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9 Product, Branding, and Packaging Decisions

Product management Decisions - Layers of a Product

- Core product/ benefit/ value of water
- Quench thirst & hydrates us
- + energy
- Relieves fatigue 缓解疲劳
- Helps your think, focus and concentrate
- Promotes weight loss
- Removes by-products of fat
- Reduces hunger
- Raises metabolism代谢 and zero calories

Actual products?
- The physical features of the water
- Bottle
- Shape
- Colour
- Materials (plastic vs glass)
- Brand names
- Logos

Augmented product:
- Associated services
- Delivery
 - Installation
- Financing
- Warranty
- Support services
- Ongoing maintenance

Product Classification
- Marketers classify products based on the way they are used and purchased
- Convenience
- Bought frequently & immediately
- Staples, impulse, low price
- Shopping
- Bought less frequently
- Suitability, quality, style, $
- Specialty
- Bought occasionally
- Unique characteristics, brand identify
- Unsought #
- Rarely purchased
- Costly, innovative, often requires personal selling
Product management decisions
- Product mix
- Complete set of all products offered by a firm
- Product lines
- Groups of associated items consumers use together or think of them as a group
- Product category
- Assortment of items consumers sees as substitutes for 1 another
- Product mix breadth
- # of product lines
- Product line depth
- # of products within a product line

What is a brand?
- A brand is identified by its
- Name
- Logos
- Symbols
- Characters
- Slogans
 -
-
Jingles #
Distinctive packages

What is branding?
- A process concerned with creating & maintaining a set of values
- Tangible & intangible
- That are relevant to consumers and distinguished it from competitors’
brands
- Promise to consumers that it will always deliver these values
- Example
- Wendy -> fresh meals

Why brands?
- Because brand offer value to customers and marketers
- Brands
- Assets
- Impact market value
- Facilitate purchasing
- Establish loyalty
- Protect from competition
- Reduce marketing costs
- Generates new customers
- Differentiates from competitors
- Generates employee pride
- Builds trust
- Supports advertising

Brand equity
- Set of assets of liabilities associated with a brand that +/- value

* - BE = Brand Awareness + brand Association + brand loyalty + perceived value

- Brand awareness
- # of consumers familiar with the brand
- What it stands for
- How many/% customers know ur brand
- Brand know?
- Brand association
- The mental links consumers make with a brand
- Companies use brand personality
- Set of human characteristics associated with a brand
- Eg. young, old, fun, loving, smart, fresh smooth, conservative) +
association
- Brand loyalty
- Repeat purchases & positive word of mouth
- Perceived value
 - Relationship between benefits & costs
- Perceived value about the brand
- Eg. coach vs YSL

Branding ownership strategies

- Manufacturer brand
- Owned by manufacturer
- Offer greater control of brand
- Eg. coca-cola
- Private label or store brands
- Lower costs
- Greater trust
- Higher margins for owners
- Eg. no name
- Walmart
- Generic brands
- Typically commodity products
- No name brand
- A brand by itself

Brand naming strategies

- Individual brands
- Use of individual brand names for each product
- In case 1 brand failed
- Other brand can take place of this brand
- Without customers wouldn’t notify it
- Every product has it own name
- Family brands
- Combination of corporation and individual brand names
- Eg. cereals brand -> kellog’s
- When a product fails, easier to remove without affect it mother company

Branding extensions
- Use of the same brand name for new product
- Eg. extension for Fedex
- Provide different service
- + recognize ur brand

Branding dilution
- When brand extension negatively affects the core brand
- Same connection that u r making
- Brand is good
- But new product gave a negative affects to original brand
Co-branding
- Marketing 2/ more brands tgt on the same promotion
- Eg. same locations - 2 brands
- Characters & starbucks
- Walmart and Mcdonalds
- Benefits
- Enhances consumers’ perception of quality when reputable brands come tgt
- Improves brand image
- Shares marketing promotions, costs and other resources
- Gives access to each other’s customer
- Enables them to appeal to new markets or segments
- Risks
- Fail
- If customer profiles of the cobrands are too different or conflicts among
the partners

Brand licensing/ merchandising

- A brand allows another company to use its brand(s) for a fee
- Gives visibility to the brands
- + brand equity
- Generate greater revenues
- A major risk for licensor is brand dilutions from overuse

Packaging & labelling

- Packaging
1. Standout
2. Be simple
3. Distinct brand mark
4. Emotional attachment
5. Iconic - packaging & design
- Should be more than storage
- Easier for transportation
- Contain information
- Build emotional connection
- Eg. tim bit
- Package is more $ than timbit (product itself)
- More colours -> $

- Labelling
- A strategic to add selling point
- Eg. fat free = fat is below certain level
- X = no fat