Week 1 - BRANDING:

Marketing Strategy and Brand

Positioning


Marketing 101: Building Strong Brand Part 1 & 2:

Marketing = Study of a Market. Market = Exchange : Buyer / Seller, or even non profit
Product Focus Marketing = Increase sales, improve your product, lower your costs and increase your
profitability. Inside-Out. Profitabily comes from volume. It's Market share.
Customer Focus Marketing = Focus on the customer and competition. Look at what the customer
wants and build a product that fills that need. Outside-In. Everybody wants something different. You
can't satisfy everybody. You got to find customers and satisfy them = segmentation. Profitabilty comes
from value. You can increase prices, build loyalty and sell multiple times. It's customer share. It's
more difficult and expensive to get new customers but then it's less expensive to sell again. You can
introduce cross selling (if you buy a jean and we try to sell you a belt or a pair of shoes). Profitability
= Premium price, Loyalty , Cross selling.
Connected community: you got to deliver a really good customer experience so that you can use social
media and communities to build a good image of your brand / company / business. It's important to
focus on the entire customer experience, not just the moment when they buy your product.
Because of economic uncertainty, marketers have to be more authentic, and transparent to be efficient.

3 Principles of Marketing: Customer Value (give great and genuine value to your customer)
/ Differentiation (why your product is different) / Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (to
focus on the right customers)
4 P's of Marketing: Product, Place, Promotion, Price
Product = Seller / Price = Buyer / Promotion = Ways to promote / Place = Place where you
buy (physical, online...)
It also applies to non profit: Red cross and blood samples: Product = Be good and save lives /
Price = Blood / Place = blood mobile truck / Promotion = Ads, campaigns...

Strategic Marketing:

Market Driven Principles:
Know your market: know what your customers want and how your competitors provide it
Customers have the final say: they are going to chose what they want. They classify product
attributes into 3 bundles: Operational, Design and Useful for them. It's the way customers
chose what they buy.
Commit to being the first in the markets you serve
Deliver total quality to guarantee customer satisfaction

Value map: Try to give fair value in 2 bundles, but premium in 1. Fair value line is constantly moving
after competitors reactions!

Operational Excellence: Price,
customer service...
Performance Superiority: Style,
technology, design...
Customer Intimacy

=> Agree on what these 3
dimensions are for your business.
They change overtime! These
indicators are used to determine
fair value!
=> You can set ST/MT/LT
strategies to beat the competition.
In mature markets, Performance superiority is high and the operational excellence tends to be high too
(prices go down...). Competitors will move on the axes too.
Segmentation and Targeting:


Segmenting allows you to deliver the best value to each segment, which is better than to deliver an
average value to every segment.
Market Segmentation is the process of dividing a market into distinct subsets, where any subset may
conceivably be selected as a marketing target to be reached with a distinct marketing mix.
Segmentation Methods:
Characteristics of the customer: Male/Female, Old/young...
Benefits sought: Comfort, Technology, Price...
Systematic, product-related behaviors : purchasing behavior, by channel
Geographic segmentation (Zip Code, PRIZM..): where you live physically affects your online
behavior !







Then you need to choose a segment:
What makes a segment attractive?
Monitor if the segment match with the product you sell
Segment Selection Criterias:


Brand Positioning:
Positioning is positioning your brand to meet the needs of the targeted segment.
What is a brand ?
Traditional: It's a promise of quality
Modern: It's whatever the customer thinks it is !















Brand Mantra: The Elevator Speech:

How can you define your brand in 30 seconds?
You can define a mental map
Brand associations and responses for a specific target. Shows how your brand is perceived.
Ask consumers "What comes to your mind when thinking about...?"
Then you group brand associations into categories.


Then you take the 5 to 10 concepts or phrases of your brand (Core brand values) and relate them to
points of parity + points of difference
Mental Map => Core Brand values => Brand Mantra
Brand Mantra = heart and soul of the brand / essence of the brand / 3 to 5 words phrases that capture
the irrefutable essence or spirit of the brand positioning and brand values
Communicate + Simplify + Inspire
Used internally to guide decisions = what the brand should or shouldn't be associated with

Designing the Brand Mantra!
Brand function describes the nature of the product or service or the type of experiences or
benefits the brand provides
The Descriptive modifier clarifies its nature
The Emotional modifier : how does the brand provide benefits, and in what way

Emotional
Modifier
Descriptive
Modifier
Brand
Functions
Nike Authentic Athletic Performance
Disney Fun Family Entertainment
Macdonald Fun Family Food


Experiential Branding:

Redefining what a brand is:
Differenciation => Experience
Promise => Relationship
Attributes => Personality
Static => Dynamic
Mass => individual
Awareness => Relevance



Connecting experience to the brand:
Experiential Brand Positioning
What does the brand stand for
Multisensory strategy
Different from the competitors
Experiential Brand Value Promise
Describes what customer gets in
experiential terms: Sense Feel Think
Act Relate
Experiential components:
Five senses
Consistent experience across senses, create sensory experience that extends acress channels
Emotions
Appeal to customers inner feelings and emotions, connect mild to strong positive feelings
with the brand
Cognitive
Appeal to the intellect, engage customers creatively, problem-solving experiences, use of
surprise, intrigue and provocation
Behave
Affect bodily experiences, lifestyles, enrich customer lives, show them ways of doing things,
alternative lifestyles, can be rational, but can ne motivational, inspirational and spontaneous
Social
Create feeling of community or belonging; the future ideal self that consumer wants to
relate to; broader social system, culture

Experience within the 4 P's:
Product built in experiential features
Marriott: personal luxury, style, edge, pulse
Apple: design, beauty, elegance
Place: design, music, fragrance, type of salespeople
Sephora, Victoria Secret
Promotion: Noteworthy, experiential brand personality
Price: auctions (ebay), promotions bags...

Strong Brands Weak Brands
Make clear promises that are kept overtime Make vague promises that change
Have rich, unique brand equity...strong thoughts
and feelings
Very general equity and low emotional
commitments
Are dependable and deliver consistently Have spotty reputations, create doubt
Have a loyal franchise Little loyalty, rely on pricing and
short-term promotional incentives
Superior products and processes
Distinctive positioning and customer experience
Alignment of internal and external commitment
to the brand








Week 2 - BRANDING:
Customer Decision Making and the
Role of Brand


Shopper Marketing:


Brands need to understand the shopping experience from a shopper POV.
People make decisions 24/7 in an omni channel world.
Shoppers make:
Impulse purchase decisions
Decisions on habit, intuition and emotion
Decisions based on what they see and miss

Shoppers think in terms of personal relevance:
Who is it for?
When do you use it?
You need to be in their lives.
Shopping process is multi-staged/multi-channel.

Stages of the buying process:

Decision making often proceeds in
stages. Although real decisions are
more complex, simple stage models are
useful to understand customer behavior
and the marketing actions that are
likely to be successful

















?
YES
YES
NO
?
NO
?
Awareness
of Need
Identify
Products
Get Information
about Products
Evaluate
Products
Purchase
Product
Use
Product(s)
Post-Purchase
Positive Evaluation
Products
Word of
Mouth
The customer journey has become more complex:



The shopping process happens 24/7!




Shopping Process:

Trigger: Need recognition
When the prospective customer enters the market (when the toaster breaks)
If not a natural need, the marketer needs to create that need
THEN people pay attention to the products/brands related to the category
Implication: know what the trigger events are and when they might occur or CREATE trigger
events!
You can
Create shopper goals: Halloween, Back to school time, Easter, Christmas
Create Email lists: welcome email with promotion
Create Urgency: flash sales, one time offers, special promotions
Create reminders: help people remember when they have to purchase something
Create New Products: iPad for Apple
Create New Events: Fashion show for fashion, charity, tastings
Create News/Dialogue: Social media.
The goal of all these actions is to TRIGGER THE SHOPPING PROCESS!

Information Search Stage:

Consideration set:
After they have decided to purchase, consumers come up with different items they could buy, its a
consideration set.

Consumers often search for limited amount of information.
Evoked set: number of products you can name without help in a specific category.

Ask yourself: How much information will people search for?
Formation of Consideration Set:

Connect Online with Offline Experience:
A customer looking at a dress on the website would be shown the dress on interactive displays when
she enters the store
New technology allows retailers to follow customers in the store as they browse (as they can now do
online) or when they pick up products.
Using online-data, in-store data, location information and predictive analytics: In-Store Personalized
Recommendations on displays or through salespeople
Traditional advertising creates brand awareness:
Purpose: to create top of mind awareness so brand comes readily to mind and is included to
consideration set.
Example: Big ads in the street: Nike
Create Brands through Flagship stores: Offline
External Search In Store:
What drives attention?
Nature of the set: goal driven (Ill buy ketchup VS Ill find something for dinner)
Social influences? Very important: Facebook, Twitter, Consumer Reviews, Salespeople
Getting Customers Attention:

Capacity is limited
Information can be too much!
Filters
Cocktail party effects
Attention is not enough; customers have to get it: you can use striking colors!


Good example of the use of colors to differentiate the quality of products.
Choice Overload:


Jam Experiment:
More people came to taste the 24 jams, but more people bought jams after the test of the 6 jams. The
conversion was better. It shows that choice overload can lead to no choice!
Perceived Variety VS Actual Variety:
6 jelly beans flavors: Organized < Disorganized => Disorganized gave the impression of more choice
so students picked more jelly beans
24 jelly beans flavors: Organized > Disorganized => Choice overload for disorganized because 24
jelly beans flavors was confusing, or too complex to decide
Reconciling the Paradox:
Decision process is staged
At the assortment stage, variety is good
At the choice stage, variety can become complex
How to solve that:
You can have salespeople, experts, who explain the product: for cheese, wine, computers


The more alignable you make the attributes, the easier it is for the consumer to choose!

It can be done thanks to applications on smartphones


The best way to put products is to put it in a way that is natural for the consumer. If you choose your
wine by color of grape, you will appreciate the bottles to be assorted by color of grape.
It has to be simple for the consumer to choose so that he is not overwhelmed!

Purchase stage:


Conversion and Purchase:
Evaluate the alternatives and pick a brand
Importance of fair price
Increase accessible variety (multiple purchases)

Mindless shopping (study by DICKSON and SAWYER):

Price awareness:
Average time between arriving and departing from product category = 12 seconds
In 85% of purchases only the chosen brand was handled, and 90% of shoppers inspected
only one size
21% could not offer a price estimate when asked

Only 50% were able to state correct price!
93% did know relative price! Lower, higher or the same as other products in the same category.
Reference prices:
Consumers do not evaluate price absolutely, but rather relatively. Context Matters!
Two kinds of reference prices:
External reference price: List Price VS Sale Price, Low price Guarantee
Internal reference price: one that is recorded in consumers memory.

Internal Reference Prices:

Memory of price may not be accurate.

If brand is frequently promoted, consumers tend to lower their internal reference point and wont buy
it unless its promoted.

Consumers have a notion of fair price
Acquisition utility
Transaction utility

Asymmetric response to price changes.

Improve sales:

A study showed that interesting and original colors or flavors names increases likelihood of choice.


Post-Purchase:


What does customer satisfaction mean?
F (Actual performance Expectations)
F (Perceived performance, Will expectations) Should expectations

If
Perceived performance equals expectations, they will stay neutral and eventually buy the
product again
Perceived performance is lower or higher than expectations, they will actively react: social
Medias, word of mouth

How does it work?

You have to have high expectations so that customers want to buy, and then to have higher perceived
performance so that they are satisfied.




Word of mouth:

Person to person: 9 to 1 rule

Social Media:
Social commerce: Pinterest, Facebook
Conversation: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr
Images: Instagram, Vine
C to C Review Websites: Yelp, Tripadvisor

More than ever, customer satisfaction is essential so that customers spread positive word of mouth.

Messages that Catch on and Get Shared: from Contagious, by Jonah BERGER (2013)

Social Currency: We share what makes us look good

Triggers: we reminded, we share

Emotion: emotional messages are more powerful

Public: making behavior public makes it more catching

Practical value: we like to be useful and informative

Stories: effectiveness depends on celebritys expertness



Shopper Marketing

Need to understand the shopping experience for customers POV
Shoppers make impulse purchase decisions
Shoppers make decisions on habit, intuition and emotion
Shoppers make decisions based on what they see (and miss)

Shoppers think in term of personal relevance (who is it for? When do I use it?)

Shopping process is multi-staged/multi-channel








Week 3 - BRANDING:
Effective Brand Communications
Strategies and Repositioning
Strategies


Brand Messaging & Communication:


What is Perception?
Its the process of developing an interpretation of a stimulus, or in other words, deciding what a
stimulus means.
Its the most crucial process in customer behavior for two reasons:
What customers perceive is what affects their actions
What is perceived is not necessarily what is True
Process of Perception:
Perception is constructive; people construct interpretations as a function of context
The meanings are constructed as needed and are based upon two major factors:
The actual stimulus or event: Exposure and Attention (what is salient)
Our prior expectations and what we know (perceptual interpretation)

Overview of Perceptual Process:

The Stroop Test:

At the beginning its hard to tell the color of the font, but then you get the pattern. However, its still
uncomfortable because our subconscient wants to read the word.
We are also sensible to visual illusions:
<--> is perceived to be shorter than >--<, whereas its the exact same length.
What we perceive often corresponds to our prior expectations: 13 / B example.

Customers give importance to proximity. They think two things are similar if they are shown together.
Similarity is very important too. If 2 products look the same, customers will think they are of the same
quality.


Studies have shown that people think that a product is better, just by putting the name of a brand on it.
Everybody responses to that phenomenon.
Thats why Coca Cola is estimated to be worth 70 billion dollars as an asset.

Brand Elements: Choosing a Brand Name:


Brand elements
A variety of brand elements can be chosen that inherently enhance brand awareness or facilitate the
formation of strong, favorable and unique brand associations:
Brand name
Logo
Symbol
Color
Character
Packaging
Slogan
You have to ask yourself questions about brand elements:
How well do the brand elements work together to provide an identity for the product or service?
What would customers think about the product if they only saw the brand elements?

Brand elements choice criteria:
Memorable
Easily recognized
Easily recalled
Meaningful
Descriptive
Persuasive
Appealing
Fun and interesting
Aesthetically
Rich visual and verbal imagery
Protectable
Legally
Competitively
Adaptable
Flexible
Updateable
Transferable
Within and across product categories
Across geographical boundaries and
cultures

Brand elements choice:
Each brand element plays a different role in creating the overall perception: different strengths and
weaknesses
Brand elements should be used strategically to achieve a balance and impact.
Need consistency and integration.

Effect of Brand Names:
The brand name is very important and affects the behavior of different people:
Consumers: affects likelihood of purchase
Employees: affects moral and productivity
Firm: can limit opportunities; new products, new regions
Investors: can cause subconscious judgments about the companys merits/strengths
Type of names:

Value of a Good Name:

Names for New Start-Ups:
New businesses need their own websites and most recognizable URLs have already been taken.
Solution: invent words (Mibblio, Kaggle, Shodogg, Zaarly)
Picking Brand Names in China:
Its a huge market so many brands try to adapt their name to Chinese language via specialized
agencies:


Brand Elements: Color & Taglines:


Rules about Color:
Ultimate goal is to own a color
Tiffanys light blue, Mary Kays pink
Color can be used to separate product lines

Different viewers experience color differently

Ensuring consistency of color across platforms/media is difficult

Colors can create very strong perceptions: luxury (gold, silver, black, white), gender color (blue, pink)



The appreciation of colors depends on the culture! Orange is less appreciated in the US than in India
for example.

Colors have different meanings:
Red: stimulate the appetite, also love
(passion), excitement
Blue: most preferred color by men,
productive color, lower appetite
Green: tranquility and health, money,
nature, fertility (M&Ms)
Brown: reliability, boredom,
practicality, earth
White: purity, innocence, empty,
spacious (creates the illusion of space)
Black: evil, death, mourning,
slimming
Yellow: bright, gives you energy, been
shown to make babies cry, causes eye
fatigue
Orange: excitement, enthusiasm,
warmth, caution
Lavender: calms the nerves,
relaxation
Purple: loyalty, wealth, success,
wisdom
Pink: girls color, calming, warm



Role of Symbols:
Beware, they can become outdated!


Slogans/Taglines:
Can be tailored to a positioning strategy
Can remove some of the ambiguity associated with brand and/or symbol
Can generate its own equity/emotion (reach out and touch someone)
Can reinforce the name or symbol (from sharp minds come sharp products)
Tagline basics:
Must be short
Must be differentiated from competition
Must be unique
Must be easy to say and remember
Cannot have any negative connotations
Can be protected and trademarked
Evokes an emotional response
Types of taglines:
Imperative: Just Do It (Nike), Invent (HP), Think Different (Apple)
Descriptive: Moving at the Speed of Business (UPS), Bullish on America (Merrill Lynch),
Youre in good hands (Allstate)
Superlative: The ultimate driving machine (BMW), There is no better way to fly (Lufthansa)
Provocative: Got Milk? (Dairy Council)
Clever: Drivers Wanted (VW)

Brand Elements: Packaging:


Packaging:
Packaging is very important to sell. A lot of researches were done in the 30s, when self-service
supermarkets started becoming popular.

Experiment: detergent with circles on the package VS triangles. It went out that people preferred the
package with circles, but also believed that it was a better detergent!
Packaging can:
Influence at the point of purchase
Have a continuing influence at the point of consumption

Packaging has multiple objectives:
Identify
Present information (descriptive and persuasive)
Protect and allow transportation
Store
Aid consumption

Creating Impactful Packaging:
Understand that package aesthetics and function are both critical
The package has to grab consumers attention in a sea of competing messages
But it also has to work well so that consumers will buy again

Know your distribution channels
How do retailers view your package?
How are channels changing?
Which retailers like which package configuration?

Packaging shapes:

Very famous packaging: CK One by Calvin KLEIN which was made for both men and women.
We can notice that the logo is symmetric,





These two packages both increased consumption and so the number of sales for Coca-Cola and Heinz.
They made it easier for the consumer to consume the last units of the product.

Brand Elements: Persuasion:


Persuasion:
Definition: Active attempt to change belief and attitude. Its difficult because customers have prior
beliefs.
Elaboration likelihood model: Two routes to persuasion
Systematic (central)
Superficial (peripheral) processing

Use of celebrity spokespeople

Elaboration likelihood model:
Central Route to Persuasion:
When motivation (involvement), opportunity and ability to process marketing messages are
high
Focus mainly on central cues in the message

Peripheral Route to Persuasion:
When motivation, opportunity, ability and elaboration likelihood are low
Focus primarily on peripheral cues in the message


Peripheral cues:
Classical conditioning: PAVLOV experiment, or hamburger and coke
Reciprocity: you owe me (Robert CIALDINI)
Consistency: weve always done it that way
Social proof: everybodys doing it
Liking: love me, love my ideas
Authority: just because I say so
Scarcity: quick, before theyre all gone (Lulu lemon)

What makes a good celebrity endorser?
General considerations:
Celebrity/audience fit
Celebrity/brand fit
Celebrity attractiveness
Practical consideration (cost, celebrity exposure, risk)
Social network

High Q-Rating
How appealing is this celebrity among those who do know him/her?
Ratio of popularity/familiarity
Conducted by Marketing Evaluations, Inc.


Transfer of Meaning Model:
Celebrities = individuals charged with detailed and powerful meanings
Advertising firm chooses celebrity that best represents the appropriate symbolic properties of the
product.
Consumers derive meaning from celebrities and transfer same meaning to product
fMRI scans show that there is more brain activation when products are presented with images of
celebrities a visceral reaction to celebrity


Source Models:
Source Credibility: Effectiveness depends on celebritys expertness and trustworthiness
Source Attractiveness: Effectiveness depends on familiarity, likability and/or similarity
Familiarity: knowledge of the source through exposure
Likability: affection for the source as a result of the sources physical appearance and behavior
Similarity: supposed resemblance between the source and receiver of the message

Example: Tiger WOODS with Nike. He is an expert in golf, so people trust him. Recently he lost
some attractiveness, but he still has a lot of Credibility.

Celebs and Models
How are celebrities used in advertisements?
Explicit mode: I endorse this product
Implicit mode: I use this product
Imperative mode: You should use this product
Co-present mode: celebrity appears with product


Repositioning a Brand:


Repositioning a Brand:
How can you keep the brand fresh?
Brand equity MUST be actively managed over time!
Brand meaning must be reinforced
Sometimes brand meaning must be adjusted
Branding program will need to be changed and new sources of equity identified and built

5 Rationales for Brand Change:

1. The identity/execution was poorly conceived: can by identified by measures of consumer
interest, brand associations, sales
2. The target for the identity/execution is limited: may need to change to reach a broader
market
3. The identity/execution has become out of date: markets change such that a working position
may become obsolete
4. The identity/execution loses its edge, becomes old-fashioned: consumers and markets
change such that positions/executions that were once contemporary become less so
5. The identity/execution has just become tired: same over time may become boring to
consumers, losing ability to attract attention. Change can generate news.
When you reposition a brand, the most important word is CONSISTENCY. You have to stay close to
the brands DNA.
Potential Cognitive Inconsistency:

Consistency Theories: the basic idea is that there is a drive to maintain consistency within cognitive
systems. Thus, cognitive structures may change in order to increase consistency among elements.
Managing Brand Equity: Changing Minds?

Finally, Oldsmobile cars went out of market, because the new marketing strategy wasnt consistent
with the brands DNA. Dads arent exciting.
Evolving Brand Associations:
A brand can evolve more gradually to gain more contemporary associations while maintaining
familiarity
Symbols: can update without changing meaning
Brand name: can change to reflect evolving identity
Slogans: easier to change than the name
New Products: Can be true to the core identity, but add a modern, innovative element
Some companies use what we call a Just noticeable difference, year after year.


Evolving Trademarks:
Change Brand Names to Eliminate Constraints:
Boston Chicken Boston Market: because they sold more than chicken
Weather Channel Weather Companies
Starbucks Image

Example of Evolving Brand Image:
A brand image is a mental aggregation of cognitive associations, many subliminal.

Budweiser did the same thanks to cool advertisements, sponsorshipsTo seduce fathers and young
people too.



Major Points

Consistency over time is very valuable in building strong brands

All brand elements should work in harmony to communicate brand identity

Change is sometimes necessary, but be cautious!

Begin by understanding sources of equity and the current contributions to POP and POD,
strength, favorability and uniqueness