This summary is written for the course “Brand Management” during the semester Fall-2022 and is part of the master Marketing Management. The summary is based on the material covered during the lectures.
Demi van de Pol | Summary | Brand Management | TISEM | Tilburg University | Fall-2022
SUMMARY LECTURES
BRAND MANAGEMENT
Demi van de Pol || Master Marketing Management || Tilburg University || 2022 1
, Demi van de Pol | Summary | Brand Management | TISEM | Tilburg University | Fall-2022
CONTENT
This summary is written for the course “Brand Management” during the semester Fall-2022 and is
part of the master Marketing Management. The input for this summary consists of all the elaboration
given on the topics considered during the lectures.
LECTURE 1: Brand Management
Brand management is a broad term used to describe marketing strategies to maintain, improve and
bring awareness to the wider value and reputation of a brand and its products over time. In other
words, what should sellers / manufacturers do to change brand attitude in order to achieve the
desired goals?
BRAND MANAGEMENT THROUGH THE YEARS
BRAND MANAGEMENT: PAST
Long ago there were commodities (= products) which were undifferentiable by seller / manufacturer
(i.e. no labels or logos were attached to the products). Besides, these commodities were often sold
loose, meaning without any recognizable packaging. The quality of these commodities was highly
variable (i.e. differences in quality were no exception) due to craft. Lastly, through the years
competition in the market increased due to a growing amount of manufacturers / sellers for the
same commodity.
These developments let sellers / manufacturers think about the question: “How do I get a buyer to
prefer and buy my ‘commodity?” Due to a growing market and increased competition sellers and
manufacturers need to assure that their products stand out (= differentiate). This can be achieved by
branding their products (i.e. put a label on products).
A brand can be defined as a name, term, signal, symbol, or design, or a combination of them,
intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate
them from those of competition.
BRAND MANAGEMENT: PRESENT
Brands are not only being used for identification. Brands nowadays
have a certain meaning, so-called brand value. In the past, a brand
used to be what sellers / manufacturers said the brand was and they
were able to communicate this towards the consumer. Nowadays,
brands are the total sum of what consumers say what the brand is.
So, it is no longer the company who defines the brand, consumers
define the brand.
CHANGING PERSPECTIVES
The perspective of what a brand is has changed from the
organizations’ point of view (= physical product) to the consumers’
point of view (= psychological product). In other words, the product-
driven brand philosophy in which companies produce products
changed to a people-driven brand philosophy in which people buy
brands. The core features of a product are becoming less relevant for
consumers. Products are now labelled by brands which are defined by
the consumer. The meaning people give to a brand determines if they
choose to buy a product or not.
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, Demi van de Pol | Summary | Brand Management | TISEM | Tilburg University | Fall-2022
Nowadays, a brand can be defined as a product, but one that adds other dimensions that
differentiate in some way from other products designed to satisfy (the same) needs. These valued
differences can be rational and tangible but are often intangible, emotional and symbolic. The
rational and tangibles of the product are important for consumers as these determine the
performance of a product. However, intangibles, emotional and symbolic features attached to the
product have become more important for consumers than the basic features. Brands can make the
connection between the product and the intangibles, emotional and symbolic features, by
communicating them towards the consumer (= branding). With this, brands can create a certain
status and a certain feeling around the brand (= brand image).
= Brand value has become more important
PRODUCT VS. BRAND
● Product: Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption.
In other words, anything that can be offered to fulfil any need.
● Branded product: A product that has been given a name for identification purposes. The brand is
merely a label. There are no associations regarding the particular brand name in the consumer’s
memory (= no associative network attached).
● Brand: A product, but one that adds other dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other
products designed to satisfy (the same) needs (= associative network linked to the brand).
Product → Branded product Branded product → Brand
(physical product perspective) (psychological product perspective)
● Tangible: Can be touched by the consumer ● Intangible: Lives in the consumer’s mind
● Can be copied ● Unique
● Can be outdated ● Potentially timeless: Evolves over time, goes
● Involves transactions with the changes in consumers lives
● Form basis of connections between the
company and the consumers
IMPORTANCE OF BRANDS
The importance of brands for consumers can be indicated by the following reasons:
● Identification of the source of a product.
● Assignment of responsibility to the product maker.
● Risk reducer (different kinds of risks).
● Search cost reducer (e.g. repeat purchases).
● Connection with the maker of the product.
● Symbolic device (i.e. the brand has a certain meaning).
● Signal of quality.
These aforementioned points form the basis of the associative network regarding a certain brand in
the consumer’s memory.
3
, Demi van de Pol | Summary | Brand Management | TISEM | Tilburg University | Fall-2022
The importance of brands for producers can be indicated by the following reasons:
● Means of identification to simplify handling or tracing.
● Means of legally protecting unique features.
● Signal of quality level.
● Means of endowing products with unique associations (i.e. possibilities to expand to other product
categories).
● Sources of competitive advantage (such as barriers of entry) due to the formed brand perception
and associations of consumers.
● Source of financial returns.
The importance of brands can be summarized by the term customer-based brand equity. Customer-
based brand equity can be defined as the differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer
response to the marketing of that brand. A brand has positive customer-based brand equity when
consumers react more favourably to a product and the way it is marketed when the brand is
identified than when it is not (e.g., when it is attributed to a fictitiously named or unnamed version of
the product). That is, for example, people are willing to pay more because a product has a particular
brand name on it.
Brand equity stresses the importance of the role of the brand in marketing strategies. All marketing
activities a brand has undertaken have led to the “added value” of the brand. Brand equity provides
a common denominator for interpreting marketing strategies and assessing the value of a brand.
Brand value can be manifested in different ways for example by greater proceeds (gains) and/or
lower costs (pains).
Therefore, the goal of brand management is:
● Consumer-based brand equity (CBBE): Build, sustain and leverage positive, strong, active, unique
meanings of the brand …
● Financial-based brand equity (FBBE): … to enable the brand to earn more in the short and long run.
BRANDING
The key to branding is that consumers perceive differences (which are appreciated by the consumer)
among brands in a product category or the brand resides in the minds of consumers: (1) give a label
to the product (= how to identify), and (2) provide meaning (= what it does for you).
An important sidenote is that everything can have a brand, but that does not mean it has added
value:
● Physical goods
• Fast moving packaged consumer goods: Almost 100% of all products are “ branded”.
• Business-to-business products: Creating a positive image and reputation for a company as
a whole.
• High-tech products: Financial success is no longer driven by product innovation or latest
product specifications and features alone.
● Services
• Address potential intangibility and variability problems.
• Brand symbols can be used to make abstract nature more concrete.
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