Brand Management Strategies
Before we move on to strategies let us understand why brands are created. The American Management Association defines Brand as a “Name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or service as distinct from those of sellers”.
Branding makes a product stand out from competitors to be the chosen one.
Brand kindles customer expectations and builds trust and confidence when expectations are met consistently.
Brand increases customer awareness of the business and its products and services, by engaging with customers and creating a connection.
Branded products sell at a premium compared to equally good or better products because of their image.
Brands enable companies to move into new market sectors effortlessly.
Having established the intrinsic value of a branded product and the enhancement in its market value it is necessary to sustain this competitive advantage.
This is where brand management comes into play. Brand Management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product or product line to increase its perceived value to the customer and thereby increase brand franchise and brand equity. Brand is seen as an implied promise that the quality level will be maintained and handed down through future purchase of the product. To this end brand management devises strategies to achieve desired mileage for the product and sustain its growth through distinct advantage over competitors.
Brand Management Strategies that may be adopted to be one-up on competitors are listed below-
Establish and Maintain the Brand through enhanced product characteristics, advertising, sales promotion, packaging and other marketing techniques. The brand may traverse other product lines or geographical regions. Focus should also be to identify prospective products and services to which the brand should be extended.
Ensure consistency between brand strategy and corporate goals to reflect positively on the company image. Promoting a dental cleanser with medical practitioner’s approval enhances brand and corporate profiles.
Select Profitable and Innovative Partners to expand further ventures without having to pump in excessive additional resources on new products and uncovered areas. An innovative packaging company with similar corporate ideology can give wings to the
product and brand together.
Observing Quality Control and Reporting Formats will ensure continuity in Customer Expectation-Realisation Gap and boost confidence and patronage to the Company. An eye for detail as displayed on a product and a feed-back in some form can hold an audience captive and wedded to our brand.
Proactive approach towards products and services offered with a view to keep the features updated and technological changes incorporated is necessary for continued market presence and brand stability.
Brand Management Strategies are required to be continually adopted and updated to safeguard against brand obsolescence. It is common inference that in the absence of periodic insertions in newspapers even popular leaders are classified either sick or pushed out of reckoning by enterprising youngsters.
Today we have a class of people who are paraded as Brand Ambassadors and there is not a celebrity who has not taken note of this image booster. It is also a Win-Win situation for both advertiser and the star who are benefited to rake in millions through a simple coffee-break.
Coming to the ban on advertising of tobacco products there is a famous ad that says-
“Smoking kills cigarette brands.”
Another pointer to what Brands really mean is spelt out by Walter Landor who says-
“Products are made in the factory, but Brands are created in the mind.”
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