Branding in the Age of Information and Internet

The Emerging Millennial Consumers and Ways of Reaching out to Them
With the advent of the internet and the coming of Web 2.0 and mobile driven browsing, marketers all over the world are realizing and recognizing the importance of using the online medium for branding their products. The new generation of consumers and especially the Millennials or those born after the late 1970s and especially those born in the 1990s and later have a propensity to transact online which means that marketers and companies do need to brand their products in the virtual world if they are to target this demographic. Further, with the advent of Smartphones and their widespread usage by the Millennials, branding of products online and in the mobile world is no longer a luxury but a necessity owing to the changing shopping habits of the emerging consumers. This is the reason why many brands are being marketed aggressively in the online realm so that they do not miss this consumer base. For instance, brands like Nike, Adidas, Coke, Pepsi, and GAP that have long had a significant outdoor and print media driven branding strategy have now jumped into the online branding effort as a means of reaching out to this consumer base.

Brand Management Challenges

Last few decades have changed our world beyond recognition. There has been unprecedented progress in all spheres of life. Technology and scientific advancement has played major role affecting all parts of the economy, politics as well as markets. With globalization and opening of markets we see a sea of changing in the way business is conducted and organizations are structured. Global and open markets have changed the structure of consumer economy. The financial mechanisms that aid in trade and consumer buying too have impacted the consumer’s buying habits. Online trading and buying, online payments, mobile banking etc have empowered the customers to make their choices and buying decisions at their discretion.

Marketer’s job has always been very challenging, but the complexities that they face in the market today are different from the earlier times. With markets opening up the competition from ‘Me Too’ brands have increased considerably. Brands face competition from local brands as well as foreign brands and generic products as well.

Marketing Career Option

Sales and Marketing career is highly rewarding both in terms of rewards as well as knowledge and experience. There are many facets to marketing and selling apart from having to focus only on selling the product. Those who have a flare for meeting people and selling products or services will find it rewarding to build a sales plan, identify sales lead, build a pipeline of prospects and converting them as sales. To such salesmen, the sales figures and every new customer account counts. Then there are those who enjoy building marketing strategies, growing the brand and using their creative skills into building effective communication and advertising plans.

Building brands and delivering value to the customers is one of the most interesting jobs that you can enjoy in marketing. Think of all the brands that come to your mind. We associate products with the image of the brand or the logo. Take the case of cosmetics; you will immediately recall some of the well known global brands like Loreal, Olay, Nivea etc. Think of laptops and the logos of IBM and Dell flash in your mind’s eyes.

Apple and Microsoft brands are known to even little children today. Aren’t we all very familiar with the brand logos of Wallmart, Ikea, Tesco, Home Depot and Target etc?. Think of banking and you will immediately recall HSBC, Citibank and Standard chartered or Bank of America etc that you are familiar with. Which airline comes to your mind when you think of planning your travel? You will naturally remember British Airways, Luftansa and Singapore airlines etc logos of which have been etched in your memories.

There is more to brands than just the visual image or the logos. Yes it is true that the logo is perhaps the most important identity of the brand and communicates with the customer. However ask the marketing and branding specialists and they will tell you a whole lot about branding.

Powerful brands build a lot of value to the Company apart from the core value that it delivers in terms of the product or service. Though marketers focus on building the brand and associating it with the product line, the successful brands yield recognition as well as the value proposition to the Organization as well.

Successful brands help to establish a relationship with the customer. Customer can be loyal to a particular brand for their lifetime. It is not uncommon to find people using Kelloggs at home all the time or banking with Citibank because they have been associated with the brands for a long time.

In building a brand and delivering a value proposition through the brand, it is not only the marketing who are involved, but the entire Organization too. When the people have begun to relate to the brand and the Organization through the brand, it becomes imperative that the Organization focus on delivering incremental value consistently through the brand. This then becomes a continuous process. Over a period of time, the brand value and promise including the characteristics, the visual logo as well as the product offering needs to be changed keeping in line with the markets as well as the Organizational strategy for growth and direction.

At all times, the brand image should be relevant to the current times and yet futuristic as well. As the brand communicates to the customer, it becomes a powerful tool that needs to be managed consciously by the Organization.

Brand Architecture

Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organizational entity. It is the way in which the brands within a company’s portfolio are related to, and differentiated from, one another. The architecture should define the different leagues of branding within the organization; how the corporate brand and sub-brands relate to and support each other; and how the sub-brands reflect or reinforce the core purpose of the corporate brand to which they belong. Often, decisions about Brand Architecture are concerned with how to manage a parent brand, and a family of sub-brands - Managing brand architecture to maximize shareholder value can often include using brand valuation model techniques.

Brand Categories

Every marketing management student would have heard the story about origin of branding, that it was initially used to identify and isolate a particular stock of cattle in the west. From the Wild West, branding as a concept has grown and changed beyond its original purpose. Today brands have become the common tool for us to differentiate and recall various products and services.

Branding in the current times is not limited to products and services alone. In fact you will find every type of organization and business stream using brand as a tool for differentiation, recall and identity. The fact that the brand identity that includes the visual logo also comprises of and represents a particular set of characteristics, values and the core culture of the brand owner. Branding is today used for a lot many purposes other than just to offer products and services to the consumers.

Brand Portfolio

Introduction
Due to limitations of line and brand extensions, companies have to go for a portfolio of brands. Portfolios offer advantages. At the same time, they also are not without disadvantages. The lecture discusses both.

Brand portfolio and segmentation
Every market can be segmented by product, customer expectation, or the type of customers. A chain of hotels may like to have its presence in different segments of the hotel market by having three-, four-, and five-star hotels. Its presence in three different segments addresses different needs of customers within those segments.
Customers in the three-star segment are economy-oriented audience interested in neat accommodation with no frills at affordable pricing in a middle class area of town.

Brand Extension

Introduction
With an understanding developed on positioning, this lecture takes us into the area of brand extension. Although loosely used, the term brand extension comprises of two sub areas - line extension and brand extension. The latter is generally used in all situations of extensions, diversifications, or stretch. We have to draw a distinction between the two for a clear understanding of the concepts.

Concept of positioning clarifies that not one position can satisfy all the varying needs within the category. Different needs have to be identified toward their fulfillment. To keep up with the evolution you have to evolve new points of difference. Different needs refer to different segments and every product has its variants to address to those segmental needs. This holds true for consumer consumables as well as consumer durables. Regular and mild cigarettes, regular and fruit yogurt, regular and high fiber cereals, regular and low cholesterol margarine, and economy and executive models in cars are all examples of product variants in different segments and categories.
To let the market know that you have something different to offer, you must differentiate between the existing offering and the new entry. For the new entry meant to address a different need, you must create a different image reflecting the new promise and must have an evolved contract in place. You do that in either of the two ways:

Brand Equity and Customer Equity

Brand Equity is the value and strength of the Brand that decides its worth. It can also be defined as the differential impact of brand knowledge on consumers response to the Brand Marketing. Brand Equity exists as a function of consumer choice in the market place. The concept of Brand Equity comes into existence when consumer makes a choice of a product or a service. It occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand and holds some favourable positive strong and distinctive brand associations in the memory.

Brand Equity can be determined by measuring:

Brand Contract

The concept of brand contract revolves around brand’s ability to always stay up to the expectations of consumers. Owing to the associations developed with the brands of their choice, consumers do not want to see those brands deviate from the strong impressions and image they have about those brands.
What consumers expect of brands is a positive change and development in relation to changing technologies, environment, and any other factors that may have a bearing on consumer behavior. To continually remain in favor of consumers, brands uphold consumers’ franchise by remaining up-to-date. This is the only way for brands to remain relevant.
For brands staying contemporary means bringing about innovations and living up to consumers’ likes and expectations. This further means engaging into a “contract”. In other words, brands must respect the contract, attract customers and assume all implications, which they do through fulfilling the promises.
Brands make promises with the customers by providing benefits and developing associations. Any deviations - lowering of quality, non-availability of brands at the point of customers’ choice, or not keeping pace with changing technologies - amount to not keeping the promise and hence in customers’ perception breaching the “contract”. The contract, as such, is not legal; it is purely economic and emotional in nature.

Brand Value and its Measurement

Branding has emerged as a corporate strategy in the recent times. All business organizations in all sectors have embraced the strategy of building their identity through their corporate brands besides the product related brands. Branding is definitely a marketing strategy. However the strategy of investing into brand building and managing the reputation of the corporate brand goes beyond marketing. Branding is considered to be a strategy that is driven and managed by the CEO or the organization along with the senior management as well as marketing heads. Over the recent years, we see new concepts of brand value, brand power and brand equity etc. being coined and measured.

If marketing professionals found it difficult to justify and obtain sanctions for the brand promotional activity, today they no longer need to worry. Brand value and expenses towards brand building have become an accepted part of the balance sheet. Capitalizing the brand value and the expenses towards meeting the brand promotion are budgeted and accounted for in the balance sheets and in many cases the ROI of a brand is also calculated to reflect the brand value status over time.

Brand management has gained prominence in recent times. The fact that we have global brands that have been well established for over fifty years goes on to prove the fact that brands certainly have the power to make or break in the markets. Goodyear, Coco Cola, Gillette, Nestle, Kelloggs, Schweppes, Brooke bond etc have been around for a very long time and have gained certain brand power to drive growth through brand reputation and relationship with the consumers.

Marketers have realized the growing power of brands and have begun to nurture the brand image and cultivate value through brand ambassadors. Most of the lifestyle and luxury brands globally and locally have well known actors and sports persons etc as brand ambassadors. Through the persona of the brand ambassadors, the marketers derive the power to connect with the consumers and build brand loyalty. Realizing the brand power also calls for working on the product quality and continuous modification both in the product as well as in the promotion of brand ambassadors. Building and growing strong brand at a global level calls for the entire organization to be brand oriented. The best example of building and realizing strong brand power and unleashing the brand value is Apple. If you think that the entire world outside is an Apple fan, you are right. But the entire organization within also worship their brand too. All of the strategies, decisions as well as day to day business decisions at all levels are directed towards promotion of and strengthening of the apple brand. The entire organization believes in the brand and all business processes are driven to build the brand and deliver superior customer experience through the brand. Apple as a global brand is perhaps the best example of a successful corporate brand.

As much as the corporate strategy has got to account for the branding strategy, the marketing has also to ensure that they work on the different aspects of the brand packaging, design, etc and keep working on the brand so that it is consistent with the changing times, markets, consumer expectations and taste etc.

The brands have their own value. The market leadership and profitability of a certain product or business is realized through the brand value. Growing the brand power and using the brand value as a driver to increase profitability as well as the market calls for expert management of branding. Maintaining the leadership of a brand calls for strategic planning in the long term perspective.

Brand Value Measurement
Brands have a certain value in the market as well as in the balance sheets of the organization that owns the brand. This is a matter that has been agreed upon by the industry. The accounting of the brand value and the methodology for calculation of the brand value is widely debated. When organizations pay a huge premium or goodwill to acquire a brand, it becomes a strategic decision. However accounting for the premium paid is a matter that is discussed and debated by many in the industry.

No doubt accountants would like to assign a tangible value to every asset owned by the company and brand value paid to acquire a particular brand and the business is also considered to be an asset. One of the systems followed by UK based business organizations is that they capitalize the entire value paid for acquiring the business and the same is depreciated over a period of time.

Interbrand, the branding company has proposed a different method of accounting for the brand value. This method as well as the other methods that are proposed by industry experts take into account the future sales potential of the brand as well as its current market share to arrive at a definitive figure in terms of brand equity or brand power.

Accordingly one of the models followed by the industry accounts for the net profit earned by the brand in the last three consecutive years in terms of value. To this, is added a score that is derived out of measuring certain key factors associated with the brand like brand leadership, market share, trend, loyalty etc. Certain weight age is given to each of the factors and the total score is then converted into a certain value with the help of a multiple that is again derived out of a market study conducted for that particular sector.

Similarly there are several other models and methods that have been proposed by experts in the industry. All of the models use a combination of qualitative and quantitative factors to arrive at a measurable value in terms of Brand Equity. Some of the well known models are Brand Equity Index, Consumer Brand Equity Brand Asset by Longman Moran and Leo Burnett, Conversion Model Equity Monitor etc. The factors included in the above vary from Quality of the brand to Customer attitude, perception, market share, price band, durability etc.

A reasonable model to measure brand equity becomes essential not only for the accountants but for the business Organization that is looking out to buy a brand. Valuation of a brand and fixing the right price or premium for the brand needs a proven methodology and model that can guide the decision making. It is also true that one model cannot satisfy the finance and accounts personnel as well as the business managers, for each one’s perceptions and purpose of evaluation is different. When brands are key to the growth and business strategy of the Organizations, the decision makers would definitely need proven and strong models to guide them for decision making. Besides the models they would need to analyze the brand equity from many other points of view of product portfolio, growth potential of the brand to see if a particular brand is the right choice for them. If there exists a strategic synergy between the brand and the buyer’s business needs, then the brand value is likely to change and the buyer might find that he is required to pay a premium over and above the perceived brand value. At what price does it make sense to acquire the brand is a decision that is critical to the buyer. Brand value models can certainly aid him in this decision making process.

Brand Vision

Purpose of brand vision
To earn the right level of profitability, you have to leverage your brand rightly. It is here that we start treating brand as an asset and manage that asset by having a vision.
Vision fulfills three basic purposes

• Consensus among management
• Commits company to research
• Mandates telling all stakeholders

Strategic Brand Management

Mission
A mission statement speaks of the present form of business, the products it is dealing in, the customers it is serving, and the areas in which it is operating etc. In other words, a mission is all about achievement of present objectives.
It also talks of the commitments and values that are needed to let the company achieve its objectives. It does not speak beyond that. But, the process of strategic management does not stop there. It makes it imperative that managers see beyond the mission, or the present, to determine a long-term direction that the company must take for tomorrow. Nothing is static. The dynamism of the market necessitates that managers must see the impact of:

• changing technologies
• changing lifestyles
• changing needs of customers
• changing benchmarks of quality, and
• changing competition and overall conditions

Brand Challenges

If brands are strong and powerful, they also face challenges regarding sustenance and growth. These challenges vary in degree and intensity for various markets.
The basic determinant of challenges is the level to which a certain market is mature. Maturity holds the key. If a market is very mature, the challenges are intense; if a market is less mature, meaning still growing and robust, the challenges are less strong.
Markets become mature due to overall purchasing levels reaching a plateau. This simply implies that demand in the category is no longer elastic and has no further room to grow. And, the consumers are buying various brands in a certain pattern of frequency and quantities which are optimal and, hence, their buying behavior will not give further impetus to overall growth of the category. We can also call it maturity of the economic cycle.
Under the circumstances just explained, markets seem to lose vitality in terms of growth, but not in terms of availability of loads of products. This can be further simplified by saying that the size of the pie reaches the most optimal level from where it does not increase unless there is growth in population. Whatever changes take place they take place within the pie in the shape of competitive wars.
Competitive pressures and wars have led to a few difficult situations that companies have to face as challenges. The following are the typical ones:

Brand Manifestations / Fundamentals

To manage your brand as an asset, full of value and power, you must understand a few fundamentals that form the basis of brand asset management. Armed with that understanding, you, as brand managers, will do your job right only if you understand brands correctly.
The following four fundamentals will allow you to develop with ease and consistency the ability to build different strategic steps involved in creating a brand or refreshing an existing one.

• Dimensions
• Characteristics
• Levels
• Brand Owners’ 

Understanding Brands - Introduction

Brand management begins with having a thorough knowledge of the term “brand”. It includes developing a promise, making that promise and maintaining it. It means defining the brand, positioning the brand, and delivering the brand. Brand management is nothing but an art of creating and sustaining the brand. Branding makes customers committed to your business. A strong brand differentiates your products from the competitors. It gives a quality image to your business.
Brand management includes managing the tangible and intangible characteristics of brand. In case of product brands, the tangibles include the product itself, price, packaging, etc. While in case of service brands, the tangibles include the customers’ experience. The intangibles include emotional connections with the product / service.
Branding is assembling of various marketing mix medium into a whole so as to give you an identity. It is nothing but capturing your customers mind with your brand name. It gives an image of an experienced, huge and reliable business.