S/F(Supplementary File)

Unit 2. BRANDING

A brand is the name given by a firm to a product or a range of products. Branding gives products an identity that distinguishes them from similar products produced by rival firms. It helps to generate brand loyalty, encouraging customers to regularly purchase particular products.

Organizations can use a number of different approaches to branding:

- Individual or stand-alone branding, where business uses a range of brand names for a variety of products. Such branding allows the firm to develop brands for particular market segments. (E.g. Procter & Gamble relies on this branding policy for its range of fragrances, including Hugo Boss, Old Spice and Giorgio Beverley Hills.)

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- Corporate or family branding, where all the firm’s products are branded with the same name. This type of branding means that the promotion of one item will promote other products within the family.(e.g. Virgin, Heinz, Kraft employ this approach.)

A brand name should be snappy, easy to remember, unique and convey appropriate images or values. In addition, popular brands are often supported by advertising catch phrases, such as “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play”.

A major problem for organizations that trade globally is finding names that translate appropriately. One way to avoid language and translation difficulties is to invent a completely new word, such as Toyota’s Avensis.

The aim of branding products includes:

- aiding consumer recognition,

- making the product distinctive from competitors

- giving the product an identity or personality that consumers can relate to.

The choice of brand names is an important part of the overall marketing strategy and there are even specialist agencies who will advise firms on name suitability. These agencies will check to see that the proposed name has not been registered by another company.

It is claimed that effective brand identities will have the following benefits for businesses:

- increase the chance of consumer recall;

- clearly differentiate the product from others;

- allow for the establishment of a ‘family’ of closely associated products with the same brand name;

- reduce price elasticity of demand as consumers are shown to have preferences for well-known brands – loyalty to certain brands is a major marketing benefit.

A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.

Thus, a brand identifies the seller or maker. Under trademark law, the seller is granted exclusive rights to the use of the brand name.

A brand is essentially a seller’s promise to consistently deliver a specific set of features, benefits, and services to the buyers. The best brands convey a warranty of quality. But a brand is even a more complex symbol. A brand can convey up to six levels of meaning:

- Attributes: A brand first brings to mind certain attributes. Thus Mercedes suggests expensive, well-built, well- engineered, durable, high prestige, high resale value. For years Mercedes advertised, ‘Engineered like no other car in the world’.

- Benefits: A brand is more than a set of attributes. Customers are not buying attributes, they are buying benefits. Attributes need to be translated into functional or emotional benefits. The attribute expensive might translate into emotional benefit, ‘The car helps me feel important and admired’.

- Values: The brand also says something about the producer’s values. Thus, Merceders stands for high performance, safety, prestige, and so on.

- Culture: The brand may additionally represent a certain culture. The Merceders represents German culture: organized, efficient, high quality.

- Personality: The brand can also project a certain personality. If a brand were a person, an animal, or an object, what would come in mind?

It might take on the personality of an actual well-known person.

- User: The brand suggests the kind of consumer who buys the product. We would be to see a 20-year-old secretary driving a Merceders. We would expect instead to see a 55 - year-old top executive behind the wheel. The users will be those who respect the values, culture, and personality of the product.

All these suggest that a brand is a complex symbol. If a company treats a brand as a name, it misses the point of branding. The challenge in branding is to develop a deep set of meanings for the brand.

Even promoting the brand on one or more of its benefits can be risky. The most enduring meanings of a brand are its values, culture, and personality.

Answer the questions:

1. What is a company’s main technique for building brand awareness?

2. What is ‘brand image’?

3. Which brands are you loyal to? Why?

4. Why is that branded goods are often sold at higher prices than similar non-branded goods?

5. What different approaches to branding do companies use?

6. What is the aim of branding?

7. What are the benefits of branding for businesses?

8. What meanings can a brand convey?

UNIT 2 BRANDS

ADDITIONAL READING

1. Business brief.

2. Products and brands.

3. The purest treasure.

4. What is marketing?

5. Satisfying consumer needs.

6. Making a presentation.

HOMEREADING.

The Core Concept of Marketing. (p.6-14)

VIDEO.

Branding.

SKILLS.

Taking part in meetings. Presentation. (Course Book p.19 )

You work for a marketing agency representing a well-known chain of book shops. Your book shops have problems with the sales.

Make suggestions to improve your client’s sales and its brand awareness amongst its target consumers.

Present and discuss your ideas in the group.

CASE STUDY

CAFEROMA.

An informal meeting to discuss Caferoma’s problems.

Writing.

A memo. (Writing file pages 144-145)

Summarize what action you agreed to take at the meeting to solve Caferoma’s problems. Explain your reasons.

S/F(Supplementary File)

P. 23, 24,25,26,27,30,31

Ex.17 p.27

Ex.18 p.28

Ex.25 p.32

Presentations

Branding.

2. What is marketing?

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 932