BRAND BUILDING STRATEGIES

BRAND BUILDING STRATEGIES

¨ PRODUCT BRANDING

This is of the type one-brand one product. In terms of customer perception and information processing, the most effective way to designate a product is to give it an exclusive name, which would not be available to any other product. In the product branding strategy the brand is promoted exclusively so that it acquires its own identity and image. This way the brand is able to acquire a distinct position in the customer’s mind. The thrust is on making the brand acquire its ‘own’ set of associations and stand on its own. Product branding allows a brand achieve exclusivity and differentiation. It does not share other products and does not take on company associations. The company’s name takes a backseat and the product does not get benefits from the company name. The greatest advantage in this case is that a brand can be targeted accurately to a distinct target market or customers because its positioning can be precise unambiguous. Customers connect easily with product brands since what the brand represents tends to be clear.

P&G have been follower of the product branding strategy. P& G’ s into baby care, beauty care, feminine care, health care, fabric care, home care, food and beverages, etc. P&G has been an ardent follower of the product brand strategy. Its brands are stand alones; people don’t even know that they all share a common root in P&G. the company does not share a common identity. So the customers do not exclaim: Oh! How can a company like P&G make Pringle Potato Chips, it is a detergent company. Thus, a company following product branding is better positioned to venture into unrelated areas of activity without being a subject of market scrutiny.

Another advantage is that with an identifiable brand uniquely positioned and directed at a segment, the firm is able to cover an entire market spectrum by making multiple brand entries.

The drawbacks of product brands are essentially cost based. Creating individual brand is costly exercise. Only the firms which have deep pockets and long staying power can adopt this strategy.

¨ LINE BRANDING

This is of the type ‘One brand many products’. Sometimes a brand is launched with a distinct concept e.g. Lakme (“source of radiant beauty”) Winter Care lotion .The brand appeals to a distinct market segment who appreciate and like the brand concept. The core idea is that the brand connects with the consumer group. Now the customers do not tend to be content with the one product, which the brand offers. Rather they want additional product which go hand in hand with the brand concept or application; for example a Lakme user wants all the products which enhance beauty-beauty lotion, deep pore cleansing cream, lipsticks, nail enamel, eye make up etc.

Line branding strategy illustrates how well cultivated brand can be extended on to a host of related products under a common concept. This strategy seeks to penetrate the customer rather than penetrating the market. It seeks to fulfill all complementary needs that surround a basic need. Line brands start with a product but later extend too a whole range of complementary products. The products in the line draw their identity from the main brand. Marketing products as a line enhances the brand’s marketing power rather than selling them as an individual brand.

¨ BRAND EXTENSION

Brand extensions, which are a popular means of introducing new products to the marketplace, fall under the ‘One brand all products’ type of brand strategies. In a typical brand extension situation, an established brand name is applied to a new product in a category either related or unrelated, in order to capitalize on the equity of the core brand name. Consumer familiarity with the existing core brand name aids new product entry into the marketplace, and helps the brand extension to capture new market segments quickly.

Brand extensions come in two primary forms: horizontal and vertical. In a horizontal brand extension situation, an existing brand name is applied to a new product introduction in either a related product class, or in a product category completely new to the firm. A vertical brand extension, on the other hand, involves introducing a brand extension. In the same product category as the core brand, but at a different price point and quality level. In a vertical brand extension situation, a second brand name or descriptor is usually introduced alongside the core brand name, in order to demonstrate the link between the brand extension and the core brand name (e.g. Marriott Hotels, Courtyard Inn by Marriott). Although a brand extension aids in generating consumer acceptance for a new product by linking the new product with a known brand or company name, it also risks diluting the core brand image by depleting or harming the equity, which has been built up within the core brand name. An inappropriate brand extension could create damaging associations, which may be very difficult for a company to overcome. The different types of brand extensions are:

Product form extension:

Product launched in a different form usually means line extension rather than brand extension. But if different product form constitutes entirely a different product category from customer behavior perspective, it would be called brand extension. For e.g. liquid milk and dried milk may not be perceived as the product category. Similarly chocolate bars and chocolate powder belong to different product categories.

AMUL MILK ==============> AMUL CONDENSED MILK

Product form extension

Companion product

Brand extension is in the form of companion products is perhaps the most common. The idea perhaps is to capitalize on product complementarily. The consumer may view both products jointly and hence, provide scope for launching brand extension.

Colgate Dental Cream =================> Colgate Tooth Brush

Customer franchise

A marketer may extend a product range in order to meet the needs of a specific customer group. For instance, a company may launch a variety of products meant for e.g. nursery going school children. The focus here is not customer base but their diverse needs.

CUSTOMER FRANCHISE

Company expertise

Brand extensions often come in the forms of different product category introductions using a common name but emanating from common expertise pool. This strategy is particularly true in Japanese companies.

Honda cars ===> Honda Gensets ===> Honda Scooters ===> Honda Lawnmovers

Brand distinction

Many brands achieve distinction in the form of a unique attribute, benefit or feature, which gets uniquely associated with the brand. In such situations the company can work backwards to launch different products, which essentially cash in on this distinction. For

example, Parachute may have the expertise of coconut nourishment in customers mind over time. This would give the company Marico the opportunity to launch a variety of products exploiting this distinction.

Parachute hair oil ===> Parachute Shampoo ===> Parachute Cream

Brand image or prestige

A brand extension may involve a foray in to unrelated product categories based on a brand’s exclusive image or prestige. Brand exclusivity or prestige bestows great extension opportunities. This is particularly true of designers and artist brands.

Cariter Jewellery ===> Cartier Watches ===> Carties Purses ===> Cartier Pens

¨ UMBRELLA BRANDING

This again is of the type ‘One brand all products’. An umbrella brand is a parent brand that appears on a number of products that may each have separate brand images. Firms have a short-run incentive to reduce quality and save costs, as consumers can only observe quality ex post.

E.g. Phillips has a whole range of home appliances under the brand name Phillips. Like the mixers, irons, televisions, etc.

Umbrella branding scored well on the dimension of economics. Investing in a single brand is less costly than trying to build a number of brands. By leveraging a common name across a variety of products, the brand distributes its investment. Hence umbrella branding works out to be an economical strategy. Using an umbrella brand to enter into new markets (e.g., Tata making a foray into the automobile car market) allows considerable savings. The brand bestows the new product advantages of brand awareness, associations and instant goodwill.

One first explanation for brand extensions is that umbrella branding is a form of economies of scope, as it economizes on the costs of creating a new brand. Brands have an intrinsic value (status or otherwise) and are therefore like a “public good” in the sense that the more products are sold under the same brand the greater the total value created. A different perspective on brand extensions is that, in a world where consumers are uncertain about product characteristics (due to horizontal or vertical differentiation), brands may play an informational role. Umbrella branding may reduce uncertainty about a new product's attributes, a fact that increases value if consumers are risk averse. Considering these factors it can be said that umbrella branding is a superior strategy when there is a significant overlap between the set of buyers of each of the firm's products. This result extends the well-known notion that brand extensions and umbrella branding are only successful if there is a good fit between the different products under the same umbrella.

The main danger associated with umbrella branding is that since many products share the common name, a debacle in one product category may influence the products because of shared identity.

¨ SOURCE/DOUBLE BRANDING

Source or double branding strategy combines the firm’s name with the product brand name. It is the hybrid of umbrella brand and product brand strategy. The product is given a brand name and is combined with the name of the firm.

For example, Chetak is the name of the scooter and Bajaj is the company behind it, the brand accordingly becomes Bajaj Chetak.

Both names are given equal status and enjoy equal importance in the brand’s communication. Firms that follow double branding include Maruti(Maruti 800, Maruti Zen, Maruti Baleno), Bajaj (Bajaj sapphire, Bajaj pulsar), etc.

Source branding by combining a firm’s name with product name seeks to achieve two objectives. First, the firm’s name brings its equity to the product. The product stands to benefit from what the company has been able to cultivate in terms of awareness expertise, attribute and reputation associations. When Bajaj name is added to a new brand like Legend, immediately Bajaj’s, and repertoire of associations are transferred onto one product. Secondly, the second name, the name of the product (e.g. Legend) provides the chance to add something unique to the brand the brand. This is an opportunity for customization and personalization. That is, the brand can stand for something over and above what Bajaj stands for. The brand can acquire its own image in the broad framework of corporate image. This way the brand can reach new consumer groups or market segments.

Double branding is somewhat an extension of the umbrella strategy. Each brand tends to share something common- the identity and image of the source company behind the brands.

¨ ENDORSEMENT BRANDING

Endorsement branding strategy is a modified version of double branding. It makes the product brand name more significant and corporate brand name is relegated to a lesser status. The umbrella brand is made to play an indirect role of passing on certain common generic associations. It is only mentioned as an endorsement to the product brand. By and large, the brand seeks to stand on its own.

The brand gets the endorsement that it belongs to specified company; e.g. Kit Kat gives the signal that it belongs to Nestle and Diary Milk conveys that it belongs to Cadburys. Cinthol’s communication stresses that it is a Godrej product. Though these brands enjoy their unique image, somewhere in the image the makers association is also a part. Endorsement branding strikes a balance between umbrella and product branding.

In case of Cadbury’s and Nestle, the brands mentioned above have their own unique position and image. Cadbury’s or Nestle support the brands to the extent that they transfer certain qualities or associations which enhance customer’s trust. Brands are identified by their own name.

CASES

CASE I

BRAND: BOROSOFT

COMPANY: PARAS PHARMACEUTICALS

CATEGORY: ‘BORO’ ANTISEPTIC CREAM

COMPETITORS: HIMANI (NOW EMAMI) LTD, LAKME, GD PHARMACEUTICALS ETC

BACKGROUND

• BoroSoft Antiseptic Cream was launched in 1996 to compete in the ‘Boro’ Antiseptic Cream category.

• A category that was dominated by 2 strongly entrenched brands-BoroPlus (Himani) & Boroline (GD pharmaceuticals), both of which enjoyed a combined marketshare of more than 90%.

• Though categorised as ‘Antiseptic Creams’ the Boro Antiseptic creams are used not so much for their antiseptic/medicinal properties (unlike Burnol, Dettol), but more as skin creams for winter dryness.

• The low price of these Boro creams makes them ideal value-for-money family products that find usage during winter.

Though used as skin creams, Boro creams were seen as purely functional – with low cosmetic & aspirational appeal, even amongst their users.

• North & East India are the primary markets for Boro Antiseptic creams – accounting for more than 75% sales.

• Majority of the category sales come from medium-sized packs – Boroline 21g, BoroPlus 20g, BoroSoft 25g.

• Non-users (users of cold creams & other higher order creams) had a very low opinion & image of Boro Antiseptic Creams & could not imagine using these creams on the skin, especially on the face.

AD AGENCY: MUDRA

In a market dominated by BoroPlus and Boroline and a perception that dictated use only for the dry winter months, Mudra turned consumer outlook around to build BoroSoft as a cosmetic product within a short time. BoroSoft is probably Mudra’s most effective statement of how a brand can be introduced in a market dominated by heavyweights and still create an identity of its own.

CATEGORY INSIGHT

In 1995, ‘Antiseptic creams for dry & chapped skin’ was the largest homogenous segment with a 55% share of the Rs. 50 crore Antiseptic cream market. At that time any antiseptic cream with a ‘Boro’ pre-fix was seen as an antiseptic cream for dry and chapped skin rather than as an antiseptic cream to be used for cuts, wounds and bruises. Moreover, North & East were the key markets since they experienced severe winters. West too had a good potential and the share of the South was negligible.

Boro products were perceived to be value-for-money skin creams that could be used by the entire family as a remedy for skin-dryness. They were seen as functional products & did not enjoy’ aspirational status amongst users.

However, there was dissatisfaction amongst consumers on account of the stickiness/oiliness of the boro creams.

Based on this key insight, BoroSoft was formulated as a non-sticky antiseptic cream. Aloe Vera - a natural extract with antiseptic and moisturizing properties was also added for the first time in a Boro cream.

MARKET SCENERIO

The antiseptic creams market was virtually oligopolistic. The presence of too few brands over a long period of time in the market and the inability of any other antiseptic creams to make a dent in the market resulted in the creation of ‘Boro’ antiseptic cream market.

Other brands that made an attempt to enter this market with a Boro prefix met with little success.

Few brands attempted to address this market---without a Boro prefix—but were rejected by the consumer.

Consumer Insight: Women are reluctant to use ‘greasy’ creams on their face.

LAUNCH PHASE 1 (1997 - 1999)

The advertising focused on positioning BoroSoft as a non-sticky antiseptic cream.

• Pre-launch market research indicated that BoroPlus & Boroline found usage primarily as skin creams for the problem of dry skin in winters, rather than for their antiseptic properties.

• Excessive stickiness of their Antiseptic Cream (BoroPlus & Boroline) was the only significant area of dissatisfaction among their users.

• With this insight from research, BoroSoft Antiseptic Cream was launched in September 1996, as a non-sticky antiseptic cream, against the market leaders BoroPlus & Boroline.

• Targetting women, the brand focussed its usage as a face cream thereby creating perceptions of a ‘cosmetic’ antiseptic cream, unlike other antiseptic creams that were seen as multi-purpose, family products.

• In the very first season the brand achieved a 9% share of the Antiseptic Cream market for dry & chapped skin.

• Over the next three years, the brand strategy was to reinforce the non-sticky positioning, provide rational support for the use of a non-sticky cream & create cosmetic associations with the brand, thereby enhancing brand imagery.

• In addition, in 1999, BoroSoft introduced a larger pack size - 40g. A consumer promotion offer was given on this new pack

– D’Cold Open-Up Inhaler free with BoroSoft 40g pack.

• This consumer promotion offer was hugely successful in getting trials for the brand – not only from users of other Boro creams but also from users of cold creams & fairness creams.( LAKME & FAIR & LOVELY)

• The result being, that by the end of 1999 the market share of BoroSoft Antiseptic Cream had moved up to 17% of the Antiseptic Cream market.

PHASE 2 (2000 ONWARDS)

• By now BoroSoft was a well-established brand with high brand salience among Boro cream users with its clear positioning as a non-sticky antiseptic cream with cosmetic & grooming associations.

• The task defined for the brand for the year 2000 was to further enhance the ‘cosmetic’ appeal of the brand & build in ‘face cream’ associations with the brand.

• Boro cream users clearly saw a distinction between their Boro brand (which was perceived as a multi-purpose cream) and non Boro brands (which they aspired to use – the more expensive & cosmetic ‘face creams’ like Pond’s Cold Cream, Fair & Lovely, Nivea).

KEY ISSUE

• The brand mapping exercise indicated that while BoroSoft was clearly being perceived to be high grooming, its associations with the attribute of ‘protection’ was lacking.

• And in a category that is largely functional, it is important for a brand to be perceived as providing the key category benefit – ‘protection from winter dryness’.

COMMUNICATION TASK

• To strengthen the ‘protection’ association of BoroSoft Antiseptic Cream for the problem of skin dryness, while continuing to maintain the cosmetic associations of the brand.

TARGET AUDIENCE

• Females, 18-35 yrs., SEC A,B,C.

• Core Target Audience: Current users of BoroPlus & Boroline.

The brand packaging was given a new look in the year 2000 as the brand communication focussed on positioning it as a face cream.

A brand diagnostics study conducted at the end of the season 2000-2001 indicated that the imagery of BoroSoft was clearly in line with the intended brand positioning.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

• To position BoroSoft as a ‘dry skin specialist’ by highlighting and drawing attention to the ingredient ‘Glycerine’ – because of its ability to make dry skin soft and supple.

• The net takeout of the creative was that BoroSoft is ideal for making dry skin soft because it is Glycerine-enriched.

• This would aid in anchoring the brand on the core functional attribute of the category & its higher cosmetic imagery would provide a reason-to-buy.

MEDIA STRATEGY

• Being a seasonal product (for dry skin), the majority of the brand’s sales occur in the winter period from November to February.

• Therefore, high decibel TV advertising in these winter months has been the media strategy, in order to achieve high top-of mind awareness in a short period.

• The Target Audience being women, the programme selection primarily consists of popular family soaps.

BOROSOFT TODAY

• Today, BoroSoft is the 3rd largest brand in its category (Boro Antiseptic Creams) with a market share of 19%.

• It enjoys more than 93% brand awareness – amongst all users of skin creams.

• By positioning it as a Dry Skin Specialist the brand has now been made more relevant to users of BoroPlus & Boroline.

• Its premium, cosmetic imagery has made it possible to extend its equity into other skin care products viz., BoroSoft Dry Skin Soap and BoroSoft Thick Lotion for Dry Skin.

CASE II

BRAND: VATIKA HAIR OIL

COMPANY: DABUR INDIA LTD.

PRODUCT CATEGORY: HAIR CARE

COMPETITORS: HLL, MARICO

BACKGROUND

· The brand was launched in 1995 in the conservative coconut hair oil market.

· The product was launched as a value-added coconut hair oil instead of another ‘me-too’ pure coconut oil.

· It had henna, amla & lemon along with coconut oil.

· It was priced at a 50% premium over branded coconut hair oils.

· Brand positioning was that of ‘A premium coconut hair oil with the extra nourishment of henna, amla and lemon to provide problem-free hair’ (hair which is free from dandruff, premature greying & hair fall).

· Dabur is attempting to spur volumes by harping on its ‘natural’ strengths against ‘chemicals’ used by Clinic and H&S. In its communication, it has even gone to the extent of taking a dig at the ZPTO issue – effective dandruff control…naturally! No harmful chemicals. No ZPTO.

Consumer Insights: The launch was based on two key insights

Hair oil users faced increased premature hair problems (like hair fall, dandruff & greying). Consumers use natural ingredients (like amla, henna…) in addition to coconut oil to solve their hair problems.

PHASE 1 (1995 - 1997) (miss world Priyanka- commercial)

Positioned as: ‘Just coconut oil is not sufficient to keep your hair problem-free. Your hair needs the extra nourishment of Vatika.’ Now hair problems are no problem.’

PHASE 2 (1997-2001)

In 1997 it was realised that though there was high awareness, the brand had low trials.

ROLE OF ADVERTISING

To create a perception in the user’s mind that their oil was insufficient in today’s context of pollution, hard water and chemicals for the prevention of hair problems.

COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVE

To reposition coconut oil

Coconut Hair Oil Vatika Hair Oil

• Insufficient for modern times • Sufficient for the changed times

• Coconut oil only • Coconut oil plus (Henna, Amla, Lime)

• Nourishing • Extra nourishing

• Ordinary • Extra ordinary

In communication, the concept of the Vatika Woman was introduced (women like Mandira Bedi, Shefali Chayya and Sudha Chandran who were perceived to have an extra edge in their personality, were used to endorse the brand).

Use of these women achieved a two-fold task

– Connected the extra property of the brand over coconut oils.

– Encouraged trial of the product by word-of-mouth.

The brand grew at a healthy rate for the next 3 years & became the category leader. It was successfully extended into a Henna conditioning shampoo in 1997 and an Anti Dandruff Shampoo in 2000.

HOLI AD – SIMONE SINGH

Advertisement having Archana Puran Singh as the hair dresser and touching up the artists hair in an outdoor shoot and griming about hair problems of these artists which is the reason why she has to wear gloves.

Then comes the entry of another artist Simone Singh with no hair problems,

‘Not just coconut oil. Vatika. Apart from coconut oil it also has amla which stops hairfall. And lemon which protects from dandruff. And henna which colours hair naturally.’

Thus this one ad not only describes the various hair problems that are present in todays world but also explains the various functional benefits of the ingredients of the product.

PHASE 3 (2001 - 2002)

Having got the early adopters for the brand last year, it was decided to move from the

brand attribute of extra nourishment to the brand benefit of problem-free hair.

The ‘Vatika ke saath hair problems hogi to milegi na’ (You will never have problems

with your hair with Vatika, because there are none!) campaign was launched to show the confidence of the Vatika user in her problem-free beautiful hair.

VATIKA TODAY

• Today Vatika is a leader in the coconut-based category within just 6 years of its launch.

• It has become the flagship brand of Dabur India Limited.

• It is also one of the most successful Indian FMCG launches in the last decade.

• Along with the two brand extensions of henna conditioning & anti dandruff shampoo, the brand has been valued at Rs.100 crores.

WHAT IS BRAND EQUITY?

Before looking at the various methods of brand building it is essential to know what brand equity is because strong brand equity is the basis of brand building.

Keller defines brand equity as “Brand equity is defined in terms of the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brands -- for example, when certain outcomes result from the marketing of a product or service because of its brand name that would not occur if the same product or service did not have that name.”

David Aaker defines brand equity as “A set of assets and liabilities linked to a brand’s name and symbol that adds to or subtracts from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or that firm’s customers.” The major asset categories are:

1. Brand name awareness
2. Brand loyalty
3. Perceived quality
4. Brand associations

Several aspects of this definition require elaboration. First, brand equity is a set of assets. Thus the management of brand equity involves investment to create and enhance these assets. Second such brand equity asset creates value in a variety of very different ways. In order to manage brand equity effectively and to make informed decisions about brand building activities it is important to be sensitive to ways in which strong brands create value. Third brand equity creates value for the customer as well as the firm. The word customer refers to both end users and those at the infrastructural level. Finally for assets or liabilities to underlie brand equity they must be linked to the name or symbol of the brand. If the brand’s name or symbol should change, some or all of the assets or liabilities could be affected or even lost, although some might be shifted to the new symbol or name.

BRAND LOYALTY

Brand loyalty is the ultimate goal a company sets for a branded product. A company’s main question in relation to selling their products or services use do be: “How do I get people to buy my product?” Nowadays companies still greatly appreciate the answer to this question but they have also realized that getting customers is not the only thing they need to do. In today’s rapidly moving world consumers don’t stick with products for life. Advertisements and an increased feeling of independence have created consumers that will switch brands or products as soon as the feel the need to do so. What company’s look for in this consumer environment is creating a so-called brand loyalty.

Brand loyalty is a consumer’s preference to buy a particular brand in a product category. It occurs because consumers perceive that the brand offers the right product features, images, or level of quality at the right price. This perception becomes the foundation for a new buying habit. Consumers initially will make a trial purchase of the brand and, after satisfaction, tend to form habits and continue purchasing the same brand because the product is safe and familiar.

Brand loyalists have the following mindset:

• “I am committed to this brand.”

• “I am willing to pay a higher price for this brand over other brands.”

• “I will recommend this brand to others.”

LOYALTY SEGMENTATION

Loyalty segmentation helps in building strong brands. A market can usually be divided into the following groups:

Noncustomers: Those who use the competitor’s brand or are not product class users.

Price switchers: Those who are price switchers.

The passively loyal: Those who buy out of habit rather than reason.

Fence sitters: those who are indifferent between two or more brands.

The committed: those who are committed to our brands.

The challenges to improve the brand’s loyalty profile are to increase the number of customers who are not price switchers, to strengthen the fence sitters and committed ties to the brand and to increase the number who would pay more to use the brand or service. Two segments where the companies generally under invest are passively loyal and the committed customers. The passively loyal customers are often taken for granted. At the other end of the spectrum are the highly loyal or committed customers. Firms also tend to take this group for granted. Yet there may be significant potential to increase business from the very loyal.

For e.g. the loyal Marriott customer might be encouraged to select even more than often with a improved portfolio of business support services such as fax machines in rooms.

Further there is a risk that loyal customers can be enticed away by a competitor if the performance of the product or service is not improved. For these reasons firms should avoid diverting resources from the loyal core to the non-customers and price switchers. One approach to enhancing the loyalty of fence sitters and the committed is to develop or strengthen their relationship with the brand. Brand awareness, perceived quality, and an effective, clear brand identity can contribute to this goal.

BRAND AWARENESS

Awareness refers to the strength of a brand’s presence in the consumer’s mind. Awareness is measured according to the different ways in which consumers remember a brand, ranging from recognition to recall to top of the mind.

Recognitions reflect familiarity gained from past exposure. Recognition does not necessarily involve remembering where the brand was encountered before why it differs from other brands or even what the brands product class is. It is simply remembering that there was a past exposure to the brand. When consumers see a brand and remember that they have seen it before they realize that the company is spending money to support the brand. Since it is generally believed that companies will not spend money on products consumers take their recognition as a signal that the brand is good.
Many companies, especially while introducing a new product in the market find that sales cannot be sustained without constant advertising. Sales charts always show a meteoric rise post-advertising burst. Companies often rerun advertisement on different channels over the year to sustain the brand awareness and ensure that the consumers are exposed to the brand.

Complan repeats the same TV commercials for different target markets over a period of time to ensure brand recall and visibility.

Awareness for Dandi Salt is higher than Saffola Salt (despite the fact that Saffola has been in the market for longer) due to constant advertising ensured by Dandi.

BRAND PYRAMID

At the top of the pyramid is the brand that exists at the top of the customer’s mind. This is the happy and the most desired condition that any marketer seeks. The next level is of all the other brands that are recalled by the customer in an unaided form.(brand awareness) The customer is asked to recall as many brands as he or she is able to whenever one thinks of a product.

Brand recognition is the third level and perhaps the lowest level. And also known as brand recall. Here customers are aided in recalling or recognizing brands or associating brands with a product class. This is important at the point of purchase.

The contribution of awareness to building up an equity for the brand can be gauged by the fact that high awareness creates associations in the customer’s mind. He or she is able to associate different images with the brand and this in turn can help generate a customer’s liking for it. It can also lead to a large base of committed customers, and all these benefits in turn will help the firm have more leverage in the market place.

FACTORS AFFECTING BRAND AWARENESS

Brand Awareness refers to the strength of a brand’s presence in the consumer’s mind.

Awareness is measured according to the different ways in which consumers remember a brand, ranging from recognition to recall to top of the mind. Some of the major factors affecting brand awareness are:-

¨ BRAND NAME:- One of the most important factor affecting brand awareness is the brand name. Brand name plays an important part in creating awareness for a brand. Also whether the name is really very meaningful or completely baseless they both affect brand awareness.

Bacardi Breezers - flavoured aerated vodka based drink

Hp Ghoda Lal diesel engine oil

Centre Shock chewing gum.

¨ ADVERTISING: - Advertising also helps to create Brand awareness in a big way. Take any brand name Fevicol, Vicks, Pepsi all have used ad’s for creating awareness among their consumers.

¨ CELEBRITY:- Another important factor affecting Brand awareness is the celebrities endorsing the Brand. Whenever you see a celebrity you love endorsing a brand you tend to propagate the Brand.

Coca Cola experienced a tremendous increase in brand following post ad campaigns with Hrithik Roshan and ”Kaho Na Pyaar Hai”.

¨ PARENT COMPANY:- To a large extent the parent company helps in promoting a brand. The parent company in many cases is so popular that its brand automatically become popular and people become aware about the product.

TATA always promotes it brand with its name along with the brand such as TATA INDICA, TATA INDIGO, TATA SALT.

¨ SALES PROMOTIONS AND OFFERS: - It also helps in making the consumers aware of the brand. Some of the sales promotion activities that companies carry out help them in a big way to make their target aware of the brand.

BAJAJ Chetak campaign of Rs.999 and you could buy a scooter.

¨ 1^st MOVER ADVANTAGE: - Usually the company that enters a product category first has good awareness about its brand. Usually people tend to remember the first player to enter the market.

Parle products “BISLERI” in the packaged water segment.

¨ PUBLIC RELATIONS: - The coverage that the fourth estate and magazines provide a brand also helps in building awareness about a brand.

The popularity of local restaurants such as Olive and Athena has been boosted by the page 3 mentions in Bombay times.

¨ DIRECT SELLING:- Some of the companies use direct selling as an platform to create brand awareness.

Eureka Forbes water filter “AQUA GUARD”.

¨ PEER GROUP OPINION:- Peer group opinion also plays an important part in the whole brand awareness exercise. Usually people tend to discuss a lot about the brand and tend to share their experiences or some recent ad’s they have seen which in turn increases brand awareness of their peers.

A large number of chat boards on the Internet or a group of friends from same education field.

¨ RECALL OF AD’S:- In some cases the brand awareness is also high due to specific ad recall which is very high.

Amaron battery ad of race between tortoise and rabbit with the tagline “LAST LONG REALLY LONG”

BRAND RECALL

A brand (Bisleri) is said to have recall if it comes to consumers’ minds when its product class (mineral water) is mentioned. It indicates stronger brand position in the mind. Still at a higher level is the top of the mind recall; it is the brand, which comes first to the mind. The top of mind awareness indicates a relative superiority a brand enjoys above others. Sometimes a brand becomes so dominant that it becomes the only recalled brand in the product category. Very few brands are able to achieve dominance. The cases may include Johnson&Johnson baby powder, Dettol antiseptic, Band Aid.

BRAND NAME DOMINANCE

The ultimate awareness level is brand name dominance where in a recall task most customers can only provide the name of a single product.e.g. Mediker, Amul Pizza, Amul Cheese spread. In order to avoid losing a trademark a firm should begin protecting it early in its life, starting with the selection of the name itself. Descriptive names such as pepper should not be used because they become harder to distinguish from the generic product and thus harder to protect. Sometimes it is helpful and even necessary to create a generic name so that the brand does not become one; the generic name copier helped Xerox protect its brand.

PERCEIVED QUALITY

Perceived quality is a brand association that is elevated to the status of a brand asset for several reasons:

Among all brand associations only perceived quality is known to drive financial performances.

Perceived quality is often a major (if not the principal) strategic thrust of business.

Perceived quality is linked to and often drives other aspects of a brand is perceived.

Achieving perceptions of quality is usually impossible unless the quality claim has substance. Perceived quality may differ from actual quality for a variety of reasons.

☛ Customers may be overly influenced by a previous image of poor quality. Because of this they may not believe in new claims may not be willing to take time to verify them. Thus it is critical to protect a brand from gaining a shoddy quality from which recovery is difficult and sometimes impossible.

☛ The company may achieve quality on an aspect, which the consumers do not consider important.

☛ Customers rarely have all the information necessary to make a rational and objective judgment on quality-even if they do have the information they lack the motivation and the time to process it. Thus it is important to understand the little things that consumers use as a basis for making a judgment about the quality. E.g. if the customer kicks the tires to test the sturdiness of a car the tires have to be sturdy.

☛ As customers may not know how best to judge quality they might be looking at the wrong cues. A metaphor or a visual image can help consumers see the context in the right way. Jewellery stores that cater to first time diamond buyers must educate buyers that quality is not necessarily reflected in price tags or carat claims.

BRAND ASSOCIATIONS

The association’s consumers make with brand support brand equity. These associations may include product attributes, a celebrity spokesperson or a symbol. Brand associations are driven by brand identity-what the organization wants the brand to stand for in the consumers mind. A key to brand building then is to develop and implement brand identity.

One key to successful brand building is to develop a brand identity- to know what the brand stands for and to effectively express that identity.

Hyundai Santro has clearly positioned itself as the “sunshine” car and endorsed Preity Zinta known for her bubbly personality to match their positioning statement.

Invariably all brands come to acquire a meaning in the mind of the customer. Customers associate different dimensions of the product including its use and use situations to the brands. Brand association, therefore, is anything linked to the memory of a brand. Thus a jingle like “Happy days are here again” has been associated in the customer’s mind with Thumps Up. Surf is linked with the economy-minded middle class housewife- “Lalitaji” – in the advertisements.

The name Tata is associated with quality. It is important to know how strong this association is and for a family name like this, which are the products with which this association is the strongest.

BRAND IDENTITY

Brand identity is a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers from the organization members. Brand identity should establish a relationship between the brand and the customer by generating a value proposition involving functional, emotional or self-expressive benefits.

Brand identity consists of a core identity and an extended identity. The core identity represents the timeless essence of a brand .It is central to both the meaning and success of the brand. It indicates the reasons why the brand as been brought into existence. It contains the associations that are most likely to remain constant as the brand travels to new markets and products. The elements of the core identity remain more resistant to change than the elements of the extended identity. Thus the core identity is timeless while the brand position or the communication strategies might change. It is generally the first word that people behind the brand may utter when asked what the brand stands for:

Lux Beauty bar for young women

Dettol Antiseptic, protection

Johnson&Johnson Trust and quality a baby needs

The extended brand identity includes elements that provide texture and completeness. The core identity usually does not possess enough detail to perform all of the functions of a brand identity. In particular, a brand identity should help a company decide which program or communication is effective and which be damaging or off the target. Even a well-thought-out and on-target core identity may ultimately be too ambiguous or incomplete for this task. A brand personality does not often become a part of the core identity. However it can be exactly the right vehicle to add the needed texture and completeness by being a part of the extended identity. It provides the strategist with the opportunity to add full detail to complete the picture.

Brand identity consists of twelve dimensions organized around four perspectives:

Brand as a product

Brand as an organization

Brand as a person

Brand as a symbol

Brand as a product: A core element of a brand’s identity is usually its product thrust, which will affect the type of associations that are desirable and feasible. A strong link to a product class means that the brand will be recalled when the product class is cued. A dominant brand will often be the only brand recalled.

Band Aid in adhesive bandages i.e. whenever we think of bandages Band Aid is the first thing that comes to our mind. And many a times the consumers use the word Band Aid instead of bandage.

Bisleri is the word almost synonymous with the mineral water. Whenever one thinks of mineral water Bisleri is the first name that comes to their mind. (Now the leader in this segment is Kinley)

Brand as organization: The brand as organization perspective focuses on attributes of the organization rather than those of the product or service. The people, culture, values and programs of the company create such organization attributes as innovation, a drive for quality and concern for the environment. Some brand aspects can be described as product attributes in some contexts and organizational attributes in other contexts. Quality or innovation, for instance could be a product-related attribute if it is based on the design and features of a specific product offering while if it is based on the organizational cultures values and programs it would be an organizational-related attribute. In some cases there can be a combination of the two perspectives. However organizational attributes are more enduring and more resistant to competitive claims than are product attributes because:

1. It is much easier to copy a product than to copy an organization with unique people, cultures and programs.

2. Organizational attributes usually apply to a set of product classes and a competitor in only one product class may find difficult to compete.

3. Organizational attributes such as being innovative are hard to communicate and evaluate it is difficult for competitors to demonstrate that they have overcome any perceived gap.

Brand as a person-BRAND PERSONALITY: Brand personality is an important area of study for at least two reasons. First, research has shown that a strong brand personality may justify a higher price premium. Moreover, brand personality can play a key role in differentiating a brand in a product category where there is actually little or no difference between products. Prior research indicates that the greater the similarity between a consumer’s personality characteristics and the characteristics that they believe comprise the brand, the greater the preference for that brand. Brand-as-person perspective suggests a brand identity that is richer and more interesting than one based on product attributes. Like a person, a brand can be perceived as being upscale, competent, impressive, trustworthy, fun, active, humorous, casual, formal, youthful or intellectual.

FARDEEN KHAN for PROVOGUE

In this case you would associate Fardeen Khan with someone who is cool, trendy, from the upper class, fun loving. With Fardeen khan endorsing for provogue people’s perception about Provogue clothes is also cool, trendy, for people who are fun loving.

A brand personality can help create a stronger brand in many ways:

1. It can help create a self-expressive benefit that becomes a vehicle for the customer top express his or her personality. For e.g. an Apple user might consider himself to be casual, anti corporate and creative.

2. Just as human personalities affect relationship between people, brand personality can be the basis of a relationship between the customer and the brand. E.g. Mercedes Benz might be perceived as a upscale, admired person.

3. It might help communicate a product attribute and thus contribute to a functional benefit. E.g. The strong, energetic personality of the Ambuja man suggests that Ambuja cement is also strong and energetic.

The brand as a symbol: A strong symbol can provide cohesion and structure to an identity and make it much easy to gain recognition and recall. Its presence can be a key ingredient of brand development and its absence can be substantial handicap. Elevating symbols to the status of being part of the brand identity reflects their potential power. Anything that represents a brand can be a symbol including programs such as the Ronald McDonald house. Symbols involving visual imagery can be memorable and powerful such as the Nike’s “Swoosh” symbol and the McDonald’s golden arches. Each strong visual image captures much of its respective brand’s identity because connections between the symbol and the identity elements have been built up over time. It just takes a glance to be reminded of the brand.

BRAND ESSENCE

Brand essence is a compact summary of what the brand stands for.

Brand identity structure includes core identity, extended identity and a brand essence. Typically the brand identity will require 6 to 12 dimensions in order to adequately describe the brand’s aspirations. Because such a large set is unwieldy, it is helpful to provide focus by identifying the core identity i.e. the most important elements of the brand identity. All dimensions of the core identity should strategy and values of the organisation and at least one association should differentiate the brand and resonate with the customers. The core identity is most likely to remain constant as the brand travels to new markets and products. The core identity creates a focus both for the customer and the organisation. The extended identity includes all of the brand identity elements that are not in the core . brand personality is an element of extended identity.

Core identity has 2 to 4 dimensions that compactly summarize the brand vision. Brand essence provides further focus by giving a single thought that captures the soul of the brand. The brand essence can be viewed as the glue that holds the core identity elements together.

Characteristics of brand essence

1. Should resonate with customers
2. Drive the value proposition
3. Should be own able
4. Provide differentiation persisting through time.
5. Should be compelling enough to energize and inspire employees and partners of the organization.

BRAND ESSENCE VS. TAG LINE

Brand essence represents the identity while tag line represents the brand position. The function of essence is to communicate and energize those inside the organization while tag line’s function is to communicate with the external audience. Brand essence is timeless or for a long period of time while the tag line has a limited life. Brand essence is relevant across markets and products whereas the tag line is more likely to have a confined arena.

BRAND IMAGE

Consumers vary as to which brand attributes they see as most relevant and the importance they attach to each attribute. They will pay the most attention to the attributes that deliver the sought benefits. The market for a product can often be segmented according to the attributes that are salient to different consumer groups. The consumer develops a set of beliefs about where each brand stands on each attribute. These set of beliefs about the brand make up brand image. Brand identity and brand image need to be distinguished. Identity comprises the ways that a company aims to identify or position itself or its product. Image is the way the public perceives the company or its products. Image is affected by many factors beyond the company’s control. An effective image does three things,

1) It establishes the product’s character and value proposition.

2) It conveys this character in a distinctive way so as not to confuse it with the competitor’s image.

3) It delivers emotional power beyond a mental image.

The image of a brand may contain different types of associations in memory: attributes benefits and attitudes.

Attribute associations: these are descriptive features, which are used to characterize a product or service. The attributes could be distinguished on the basis of how directly they are related to product or service performance. The product related attributes are ingredients necessary for the products performance. On product related attributes are packaging, user imagery, usage imagery and price.

In case of Woodland shoes the product related attributes would be: leather that weathers, unique sole, water resistant etc. The non-product related attributes would be: price -1500+; package-green box; user-young, rugged, tough; usage-outdoors, trekking.

Benefit associations: Benefit associations are of 3 types:

Functional: These are the outcome of the functions performed by a product of service. These are the intrinsic benefits of consuming a product or service. E.g.: for Ferrari functional benefits will be speed and power.

Experiential: these accrue to the user in the form of feelings. E.g.: for Ferrari Experiential benefits will be thrill of driving.

Symbolic: These are non intrinsic to the product and correspond to non-product related benefits. For Ferrari it will be the prestige of being a part of a select group.

Attitude associations: Attitudes determine buying decisions. They refer to overall evaluation of a concept like person, product, object or a brand.

BRAND POSITIONING

A brand position is the part of the brand identity and value proposition that is to be actively communicated to the target audience and that demonstrates an advantage over competing brands. Positioning is a concept, which is commonly seen in marketing. “Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offerings and image to occupy a distinctive place in the target market’s mind. The essence of brand positioning is achievement of valued distinction/differentiation in a consumers mind.”

The perceived differentiation takes care of the competitive angle and the value aspect takes care of customer motivation e.g. Perk is positioned as a substitute for a snack, which can be, had anywhere, anytime. A brand must create an association and cling on to it. The bottom line for a position is that it must be valuable, credible, distinctive and suitable for the product in question.

The strategy to differentiate the brand or product is to place it in an appropriate cell of the human mind so that whenever the customer recalls the product, the firm’s brand is the first to be recalled. This strategy is called ‘Positioning’.

‘Positioning is not what you do to a product. But what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect’.

Whether a brand owns a position or not could easily be found by a simple word association or word which immediately springs to mind as and when the brand is thought for when the word is thought of, the brand is recalled immediately.

Some of the well-positioned brands are:

Raymonds: The Complete Man

Fair and lovely: Fairness

Woodland: Tough Shoes

Dettol: Antiseptic

Captain cook: Free Flow Salt

What is Lux? Is it a soap? The interpretation of it as a soap entirely misses the point if it is a soap. How is it different from others in the category? What does Lux manifest- it is beauty. The brand reveals hidden intentions. Without a compelling marketing mission, a brand probably cannot take birth. A Lux customer buys it for its promised delivery of beauty. The Lux brand seeks to satisfy the beauty aspirations in a select target group. It is a loud and clear promise of what it has to offer. Soap is only one way of delivering beauty. A number of products have been discovered with the legitimate territory of Lux.

The positioning essentially deals with a competitive frame of reference. The position differs from the older term image in that it implies a frame of reference the reference point usually being the competition. That is how a brand is to be perceived vis-à-vis others in the category. For instance, ICICI positions itself as a ‘friendly bank’.

In short the relation between brand image, identity and positioning can be summarized as follows:

Brand Identity, Image and Positioning

BRAND IMAGE	BRAND IDENTITY	BRAND POSITION
How the brand is now perceived	How strategists want the brand to be perceived	The part of the brand identity and value proposition to be actively communicated to a target audience

POSITIONING STRATEGIES

A product can be positioned based on 2 main platforms: The Consumer and The Competitor. When the positioning is on the basis of CONSUMER, the campaigns and messages are always targeted to the consumer himself (the user of the product)

Peter England always campaigns their product concentrating on the consumer, the user of its product.

Louis Philip also concentrates on this kind of campaigns.

The other kind of positioning is on basis of COMPETITION. These campaigns are targeted towards competing with other players in the market.

Dettol television commercials always concentrate on advertisements, which show that this product would give you more protection, then the others.

A number of positioning strategies might be employed in developing a promotional program. The 7 such strategies are discussed below:

1. Positioning by Product Attributes and Benefits

Associating a product with an attribute, a product feature or a consumer feature. Sometimes a product can be positioned in terms of two or more attributes simultaneously. The price/ quality attribute dimension is commonly used for positioning the products.

A common approach is setting the brand apart from competitors on the basis of the specific characteristics or benefits offered. Sometimes a product may be positioned on more than one product benefit. Marketers attempt to identify salient attributes (those that are important to consumers and are the basis for making a purchase decision)

For e.g.

· Consider the example of Ariel that offers a specific benefit of cleaning even the dirtiest of clothes because of the micro cleaning system in the product.

· Colgate offers benefits of preventing cavity and fresh breath.

· Promise, Balsara’s toothpaste, could break Colgate’s stronghold by being the first to claim that it contained clove, which differentiated it from the leader.

· Nirma offered the benefit of low price over Hindustan Lever’s Surf to become a success.

· Maruti Suzuki offers benefits of maximum fuel efficiency and safety over its competitors. This strategy helped it to get 60% of the Indian automobile market.

2. Positioning by Price/ Quality:

Marketers often use price/ quality characteristics to position their brands. One way they do it is with ads that reflect the image of a high-quality brand where cost, while not irrelevant, is considered secondary to the quality benefits derived from using the brand. Premium brands positioned at the high end of the market use this approach to positioning.

Another way to use price/ quality characteristics for positioning is to focus on the quality or value offered by the brand at a very competitive price. Although price is an important consideration, the product quality must be comparable to, or even better than, competing brands for the positioning strategy to be effective.

For e.g. the ICICI prudential ad and also the wheel detergent or Rin soap which always focuses on the value addition and price.

3. Positioning by use or application:

Another way is to communicate a specific image or position for a brand is to associate it with a specific use or application.

For.e.g. Surf Excel is positioned as stain remover ‘ Surf Excel hena!’

4. Positioning by product class:

Often the competition for a particular product comes from outside the product class. For example, airlines know that while they compete with other airlines, trains and buses are also viable alternatives. Manufacturers of music CDs must compete with the cassettes industry. The product is positioned against others that, while not exactly the same, provide the same class of benefits.

5. Positioning by product user:

Positioning a product by associating it with a particular user or group of users is yet another approach.

Misticmoto Motorola Mobile Ad

In this ad the persona of the user of the product is been positioned.

6. Positioning by Competitor:

Competitors may be as important to positioning strategy as a firm’s own product or services. In today’s market, an effective positioning strategy for a product or brand may focus on specific competitors. This approach is similar to positioning by product class, although in this case the competition is within the same product category.

For e.g. Onida was positioned against the giants in the television industry through this strategy, ONIDA colour TV was launched with the message that all others were clones and only Onida was the leader.

7. Positioning by cultural symbols:

An additional positioning strategy where in the cultural symbols are used to differntiate the brands. Examples would be Humara Bajaj, Tata Tea, Ronald McDonald. Each of these symbols has successfully differentiated the product it represents from competitors.

“Every advertisement must be considered as a contribution to complex symbol which is a brand image”- Comment.

To understand this statement it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the term BRAND IMAGE. Consumers vary as to which brand attributes they see as most relevant and the importance they attach to each attribute. They will pay the most attention to the attributes that deliver the sought benefits. The market for a product can often be segmented according to the attributes that are salient to different consumer groups. The consumer develops a set of beliefs about where each brand stands on each attribute. These set of beliefs about the brand make up brand image.

Brand identity and brand image need to be distinguished. Identity comprises the ways that company aims to identify or position itself or its product. Image is the way the public perceives the company or its products. Image is affected by many factors beyond the company’s control.

A brand in its simplest form is a summation of the product as well as the perception that the consumers form about the product.

BRAND = PRODUCT + PERCEPTION

Each ad that a company does for a product has an impact on the perception that the consumer has about the product. At the initial stages when the product is launched all the ad’s that a company does is to create an image of the product among its consumers. Over a period of time being exposed to the product, its ad’s, word of mouth publicity the consumers develop a perception with respect to a specific brand.

Fevicol ad’s initially just told the consumers that it was an adhesive which when used would assure that things remained stuck. As and when the people got exposed to its ad’s they developed the perception that Fevicol was the ultimate adhesive.

Now once the perception about the brand is build then the companies usually advertise just to reinforce the image created by it.

Pepsi ad’s about THE GENERATION NEXT created a perception among the consumer that the brand Pepsi stood for the dynamic people of the next generation.

Also one important aspect is that the process of building Brand image it’s a continuous process. As long as the brand exists the process of brand image keeps going on and the image gets modified in many cases.

Brand image for a brand is created over a period of time. Not only that all the things that you want to communicate about the brand cannot be done in a single ad. All the ad’s that company does for a particular brand contributes to the whole process of building a brand. Usually in case of all brands the initial ad’s that a company does is only to introduce the product and give out its functional benefits. Once the consumers are aware of the brand then the companies focus on the image they want to create.

Now each ad that a company does for a particular brand influences the consumer perception in some way or other. The influence may be positive or negative. Ads help companies strengthen or weaken the brand

Coke’s ad’s of “THANDA MATLAB COCA COLA” is just to strengthen the brand image of coke.

In many cases just one single ad erodes the Brand image which is created for a brand over the years. Sometimes companies get carried away and forget the basic image they want to portray.

Bisleri’s ad campaign of “PLAY SAFE” had such a huge impact on the brand that once synonymous with mineral water and market leader brand ran into all sorts of trouble. Its sales were affected drastically and it lost its leadership to Kinley (COCO-COLA) in the packaged water category. The campaign weakened the Brand completely and now it has got its focus back on track.

Lastly one important fact is that over a period of time with change in the business scenario it is necessary for companies to modify its brand image to target the consumers and their changing demand.