BRAND MAGEMENT TOPIC 1 BRAND MANAGEMENT
Past:
Commodities (price fully made up by demand and supply) were:
• Undifferentiable by seller/manufacturer
• Often sold loose
• Quality high variable
• In competitive markets, we have many manufacturers/sellers for the same commodity
Brand= a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and
services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition.
Present:
Brand management is about word of mouth, ratings and reviews and not 100% about what the companies tell
you about the brand. A brand used to be what you said it was, and you were able to communicate that very
efficiently. Today, brands are the sum total of what others say that you are.
The perspectives are changing:
• From the organizations’ point of view: Physical product
• To the customers’ point of view: Psychological product
Brand= a product, but one that adds other dimensions that differentiate it in some way from others designed to
satisfy (the same) needs. These valued differences can be rational (perfect cut, finest cotton, premium priced)
and tangible and are often, intangible (stylish, comfortable, status), emotional and symbolic.
Brands are more and more intangibles (ontastbaar) that have become the key source of corporate value.
Examples of intangible assets are patents, brand value and customer data.
Product vs brand
Product= anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption.
Branded product= a product that has been given a name for identification purposes.
,Brand= a product, but one that adds other dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other products
designed to satisfy (the same) needs.
Product -> branded product
physical product perspective
- Tangible: can be touched by the customer
- Can be copied
- Can be outdated
- Involves transactions
Product -> branded product
physical product perspective
- Differentiation
- Attributes
- Promise
- Static
- Mass
- Awareness
Brands are important for:
1) Consumers
- Identification of source of product
- Assignment of responsibility to product maker
- Risk reducer (different kinds of risk)
- Search cost reducer (e.g. heuristic)
- Bond/pact with maker of product
- Symbolic device
- Signal of quality
CBBE= CUSTOMER BRAND BASE EQUITY
(1) differential effect that (2) brand knowledge has on (3) consumer response to the marketing of that brand.
(what are people willing to spend on the same apple laptop but without the logo? What will removeing the brand
do with people attitudes)
Brand equity stresses the importance of the role of the brand in marketing strategies.
• Differences in outcomes arise from added value as a result of past marketing activities for the brand
• This value can be created in many different ways
• Brand equity provides a common denominator for interpreting marketing strategies and assessing the
value of a brand.
• Value can be manifested in different ways e.g., greater proceeds (gains) a/o lower costs (pains)
Brand management goals:
• Consumer-based brand equity (CBBE)
- Build, sustain and leverage positive, strong, active, unique meaning of the brand
• Financial-based brand equity (FBBE)
- To enable the brand to earn more in the short and long run
,The key to branding is that consumers perceive differences among brands in a product category/the brand
resides in the minds of consumers: give a label (how to identify) and provide meaning (what it does for you)
1) 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 (e.g.
Boeing)
• High-tech products: financial success no longer driven by product innovation or latest products
specifications and features alone (e.g. Intel)
2) Services
• Address potential intangibility and variability problems
• Brand symbols to make abstract nature more concrete
3) Retailers and distributors
• Generate consumer interest, patronage and loyalty in a store and
• Learn consumers to expect certain brands and products from a store
• Private label brands (e.g. Albert Heijn (budget and premium) and Tesco)
4) Online products and services
• Improving customer associations because unique product attributes of the brand (convenience, price,
etc.) are not enough (e.g. Google vs. Googol)
5) People and organizations
6) Sports, arts and entertainment (experience goods)
7) Geographic locations
8) Ideas and causes
The future:
Brands fail to take into account the changing market conditions and continued to operate with a business as
usual attitude or were inappropriate in their response. Like Nokia and Blackberry (they did not change due to
changing demand)
Important challenges and opportunities:
1) Savvy customers
It’s difficult to persuade the more experienced consumers with traditional communications and to be respected
is not enough.
2) Brand proliferation
More complex brand families and portfolios, few mono products brands. If people know a brand like KitKat, there
will not be developed new brand because KitKat is already known well. The downside is when people have a
negative experience with it, it will destroy all associated products.
3) Media fragmentation (what are causes?)
Firms spend more on nontraditional and new forms of communication, e.g. interactive, social media. You need
to invested in many media types, not only 5 or 6. Also increase expenditures on promotion, decrease
expenditures on advertising.
4) Increased costs
Existing product support and NP-intro.
, 5) Increased competition
More difficult to differentiate. Demand sides: mature markets (like Steltz and White Claw) and supply side: brand
extensions/deregulation/globalization low-priced competitors (growth of private labels & increasing trade
power).
6) Greater accountability
Short term performance orientation and increasing job turnover. If you are a marketing manager your boss wants
to see results within a year.
What firms invest, they hope to get something
back with it. not because it’s fun but wants
money. Take small steps and include what
consumers think, feel, do. Small steps will get
you more control.
What activities will impact how people feel
about my brand and do with my brand and how
that doing will affect my market value.
Brand Management Deadly Sins:
• Brand memory loss
For old brands, as for old people, memory becomes an increasing issue. The brand forgets what it is supposed to
stand for, it runs into trouble. The most obvious case brand memory loss occurs when a venerable, long standing
brand tries to create a radical new identity, such as when Coca-Cola tried to replace its original formula with New
Coke. The results were disastrous.
• Brand egoism
Brands sometimes develop a tendency for overestimating their own importance and their own capability. This is
even when a brand believes it can support a market single-handedly, as Polaroid did with the instant photography
market. It is also apparent when a brand enters a new market for which it is clearly ill-suited, such as Harley
Davidson trying to enter the perfume market. (tough guys don’t wear perfume (assumption)
• Brand deception
Some brands see the whole marketing process as an act of covering up the reality of their product. In extreme
cases, the trend towards brand fiction can lead to downright lies. In an age where markets are increasingly
connected, via the internet and other technologies, consumers can no longer be deceived.
• Brand fatigue
Some companies get bored with their own brands. You can see this happening to products which have been on
the shelves for many years, collecting dust. When brand fatigue sets and creativity suffers, and so do sales.