. as brand assets to be invested in, and deployed like other managed assets, helps to focus on how important they are to the final sale. A family of packages can reassure consumers by projecting a persuasive brand personality and value-added consistency. At their most effective, packages can jump off the shelf and close the sale.

On your scorecard, give your brand from 0 to 10 points for packaging and P.O.P. strengths. If youve got a strong retail presence compared to your competitors, but one that cant be compared with the best of the best, dont give yourself more than 5.

3. Reach and frequency

When most people think of advertising effectiveness, they tend to think in terms of an ad budget. So a few people are deluded into believing "If we spend twice as much on our advertising, we will get twice the results." (Not you, of course, and not me. Some other guys. But trust me, theyre out there.) It was never true, and its getting even less true every year.

In an age where niche markets are proliferating and mass markets are mostly myth, it is very helpful to think of reach, frequency, and ad content as related but separate assets in your portfolio.

Reach has become more important than frequency, with so many new marketing tools to target "rifle-shot" segments. These have created efficient new ways to get to specific consumer affinity groups and psychographic slices of the almost-extinct mass audience. (Remember when there were general-interest magazines?)

Frequency is still basically deploying money against markets, boxcar numbers flexing budgetary muscle. Market segmentation strategies can, however, deliver more leveraged results with equal frequency but (relatively) smaller budgets.

So, give yourself 0 to 10 points for smart segmenting plus 1 to 3 points for Share of Voice: media spending below (1), at (2), or above (3) the spending level of competitors.

4. Ad Content

The greatest leverage of advertising is in its Creativity. A great ad can be, and often is, 10 times as effective as a mediocre ad.

Its possible, for example, to cut a media budget by 25%, and know that youll lose roughly 25% of your effectiveness. But if you cut production costs, e.g., by 25% you cant know the possible impact. You might lose up to 90% of your effectiveness.

Were not just talking about throwing money around here. Its true that dazzling production values cant rescue a non-idea ("Its it. And thats that"). But its also true that looking like a local car dealer (or Radio Shack) can turn off an audiences receptors to even the strongest ideas.

If we think of media spending as an unleveraged investment, and ad content as highly leveraged, we will be less tempted to steal budget from the creative process to buy a few more spots in Lubbock.

Candidly, score 0 to 10 points for what your ads say, plus 0 to 10 for how memorably and unexpectedly they say it. Then multiply that total by the "Share of Voice" score you gave yourself, above. (This is the single biggest score youll get, because these assets are the biggest equity builders. It stands to reason: more leverage = more importance = more points.)

5. Promotion

Can promotions kill brand equity?

Yes.

Can promotions build brand equity?

Yes if one sees to it that the promotional activities enhance and reinforce the basic brand image. In other words, dont needlessly, blindly switch on Marketing Autopilot, drop millions of high-value coupons and call it a plan.

To put it bluntly, sometimes FSI stands for Failed to Search for Ideas.

Score 0 to 5 for a strategically sound promotion policy. Then subtract one point for every coupon promotion in the last 12 months. Range = -5 to +5.

6. Consistency

There are two kinds of consistency that are both important for brands: consistency from year to year and consistency across all communications vehicles.

If a brand changes its personality every few years, it runs the risk of having no image at all. (What does Canada Dry stand for, anyway? How is a Plymouth different from a Dodge?) The Marlboro Man, on the other (tattooed) hand, suffers from no such confusion.

A firm hand is usually needed two or three years into any brand-building campaign to keep the agents of change-for-the-sake-of-change on a short leash.

The second kind of inconsistency is ad, promotion, packaging and PR people who arent reading from the same sheet of music. They each pursue their own vision, losing the single focus that consumers demand, and that erodes brand equity.

Score 0 to 10 for across-the-disciplines consistency, and 0 to 5 for across-the-years consistency.

7. Distribution

In the conventional view, the single greatest problem for most consumer products brand holders is to get, hold, or expand retail shelf/floor space. And the conventional (that is, easiest) solution? Buy the distribution.

Pay the slotting fees, display allowances, baksheesh, and listing fees to get the shelf space then discount like crazy to keep your facings, running an avalanche of coupons and rebates and similar margin-reducing activities to keep the inventory turning, making the retailer (not to mention Advo) prosperous.

For many smart marketers, however, Pushing with trade deals and Pulling with coupons can be prohibitively unprofitable. And not altogether consistent with developing a brand. There are alternatives.

Score 0 to 6 for breadth of distribution (are you in all the geography you want?) plus 0 to 6 for the depth and cost of that distribution. (Are you overspending to maintain marginal regions? Channels? Markets? Customers?)

8. Newsworthiness

Being in tune with the times offers lots of opportunities for "unpaid advertising." Clearly defined, strategically oriented public relations can be a powerful tool.

Its an asset that can induce trial, enhance brand image, and build brand equity if it is consistent with other messages.

Give yourself 0 to 5 points for how well youve exploited this brand asset.

9. Likeability

Yes, it matters. And yes, its measurable. If your communications (and therefore your brand) are likable, then people will welcome your message. Its a fundamental truth: people buy from people (read Brands) they like. There are no rational purchases. None.

Give yourself up to 5 points for a refreshing brand "attitude."

10. Trade Support

Leverage over competitors is the best result of enthusiastic trade support. For many brand holders, of course, that leverage can be enormous: in some industries, trade support can be life or death. Remember: in todays environment, you can achieve your goals only by making your trade network believe that you are helping them achieve theirs. Every sales force worth its salt cultivates relationship sales.

Score 0 to 5 points for how your brand is supported (versus competitors) by the trade.

11. Sales Force

Youd think that your scores you recorded for Distribution would tell you all you need to know about your Sales Force. And, while thats usually true, any change in a selling organization brings a dynamic to established distribution. Adding reps, or changing sales management, or altering compensation programs any substantial change can weaken the strongest distribution or (conversely) pay big dividends.

Give yourself up to 10 points for the strength and discipline of your front-line troops.

12. User Profile

Certain user groups and market segments carry more significance and impact than others. Distinguish between high-index users and high-potential users, for example. People with developing (or changeable) brand images are highly important.

This translates in many cases into pursuit of the young, in hopes of securing a long-term predisposition toward a brand. If it works, when it works, the benefits can roll on for decades. Consider Honda. They pursued and nurtured a relationship with a whole generation of consumers and continued to fine-tune the product line to meet their changing needs.

On the other hand, narrow appeals mean narrowing markets. People who buy fur coats, Olds mobiles, and Ross Perot are dropping out faster than theyre being replaced. Its not irreversible: whole categories (like gourmet coffee) have been rejuvenated by young trendsetters.

Add 0 to 5 points to your score just for having enough good research to know your user intimately.

13. Product Performance

t almost goes without saying that product performance is a key factor in a buyers decision to repurchase. If the world were rational, the objective realities of product performance would generate trial, too.

The key factor in a consumers decision to try a product in the first place, however, is perceived product performance.

While its up to you to maximize actual product performance, many different components of brand image influence consumers perceptions of anticipated performance. Thats a shared responsibility of ads, promotions, packaging, P.O.P. everything that "talks" to consumers.

Score 0 to 5 for actual performance, 0 to 5 for consumer perceptions of performance.

14. Repurchasing

Frequency of use equals frequency of brand-affirming (or brand-switching) decisions. Thats a key equation, because it helps explain why loyalties grow stronger to Snickers bars than to oatmeal. It also helps you to know how many trials you have to induce to conquer competitive users.

You can never know too much about purchaser behavior: Do repurchase patterns change by time of day, time of year, retail environment, competitive pressure, or promotional activity? Can these behaviors be altered? What are your use-up rates? Do users take themselves out of the market for a considerable time with each purchase?

Too many marketers bask in the glow of so-called "Brand Loyalty," which has the unintended consequence of taking good customers for granted. Nobody should count on the continued (blind) loyalty of people who have chosen a brand in the past. Brand owners should be loyal to their customers, not the other way around. Consumers will buy and re-buy only those brands that continue to live up to their perceptions of added value.

How well have you planned and exploited ways to promote additional uses/occasions, which tend to increase the velocity of repurchase? Score 0 to 5.

15. Actionable Research

In an age of computerized data bases, and number-crunching machines of awesome speed, theres little or no problem with the quantity of information available to us. Indeed, we see a lot of Analysis Paralysis.

The key is how to turn digits into decisions. And the key to the key (to murder our metaphor) is to recognize and use actionable research.

Do the findings lead us to action, or just to filling up overhead projector acetates? Can we make the leap from raw tabs to real insight? Can we learn how to use our brand assets more creatively, more unexpectedly? If not, save the money.

The ongoing fascination with focus groups (and concurrent neglect of quantitative studies) has had unfortunate side effects. Some marketers suffer because they broke rule one: they tried to project quantitative results from qualitative research. We call it "But That Woman in Walla Walla Said" Syndrome. The absurd number of new product offerings is a monument to this kind of wishful thinking.

Hint: if your focus group moderator ever asks for a "show of hands," find another moderator.

One valuable function we offer as an agency is to question every clients old research (and assumptions and comfortable rituals), like alien visitors just arrived from another marketing planet.

If your research is aging (or missing), or its been a while since your corporate assumptions have been challenged, its time to restate all your questions and question all your answers.

Subtract 5 points for wasting money on useless research, score 0 points for no research, and give yourself up to 5 for actionable results that make you say "Aha."

16. Value

In a rational world, price would equal value. (Of course, in a rational world, thered be no civil wars, salad shooters, Madonna concerts, high-heel shoes, lawyers, clip-on ties, Pat Robertson, 3-card Monte, or fuzzy dice. But we digress.)

Price is just one element in the complex, non-rational perception tug-of-war within consumer buying decisions. Value equals perceived quality, divided by actual price.

Perceived quality, of course, is what you hope to establish with your other assets.

Pricing decisions, insofar as a brand holder can actually control (or even influence) them, have to be handled with much more skill and attention than simply throwing coupons or rebates at potential buyers.

Score 0 to 10 based on your pricing. If you can establish and maintain a value-added premium price versus competition, give yourself credit for being perceived as a value-added brand. Its a judgment call, of course. Sometimes it takes heroic measures just to maintain price parity. Whats your total score? (Out of a possible 200?)

Have you projected wishful thinking (or natural optimism) onto the numbers? Most people tend to be a bit on the over-optimistic side. Not that the objective total matters but now put someone else through this same exercise. Would your staff come up with the same numbers? Would your distributors? Sales force? Competitors? Consumers? Where are the most obvious disagreements? Where can you find consensus? Which assets are clearly performing up to their potential? Which need a little hand holding? Which is a drag on your brand equity? The fact is, every brand asset has to contribute to a value-added brand image to make the machinery work at peak efficiency. But prudent asset deployment calls for putting money, people, time and energy against the assets with the most leverage.

Fundamental Important Asset for Brand Manager

The fundamental asset underlying brand equity is customer equity. Customer equitythe value of the customer relationship that the brand create. A powerful brand represents profitable loyal customers.In deciding the value of a company, it is important to know of how much value its customer base is in terms of future revenues. The greater the customer equity (CE), the more future revenue in the lifetime of its clients; this means that a company with a higher customer equity can get more money from its customers on average than another company that is identical in all other characteristics. As a result a company with higher customer equity is more valuable than one without it. It includes customers' goodwill and extrapolates it over the lifetime of the customers.

There are three drivers to customer equity, all of which refer to three sides of the same thing:1. Value equity: What the customer assesses the value of the product or service provided by the company to be;

2. Brand equity: What the customer assesses the value of the brand is, above its objective value;

3. Retention equity: The tendency of the customer to stick with the brand even when it is priced higher than an otherwise equal product;

A product manager may help the company to gain more customers and increase revenues by improving customer equity by doing these:

improving consumer service

improving the value or desirability of the brand

improving goodwill

improving brand popularity such as by advertisements

The way to build a strong brand is to put customers and their needs at the centre of every decision the organization makes. Over time, customer-centric actions create differentiation in the marketplace and build emotional connections with customers. This differentiated bond, called brand equity, is a real and valuable asset with tangible returns in terms of customer loyalty, profitability, and insulation from negative publicity or competitive action.Brand Image

Brand image may be called the set of emotional & sensory inputs a consumer associates with a particular brand or service in the episodic memory system. Therefore Brand Image is defined as consumer perception of the brand and is measured as the brand associations held in consumer memory. Brand association is the information node linked to the brand node in the memory and contains meaning of the brand for the consumer. These associations are attributes, benefits & attitudes and may come in all forms and may reflect characteristics other product or aspects independent of the product itself. E.g. thinking Apple computers, what comes to mind, the associations of user friendly, creative, innovative & used at many places.

Another example, whenever Sally drinks her favourite beer, COORS, brand image floods her senses with senses of being on a hot beach drinking something refreshing.

The term "brand image" gained popularity as evidence began to grow that the feelings and images associated with a brand were powerful purchase influencers, though brand recognition, recall and brand identity. It is based on the proposition that consumers buy not only a product (commodity), but also the image associations of the product, such as power, wealth, sophistication, and most importantly identification and association with other users of the brand.

Good brand images are instantly evoked, are positive, and are almost always unique among competitive brands.

Brand image can be reinforced by brand communications such as packaging, advertising, promotion, customer service, word-of-mouth and other aspects of the brand experience.

Brand images are usually evoked by asking consumers the first words/images that come to their mind when a certain brand is mentioned (sometimes called "top of mind"). When responses are highly variable, non-forthcoming, or refer to non-image attributes such as cost, it is an indicator of a weak brand image.

Distinguishing Corporate Identity, Brand Identity & Brand Image

It is important to distinguish between corporate identity, brand identity, and brand image. Corporate identity is concerned with the visual aspects of a company's presence. When companies undertake corporate identity exercises, they are usually modernizing their visual image in terms of logo, design, and collaterals. Such efforts do not normally entail a change in brand values so that the heart of the brand remains the same - what it stands for, or its personality. Unfortunately, many companies do not realize this fallacy, as they are sometimes led to believe by agencies and consultancy companies that the visual changes will change the brand image. But changes to logos, signage, and even outlet design do not always change consumer perceptions of quality, service, and the intangible associations that come to the fore when the brand name is seen or heard.

The best that such changes can do is to reassure consumers that the company is concerned about how it looks. Brands do have to maintain a modern look, and the visual identity needs to change over time. But the key to successfully effecting a new look is evolution, not revolution. Totally changing the brand visuals can give rise to consumer concerns about changes of ownership, or possible changes in brand values, or even unjustified extravagance. If there is a strong brand personality to which consumers are attracted, then substantial changes may destroy emotional attachments to the brand. People do not expect or like wild swings in the personality behaviours of other people, and they are just as concerned when the brands to which they have grown used exhibit similar "schizophrenic" changes.

On the other hand, if the intention is to substantially improve the standing of the brand, then corporate identity changes can be accompanied by widespread changes to organizational culture, quality, and service standards. If done well, and if consumers experience a great new or improved experience, then the changes will, over the longer term, have a corresponding positive effect on brand image. If you are spending a vast amount of money on corporate identity, it is as well to remember this.

Brand identity is the total proposition that a company makes to consumers - the promise it makes. It may consist of features and attributes, benefits, performance, quality, service support, and the values that the brand possesses. The brand can be viewed as a product, a personality, a set of values, and a position it occupies in people's minds. Brand identity is everything the company wants the brand to be seen as.

Brand image, on the other hand, is the totality of consumer perceptions about the brand, or how they see it, which may not coincide with the brand identity. Companies have to work hard on the consumer experience to make sure that what customers see and think is what they want them to.

Brand IdentityBrand Image

1Brand identity develops from the source or the company.Brand image is perceived by the receiver or the consumer.

2Brand message is tied together in terms of brand identity.Brand message is untied by the consumer in the form of brand image.

3The general meaning of brand identity is who you really are?The general meaning of brand image is How market perceives you?

4Its nature is that it is substance oriented or strategic.Its nature is that it is appearance oriented or tactical.

5Brand identity symbolizes firms reality.Brand image symbolizes perception of consumers

6Brand identity represents your desire.Brand image represents others view

7It is enduring.It is superficial.

8Identity is looking ahead.Image is looking back.

9Identity is active.Image is passive.

10It signifies where you want to be.It signifies what you have got.

11It is total promise that a company makes to consumers.It is total consumers perception about the brand.

Focus on shaping your brand identity, brand image will follow.

Frequency MarketingFrequency marketing (Frequency marketing programme). Any marketing plan designed to reward customers who buy on a regular basis or to encourage customers to do so, as in a frequent flyer programme. E.g. PIA Frequent Flyers Programme (Discounted tickets, free miles travel), Credit Cards (Rewards Points) etc.Frequency Marketing is a term that relates to marketing programs that aim to maintain or increase the frequency of visits, purchases, orders etc. of customers in order to maximise their profit contribution over-time. Such programmes, more often termed as loyalty programmes recognise and reward customers based on purchasing behaviour.

A frequency marketing programme is a means to an end; it is the means in which companies are able to identify its best customers and once identified, enables companies to recognize and reward those customers in order to keep them loyal. A frequency marketing programme also enables companies to identify potential best customers and market to them. Customer recognition and reward then come into play accordingly.

Frequency marketing programmes need to be innovative and motivating enough for customers to want to join while volunteering information about themselves, such as name and address, therefore enabling companies to identify and communicate with selected customers. The most basic identifying information could simply be a name and an accompanying email address. Rich information, provided on an application for a loyalty card for instance, will give an address, an age demographic, previous purchase information and a whole range of other specific information, such as consumption of media, frequency of holidays, even income bracket.

Every time a frequency marketing (or loyalty) card is used, this identifies the customer, and links relevant transactions to their record. Companies then analyse this data and turn it into knowledge (either on a non-aggregate or aggregate level) and use this accumulated insight to reward customers with the objective of retaining or growing their profit contribution. Just imagine the benefits of Loyalty Programme... 1 your sales will increase

2 your customer retention level will increase

3 your knowledge level goes up, so you talk with your customers as individuals, as people

4 your awareness levels increase

5 you target your message to the right people at the right time

6 you earn an increased level of loyalty

7 you are able to measure your successes

8 you spend less / you earn more -- your profits increase.

Brand loyalty Brand loyalty, in marketing, consists of a consumer's commitment to repurchase or otherwise continue using the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service or other positive behaviors such as word of mouth advocacy.Dick, Alan SBrand loyalty can be defined as relative possibility of customer shifting to another brand in case there is a change in products features, price or quality. As brand loyalty increases, customers will respond less to competitive moves and actions. Brand loyal customers remain committed to the brand, are willing to pay higher price for that brand, and will promote their brand always. A company having brand loyal customers will have greater sales, less marketing and advertising costs, and best pricing. This is because the brand loyal customers are less reluctant to shift to other brands, respond less to price changes and self- promote the brand as they perceive that their brand have unique value which is not provided by other competitive brands.

Brand loyalty is always developed post purchase. To develop brand loyalty, an organization should know their niche market, target them, support their product, ensure easy access of their product, provide customer satisfaction, bring constant innovation in their product and offer schemes on their product so as to ensure that customers repeatedly purchase the product. E.g. Google tops the brand loyalty. Google is always coming up with add-ons that are cool. Talk about eye tracking studies, youre always straight at Google because Innovation, Creativity and consumer-comes-first attitude, attritubetes help Google retain the top PositionCustomer loyalty The loyalty business model is a business model used in strategic management in which company resources are employed so as to increase the loyalty of customers and other stakeholders in the expectation that corporate objectives will be met or surpassed. Customer loyalty is a company's ability to retain satisfied customers. Maintaining customer loyalty is one of the toughest challenges for any marketing department in a business enterprise, since the wants of a customer are modified at much faster rate than their needs. It requires a business enterprise to follow a pro-active approach that includes formulating strategies for brand consolidation, researching and continuing with new product development, following TQM (Total Quality Management), implementing CRM systems, and also, working out Pipeline Management tactics. E.g. TCS builds Customers loyalty through friendly behaviour & on time speedy service & guarantees quality shipment handling of documents & goods etc.Here are ten ways to build customer loyalty:

1. Communicate. Whether it is an email newsletter, monthly flier, a reminder card for a tune up, or a holiday greeting card, reach out to your steady customers.

2. Customer Service. Go the extra distance and meet customer needs. Train the staff to do the same. Customers remember being treated well.

3. Employee Loyalty. Loyalty works from the top down. If you are loyal to your employees, they will feel positively about their jobs and pass that loyalty along to your customers.

4. Employee Training. Train employees in the manner that you want them to interact with customers. Empower employees to make decisions that benefit the customer.

5. Customer Incentives. Give customers a reason to return to your business. For instance, because children outgrow shoes quickly, the owner of a childrens shoe store might offer a card that makes the tenth pair of shoes half price. Likewise, a dentist may give a free cleaning to anyone who has seen him regularly for five years.

6. Product Awareness. Know what your steady patrons purchase and keep these items in stock. Add other products and/or services that accompany or compliment the products that your regular customers buy regularly. And make sure that your staff understands everything they can about your products.

7. Reliability. If you say a purchase will arrive on Wednesday, deliver it on Wednesday. Be reliable. If something goes wrong, let customers know immediately and compensate them for their inconvenience.

8. Be Flexible. Try to solve customer problems or complaints to the best of your ability. Excuses such as "That's our policy" will lose more customers then setting the store on fire. Read our 60-Second Guide to Managing Upset Customers for more information.

9. People over Technology. The harder it is for a customer to speak to a human being when he or she has a problem, the less likely it is that you will see that customer again.

10. Know Their Names. Remember the theme song to the television show Cheers? Get to know the names of regular customers or at least recognize their faces.

Businesses appreciate every sale but a sale made to a repeat customer is a virtual seal of approval Customer loyalty keeps businesses running and is very sought after

Businesses appreciate every sale but a sale made to a repeat customer is a virtual seal of approval. Customer loyalty keeps businesses running and is very sought after. What is it, however, that gains and maintains customer loyalty? Basically it is making and keeping the customer happy, (customer satisfaction). There are many ways you can achieve this and the more ways you incorporate into your business practices, the more likely you are to get and keep customer loyalty.

- Provide a good product or service: This seems like a no brainer but make sure you are well representing what you are providing.

- Always give the customer more than they were expecting. This doesnt mean losing money. It just means people like to be pleasantly surprised and when they are, they tend to do business there again. - Deliver what you promise. Make sure your policies are posted where customers see them can - Try to handle disputes amicably. This isnt always possible but makes a good faith effort. You may just turn an unhappy customer into a repeat customer.

- Offer a unique twist to your website and your business. Make your business stand out from the rest

- Follow up on a sale. This doesnt mean necessarily trying to get another sale but acknowledge the customer and they will more than likely want to shop with you again.

Customers like a personal touch and yet appreciate good business practices. Displaying the right amount of both could make the difference in securing and retaining a customers loyalty. If they are happy with the product (or service) and happy with the way they were treated, chances are they will continue to buy from you.

Never take any customer for granted. People can be fickle and there is fierce competition for every dollar spent by a customer. If your business stands out for any reason in a positive way, the customer is more likely to continue to buy from you. It only takes one negative experience to lose a customer, however, so try to keep the customer happy. The customer may not always be right, but they are your bread and butter.

People like knowing what they are getting. They also like getting what they feel is more than what they paid for. Any little extras you add are a plus. This can mean something as simple as a? Thank You? Sticker on the package or a personalized card inside. If you arent willing to show appreciation to your customer, someone else will. Once you get customer loyalty, you can continue to sustain it by offering frequent shopping rewards or something similar. Customer appreciation coupons are another good way to keep customers coming back.

Every effort you make toward providing a pleasant shopping experience helps to get and keep customers happy. If a customer is happy and satisfied with a product and customer service, chances are they will be back to shop with you again.Gathering customer information and enhancing loyalty

Encouraging Loyalty Loyalty Cards Marketers world over, have long realized the importance of repeat business and have devised innovative ways to retain customers. One such method is by way of the loyalty programs.

Customer loyalty to a retailer can be defined as existing when a customer chooses to shop in only on store or retail chain for specific product or group of products.

One of most popular loyalty programs of all times was the Airline Frequent Flyer program designed by airlines in the seventies. Given the popularity of airline programs other businesses like hotels, restaurants and supermarkets too devised similar loyalty programs to attract and retain customers. In the more developed markets of the word, these cards are looked upon as tools of gathering consumer information and encouraging the patronage of a store.

There is another major attraction for business to encourage loyalty programs: sophisticated data mining techniques are available to help companies study buying patterns, customer preferences and trends. This is a really useful tool for businesses trying to forecast demand and for managing inventory and supply chains.

Large retailers spend millions on tools and technologies to gather more information about their customers. This information s then used to design, develop and package products and solutions tailored to the customers needs. For example supermarkets have discovered that people generally buy milk, eggs and cheese together. Therefore they generally stock cartons of eggs and sampling of new cheese products near the aisles where they stock milk. This way, customers who go to pick up milk are subconsciously encouraged to also buy eggs and try out newer kinds of cheese, thus increasing sales for the supermarket too. Data warehouses help in studying customer patterns, buying trends and behaviours and provide a tremendous amount of information to marketing managers and planners.

In categories where products and services are at par, customer relationships and therefore loyalty programs play the role of differentiation. The blend of recognition and rewards offered through a loyalty program can encourage customers to be identified. Once they have joined an identification number allows all customers to be recognized regardless of their preferred method of payment.

When customers opt in to a permission based loyalty program, they are more willing to share information and enable the retailer to create dialogue with his customers. In this manner, the retailer can learn a lot more than the bits and pieces of information available from transactional data.

The best way to coordinate marketing objectives across channels is to build a knowledge base of customer behaviours ad preferences. A well conceived and executed loyalty program can be the key to turning invisible shoppers into profitable customers. A good customer loyalty program needs to possess the following characteristics.

Visibility:

A loyalty program must be highly visible regardless of the channel. The retailers website can show special offers for program members a catalogue can feature the program prominently and shoppers in the store should be asked if theyd like to join. Cross promotional materials should be present and easily obtainable.

Simplicity

To succeed a loyalty program must be easy to use in all. Minimize the fine print the more the customers have to figure out, the less they like the program.

Value

The balance of reward and recognition must establish value in the customers mind and motivate incremental purchases. Program rewards should be credited regardless of where the customer prefers to shop.

Trust

Keep the promises made by the loyalty program. If the promise is for personalized highly valued service, dont bombard program participants with meaningless offers that obviously are available to everyone.Retaining customers Keeping customers coming back for more isn't always easy. Here are ten top tips on how to retain a loyal consumer base.1. Go the extra mileOffering something extra is often a good alternative to cutting prices, and it can generate more goodwill, even if it costs you very little. London-based marketing agency Exposure has offices just off Oxford Circus, close to the capitals main shopping district. It has made use of its own window space to create temporary pop-up shops for brands such as Vitamin Water and Kings Mill bread. For us, this was a fairly unique offer that we could tag on to our core marketing programme, says CEO Tim Bourne. It was a complete differentiator from other agencies simply because other agencies couldnt do it.

2. Boost staff motivationWhen customer-facing staff becomes demotivated, contracts are lost. Charlie Mowat, MD of The Clean Space Partnership says this is a particular problem in the cleaning industry, which tends to pay low wages and offer scant opportunities for training and development. His solution is to turn employees into franchisees, offering them a cleaning contract in return for a fee (usually around 1,000 to 2,000), which they repay gradually out of their earnings. Mowat claims the cleaners hourly wages are around double the industry norm, adding that the franchise model gives workers an increased sense of ownership and self-worth. The attitude of our franchisees is the key to our growth, says Mowat. Weve gone from scratch to 2 million turnover in six years and I put that down to the people on the ground keeping our clients happy.

3. Keep it fresh but familiarMooning, which sells customizable greetings cards through its website, relies on the continual development of its product to keep repeat business high. Says founder and Chairman Nick Jenkins, We are constantly looking for innovations so that when customers come back there is always something new there. Weve introduced the ability to upload photos and new ways to write text on the card, for example writing in clouds or on sand. But product innovation is only half the story. You also have to figure out what works and make it easy for people to locate it. Theres a balance to strike. Some cards are perennial bestsellers so its a case of offering the best of what was there before and something fresh, says Jenkins, who has overseen turnover growth of 165 per cent to 20.9 million and a similar sprint in pre-tax profits to 6.7 million for the 2008/09 financial year.

4. Invite complaintsIf our customers have an experience that doesnt feel right, I want them to tell us about it so that we can resolve it, says Derek Buchanan, CEO of signage and labeling specialist Episys. The concept is simple enough, but the problem is always getting people to complain before they take their business elsewhere. Buchanans solution is what he calls the Ever Been Disappointed campaign. He sends out packs with happy and sad cards and pre-paid envelopes so that its quick and easy for clients to offer feedback. If the problem is particularly serious, hell even get on the phone himself. I dont want my staff to be scared of making mistakes the important thing is that when the customer tells you about the mistake, you respond, he explains.

5. Remind customers that youre thereClaire Watt-Smith founded Bo belle, a supplier of eel skin handbags and accessories, in 2007 and quickly expanded from selling on market stalls to wholesaling. Shes a firm believer in frequent communication with customers, sending out newsletters, personalized emails and thank you cards both to individual buyers and the boutiques that stock her goods. If someone has bought a leather handbag, Ill send them an email or make a courtesy call reminding them to spray leather protector on it, says Watt-Smith, adding that with the boutiques, Its important to listen to them to find out what colours and styles are selling well, so you can tailor the next order to their wishes.

6. Maintain a human touch Now that customer service is a discrete business function, often with its own dedicated team, theres a danger of it becoming over-automated or isolated from the rest of the business. Travel agent Cruise118 has taken steps to prevent this, installing an IT system that recognizes callers phone numbers and puts them through to the same salesperson, or customer concierge as they prefer to call the role, each time even after theyve returned from their holiday. Too often, after [travel companies] have made a sale the customer gets palmed off to the administration or customer service team, says director James Cole. The personal touch is paying off, with Cruise118 generating sales of roughly 10 million in its first year of business.

7. Lock in clients for longerWhether youre selling to consumers or businesses, it pays to structure the deal to encourage customer retention. Moon pig offers users 5 extra credit when they prepay 20 and Cruise118 greets returning holidaymakers with incentives for booking their next break within 28 days, while Episys has moved from working on a project basis to signing up clients to three- or five-year contracts. Buchanan has one word of warning. [Longer] contracts are important but you will not get people to sign up to them unless they feel comfortable with your service, he counsels.

8. Monitor feedbackThe internet makes it easier to find out what your customers think about you. Charles Tyrwhitt, a retailer of mens shirts, has signed up to a service that allows users to leave feedback on a third-party website. The idea is that all responses are displayed, both good and bad, giving internet users confidence in the information. Its also easy to isolate and deal with critical comments. Founder Nick Wheeler says the service has increased conversion rates by a factor of three and boosted repeat orders fivefold. An even simpler way of collecting feedback is through net promoter scores (NPS). Popular in the US with companies such as General Electric and American Express, the NPS metric is based on asking customers how likely they are to recommend you on a scale of zero to ten. Dominic Monk house, UK MD of IT services company Peer 1, which uses the system, says, Its always the nines and tens that stay around and spend more money. We find that managing out the fours and fives actually improves our customer retention in the long term. The unhappy customer is typically heavy work, and often has a misunderstanding of the service you provide.

9. Offer good after-sales supportStephen Clarke, MD of phone-based notification service Truancy Call, says the company provides clients with phone, email and online support. For him, having a customer relationship management (CRM) system in place has been vital to make this effective: When a company makes an after-sale call without the support of a CRM system, they lack knowledge about the history of the customer, which could be crucial to maintaining good relations and retaining their business. After-sales support is not only important for these reasons it also provides opportunities for cross-selling and collecting feedback on how products could be improved, observes Clarke.

10. Be your own competitorYour customers will often want to try something new but theres no reason why you cant be the one to offer it. Cruise118 has only been trading for 12 months, but has already launched three sub-brands: SailFromUK.com, AlaskaOnly.com and SixStarCruises.com. The idea is to capitalize on niches of the cruise market, and encourage customers who have been on one cruise with the company to book again under a different brand. When customers request information about SixStarCruises, for example, well send them a letter with the SixStarCruises letterhead but introduce them to the Cruise118 group, mentioning the other brands as well, says Cole. Whichever brand they book under, there is the same ethos in terms of customer service.

Product Strategy

The product strategy should give a detailed description of what your product(s) are and how they are going to benefit your company. You describe which products you think will be most popular and describe which ones you want to be the most popular (The BCG Dot Matrix is very good in helping you determine this). If you are doing an individual product marketing plan, then this section would describe in detail what your product is and what strategies you have to make it beat out your competitors.

One-to-one marketing

One-to-one marketing refers to marketing strategies applied directly to a specific consumer. Having the knowledge on the consumer preferences, there are suggested personalized products and promotions to each consumer. The one-to-one marketing is based in four main steps in order to fulfill its goals: Those stages are IDENTIFY; DIFFERENTIATE; INTERACT and CUSTOMIZE.

Identify: In this stage the major concern is to get to know the customers, to collect reliable data about their preferences and how their needs can be satisfy.

Differentiate: To get to distinguish the customers in terms of their lifetime value, to know them by their priority in terms of their needs and segment them in more restrict groups.

Interact: In this phase it is needed to know by which communication channel an in which way it is possible to optimize the contact with the client. It is needed to get the customer attention by engaging with him in ways that are known has being the ones that he enjoys the most.

Customize: It is needed to personalize the product or service to the customer individually. The knowledge that a company has of a customers need to be taken into practice and the information about it has to be taken into account in order to be able to give the client exactly what he wants.

Examples of companies that have these techniques in order to persuade the clients:

Dell Computers

Smart Cars

Amazon.com;

Avon

Nike

Riz-carlton Hotels

What is One-to-One Marketing?

It is an approach that concentrates on providing services or products to one customer at a time by identifying and then meeting their individual needs. It then aims to repeat this many times with each customer, such that powerful lifelong relationships are forged. As such it differentiates customers rather than just products.

One to One Marketing is more than a sales approach. It's an integrated approach that must permeate all parts of an organization: marketing, sales, production, service, finance, etc.. In fact, One to One Marketing needs to come to the guiding vision that drives the whole company. One to One Marketing recognizes that lifetime values of loyal customers who make repeat purchases far exceed that of fickle customers who constantly switch suppliers in search of a bargain. This is particularly true within financial services where the customer acquisition costs are very high.

Whilst at first the concept appears to be only suitable for a niche market of rich clients, modern information technology, particularly the new interactive mediums, provide an opportunity to bring personalized and customized products to the mass market yet at a mass produced price. This is called Mass Customization. However, it does require new thinking that breaks away from the traditional concepts of mass marketing and mass production. The concept of One to One Marketing is attributed most to Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. E.g. Banks, Doctors, Teachers, Lawyers, Pharmaceuticals etc are using one-one marketing approach for their customers in selling of goods & services. Benefits of One-to-One Marketing

Higher Profits

One to One Marketing delivers economies of scope. Not economies of scale.

It initially concentrates on those 20% or even 10% of customers who are your most profitable.

By providing tailored products to meet particular needs, you make comparative shopping difficult and you shift the focus from price to benefits.

It aims for lifetime share of customer, not a share in an often static and crowded market.

By developing Mass Customization capabilities, you can then extend the service to more customers. You then gain an ever increasing market share without the need to match the lowest price mass market supplier.

Lower Costs

The cost of keeping profitable customers far outweighs the acquisition cost of new customers.

With an intimate knowledge of individual customers, products and services can be more accurately targeted (right specification at the right time in the right way). Market Exploitation

It differentiates your company from the competition. Through collaborative working, customers tell you about their unmet needs and aspirations as well as their most pressing problems. You feed those needs directly into NPD. And by using Mass Customization technology, you can actually feed those needs directly into your production line.

Customers, with whom you have a depth of relation, provide a rich source of new ideas that can also be exploited with other customers or with new prospects. As a result, NPD has lower risk of failure and a higher chance of beating the competition.

Last but not the least, Satisfied and loyal customers provide excellent references and referrals. Why Ads?

One-to-One Marketing: The Implications Promotion

One to One promotion needs to highlight individual possibilities and unique benefits. Timeliness of delivery is important.

Design

Customer needs will be better met where products and services can be personalized and customized easily.

Your marketing department needs to take a component based approach and create identifiable basic building blocks.

Rules will define the possible combinations and limits. Such rules will usually be held in a rules repository, along with the other business that define policies, processes, etc..

Processes and IT systems will need to support this Lego like approach, not only in product development, but through marketing, sales, and servicing.

Production

Production systems needs to assemble the basic blocks according to the rules.

This may be down by your sales staff, agents, distributors or your customers themselves (Mass Customization). Servicing Profiles of individual customer products as well as profiles of the individual customers, need to be available to support staff throughout the life of the customer.

Feedback

Feedback during the any part of the marketing, purchase or support cycles needs to be encouraged and captured.

Such data needs to be analyzed, communicated, and acted on in a timely fashion, perhaps within minutes.

Information provided by customers must be used sensitively and be kept secure.

Organization

All staff will be need to be well trained and motivated to meet individual needs. The management style and organizational culture may well need changing.

Staff need to be supported with good IT.

Information Technology

A shared customer information system, data mining tools, interactive technologies, and flexible component based systems, object technology systems, and rules based systems are key. Why Ads?

One-to-One Marketing: Why is this now an issue? End of a mass production era (supply)

The post war period was a time of economic growth when customers would clamor for whatever goods were available. To-day, mass production has in many cases produced an over supply of very similar goods and, in particular, services. And in a global information based society, ideas can easily be replicated by competitors; price wars are common and deadly.

Individualism (demand)

Peoples lives today are more turbulent and diversified. The "one size fits all" model is out-of-date. Individuals now want to be seen and treated as individuals and many are to pay for this. They are better educated and informed; able and willing to make their own decisions.

Competition (demand)

All companies are promoting value for money, quality, durability, etc.. It is difficult to differentiate products. To make matters worse, in many industries there is a variety of new entrants, for example, Virgin, Tosco and Sainsbury into financial services. Flexible and virtual companies can out-pace and out-smart established leaders.

Profitability (demand) In many businesses, 20% of the customers provide 80% of the profits. Gaining new customers is expensive. Forging close lifetime relationships with existing customers can produce superior profits.

Technological progress (supply)

The Internet provides a new delivery vehicle whereby the ordinary customer can easily provide feedback either consciously or sub-consciously. In many instances customers are now participating in the product design to create their own unique custom products or services. Gateway and Dell in personal computers, Acumen Corp. in vitamin pills, and Chubb & Sons and USAA in insurance. All these interactions can be captured into customer databases. Database mining then allows individual profiles to be compiled and then analyzed for new market opportunities to specific customers, both current and new. Managing Change is building a Strategic Interactive Marketing framework and a complementary database of example companies.

Measuring Outcomes of Brand Equity

There are two types of method employed to measure brand equity at source. These two methods are qualitative research methods and quantitative research methods. Qualitative research methods are ideal for measuring brand association where in consumer perceptions towards brand are captured.

Quantitative research methods are perfect to understand brand awareness within consumer.

Both above mention methods are only able to capture and measure one dimension of brand equity at a time. But brand equity is multi-dimensional and therefore it is important to measure each as it will help in taking tactical as well as strategically important decision.

Comparative methods and holistic methods are designed to directly analyze brand equity. Comparative methods tend to analyze effects of consumer perception towards brand in respect to marketing programs, in terms of change in brand awareness. Holistic methods are designed to analyze the total effect of brand equity. These methods will provide necessary tools to measure outcome of brand equity. Consumer bases brand equity will lead to loyal customer base, point of differentiation against competitors get better margins, more acceptances of marketing communication, strong standing in distribution channel and also support any form of brand extension.

Comparative methods are research methods which measure brand equity associated with brand association and high level of brand awareness. Comparative methods are again of different types depending on usage of marketing. Brand based comparative methods looks to measure consumer response against same marketing program for different brands. Marketing based comparative method looks to measure consumer response for same brand under different marketing program. Conjoint comparative method looks to combine both brand based comparative method and marketing based comparative method. Each method has its application and drawbacks.

Brand based comparative method, as mentioned, tries to examine consumers response to identical marketing response to different brand in the same product category. This could be competitors brand, any non-existing brand or preferred brand in that category. A classic example of such comparative method is experiment conducted by Larry Percy; in which consumer were ask to map beer taste and preference. In one first instance brand name were disclosed whereas on second instance brand name was not disclosed. Consumer showed more loyalty when brand name was disclosed. Brand based method really isolated true value of brand name and this concept especially holds true when there is a change in marketing program from past efforts.

Marketing based method tries to understand consumer response under different marketing promotions. Here focus is to understand how much influence marketing program has on brand performance. One such experiment would be to understand consumer response at different price levels; this will reveal level of tolerance before consumer switch to another brand. Marketing based method would also be effective in understanding consumer response to similar marketing program across various geographical locations. The main advantage of marketing based method is that it can be applicable to any marketing program. However drawback of this method is that it is difficult to separate whether consumer preference is towards the brand or product category in general, meaning the price premium discovered may applicable to other brand in similar product category also.

Conjoint method allows simultaneously study of brand as well as marketing program. This method also employs statistical calculation making it possible to study many attributes or association at one time. Disadvantage of this method is that too much experimentation will may increase consumer expectation with respect to the brand.

Holistic method is used to determine financial value or definite utility value of the brand. Holistic method looks to measure consumer brand preference over consumer brand response. Residual holistic approach measures brand equity after subtracting physical attributes of the brand. Valuation holistic approach looks to measure brand equity in financial term which is important during valuation of whole firm in activities of merger/acquisition, fund raising etc.

Comparative method and Holistic method are employed to measure benefit of consumer based brand equity. Comparative method measures consumer response where as holistic method measure consumer brand consumer preference. These methods are relevant to calculate return of investment for marketing activities.

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