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MK/MKT - 652: Strategic Brand Management Program: MBA Section: G

Analysis of an Article: Customer Centered Brand Management Submitted to:

Sir Rashid Hussain


Submitted by:

Samraan Javed

12051032-004

DATE: 20-03-13 REMARKS ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

What do you do, when your brand manager is persisting with a brand that has lost its punch? a. Pricing: I will review the pricing strategy for the brand that whether the price we had set is value to the consumers. As our companys corporate strategy is to differentiate our brand and provide great customer service that it would eventually be a great value, so higher prices may signify to consumers higher quality. As premium pricing may attract the consumers of the target section we are serving in. b. Distribution: The availability of our brand in the market must be checked periodically. Whether we are having good relations with our 1st tier, 2nd tier, and 3rd tier suppliers and with the distributors, retailers, and customers. Good relations and linkage among the supply chain would help in better serving the customers in an effective way. c. Quality: Quality of a brand impacts satisfaction. Higher quality will translate to more satisfied customers who come back again and again to purchase companys offerings. So the quality of our brand will be assessed both technically and humanly and if needed, latest technological machines and human resource will be inducted to ensure better quality without compromising. d. Presence: Products or services with a high profile market presence will lead to brand recognition and increased sales. So Ill review the brands prominence in the media that whether an ad is frequently playing to deliver the message to the maximum audience. e. Awareness: Awareness is linked with presence; the higher the brands offerings, the better the sales results will be. So brands presence in the paid & unpaid media and the clarity of message will be assessed that whether customers perceive the same message that the company has planned to make them aware of.

f. Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning: It is better to keep up with the right segmentation, effective target market and positive image in the minds of customers. For that, market survey will be conducted to identify the right segment for our brand and also assess whether we had chosen wide of the mark segment priory. After the review of segmentation, effective target market will be selected, as our company will be targeting high income consumers. Positioning will be to differentiate from the competitors and premium image will be created to get high returns. g. Marketing Mix: Product decisions like brand name, functionality, styling, quality, safety, packaging, and warranty will be reviewed to check why our brand has lost its punch and has no more attractiveness. Our brands pricing strategy will include assessing

skimming/penetration strategy, suggested retail price, discounts for sales promotion, seasonal pricing, and pricing for bundle purchase. Distribution is all about getting the products to the end customers. It includes effective and efficient channels, market coverage, inventory management, warehousing, operations management, distribution centers, and order processing strategies. In order to generate a positive response about the brand, promotion is needed. It includes push or pull strategy, personal selling & sales force, sales promotions, and customer relationship management. h. Benefits: Consumers may equate certain positive and negative consequences with use of any brand. So we will be promoting and highlighting maximum benefits of our brand to the consumers and will also develop long lasting relationships with the brandassociated consumers. i. Feedback: Continuous feedback from the consumers will be gathered to know the satisfaction level and what more they expect from our brand, what are the comments for our prevailing brand, how we can serve you better, do you want more flavors etc.

How would you position your brand? Positioning strategies can be conceived and developed in a variety of ways. It can be derived from the object attributes, competition, application, the types of consumers involved, or the characteristics of the product class. All these attributes represent a different approach in developing positioning strategies, even though all of them have the common objective of projecting a favorable image in the minds of the consumers or audience. a. Using product characteristics or customer benefits: In this strategy brands attributes are highlighted and are directed to customer benefits in order to have great customer value. Ill position my brand by telling the consumers that this high-end tablet (Tab) contains 12 mega pixels camera, capacitive screen, micro SD up to 32 giga bytes, GPRS, Edge, Wi-Fi, and dual core 1 GHz CPU. These specifications will provide maximum utility to consumers that are ready to pay a premium price for this innovative artifact. b. Pricing as a positioning strategy: The brands target market is high income groups, professionals, brand conscious, and associated consumers. So we will come up with our brand thatd of premium price, exclusive specs, epic after sales service, and warranty claims. We may fix our brands price range at $650 where the competitors are giving for $800. c. User-based positioning: Focusing on the unique characteristics of specific users can also be effective. Our segment is sophisticated and usually demands high quality, advanced specifications, and awesome overhaul after the purchase, so we can position our brand by promoting in such a way that this segment would be highly satisfied and would remain associated to our brand.

What would you do, when you have got 2 company brands and single customer? a. Co-branding: First option that we have is to go for co-branding. This strategy is being used increasingly by companies to raise awareness and generate sales. For example, in 2006 Aston Martin and Nokia collaborated to produce the Nokia 8800. So, if our company is having a jogging shoes brand and sports kits then we will co-brand in a way that shoes brand join hands with kits brand and will promote kits with shoes. This will provide better quality to the customer rather to target disjointedly. On contrary, if we are manufacturing football kits and logos separately we will put the logos on kits and will target the consumer like Nikes tick on Manchester Uniteds kit. This strategy will create synergy between brands, lessen cost, consumer association will be enhanced, and company will be able to generate high customer value.

Your brand is no more attractive to the customer, what would be your action plan?

References http://www.va-interactive.com/inbusiness/editorial/sales/ibt/branding.html http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/ http://www.marketing91.com/positioning-strategies/ https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Py_gcDz8R6IJ:www.otmmarketing.co m/Portals/42226/docs/product_positioning.pdf+&hl=en&gl=pk&pid=bl&srcid=ADG EEShaZKonfiwcL4gMYK5_FTFLrkVFrQVRDzyKc6V-Gf6VSUlbYYzHcshOThN1lqNAbHol55MtBm3NzG2s_eH3kueqSdtE3otUPJEgnjpiXzy5xgGb2rSn80kJDwowCtkFZcILq&sig=AHIEtbQtsNEZMNe tJ3KtnYUJIOvAnAYoKA http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/07/0710_cobranded/5.htm

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