UNDERSTANDING

BRAND,BRAND IMAGE AND

BRAND HIERARCHY
PRESENTED BY:
ALOK K ROY
IITTM
PGDM(SS)
2007-09
 What is a brand ?

A traditional scenario of market

Company A Product / services

Consumer
Company B

Company C

In a traditional market scenario, the company is catering to the

consumer.
The number of competitors are small.
In these markets the companies can come with advanced
technologies and other strategies to capture more market share.
(The size and power of the players is important.)
What is a brand ?

Company A
Product / services
Company B Consumer

Company C

In complex markets, the differences between companies are not

much.
The companies can not differentiate much themselves from others
on the basis of quality and technology etc. factors as all the
companies are competent enough.
This scenario explains the need for the differentiation for the
companies.
What is a brand ?

Branding is an effort to give a unique identity to the company’s

products and create emotional associations with consumers.
It is a form of marketing.

A brand is a set of associations that are linked to a product range, a

division, or company.
These associations reside in the memory of customers.
These associations help customers understand
what the brand or company is,
why it is potentially relevant to them,
how it is different or similar to other products made by the
company,
and how it is similar or different from competitor’s
products.
 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”.
• Interbrand - 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”.
 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.
 Integrity of Brand

Product Packaging
Websites

logo
Company
Product A

Product B
Advertisements
A brand is a promise. A promise to achieve certain results, deliver a
certain experience, or act in a certain way. A promise that is conveyed
by everything people see, hear, touch, taste or smell about your
business.
9.McDonald's
• 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”
1. 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
 Brand as an Asset
• “If Coca Cola lost everything except for
‘the formula’ and its brand name , it could
walk into any bank in the world and get
$100 billion loan to start from the scratch”
Fortune Magazine
From Products to Brands
BRANDED CONSUMERISATION
SPECTRUM
 FUNCTIONS OF BRANDS
 Awareness
 Risk Reducer
 Provides Information
 Provide Symbolic Consumption
 CHARACTERISTIC OF
BRANDS
 GENERIC
 EXPECTED
 AUGMENTED
 POTENTIAL
 Module 1 - Stage 2

Attributes

The Cola Wars: Energy Vs. Peace

 Branding gives the seller several
advantages
• Seller’s brand name and trademark provide legal
protection of unique product features
• Branding gives the seller the opportunity to attract a
loyal and profitable set of customers.
• Branding helps the seller segment markets.
• Strong brands help build corporate image, making it
easier to launch new brands and gain acceptance by
distributors and consumers.
 Benefits of Branding
TO A BUYER
• Help buyers identify the product that they
like/dislike.
• Identify marketer
• Helps reduce the time needed for purchase.
• Helps buyers evaluate quality of products
especially if unable to judge a products
characteristics.
• Helps reduce buyers perceived risk of purchase.
• Buyer may derive a psychological reward from
owning the brand, IE Rolex or Mercedes.
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.
Defining Your Brand

Positioning Statement

Fris Vodka Skandia is made from a

special, freeze-distillation process that
results in greater body and a smoother
and more satisfying taste when served as
cold as possible.

Physical Product Difference

Defining Your Brand

Positioning Statement

Bella Sera is the Italian wine that everyone is

talking about. Imported from Italy, Bella
Sera means “beautiful evening” and offers
wines that capture the relaxed, authentic and
welcoming essence of Italy.

Communication Difference
 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 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 Policies
• First question is whether to brand or not to brand.
Homogenous products are difficult to brand. Branding
policies are:
• Individual Branding: Naming each product differently
P&G, facilitates market segmentation and no overlap.
• Overall Family Branding: All products are branded with the
same name, or part of a name, IE Nokia, promotion of one
item also promotes other items.
• Brand Extension Branding: Use one of its existing brand
names as part of a brand for an improved or new product,
usually in the same product category.
75% new products are brand extensions!!
 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.
Communicating Your Brand

Brand Image

Brand image is everything. It’s the sum of all

tangible and intangible traits consistently
communicated.

• Ideas, beliefs, values, culture

• Name, symbol, packaging
• Advertising, sales materials, web site
“Image is
everything” Brand image may be the best, single investment a
company can make.
–Andre Agassi
EXPERIENCE PERCEPTION BRAND IMAGE
 BRAND
HIERARCHY
• Other Way
– Corporate brand
– Family Brand
– Individual Brand
– Modifier
• Sometimes brand hierarchy trees can
capture the brand portfolio structure. The
brand hierarchy tree structure looks like an
organization chart with both horizontal and
vertical dimensions.
• The horizontal dimensions reflect the
subbrands and endorsed brands that reside
under a brand umbrella. The vertical
dimension captures the number of brands
and subbrands that are needed for different
segments of the market.
 Brand HIERARCHY
• Brand Hierarchy Tress: Brand family

Colgate

Colgate Colgate Colgate Colgate

Toothpaste Toothbrush Dental Floss Mouthrinse

Classic Plus Precision

Diamond The wild

Heads ones
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.
2 Microsoft
3 IBM
4.GE
5.Intel
6.Nokia
7.Toyota
8. Disney
10.Mercedes-Benz
Thanks for
Your
Attention
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