INTRODUCTION TO BRANDING

Why Brand?
 Why do companies such as Coca-Cola,
Microsoft, IBM and Disney seem to achieve
global marketing success so easily? Why does it
seem such an effort for others?
 Why do we, as consumers, feel loyal to such
brands that the mere sight of their logo has us
reaching into our pockets to buy their
products?
The meaning of brands
 Brands are a means of differentiating a
company’s products and services from those of
its competitors.
 There is plenty of evidence to prove that
customers will pay a substantial price premium
for a good brand and remain loyal to that
brand. It is important, therefore, to understand
what brands are and why they are important.
The Importance of Brands
 McDonalds sums this up nicely in the following
quote emphasizing the importance of brands:
 “…it is not factories that make profits, but
relationships with customers, and it is company
and brand names which secure those relationships”
 Businesses that invest in and sustain leading
brands prosper whereas those that fail are left to
fight for the lower profits available in commodity
markets.
Coca-Cola
 “If Coca-Cola were to lose all of its production-related
assets in a disaster, the company would survive. By
contrast, if all consumers were to have a sudden lapse
of memory and forget everything related to Coca-Cola
the company would go out of business.”

 Coca-Cola
 What is a brand?
 One definition of a brand is as follows:
 “A name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a
combination of these, that is intended to identify
the goods and services of one business or group of
businesses and to differentiate them from those of
competitors”.
 Inter- brand - a leading branding consultancy -
define a brand in this way:
 “A mixture of tangible and intangible attributes
symbolized in a trademark, which, if properly
managed, creates influence and generates value”.
 Brand Equity

 “Brand equity” refers to the value of a brand. Brand equity is

based on the extent to which the brand has high brand loyalty,
name awareness, perceived quality and strong product
associations.
 Brand equity also includes other “intangible” assets such as
patents, trademarks and channel relationships.
Brand image

 “Brand image” refers to the set of beliefs that

customers hold about a particular brand.
 These are important to develop well since a
negative brand image can be very difficult to
shake off.
Brand extension
 “Brand extension” refers to the use of a successful
brand name to launch a new or modified product in a
new market.
 Virgin is perhaps the best example of how brand
extension can be applied into quite diverse and distinct
markets.
Examples of successful brand extension
 Virgin Group

 The Virgin Group has extended their brand multiple times. Starting as a
record store,
 Virgin now has a presence in the healthcare industry (Virgin Health
Bank, Virgin Care, Virgin Active), business industry (Virgin Health
Miles), communications (Virgin Mobile), financial services (Virgin
Money) etc.
 However, there is confusion between the main brand and sub-brands’
identities. The color treatment, logo use and typography are not
consistent. Multiple colors, type treatment and variations of the logo are
used.
 The multiplicity of products across various business sectors adds to the
confusion and negative reflection of the main brand.
 In 2012, Huffington Post named Virgin Mobile on their list of nine worst
advertisements.  
Examples of successful brand extension
Clorox

 Clorox: Traditionally a laundry disinfectant, Clorox has

extended itself into other categories, such as disinfecting
wipes, disinfecting spray, dust wipes, bleach crystals, toilet
bowl cleaner, bleach packs, toilet wands, stain remover,
bleach pens, etc.
Examples of unsuccessful brand extensions
Example

 Dr. Pepper Marinade: Recognized as a one of kind soda, this

brand extended its platform into barbeque marinades.
Unfortunately, this new product did not catch on and was
taken off the shelves.

Types of Branding Strategies
Individual Name
 Vicks
 Ariel
 Tide
 Head & Shoulder
 Pampers

 The major advantage is that if the product does not performs

well, it will not hurt the company’s image.
 Also known as house of brands
Blanket Family Name

 The blanket family name of the company is used in diverse

product categories.

 Low development cost.

 Sales of new product is likely to be strong if the

manufacturer’s name is good.

 Also known as branding house

Blanket Family Names
 Umbrella Brand

 If the company offer different products with different benefits

but they all extend the same value to the customer,
sometimes they are all offered under an overall brand.

NIKE
Separate Family Names
 This is normally used by the companies which produces
products of different sectors.

 In this separate family names for all the products are given.

 In this system a separate brand name for each line (one for
each category) is used.
Aditya Birla Group
HUL Separate Brand Family

Lakme

Kissan

Brooke Bond
Corporate Name Combined

 In this strategy company combine its name with separate

product brand name.
Co-Branding
 It is also known as dual branding.

 It occurs when two or more brand appear together.

 It can be done in four ways:

 Ingredient co-branding
 Same company co-branding
 Joint venture or post merger co-branding
 Multiple sponsor co-branding
Ingredient co-branding
 When a brand advertises that it has used ingredients or
components made by the another brand it is known as
intergradient co-branding.
 For example:
 Dell computers and Intel processors
Same company co-branding

 When the company link its one brand products with the other
brand.

 For example:
 Clinic all clear and Close up
Joint Venture Co-branding
 This include brands that carry two or more brand names due
to merger or acquisition.
 For Example:
 Maruti Suzuki
 Hero Honda
 Bajaj Allianze Insurance
Multiple Sponsor Co-branding

 When the product has more then one sponsor.

 For Example:
 Jet Airways and Citi Bank Card
Multiple Branding
 This strategy refers to the practices of a company having
many brands in a single product category.

 For e.g.:
 Tata has multiple brand in watches as Titan, Fastrack, Sonata,
Raga and Edge.
BRANDS - BUILDING A BRAND

 What factors are important in building brand

value?
 Professor David Jobber identifies seven main
factors in building successful brands, as given next:
 Quality

 Quality is a vital ingredient of a good brand. Remember the

“core benefits” – the things consumers expect. These must
be delivered well and consistently. The branded washing
machine that leaks, or the training shoe that often falls
apart when wet, or a watch which needs frequent
adjustments will never develop brand equity.
 Research confirms that, statistically, higher quality brands
achieve a higher market share and higher profitability than
that of their inferior competitors.
Positioning

 Positioning is about the position a brand occupies in a

market in the minds of consumers. Strong brands have a
clear, often unique position in the target market.
 Positioning can be achieved through several means,
including brand name, image, service standards, product
guarantees, packaging and the way in which it is
delivered. In fact, successful positioning usually requires a
combination of these things.
 Repositioning
 Repositioning occurs when a brand tries to
change its market position to reflect a
change in consumer’s tastes. This is often
required when a brand has become tired,
perhaps because its original market has
matured or has gone into decline.
 Communications
 Communications also play a key role in building a
successful brand. We suggested that brand positioning
is essentially about customer perceptions – with the
objective to build a clearly defined position in the
minds of the target audience.
 All elements of the promotional mix need to be used
to develop and sustain customer perceptions. Initially,
the challenge is to build awareness, then to develop
the brand personality and reinforce the perception.
First-mover advantage
 Business strategists often talk about first-
mover advantage. In terms of brand
development, by “first-mover” they mean
that it is possible for the first successful
brand in a market to create a clear
positioning in the minds of target customers
before the competition enters the market.
There is plenty of evidence to support this.
Long-term perspective
 The need to invest in the brand over the long-
term is utmost essential. Building customer
awareness, communicating the brand’s
message and creating customer loyalty takes
time. This means that management must
“invest” in a brand, perhaps at the expense of
short-term profitability.
 Internal Marketing
 Finally, management should ensure that the brand is
marketed “internally” as well as externally. By this we
mean that the whole business should understand the
brand values and positioning. This is particularly
important in service businesses where a critical part of
the brand value is the type and quality of service that a
customer receives.
 Think of the brands that you value in the restaurant,
hotel and retail sectors. It is likely that your favorite
brands invest heavily in staff training so that the face-
to-face contact that you have with the brand helps
secure your loyalty.
An Effective Brand Name
● Is easy to pronounce
● Is easy to recognize and remember
● Is short, distinctive, and unique
● Has a positive connotation
● Reinforces the product image
● Is legally protectable
 Branding Strategies
Brand No Brand

Manufacturer’s
Private Brand
Brand

Individual Family Combi- Individual Family Combi-

Brand Brand nation Brand Brand nation
Manufacturers’ Brands Versus
Private Brands

Manufacturers’
The brand name of a manufacturer.
Brand

A brand name owned by a

Private
wholesaler or a retailer. Also known
Brand as a private label or store brand.
Types of brand
 There are two main types of brand – manufacturer
brands and own-label brands.
 Manufacturer brands
 Manufacturer brands are created by producers and
bear their chosen brand name. The producer is
responsible for marketing the brand. The brand is
owned by the producer.
 By building their brand names, manufacturers can
gain widespread distribution (for example by
retailers who want to sell the brand) and build
customer loyalty (think about the manufacturer
brands that you feel “loyal” to).
 Private Label brands
 Own-label brands are created and owned by businesses
that operate in the distribution channel – often referred
to as “distributors”.
 Often these distributors are retailers, but not exclusively.
Sometimes the retailer’s entire product range will be
own-label. Own-label branding – if well carried out – can
often offer the consumer excellent value for money and
provide the distributor with additional bargaining power
when it comes to negotiating prices and terms with
manufacturer brands.
Individual Brands Versus Family Brands

Individual Using different brand names for

Brand different products.

Marketing several different

Family
products under the same
Brand brand name.