A Brand can convey upto six levels of meanings.

1. Attributes: Good engg., durability, high prestige, well built, etc.

2. Benefits: Attributes need to be translated into functional and
emotional benefits

3. Values: Something about producer’s values. Eg. Mercedes stands

for high performance, safety, prestige, and so on.

4. Culture: Mercedes represents German culture – organized,

efficient, high quality.

5. Personality: Project certain personality.

6. User: The kind of consumer who buys or uses the product.
 Brand
Organisational
Association

Country of Brand
Origin Personality

Product
User Attributes Symbols
Imagery Quality
Uses
Brand-customer
Relationships
Self-Expressive
Benefits
Emotional
Benefits

Product vs. Brand

 Four Components of Brand Value

BRAND = STORIES, IMAGES, ASSOCIATIONS

Reputation Value Experiential Value

Stories imply perceived quality of Stories shape experience of the
product features. product.

THE PRODUCT
(objective features, quality
standards, arguments)

Relationship Value Symbolic Value

Stories imply that firm is a long- Stories imbue the product with
term partner. values and identities.
Strategic Brand Management Process
 Brand Image

More deeply a person thinks about product

Strength of Brand information and relates it to existing brand
Associations knowledge, stronger is the resulting brand
association.

Favorability of Brand Is higher when a brand possesses relevant

attributes and benefits that satisfy consumer
Associations needs and wants.

Uniqueness of Brand “Unique selling proposition” of the product

Provides brands with sustainable competitive
Associations
advantage
 Brand Association

Pdt Related Organisational Personality Symbol

Association Association Association Association
• Product Class • Innovation • Upscale • Visual
• Pdt Related • Drive for Quality • Competent Imagery
Attributes • Concern for • Impressive • Metaphors
• Quality/Value Environment • Trustworthy • Brand
• Use Occasion • Culture/Values Heritage
• Fun/Humorous/
• Users • Programs/ Active
• Link to a Strategy • Casual/Formal/
country or • People Youthful
region • Intellectual
 Conveying Category Membership
• Announcing category benefits

• Comparing to exemplars

• Relying on the product descriptor

Four options
 Eliminate the factors taken for granted
 Reduce the factors below the industry standard
 Raise factors well above the industry standard
 Create factor that the industry never offered
 Positioning Statement (Template)

For (target audience) who wants/needs (reason to buy your

product/service/brand), the (product/service/brand) is a (frame of
reference) that provides (your key benefit). Unlike (your main
competitor), the (the product service/brand) provides (your key
differentiator).
 Brand Positioning Statement
• Target Group/Market: Segments, Size,
Accessibility, Responsiveness
• Nature of Competition:
• POPs/PODs: Parity or Differentiation or both
• Positioning Statement: In accordance with
the template
• Brand Mantra: Three-word Phrase
 Brand Mantra
• A 3 to 5 word encapsulation of Brand Position
• Neither an advtg slogan, nor a tagline

Company Brand Mantra Tagline

Nike Authentic – Athletic - Performance Just do it
Coca Cola Sharing – Happiness - Tasty Thanda matlab coca cola
Apple Smart – Technologic – Listen to Think Different
Music

Company Emotional Descriptive Brand Function

Modifier Modifier
Nike Authentic Athletic Performance
Coca Cola Sharing Happiness Tasty
Apple Smart Technologic Listen to Music
 Brand Perspectives: The six possibilities

• Visual/Verbal Perspective

• Positioning Perspective

• Brand Image Perspective

• Added Value Perspective

• Perceptual Appeal Perspective

• Personality Perspective
 Brand Building
(From Product to Values and Vice Versa)
Two movements:
• From product advantage to intangible values, or
• From values to product

Intangible added
values
Values, Mission

Personality

Benefits

Attributes

Ingredients
Tangible added
values Time
Source: J N Kapferer, The New Strategic Brand Management, 4 th edn, Kogan page
 Jean Noel Kapferer
Suggested six dimensions (Prism)

Physique Personality

Relationship Culture

Reflection Self Image

Brand Resonance Pyramid
 A McDonald’s Brand Identity
Core Identity
Value offering: pdt range, spl offers, and buying experience vs. price
Food quality: consistently hot, good-tasting at any McDonald’s
Service: Fast, accurate, friendly, and hassle free
Cleanliness: spotless operations on both sides of the counter
User: Families and kids are a focus, but serves a wide clientele
Extended Identity
Convenience: most convenient, quick service restaurant; located
close to where people live, work and gather; serves easy-to-eat food
Product scope: fast food, hamburgers, children entertainment
Sub brands: Big Mac, Happy Meals, Extra Value Meals, etc.
Brand persona: family oriented, wholesome, cheerful, fun
Logo: golden arches
Critique of Brand Element Options
 Customer experience
Value increases along a hierarchy:
• Commodities represent the lowest value and have the least value
added (for instance, coffee beans).
• Finished goods represent moderately higher value (roasted,
ground and packaged coffee).
• Services add further value to goods (coffee at a diner).
• Experiences add substantially more value to the mix of underlying
goods and services (coffee at a Starbucks).
• Transformational experiences represent the highest level of value
for customers.
An experience based strategy endeavors to create and capture
substantial value (and profits) by ‘‘staging’’ the provision of goods and
services in ways that deliver unique and valuable experiences to
customers (ideally, transformational experiences).
Source: James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II (2005), Customer experience places:
the new offering frontier, Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 33 No. 5.
 Prospect Goals Company Goals
Become Aware Drive Awareness
Pre-Purchase
Get Familiar Differentiate Benefits
Experience
Feel Relevant Connections Make Meaningful Connections
Feel Confident in a Few Brands Drive Brand into Consideration

Prospect Goals Company Goals

Trust the Brand Instill Trust
Purchase
Experience Select the Best Offering Provide Best Offering
Get the Best Value Deliver Value
Feel Good About Purchase Provide Comfort about Purchase

Company Goals Customer Goals

Post-purchase Deliver Brand Promise
Experience
Deliver Additional Brand Value
Delight Customers
Increase Brand Loyalty & Advocacy
Validate the Decision
Receive Expected Service & Support
Be Satisfied with Usage
Feel Confident in Brand
Brand Experience Scale
 Co-creating value with customers

Companies engage with customers to co-create unique products,

services and experiences responsive to individual needs and desires.

Four building blocks (the DART Model):

• Dialog – Interactive engagement and shared learning between the

company and the customer – building loyalty as well as value.

• Access – Providing access to inf’n & tools that enable customers to

directly engage & consider potential sources of value creation at co.

• Risk assessment – Helping customers understand the risks

associated with the pdts, services & experiences they are creating.

• Transparency – Providing less asymmetrical inf’n regarding prices,

costs and processes – empowering customers to be confident
Source: C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy (2004), Co-creating unique value with
customers, Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 32 No. 3.
 Consumer role in product innovation
• Traditionally, consumers’ role in innovation centred on importing
knowledge about needs and wants, which in turn prompts NPD
• Today, the Internet enables a two-way relationship, boosting
mechanisms for direct co-operation and knowledge creation
• Three consumer roles can be defined for consumer
involvement in product-innovation processes
• Consumer as ‘resource’
product experience, to keep abreast of trends and issues
that concern users and discussions on pdt-specific themes
• Consumers act as ‘co-creator’
virtual repre. and rapid prototyping, trial & error provides the
opportunity to improve upon a given concept
• Consumers act as ‘users’
provide product feedback or support
 Brand Assessment Criteria
1. Brand Equity 2. Business Strength
• Awareness • Sales
• Reputation • Market Share
• Differentiation • Profit margin
• Relevance • Growth
• Loyalty

3. Strategic Fit 4. Branding options

• Extendability • Transfer equity to another
brand
• Growth Potential
• Merge with other brand
• Business Fit • Transfer equity to an
umbrella brand
 Line Extension
• To fill out the line.
• Addition to an existing pdt line in a given category.
• New version of the product within the same product class.
Eg. New flavours, new packaging options, or new sizes.
• Can increase costs.
• Make the brand less focused.
• Expand the user base and provide variety.
• Energise the brand and managing true innovation.
• Pre-empt competition.
 Brand Extension
“Use of a brand name established in one product
class to enter another product class.”

“A wrong extension decision can be strategically damaging”.

What the Brand Name brings to the Extension?

1. Brand Association
• Purchase decisions are often based on a limited number
of product attributes.
• A credible and sustainable point of differentiation with
respect to a key attribute.
• A strong association can help the communication task as
well as position of the brand.
7 Approaches
• Same product in a different form.
• Distinctive Taste/ Ingradient/ Component.
• Companion Product, e.g. Colgate Toothbrushes.
• Customer Franchise, e.g. Visa Traveller cheques.
• Expertise, e.g. Honda’s experience in small motors helped
its lawn mowers.
• Benefit/Attribute/Feature, e.g. Ivory ‘mild’ shampoo.
• Designer or Ethnic Image, e.g. Pierre Cardin Wallets,
Porsche sunglasses.
2. Quality Association
• Product attribute positioning can get into a specification
battle.
Eg.: the brand with the most fibre; the fastest frequency response; the
lowest number of complaints, etc.

Competitors may alter their product and challenge the claim

or surpass it, and/or customers may get confused.
• Competing on the basis of high perceived quality often is
an attractive alternative.
Eg.: H-P provides products with an umbrella quality reputation.

According to one study, “the perceived quality of the brand in

its original context was a significant predictor of evaluation of
the extension.”
3. Awareness/ Presence
• Brand name awareness provides a familiarity which can
affect purchases.
• Recognition can translate directly into a market
advantage.
• High visibility/presence is a SCA.
• Creating awareness of a name and associating it with a
product class can be expensive.
Over $200 mn was reportedly spent in changing ‘ESSO’ to ‘EXXON’.
Black & Decker spent over $100 mn to establish its name on GE line
of small appliances & achieved only 57% awareness, lower than GE.
4. Trial Purchase
“Brand extension reduces the risk for a prospective buyer.”
It means that:
• the firm is established,
• the firm is likely to be around to support the product,
and
• is unlikely to promote a flawed product.
 Steps in Introducing Brand Extension
1. Defining Actual and Desired Consumer Knowledge
about the Brand
• Depth and breadth of awareness of the parent brand
• Strength, favorability and uniqueness of its associations

2. Evaluating Brand Extension Potential

• Consumer Factors
• Corporate and Competition Factors
• Category Factors

3. Identifying Potential for brand extension

• Transferability of parent brand associations
• The Fit
• Overall similarity/compatibility
• The Value Perception
• Competitive edge

4. Designing Marketing Programmes

• Choosing Brand Elements
• Designing Marketing Programmes
 Criteria for Brand Extension
1. The Fit
• Compatibility
The nature of the parent brand and the expertise it represents

• Management judgment
Will Nirma be acceptable as dish washing liquid, a toilet cleaner, etc.?
Will it be acceptable as cooking oil, sauce, ketchup and noodles?

• Customer Perceptions
What do consumers think?
2. The Value Perception
• Consistency in the Value Perception of the brand in the
new category as compared to its parent brand.

• ‘Nirma’ represents VFM position (Good quality at low price).

• This character/value should permeate all its incarnations.
• Raymond – good fit between the brand name and high
quality ready-to-wear trousers.
3. The Competitive Edge
• The extended brand needs to measure itself against
each strong competitor which it will face.
 Perception of Association
Favourable Unfavourable

Product
Related
Reason to avoid
‘Reason to buy’
Brand Association
Brand Purchase

Non-product

‘Hygiene’ Reasoning to Low impact ‘Hygiene’

Related

Facilitate Brand May not impact

Purchase Brand Equity