Product And Brand Management; A Concise Note On Everything About Product And Brand Management 5h219

Product and Brand Management:  What is marketing? Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. The process through which VALUE is exchanged.  What is a product? Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want.  Product Essentials: • Product features and benefits • Packaging • Branding • Warranties and guaranties • Time to market • Lifecycles  Levels of product  Core product  Actual product  Augmented product  Product Items, Lines, and Mixes  Product Item- a specific version of a product that can be designated as a distinct offering among an organization’s products.  Product Line- a group of closely related product items.  Product Mix- all products that an organization sells.  Product Strategy Defines what the organization does and why it exists. It Involves creating a product offering that is a bundle of physical (tangible), service (intangible), and symbolic (perceptual) attributes designed to satisfy customer’s needs and wants. It Strives to overcome commoditization.

Product Life Cycle Introduction

Growth

Maturity

Decline

Post Mortem

Sales

$

Profit

Time

Loss/profit

Progression of product “life” stages (sales & time)

Diffusion of Innovations

Source: Rogers, Everett M, Diffusion of Innovations, 4th ed. (New York: Free Press, 1995)

 Innovators represent the first 2.5 percent of all individuals who ultimately adopt a new product. They are more venturesome than later adopters, more likely to be receptive to new ideas, and tend to have high incomes, which reduces the risk of a loss arising from an early adoption.  Early adopters represent the next 13 to 14 percent who adopt. They are more a part of the local scene, are often opinion leaders, serve as vital links to of the early majority group (because of their social proximity), and participate more in community organizations than do later adopters.

 The early majority includes 34 percent of those who adopt. These individuals display less leadership than early adopters, tend to be active in community affairs (thereby gaining respect from their peers), do not like to take unnecessary risks, and want to be sure that a new product will prove successful before they adopt it.  The Late majority represents another 34 percent. Frequently, these individuals adopt a new product because they are forced to do so for either economic or social reasons. They participate in community activities less than the previous groups and only rarely assume a leadership role.  Laggards comprise the last 16 percent of adopters. Of all the adopters, they are the most “local.” They participate less in community matters than of the other groups and stubbornly resist change. In some cases, their adoption of a product is so late it has already been replaced by another new product.  New Product Development: The development of original products, product improvements, product modifications, and new brands through the firm’s own R&D efforts Or New products can also come from acquisition of other companies, patents, or licenses

New Product Development Process

 Idea Generation-Sales force, Customers, Employees, R&D specialists, The competition, Suppliers, Retailers, Independent inventors.  Screening-Screening separates ideas with commercial potential from those that cannot meet company objectives.  Business Analysis-The business analysis consists of assessing the new product’s market potential, growth rate, likely competitive strengths, and compatibility of the proposed product with organizational resources.

Development-Converting an idea into a physical product Requires interaction among many of the firm’s departments. Prototypes may go through many changes.  Test Marketing-Introduction of a trial version of a new product ed by a complete marketing campaign to a selected city of television coverage.  Commercialization- is stage, the firm establishes marketing strategies, and funds outlays for production and marketing. 

 Attributes Associated with a Product Offering

• What is Brand? A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization. l l l

A brand defines the relationship customers have with us. A brand is a promise we make to our customers and to ourselves. A brand is shaped by each experience customers have with the firm.

•

A brand differentiates the product from similar offerings.

Traditional view: A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design which is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. Recent views:  Brand is what is experienced and valued by customers in everyday social life.  Brand is the culture of the product- shared, taken-for granted brand stories, images and associations.  Brand is the emotional file we have for a product or a service or entity.  A brand is a seller’s promise to deliver consistently a specific set of features, benefits and services to buyers.  For customer brand is an experience  Role of Brand:  Signify quality  Create barriers to entry  Serve as a competitive advantage  Secure price

 How Brand works? Level-1: Identification-Brand name and logo ensure the product can be recognized and distinguished from the competition. Level-2: Security- You get what you expect. Level-3: Added value- individual “laddered” benefits. Level-4: Transformation-the brand actually invokes change in the consumer. Brand: A brand is a mixture of attributes, tangible and intangible, symbolized in a trademark, which, if managed properly, creates value and influence.

• Branding: The purpose of branding is to transform a product. Transforming a commodity like product into customer satisfying value added propositions is the essence of branding.  BRANDING IS A: A physical product is combined with something else- symbols, images and feelings to produce an idea or concept. The two grow with and live on one another in a mutually enhancing partnership. • Branding is “emotional product development”. Two routes of brand building: 1. from product advantage- intangible values 2. from values-products •

Promotion is the vehicle that allows us to access the consumer’s mind, to create a perceptual inventory of imagery, symbols and feelings that come to define the perceptual entity “we call a Brand.”

The Brand and Value The brand is a focal point for all the positive and negative impressions created by the buyer over time as he comes into with the brand’s products, distribution channel, personnel and communication... The value of a brand comes from its ability to gain an exclusive, positive and prominent meaning in the minds of a large number of consumers” (Kapferer 1997, pg. 25). What is brand equity?  The differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand.

 The unique “brain space” that your brand occupies in the minds of your customers. Brand equity is defined in of the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brand.

Sources of Brand Equity Brand Recognition Brand Awaren ess Brand Knowle dge

Brand Image

Brand Recall

Non-Product-Related (e.g., Price, Packaging, and Usage Imagery)

Attributes Product-Related (e.g., color, size, design features)

Types of Brand Associations

Benefits

Favorability, Strength, and Uniqueness of Brand Association

Overall Evaluation (Attitude)

Functional Symbolic Experiential

Brand image: A strong brand Image is created by marketing programs that link strong favorable and unique associations to the brand in the memory. Brand image reflects the linking of strong, favorable and unique associations to the brand in memory. Four steps in building brand equity: 1. Who are you? 2. What are you? 3. What about you? What do I think or feel about you? 4. What about you and me?

KELLER’S BRAND RESONANCE PYRAMID

4.  RELATIONSHIPS =  4.  RELATIONSHIPS =  What about you & me?  What about you & me? 

3.  RESPONSE =  3.  RESPONSE =  What about you?  What about you? 

2.  MEANING =  2.  MEANING =  What are you?  What are you? 

1.  IDENTITY =  1.  IDENTITY =  Who are you?  Who are you? 

INTENSE,  INTENSE,  ACTIVE LOYALTY  ACTIVE LOYALTY 

RESONANCE

JUDGMENTS

FEELINGS

PERFORMANCE

SALIENCE

IMAGERY

POSITIVE, POSITIVE, ACCESSIBLE  ACCESSIBLE  REACTIONS  REACTIONS 

STRONG, FAVORABLE POINTS­OF­PARITY & UNIQUE BRAND & DIFFERENCE ASSOCIATIONS  DEEP, BROAD DEEP, BROAD  BRAND  BRAND  AWARENESS AWARENESS 

 This pictorial jargon is also called as consumer-based brand equity pyramid(CBBEP) Brand imagery: It is how people think about a brand abstractly, rather than what they think the brand actually does. It is more a kind of intangible stuff. Q. What is the most valuable brand dimension in the CBBE Model? Ans. Brand resonance Q. When does brand resonance happen? Ans. When all other core brand values are “in sync” with respect to customer needs, wants and demands. Q. What does brand resonance reflect? Ans. A completely harmonious relationship between the brand and the customer. Ways to differentiate:  Being first  Leadership  Heritage  Preference

Brand Identity  Brand identity is a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers from organizational .  A brand identity provides direction, purpose and meaning for the brand. It is central to a brand’s strategic vision and the driver of one of the four principal dimensions of brand equity: associations, which are the heart and soul of the brand.  Aspects of Brands: BRAND IMAGE How the brand is now perceived BRAND IDENTITY How strategists want the brand to be perceived BRAND POSITION The part of the brand identity and value proposition to be actively Communicated to a target audience. Brand identity and Brand equity:

Brand Identity

Brand Associations

Brand Equity

Brand Identity System Brand Identity Brand as Product

Brand as Organization

Value Proposition

Brand as Person

Brand as Symbol

Credibility

Brand-Customer Relationship

The Kepferer brand identity prism:

 Six Facets of Brand Identity

1. A brand has physical qualities or a ‘physique’ What does it do? What does it look like? 2. A brand has its own personality Spokesperson or figurehead role What brand would be if it were a person 3. A brand has its own culture Set of values feeding the brand’s inspiration Country of origin 4. A brand has its own relationship Exchanges between people and brand Service sectors and retailers. 5. A brand is a reflection Produces a reflection or image of the buyer or . Different from target the describes brand’s potential buyer or . Customer is reflected as s/he wishes to be seen from using the brand. Consumers use brands to built their own identities. 6. A brand speaks to our self image Self image is the target’s own internal mirror. Attitude toward the brand fosters an inner relationship with self.

Brand positioning: The idea that each brand if at all noticed occupies a particular point of space in the individual customer’s mind. A point which is determined by the consumer’s perception of the brand in question and in relation to other brands. It is this concept of Perceptual space that forms the theoretical basis for Brand Positioning • Positioning is what you do to the minds of the consumers.  Perceptual Mapping: Techniques that use consumer perceptions to identify similarities and differences between brands. Produces a visual representation of how the target market views competing alternatives.  – – – –

In order to position a brand you must decide, Who the Target Consumer is Who your main competitors are How the Brand is similar to your competitors (POP) How the Brand is different from you competitors (POD)

 Point of Parity: required to include your product as a member of certain product category  Point of Difference: properties which places your product distinctly in that product category.

 Brand Position: how a brand is perceived by a target audience so that it is distinguished from competition as being the best at satisfying a particular need.  Developing and communicating a positioning strategy       

Attribute positioning Benefit positioning Use or application positioning positioning Competitor positioning Product category positioning Quality or price positioning •

“Products increase the customer’s choices brand simplifies it.”

 Generic format for positioning statements: For (target market) our (brand) is the (concept) that (point of difference).

Brand Elements:

Brand names

Slogans

URLs

Elements

Characters

Logos

Symbols

Brand name: Most of the time managers want the brand name to describe what the product does.  Brands don’t describe the products  Brands distinguish the products The name must serve to add extra meaning to convey the spirit of the brand.

A brand is not a product. Therefore it should not describe what a product does but reveal a difference. Its better to chose some abstract brand name and then develop a meaning of its own.  Brand element choosing criteria: Memorable, meaningful, adaptable, appealing, protectable, transferable etc

Brand Extension: it involves using an existing brand name to launch a product in a different category. Category extension: parent brand is used to enter a different product category from that currently served by the parent brand. Line extension: parent brand is used to brand a new product that targets a new market segment within a product category currently served by the parent brand.  Advantages of brand extension:      

Reduce risk perceived by customers & distributors Decrease cost of gaining distribution & trial Increase efficiency of promotional expenditures Avoid cost (and risk) of developing new names Allow for packaging and labeling efficiencies Variety-seeking

 Disadvantages:  Extensions have risks, too. --They can fail.  Moreover, extensions can potentially result in the following costs: --Cannibalize sales of the parent brand --Hurt the image of the parent brand  Forego the chance to develop a new brand name or market the parent brand differently (opportunity cost)      

Brand Extendibility: The Product Brand Formula Brand Know-how Brand Interest Brand Philosophy

Product Brand It is a situation where there is very little difference between the brand and the product. Brand is a close approximation of the product. ively, the brand is used to identify the product, maybe for internal purposes. The brand does not play any role from the customer’s point of view

Formula Brand Formula means a set procedure (used to make the product). This type of brand may be find in categories like cooking oil, food, and pickles Know-how Know-how is an expertise that a firm develops in a Brand specialized area of activity. Sony is know to have expertise in miniaturization and robotics. Honda has know-how in engines. Amul has developed expertise in milk processing Interest Brand It’s the centre of interest or the core spirit of the brand. Gillette brand maintains its focus on men’s grooming in all its brands. Nike’s focal point is winning. Whirlpool’s centre of interest is the home (‘homemaker’) Philosophy The brand at this level acquires more intangible character and orientation. This generally happens in case of designers and artists. The Armani signature on the product provides a higher philosophical meaning – a meaning proudly expresses in Armani’s creatively styled products

Branding Strategy: Brand Architecture  Branding strategy: Leveraging the power of the brand name to cover the market more effectively.  Brand Architecture: How an organization structures and names the brands within its portfolio. Definition: The organization and structure of the brand portfolio by specifying brand roles and the nature of brand relationships between brands and between different product-market contexts”.

Brand architecture

Corporate dominant strategy Dual brand strategy

Mixed brand strategy

Brand dominant strategy

Endorsed brand strategy

Brand Hierarchy: Definitions; in Keller, K. L (1998), Strategic Brand Management, Chapter 11 Branding Strategies, pp. 428-431.

 Building a strategic brand architecture:  The logical, strategic and relational structure for all of the brands in the organization’s brand portfolio

 The objective is to maximize clarity, synergy and leverage to maximize customer value and internal efficiencies  Should clarify what role each of your brands and products play in different markets, and may result in a brand rationalization. Three main brand architecture systems: 1. Monolithic-where the corporate name is used on all products and services offered by the company. 2. Endorsed-where all sub-brands are linked to the corporate brand by means of either a verbal or visual endorsement. 3. Freestanding-where the corporate brand operates merely as a holding company, and each product or service is individually branded for its target market.

Brand Relationship Spectrum

House of Brands

Endorse d Brands

SubBrands

Branded House

House of brands: Independent Brands, Each working in their own right, belonging to a “Remote” parent firm.  Targets Niche Markets  Highlights new offerings  Avoids incompatibility  Allows powerful names tied to benefit  Avoids channel conflict  Shadow Endorser: “A Known organization is backing this brand” Endorsed brands: Strong Brands on their own, strengthened in a customer-relevant way by an association with the parent brand.  Independent  Can provide Relevant – Degree of relevant determines level: Token, Linked Names, Strong  Can Build Strength for both brands Sub-brands: Separate, Strong Brands – tied to and synergistic with – the parent brand.  Connected directly to the master brand --modify the emotional takeaway or proposition.

 Substantial potential impact on the master brand  Critical: Degree to which they “Co-Drive” the buying process/decision Branded house: Parent Brand Drives, products under it are named following their benefits or specifications.  Master Brand is driver across Multiple categories  Under that – primarily “Product Descriptors”/ Highly descriptive trademarks.  Master brand should be in a position to add to – and be strengthened by – all the firms offerings.  Branding policies:  Individual Branding  A policy of naming each product differently  Avoids stigmatizing all products due to a failed product  Family Branding  Branding all of a firm’s products with the same name  Promotion of one item also promotes all other products  Brand-Extension Branding  Using an existing brand name for an improved or new product  Provides for new products through established brand name and image  Co-Branding  Using two or more brands on one product to capitalize on the brand equity (customer confidence and trust) of multiple brands  Brands involved must represent a complementary fit in the minds of consumers.  Helps differentiate a firm’s product from those of its competitors  Helps take advantage of distribution capabilities of co-branding partners  Generic Brands: A no-frills, no-brand-name, low-cost product that is simply identified by its product category.  Brand Licensing: A practice allowing other companies to use a brand name in exchange for a payment.  Multibrand strategy:  In this strategy, the company has more than one brand of product, competing with each other, in a given market.  Under multibrand strategy there may not even be manufacturer identification, unless required by law.  This contrasts with the strategy of family brands where the separate items are given a common line identity and are usually each directed to one segment within the market.

 Multi product strategy:  A strategy where a brand is used on two or more individual products.  The product group may or may not be all of that firm's product line.  The individual of the family also carry individual brands to differentiate them from other family .  In rare cases there are family brands that have as other family brands, each of which has individual brands.