What is Brand?

A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization.

• A brand defines the relationship customers have with us.

• A brand is a promise we make to our customers
and to ourselves.
• A brand is shaped by each experience customers have with the firm.

A brand differentiates the product from similar offerings.

Traditional view:
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.

Recent views:
• Brand is what is experienced and valued by customers in everyday social life.
• Brand is the culture of the product- shared, taken-for granted brand stories,
images and associations.
• Brand is the emotional file we have for a product or a service or entity.
• A brand is a seller’s promise to deliver consistently a specific set of features,
benefits and services to buyers.
• For customer brand is an experience

Role of Brand:

• Signify quality
• Create barriers to entry
• Serve as a competitive advantage
 • Secure price premium

How Brand works?

Level-1:

Identification-Brand name and logo ensure the product can be recognized and
distinguished from the competition.
Level-2:

Security- You get what you expect.

Level-3:

Added value- individual “laddered” benefits.

Level-4:

Transformation-the brand actually invokes change in the consumer.

Brand:
A brand is a mixture of attributes, tangible and intangible, symbolized in a trademark,
which, if managed properly, creates value and influence.

Branding:
The purpose of branding is to transform a product. Transforming a commodity like
product into customer satisfying value added propositions is the essence of branding.

BRANDING IS A:

A physical product is combined with something else- symbols, images and feelings to
produce an idea or concept. The two grow with and live on one another in a mutually
enhancing partnership.

Branding is “emotional product development”.

 Two routes of brand building:

1. from product advantage- intangible values

2. from values-products

Promotion:
Promotion is the vehicle that allows us to access the consumer’s mind, to create a
perceptual inventory of imagery, symbols and feelings that come to define the
perceptual entity “we call a Brand.”

The Brand and Value

The brand is a focal point for all the positive and negative impressions created by the
buyer over time as he comes into contact with the brand’s products, distribution channel,
personnel and communication...

The value of a brand comes from its ability to gain an exclusive, positive and prominent
meaning in the minds of a large number of consumers”

What is brand equity?

 The differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the
marketing of that brand.

 The unique “brain space” that your brand occupies in the minds of your customers.

Brand equity is defined in terms of the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the
brand.
 Sources of Brand Equity

Brand Non-Product-Related
Brand Non-Product-Related
Recognition (e.g., Price, Packaging,
Recognition (e.g.,
UserPrice,
and Packaging,
Usage
User and Usage
Imagery)
Brand Imagery)
Awaren
ess
Brand Attributes
Brand Attributes
Recall Product-Related
Recall Product-Related
(e.g., color, size,
Brand (e.g., color,
design size,
features)
Knowle design features)
dge
Types of
Types of Benefits
Brand Associations Benefits Functional
Brand Associations Functional
Brand
Image Symbolic
Favorability, Symbolic
Favorability, Overall
Strength, and Overall
Strength, and Evaluation Experiential
Uniqueness of Evaluation Experiential
Uniqueness of (Attitude)
Brand Association (Attitude)
Brand Association

Brand image:

A strong brand Image is created by marketing programs that link strong favorable and
unique associations to the brand in the memory.

Brand image reflects the linking of strong, favorable and unique associations to the brand
in memory.

Four steps in building brand equity:

1. Who are you?

2. What are you?
3. What about you? What do I think or feel about you?
4. What about you and me?
 KELLER’S BRAND RESONANCE PYRAMID

4.
4. RELATIONSHIPS
RELATIONSHIPS == INTENSE,
INTENSE,
What
What about
about you
you &
& me?
me? RESONANCE ACTIVE
ACTIVELOYALTY
LOYALTY

POSITIVE,
POSITIVE,
3.
3. RESPONSE
RESPONSE == ACCESSIBLE
ACCESSIBLE
What
Whatabout
aboutyou?
you? JUDGMENTS FEELINGS REACTIONS
REACTIONS

STRONG, FAVORABLE
POINTS-OF-PARITY
2.
2. MEANING
MEANING== & UNIQUE BRAND
What
What are
areyou?
you? PERFORMANCE IMAGERY & DIFFERENCE
ASSOCIATIONS

DEEP,
DEEP, BROAD
BROAD
1.
1. IDENTITY
IDENTITY ==
SALIENCE BRAND
BRAND
Who
Who are
are you?
you? AWARENESS
AWARENESS

This pictorial jargon is also called as consumer-based brand equity pyramid(CBBEP)

Brand imagery:

It is how people think about a brand abstractly, rather than what they think the brand
actually does. It is more a kind of intangible stuff.

Q. What is the most valuable brand dimension in the CBBE Model?

Ans. Brand resonance

Q. When does brand resonance happen?

Ans. When all other core brand values are “in sync” with respect to customer needs,
wants and demands.

Q. What does brand resonance reflect?

Ans. A completely harmonious relationship between the brand and the customer.

Ways to differentiate:

• Being first
• Leadership
• Heritage
• Preference

Brand Identity:

• Brand identity is a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist
aspires to create or maintain.
These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise
to customers from organizational members.

• A brand identity provides direction, purpose and meaning for the brand. It is
central to a brand’s strategic vision and the driver of one of the four principal
dimensions of brand equity: associations, which are the heart and soul of the
brand.
 Aspects of Brands:
BRAND IMAGE:

How the brand is now perceived

BRAND IDENTITY:

How strategists want the brand to be perceived

BRAND POSITION:
The part of the brand identity and value proposition to be actively
Communicated to a target audience.

Brand identity and Brand equity

Brand Brand Brand

Identity Associations Equity

Brand Identity System

Brand Identity

Brand as Brand as Brand as Brand as

Product Organization Person Symbol

Value Proposition Credibility

Brand-Customer Relationship
The Kepferer brand identity prism
Six Facets of Brand Identity:

1. A brand has physical qualities or a ‘physique’

What does it do?
What does it look like?

2. A brand has its own personality

Spokesperson or figurehead role
What brand would be if it were a person

3. A brand has its own culture

Set of values feeding the brand’s inspiration
Country of origin

4. A brand has its own relationship

Exchanges between people and brand
Service sectors and retailers.

5. A brand is a reflection
Produces a reflection or image of the buyer or user.
Different from target the describes brand’s potential buyer or user.
Customer is reflected as s/he wishes to be seen from using the brand.
Consumers use brands to built their own identities.

6. A brand speaks to our self image

Self image is the target’s own internal mirror.
Attitude toward the brand fosters an inner relationship with self.

Brand positioning:
The idea that each brand if at all noticed occupies a particular point of space in the
individual customer’s mind.

A point which is determined by the consumer’s perception of the brand in question and in
relation to other brands. It is this concept of Perceptual space that forms the theoretical
basis for Brand Positioning

Positioning is what you do to the minds of the consumers.

Perceptual Mapping:

Techniques that use consumer perceptions to identify similarities and differences between
brands. Produces a visual representation of how the target market views competing
alternatives.

In order to position a brand you must decide

• Who the Target Consumer is

• Who your main competitors are
• How the Brand is similar to your competitors (POP)
• How the Brand is different from you competitors (POD)

Point of Parity: required to include your product as a member of

certain product category

• Point of Difference: properties which places your product distinctly in that

product category.
• Brand Position: how a brand is perceived by a target audience so that it is
distinguished from competition as being the best at satisfying a particular need.

Developing and communicating a positioning strategy

• Attribute positioning
• Benefit positioning
• Use or application positioning
• User positioning
• Competitor positioning
• Product category positioning
• Quality or price positioning

“Products increase the customer’s choices brand simplifies it.”

Generic format for positioning statements:

For (target market) our (brand) is the (concept) that (point of difference).
 Brand Elements:

Brand
URLs
names

Slogans Elements
Logos

Characters Symbols

Brand name:
Most of the time managers want the brand name to describe what the product does.

• Brands don’t describe the products

• Brands distinguish the products

The name must serve to add extra meaning to convey the spirit of the brand.
A brand is not a product. Therefore it should not describe what a product does but reveal
a difference. Its better to chose some abstract brand name and then develop a meaning of
its own.
 • Brand element choosing criteria: Memorable, meaningful, adaptable, appealing,
protectable, transferable etc

Brand Extension:

it involves using an existing brand name to launch a product in a different category.

Category extension:
parent brand is used to enter a different product category from that currently served by
the parent brand.

Line extension:
parent brand is used to brand a new product that targets a new market segment within a
product category currently served by the parent brand.

Advantages of brand extension:

• Reduce risk perceived by customers & distributors

• Decrease cost of gaining distribution & trial
• Increase efficiency of promotional expenditures
• Avoid cost (and risk) of developing new names
• Allow for packaging and labeling efficiencies
• Variety-seeking
 Disadvantages:

• Extensions have risks, too.

• --They can fail.
• Moreover, extensions can potentially result in the following costs:
• --Cannibalize sales of the parent brand
• --Hurt the image of the parent brand

• Forego the chance to develop a new brand name or market the parent brand
differently (opportunity cost)

Brand Sponsorship:

Manufacturer’s brands

• Also called national brands

Private brands

• Also called store or distributor brands

Licensed brands

• Most manufactures take years and millions to create brand name. however , some
companies license names or symbols previously created by other manufacturers.

Co-branding

The practice of using the estimated brands names of two different companies on same
product.
 Brand Development Strategies

Line extension:

Introduction of additional items in a given product category under the same

brand name (e.g., new flavors, forms, colors, ingredients , or package sizes).

Brand extension:

Using successful brand name to launch a new or modified product in a new

category.

Multi-branding:
offers a way to establish different features and appeal to different buying
motives.
New brands:
developed based on belief that the power of its existing brand is waning and
a new brand name is needed. Also used for products in new product
category.

Branding Strategy: Brand Architecture:

• Branding strategy: Leveraging the power of the brand name to cover the market
more effectively.

• Brand Architecture: How an organization structures and names the brands within
its portfolio.

Definition:

The organization and structure of the brand portfolio by specifying brand roles and the
nature of brand relationships between brands
and between different product-market contexts”.

Brand architecture

Corporate Mixed brand Brand dominant

dominant strategy strategy strategy

Dual brand Endorsed brand

strategy strategy

Brand Hierarchy: Definitions; in Keller, K. L (1998), Strategic Brand Management,

Chapter 11 Branding Strategies, pp. 428-431.

Building a strategic brand architecture:

 • The logical, strategic and relational structure for all of the brands in the
organization’s brand portfolio
• The objective is to maximize clarity, synergy and leverage to maximize customer
value and internal efficiencies
• Should clarify what role each of your brands and products play in different
markets, and may result in a brand rationalization.

Three main brand architecture systems:

1. Monolithic-where the corporate name is used on all products and services offered
by the company.
2. Endorsed-where all sub-brands are linked to the corporate brand by means of
either a verbal or visual endorsement.
3. Freestanding-where the corporate brand operates merely as a holding company,
and each product or service is individually branded for its target market.

Brand
Brand
Relationship
Relationship
Spectrum
Spectrum

House of Endorse Sub- Branded

House of Endorse Sub- Branded
Brands d Brands Brands House
Brands d Brands Brands House

House of brands:

Independent Brands, Each working in their own right, belonging to a “Remote” parent
firm.

• Targets Niche Markets

• Highlights new offerings
• Avoids incompatibility
• Allows powerful names tied to benefit
• Avoids channel conflict
• Shadow Endorser: “A Known organization is backing this brand”
Endorsed brands:

Strong Brands on their own, strengthened in a customer-relevant way by an association

with the parent brand.

• Independent
• Can provide Relevant Support – Degree of relevant support determines level:
Token, Linked Names, Strong
• Can Build Strength for both brands

Sub-brands:

Separate, Strong Brands – tied to and synergistic with – the parent brand.

 Connected directly to the master brand --modify the emotional takeaway or

proposition.
 Substantial potential impact on the master brand
 Critical: Degree to which they “Co-Drive” the buying process/decision

Branded house:

Parent Brand Drives, products under it are named following their benefits or
specifications.

 Master Brand is driver across Multiple categories

 Under that – primarily “Product Descriptors”/ Highly descriptive trademarks.
 Master brand should be in a position to add to – and be strengthened by – all the
firms offerings.

Branding policies:
Individual Branding

• A policy of naming each product differently

• Avoids stigmatizing all products due to a failed product

Family Branding
• Branding all of a firm’s products with the same name
• Promotion of one item also promotes all other products

Brand-Extension Branding
• Using an existing brand name for an improved or new product
• Provides support for new products through established brand name and image

Co-Branding

• Using two or more brands on one product to capitalize on the brand equity
(customer confidence and trust) of multiple brands
• Brands involved must represent a complementary fit in the minds of consumers.
• Helps differentiate a firm’s product from those of its competitors
• Helps take advantage of distribution capabilities of co-branding partners

Generic Brands:
A no-frills, no-brand-name, low-cost product that is simply identified by its product
category.

Brand Licensing:
A practice allowing other companies to use a brand name in exchange for a payment.

Multibrand strategy:

• In this strategy, the company has more than one brand of product, competing with
each other, in a given market.
• Under multibrand strategy there may not even be manufacturer identification,
unless required by law.
• This contrasts with the strategy of family brands where the separate items are
given a common line identity and are usually each directed to one segment within
the market.

Multi product strategy:

 A strategy where a brand is used on two or more individual products.

 The product group may or may not be all of that firm's product line.
  The individual members of the family also carry individual brands to differentiate
them from other family members.
 In rare cases there are family brands that have as members other family brands,
each of which has individual brands.

Packaging:

• Designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product.

• Developing a good package:

– Market the brand

– Protect the elements
– Ensure product safety
– Address environmental concerns

Labeling:

• Printed information appearing on or with the package.

• Performs several functions:

– Identifies product or brand.

– Describes several things about the product.
– Promotes the product through attractive graphics.