Brand Building

BRAND BUILDING

HOW TO BUILD A BRAND Brand building is continuous process. The model may be used to illustrate the salient steps of various inputs, outcomes, and assessment.

INPUTS:  Identification of key customer groups or segments.  Understanding customer expectations, needs and aspirations.  Assessing competitive offering including substitutes.  Building customer confidence by - customizing the product, - establishing the key image of the brand, - dealer support- easy availability and push, - innovative communication and promotion schemes, and - elegant packaging. • Total brand management- both hardware and software aspects

OUTCOME:  Market share  New customers attracted  Customer loyalty index  Increased profitability  Brand knowledge

 ASSESSMENT:  Continuous feedback from customers as well as trade channels.  Scientific inquiry into customer satisfaction determining – who is the customer and profile of the target segment, – what constitutes customer satisfaction, – designing the scale to measure customer satisfaction, and – measuring the current levels of customer satisfaction, – trend analysis and pointers for management of customer satisfaction.  Brand strength score.

SEVEN MAIN FACTORS IN BUILDING SUCCESSFUL BRANDS

Quality  Quality is a vital ingredient of a good brand.  Remember the “core benefits” – the things consumers expect. These must be delivered well, consistently.  The branded washing machine that leaks, or the training shoe that often falls apart when wet will never develop brand equity  Research confirms that, statistically, higher quality brands achieve a higher market share and higher profitability that 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.  It 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.  Think of some leading consumer product brands like Gillette, Coca Cola and Sellotape that, in many ways, defined the markets they operate in and continue to lead.

 However, being first into a market does not necessarily guarantee long-term success.  Competitors – drawn to the high growth and profit potential demonstrated by the “market-mover” – will enter the market and copy the best elements of the leader’s brand  A good example is the way that Body Shop developed the “ethical” personal care market but were soon facing stiff competition from the major high street cosmetics retailers.

Long-term perspective  This leads onto another important factor in brand-building: the need to invest in the brand over the long-term. 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 shortterm 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 favourite brands invest heavily in staff training so that the face-to-face contact that you have with the brand helps secure your loyalty.

BRAND BUILDING MODEL  CUSTOMER-BASED BRAND EQUITY (CBBE) MODEL 

Keller (1993) introduces the Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model, which “approaches brand equity form the perspective of the consumer -whether it be an individual or an organization”

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The model is based on the premise “that the power of a brand lies in what customers have learned, felt, seen and heard about the brand as a result of their experiences over time”

The way to build a strong brand, according to the CBBE model, is by following four sequential steps, each one representing a fundamental question that customers ask about brands:

 1) Ensuring the identification of the brand with a specific product category or need in the customer’s mind -who are you?  2) Establishing the meaning of the brand in the customer’s mind by strategically linking tangible and intangible brand associations with certain properties -what are you?  3) Eliciting customer responses to the brand identification and meaning -what about you?  4) Converting the response into an active, intense and loyal relationship between the customers and the brand -what about you and me?

 The CBBE model is built by “sequentially establishing six ‘brand building blocks’ with customers”, that can be assembled as a brand pyramid.      

Brand salience relates to the awareness of the brand. Brand performance relates to the satisfaction of customers’ functional needs. Brand imagery relates to the satisfaction of customers’ psychological needs. Brand judgments focus on customers’ opinions based on performance and imagery. Brand feelings are the customers’ emotional responses and reactions to the brand. Brand resonance is the relationship and level of identification of the customer with a brand.

CUSTOMER-BASED BRAND EQUITY PYRAMID

AAKER’S TEN GUIDELINES FOR BUILDING STRONG BRANDS 

Brand identity: Have an identity for each brand. Consider the perspective of the brand as- person, brand as organization, and brand as symbol, as well as brand as product. Identify the core identity. Modify the identity as need for different market segments and products.

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Value proposition: know the value proposition for each brand that has a driver role. Consider emotional and symbolic benefits as well as functional benefits. Know how endorser brands will provide creditability.

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Brand position: for each brand have a brand position that will provide clear guidance to those implementing a communication program.

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Execution: Execute the communication program so that it not only is on target with the identity and the position but achieves brilliance and durability.

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Consistency over time: Have as a goal a consistent identity, position, and execution over time. Maintain symbols, imagery, and metaphor that work. Understand and resist organizational towards changing the identity, position and execution.

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Brand system: make sure that the brands in the portfolio are consistent and synergistic. Know their roles.

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Brand leverage: Extend brands and develop co-branding programs only if the brand identity will be both used and reinforced. Identify range brands and, for each, develop an identity and specify how that identity will be different in disparate product contexts.

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Tracking brand equity: track brand equity over time, including brand awareness, perceived quality, brand loyalty, and especially brand associations.

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Brand responsibility: have someone in charge of the brand who will create the identity and positions and coordinate the execution over organizational units, media and markets. Beware when brand is being used in business where it is not cornerstone.

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Invest in brands: Continue investing in brands even when the financial goals are not being met.

BRAND BUILDING TOOLS  Public relation and press releases: brands can get lot of attention from well placed newspaper and magazine stories.  Sponsorship: Brands are frequently promoted in sponsored events such as world famous bicycle or car races.  Clubs and consumer communities: Brands can form the centre of a customer community, such as Harley-Davidson motorcycle owners or Bradford plate collectors.  Factory visits: Hershey’s and Cadbury’s, two candy companies, have built theme parks at their factories and they invite visitors to spend the day.

 Trade shows: Trade shows represent a great opportunity to build brand awareness, knowledge and interest.  Event Marketing: Many automobile companies make an event of introducing their new car models.  Public facilities: Perrier, the bottled water company, etched its identity in the public mind by building running tracks in public parks to promote healthful lifestyles.  Social cause marketing: Brands can achieve by donating money to charitable causes. Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream turns over 7 percent of its profits to charity.

 High value for the money: Some brands create positive word of mouth by offering exceptional value for the money. Examples like IKEA or Southwest Airlines.  Founder’s or a celebrity personality: A colourful founder such as Richard Branson, or a celebrity personality, such as Michael Jordan, can create positive effect for the brand.  Mobile phone marketing: Customers in the future will hear about brands on their wireless mobile phones as their m-commerce grows.

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