INTRODUCTION TO BRANDS

AND
BRAND MANAGEMENT
 Product or Brand

Products are something which satisfies needs and wants, but brands are just more than product.

Products are those things wish firms create, communicate to customers and enter marketplace.

Brands are how these products are perceived by its intended target audience.

Brand is subjective concept wheres product is objective concept.

A product is anything we can offer to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want.

Product or Brand
A product is a generic term used for different commodities bearing similar characteristics up to a certain level,

Brand name can be used to refer to products. Products is made by a company for consumers.

Brand is the "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's product distinct from those of other
sellers."

The simple, easy and attractive way to differentiate a product and brand is:

1. A product is physical

2. A brand is emotional.
 Product or Brand
Companies Make Products and Consumers Make Brands
Products can be copied and replaced but brands are unique
Products can Become Obsolete but Brands can be Timeless
Products are Instantly Meaningful but Brands Become Meaningful over Time
 Concept of Brand

The AMA defines it thus: "A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of
them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate
them from those of competitors."
 Brand Attributes

• Brand Attributes portray a company’s brand characteristics. They signify the basic nature of brand.
• Brand attributes are a bundle of features that highlight the physical and personality aspects of the
brand.
• Attributes are developed through images, actions, or presumptions.
• Brand attributes help in creating brand identity.
• Brand attributes are the brand’s traits that resonate with consumers’ personal characteristics and
feelings
A strong brand must have following attributes:
• Relevancy
• Consistency
• Proper positioning
• Sustainable
• Credibility
• Inspirational
• Uniqueness
• Appealing
 The 7 attributes listed below are the core qualities for almost all new and successful brands!

1. Inspiration
2. Exceptionable
3. Appeal
4. Trust
5. Consistency
6. Lasting value
7. Relevance
Strong Brand Attributes
1. Relevancy
2. Consistency
3. Proper positioning
4. Sustainable
5. Credibility
6. Inspirational
7. Uniqueness
8. Appealing
• Brand attributes are the functional and emotional associations which are assigned to a brand by its
customers and prospects
• Brand attributes portray a company's brand characteristics.
• Attributes are a bundle of features that highlight the physical and personality aspects of the brand.
• Developed through images, actions, or presumptions. Brand attributes help in creating brand
identity.
• "Brand attributes are functional or emotional associations that are assigned to a brand by its
customers and prospects. Brand attributes can be either negative or positive and can have varying
degrees of relevance and importance to different customer segments."
Brand Name
An arbitrarily adopted name that is given by a maker to a product or service to distinguish it
as produced or sold by that maker or product and that may be used and protected as a
trademark.
Characteristics of a Good Brand Name
•It should be distinctive and unique.
•It should be appropriate
•It should be Meaningful
•It should be Distinctive
•Simple And Easy To Pronounce
•Brand name should be suggestive
•It needs to be adaptable to new products
•It should be easy to remember
•It should be capable of legal registration and protection.
•It should explain the qualities and benefit’s of the product or service.
•It should be able to indicate concrete qualities.
•It needs to be easily converted into foreign languages.
•It should avoid portraying bad meaning in other languages or categories
Process of Choosing a Successful Brand Name

Define your Branding Objectives. Explaining branding objectives on the basis of six
criterions which includes suggestive, descriptive, classical, compound, fanciful and
arbitrary. It is very important to understand the role of brand in the branding strategy of
the company and within the whole marketing plan along with a detailed description of
the niche market.
Family Branding and Multi-Branding
Many companies take advantage of the idea of brand loyalty and create a family of products that are all sold under the
same name.

This is also known as “umbrella branding”

A large company that makes many different types of products may choose to create individual brands for different
products. This is often the case when the company makes very different goods, such as tires and ice cream
 10 Steps to Naming a Brand - Susan Gunelius

A brand name invesents a promise to consumers and differentiates the value your brand offers from competitors’ brands
Brand that resonates with consumers, differentiates your brand from others on the market, and is flexible enough to
survive for many years to come.
1. Develop Your Brand Strategy
2. Research the Market, Competitors, and Consumers
3. Identify the Message Your Brand Should Communicate
4. Brainstorm without Judging
5. Create a Short List - Make sure the short list of brand names you create includes names that can last
through market changes, brand extensions, geographic expansions, trends, fads, and so on. You should create a brand
name that can stand the test of time, because you never know where the world, the market, consumers, competitors, and
you could go in years to come.
6. Trademark and Domain Name Availability Search
7. Create a Shorter Short List
8. Develop Brand Marketing Mock-ups
9. Test Your Brand Marketing Mock-ups
10. Roll out and Monitor Your Brand
 BRAND NAME CREATION CATEGORIES

• Founders’ Names – John Cadbury, Walt Disney, Jamsetji Tata, William and James Horlick
• Descriptive Names – Xerox, Band-Aid
• Geographic Names - Cisco Systems, Inc., Connermera Library
• Evocative Names - Body Shop, Amazon
• Alliteration or Rhyming Names / Lexical Brand Names - Dunkin’ Donuts , YouTube
• Derivative Names - Nespresso, Zappos.
• Neologisms (new made-up words) / Invented Brand Names - Kodak , Google and Twitter.
• Hybrid Names -Swissair, ThinkPad, Microsoft, Swisscom
• Acronyms and Initials - HP for Hewlett-Packard, GE for General Electric. Names like AA for Automobile
Association and BMW for Bavarian Motor Works
• Personification
 BRAND MANAGEMENT

• Brand management is a communication function that includes analysis and planning on how that brand is positioned
in the market, which target public the brand is targeted at, and maintaining a desired reputation of the brand.

• Brand management is a function of marketing that uses techniques to increase the perceived value of
a product line or brand over time. Effective brand management enables the price of products to go up and
builds loyal customers through positive brand associations and images or a strong awareness of the brand.

• A brand that has been established has to continually maintain its brand image through brand management.
Effective brand management increases brand awareness, measures and manages brand equity, drives
initiatives that support a consistent brand message, identifies and accommodates new brand products, and
effectively positions the brand in the market.

• Brand management involves not only creating a brand but also understanding what products could fit under
the brand of a company. A brand manager always has to keep its target market in mind when conceiving new
products to take on the company’s brand or working with analysts to decide what companies to merge with
or acquire.
Brand is a promise that the product will perform as per customer's expectations.
Brands have a trademark which protects them from use by others.
To a consumer, brand means and signifies:
1. Source of product
2. Delegating responsibility to the manufacturer of product
3. Lower risk
4. Less search cost
5. Quality symbol an.
6. Deal or pact with the product manufacturer
7. Symbolic device
Brands simplify consumers purchase decision and consumers discover the brands which satisfy their need.
If the consumers recognize a particular brand and have knowledge about it, they make quick purchase decision and save lot
of time.
To a seller, brand means and signifies:
1. Basis of competitive advantage
2. Way of bestowing products with unique associations
3. Way of identification to easy handling
4. Way of legal protection of products' unique traits/features
5. Sign of quality to satisfied customer
6. Means of financial returns
Brand management begins with having a thorough knowledge of the term "brand".
It means defining the brand, positioning the brand, and delivering the brand.
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.
The primary aim of branding is to create differentiation.
Brand management helps in building a corporate image.
 Objectives - Brand Management

• To produce, promote and distribute goods that are attractive to consumers.

• To provide best deal to customers in terms of utility value compared to competitors.
• To control consumers’ brand choice behavior.
• Creation and management of brand equity.
• Optimum utilization of resources.
• Enhance brand image.
• Enhance market share.
• To restrict new entrants in the market place.
• Ensure right marketing mix.
• It forms customer perceptions about the product.
 Characteristic/Features - Brand Management

• It includes developing a promise, making that promise and maintaining it.

• It deals with determining the brand, positioning the brand and delivering the brand.
• It is an art of creating and sustaining the brand.
• It ensures customer commitment.
• A strong brand differentiates the products from the competitors.
• It enhances the company image.
• It helps in assembling of various marketing mix medium into a whole.
• It plays a vital role in capturing the customers mind with the brand name.
• It gives an image of an experienced, huge and reliable business.
• It creates a confidence in the current and prospective customers.
• It helps in communicating unique solution to the problem.
 FUNCTIONS OF BRAND MANAGEMENT
• Develop long range competitive strategy for success of the brand.
• Work with advertising and other related agencies to develop advertising copy, communication strategies, and plans for
execution of advertising and promotional campaigns.
• Gather intelligence on the brand's performance to see how the brand stacks up against competition, customer and trade
attitudes develop and change, and new problems and opportunities ar
• Meet changing market needs through improving and initiating new products/brands.
• Brand management forms a subset of marketing management. It deals with the overall brand development right
from the birth of the brand until the time it ceases to exist. The functions of brand management include but are
not limited to the following –
• Identifying the ideal target market, understanding what motivates them to choose one product over others and positioning the
brand in the same domain.
• Developing an ideal brand message which resonates both with the needs of the target market and with the value
proposition of the offering.
• Communicating the brand promise to the customers by making use of almost every possible touchpoint.
• Making efforts to build brand equity and measure it from time to time.
• Managing the brand architecture and making sure sub-brands structure and communication align with the master brand
structure and communication policies.
• Building the brand identity and making sure that it aligns with the brand image in the market.
• Handling brand communication in the market
• Anticipating and accommodating new brand identity needs
 BRAND MANAGEMENT BENEFITS

• Brand management consists of a huge number of processes that are vital for every company. No
matter your brand's size, age, and industry, it’s a must for lasting success. Let’s now review the
benefits you can reap once you work on your brand management
• customer loyalty
• brand recognition
• brand awareness
• an increase in revenue
• a higher value of your product and brand
• an increase in product pricing
• bigger sales volume
• trust, credibility, authority
• strong market position
 BRANDING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

● Treating brands as assets

● Possessing a compelling vision
● Creating new subcategories
● Generating breakthrough brand building
● Achieving integrated marketing communication (IMC)
● Building a digital strategy
● Building your brand internally
● Maintaining brand relevance
● Creating a brand-portfolio strategy that yields synergy and clarity
● Leveraging brand assets to enable growth
 Brand Positioning
Brand Positioning - identifying and attempting to occupy a market niche for a brand, product or service utilizing
traditional marketing placement strategies.

Positioning is also defined as the way by which the marketers attempt to create a distinct impression in
the customer's mind.
Kotler aptly defines positioning as 'the act of designing the company's offer so that it occupies a distinct and
valued place in the mind of the target customers.
Bovee et al. defines positioning as 'the process of promoting buyers to form a particular mental impression
of our product relative to our competitors’
Positioning - “It is a concise statement that summarizes brand's commitment or promise to target
consumers and actively communicates the advantage over competing brands."
-The component of company business

-The component of target market

-The component of point of difference and key benefits

Brands can be positioned against competing brands on a perceptual map.
A perceptual map defines the market in terms of the way buyers perceive key characteristics of competing products.
It also shows the relationship to competitive brands.
Market position of a brand on the basis of the answers to the following four questions:
Why, When, For whom, Against whom
The basic perceptual map is in terms of their price and quality
Positions are based upon consumer perceptions
Brand Positioning
Brand positioning must make sure that:
1. Is it unique/distinctive vs. competitors.
2. Is it significant and encouraging to the niche market.
3. Is it appropriate to all major geographic markets and businesses.
4. Is the proposition validated with unique, appropriate and original products.
5. Is it sustainable - can it be delivered consistently across all points of contact with the consumer.
6. Is it helpful for organization to achieve its financial goals.
7. Is it able to support and boost up the organization.
 Positioning Concept
Brand Positioning can be defined as an activity of creating a brand offer in such a manner that it
occupies a distinctive place and value in the target customer's mind
Positioning is the key determinant of key operational strategies that form a company's strategic
direction.
A company, a product or a brand must have positioning concept in order to survive in the
competitive marketplace.
Positioning Concept attempts to sell the benefits of the product or service to a potential buyer.
The positioning concepts focus on the rational or emotional benefits that buyer will receive or
feel by using the product/service.

Positioning Statement
A brand Positioning statement describes the “mental space” a brand should occupy in the minds of
a target audience
 Brand Positioning Process
1. Identifying the business's direct competition
2. Understanding how each competitor is positioning their business today.
3. Documenting the provider's own positioning as it exists today.
4. Comparing the company's positioning to its competitors to identify viable areas for differentiation
5. Developing a distinctive, differentiating and value-based positioning concept
6. Creating a Positioning statements with key messages and customer value proposition for communication
7. Define the market in which the product or service will compete
8. Identify the attributes that defines the product space
9. Collection of info from customer sample about product perception
10. Determine each product share of mind.
11. Determine each product’s current location in product space
12. Determine target markets preferred combination of attributes
13. Examine the fit between product and market
 Brand Variables
1. Vision - It must be simple, sustainable, aspirational and non-limiting
2. Meaning - What your brand represents in the marketplace.
3. Parameters of Relevance - The limits to which your brand can be extended beyond its core.

Positioning Errors
1. Under positioning - Customers have a blurred and unclear idea of a brand
2. Over positioning - Customers have too limited awareness about the brand
3. Confused positioning - Customers have a confused opinion about the brand
4. Double positioning - Customers do not accept the claims of the brand
Positioning Guiding Principles
 Brand Knowledge

● Brand knowledge refers to the thoughts, feelings, experiences, become associated of a customer
with a business’s brand or a company.
● Brand knowledge is developed due to interactions in the form of advertisements, communication
etc which the company develops, its logo and has an ambassador for representation but is truly
identified by its consumers only.
● The consumer will develop their own interpretation of the company’s brand based on their
thoughts that they go through and what they experience in dealing with the company along with
their feelings about the company’s products.
● Brand knowledge is the brand image, brand association etc which a customer creates after the
company has created brand awareness through campaigns.
● Brand knowledge eventually helps in creating brand equity through brand recognition.
● Brand knowledge is a unique combination of brand awareness and brand image.
 Importance of Brand Knowledge
• A successful brand is one that creates brand knowledge in the most positive way in their
consumers minds.
• Brand awareness is how much a customer recalls a brand when it comes across and
advertisement of it.
• Brand awareness consists of brand image and brand recall and is a subset of ad awareness.
• Brand image is a lot more challenging, because it is the influences in the consumer's’ mind of
both real and imaginary thoughts and feelings and shortcomings that influence the customer’s
purchase decision.
 Brand Awareness
• Brand awareness includes both brand recognition as well as brand recall.
• Brand awareness is the probability that consumers are familiar about the life and availability of the
product.
• It is the degree to which consumers precisely associate the brand with the specific product.
• It is measured as ratio of niche market that has former knowledge of brand.
• Brand recognition is the ability of consumer to recognize prior knowledge of brand when they are
asked questions about that brand or when they are shown that specific brand, i.e., the consumers can
clearly differentiate the brand as having being earlier noticed or heard.
• While brand recall is the potential of customer to recover a brand from his memory when given the
product class/category, needs satisfied by that category or buying scenario as a signal.
• In other words, it refers that consumers should correctly recover brand from the memory when given a
clue or he can recall the specific brand when the product category is mentioned.
• It is generally easier to recognize a brand rather than recall it from the memory.
Brand awareness is improved to the extent to which brand names are selected that is simple
and easy to pronounce or spell, known as expressive and unique as well as distinct.
Two types of brand awareness
• Aided Awareness: Customer recognises the brand from a list of brands.
• Top of mind awareness ( Immediate Brand Recall ) : On mentioning the product
category, the first brand that customer recalls from memory.
• Building brand awareness is essential for building brand equity.
• It includes use of various renowned channels of promotion such as advertising,
word of mouth publicity, social media like blogs, sponsorships, launching events,
etc.
• To create brand awareness, it is important to create reliable brand image, slogans
and taglines.
• The brand message to be communicated should also be consistent.
• Strong brand awareness leads to high sales and high market share.
• Brand awareness can be regarded as a means through which consumers become
acquainted and familiar with a brand and recognize that brand.
 Brand Image
• Brand image is the current view of the customers about a brand.
• It can be defined as a unique bundle of associations within the minds of target customers.
• It signifies what the brand presently stands for.
• It is a set of beliefs held about a specific brand.
• It is the consumers' perception about the product.
• It is the manner in which a specific brand is positioned in the market.
• Brand image conveys emotional value and not just a mental image.
• Brand image is nothing but an organization's character.
• It is an accumulation of contact and observation by people external to an organization.
• It should highlight an organization's mission and vision to all.
• The main elements of positive brand image are - unique logo reflecting organization's image, slogan
describing organization's business in brief and brand identifier supporting the key values.
• Brand image is the overall impression in consumers' mind that is formed from all sources.
● Brand image develops and conveys the product's character in a unique manner different from its
competitor's image.
● The brand image consists of various associations in consumers' mind - benefits and attributes.
● Brand attributes are the functional and mental connections with the brand that the customers have. They
can be specific or conceptual.
● Benefits are the rationale for the purchase decision. There are three types of benefits: Functional benefits
- what do you do better (than others), emotional benefits how do you make me feel better (than others),
and rational benefits/support - why do I believe you(more than others).
● Brand attributes are consumers overall assessment of a brand.
● Brand image has not to be created, but is automatically formed.
● The brand image includes products' appeal, ease of use, functionality, fame, and overall value.
● Brand image is actually brand content.
● When the consumers purchase the product, they are also purchasing it's image.
● Brand image is the objective and mental feedback of the consumers when they purchase a product.
● Positive brand image is exceeding the customers expectations.
● Positive brand image enhances the goodwill and brand value of an organization.
 Keller's Brand Equity Model

Keller's Brand Equity Model

KELLER, KEVIN, STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT: GLOBAL EDITION,
4th, © 1901. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., New York.
The four steps of the pyramid represent four fundamental questions that your customers
will ask – often subconsciously – about your brand.

These four steps also contain six building blocks that must be in place for you to reach
the top of the pyramid, and to develop a successful brand.