BRAND MANAGEMENT
IDEA BEHIND BRAND MANAGEMENT
How do I get a buyer to prefer and buy my commodity? -> differentiate it from
competition and make it more attractive by branding your ‘commodity’.
OVERVIEW
We are moving from what firms do to what firms get, considering what customers
think, feel and do.
Marketing Program (Marketing Mix)
What firms do Brand Elements
Perceptual Measures (Perceived Quality)
What
customers
think Brand Beliefs
(cognitive)
Affective States (Customer Satisfaction)
What
customers feel
(affective)
Brand Attitude
Behavioral Outcomes (Product Adoption)
What
customers do
(conative)
Brand Loyalty
Financial Performance (Market Share)
What firms get Brand Equity
,TOPIC 1: BRAND MANAGEMENT
Brand (physical product): 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 (AMA).
In practice, a brand creates a certain amount of meaning, reputation,
preference, and so on, in the eyes of the customers
The perspectives are changing from the organizations’ point of view, physical
product, to the customers’ point of view, psychological product.
4 levels (Levitt):
Core product
Tangible product
Augmented product
Total product
Product-driven brand philosophy, companies produce products, to people-driven
brand philosophy, people buy brands.
Brand (psychological product): a product, but one that adds other dimensions
that differentiate it 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.
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.
Product -> branded product Branded product -> Brand
(physical product perspective) (psychological product
perspective)
Tangible: can be touched by customer Intangible: lives in customer’s mind
Can be copied Unique
Can be outdated Potentially timeless
Involves transactions Forms basis of connections
Product -> branded product Branded product -> Brand
(physical product perspective) (psychological product
perspective)
Differentiation Relevance
Attributes Personality
Promise Relationship
Static Dynamic
Mass Individual
Awareness Meaningfulness
CBBE (Customer Based Brand Equity): (1) differential effect that (2) brand
knowledge has on (3) consumer response to the marketing of that brand.
A brand has positive customer-based brand equity when customers react
more favorably 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).
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 strategies.
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: use consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) to build,
sustain and leverage positive, strong, active, unique meanings of the brand in
order for 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 relevant differences among
brands in a product category / the brand resides in the minds of consumers, so
give it a label and provide meaning.
Future challenges and opportunities: savvy customers (difficult to persuade with
traditional communications); brand proliferation (few “mono” products brands);
media fragmentation (more money for nontraditional forms of communication);
increased costs; increased competition (more difficult to differentiate, supply vs
demand); greater accountability.
Six deadly sins of branding
1. Brand memory loss: when a brand forgets what it is supposed to stand for.
o when Coca-Cola tried to replace its original formula with New Coke.
2. Brand egoism: brands sometimes develop a tendency for overestimating
their own importance, and their own capability. This is an event when a
brand believes it can support a market single-handedly, or when a brand
enters a new market for which it is clearly ill-suited.
o Polaroid with instant photography market or Harley Davidson with
perfume.
3. 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.
4. Brand fatigue: some companies get bored with their own brands. When
brand fatigue sets in, creativity suffers, and so do sales.
5. Brand paranoia: this is the opposite of brand ego and is most likely to
occur when a brand faces increased competition. Typical symptoms include
a tendency to file lawsuits against rival companies, a willingness to
reinvent the brand every six months, and a longing to imitate competitors.
6. Brand irrelevance: when a market radically evolves, the brands associated
with it risk becoming irrelevant and obsolete. Brand managers must strive
to maintain relevance by staying ahead of the category (Canon), and one
more reason is a gap between creativity and strategy.
, TOPIC 1: EXAM QUESTION
The most relevant of the six deadly sins of branding that applies in Tropicana’s
case is Brand Memory Loss.
Brand Memory Loss occurs when a long-standing brand forgets or moves away
from its core identity, confusing its customers in the process. In Tropicana’s
situation, their shift in packaging design led to a disconnect with their loyal
customers. The new packaging design, while intended to rejuvenate the brand
and create a fresh appeal, neglected key elements of Tropicana’s identity that
had become iconic and recognizable to consumers over time. The distinctive
visual elements that people associated with Tropicana’s quality, such as the
orange with the straw, were removed, leading to confusion and dissatisfaction
among customers.
Customers struggled to recognize the product on shelves, feeling that the new
packaging lacked the familiar cues they trusted. This illustrates a case where the
brand forgot its own long-standing identity and overlooked how deeply
consumers had embedded that identity in their minds. As a result, Tropicana's
attempt to modernize backfired because it failed to preserve its core brand
memory, leading to its eventual reversion to the original packaging design.
By changing the packaging too radically without considering its established
connection with customers, Tropicana committed the sin of Brand Memory
Loss, undermining its market leadership and the trust built over the years.
