Thus, you will find that there are 4 steps which are the most important in strategic brand

management and
these steps give the maximum effect over a long period of time to build a brand.

1) Brand positioning The number 1 step in strategic brand management is to decide the brand positioning
which the firm wants to achieve. This in itself is a humongous task. The marketer has to research the
positioning of each brand in the industry and then find out differentiating factors. Using these differentiating
factors, the brand can find a unique position in the mind of the customers. This unique positioning will give the
brand a boost and consequentially will affect the overall performance of the brand. Hence, the first step of
strategic branding starts with defining the positioning that the brand wants to achieve.
2) Brand marketing Once you have decided on the brand positioning, to implement the positioning, you
need to carry out brand marketing. This involves marketing through various media vehicles as well as
implementing ATL and BTL strategies so that you reach the end customer. Besides using media vehicles,
building value through brand marketing activities is also important. And value can be built through a lot of
research and creativity in your marketing communications. Brand marketing is an important middle step in
strategic brand management because it covers the gap between planning and implementation.
3) Brand Performance and analysis Once you have determined the brand positioning that you want to
achieve, and once you have marketed the brand accordingly, it is important that you analyse the brand and its
performance in the industry. Brand audits can be conducted on a periodic basis to find out the real performance
of the brand and how it has benefited the company. When compared to competitors, is the brand on top of the
mind positioning or 2nd or 3rd in positioning? Accordingly the right measures can be taken.
4) Building brand value The last step in strategic brand management is when you build value for your brand
by taking various necessary measures. Brand building takes decades. And it is the role of strategic brand
management to plan for decades and not for months. A company which is one or two year old, will not be able
to offer too much of value to the customer. It has to make do with whatever it has. So to increase the value of
the brand, the company has to enter new products and possibly new markets. It is the work of the brand
manager to keep adding value and repeat the previous steps to keep changing the brand positioning as per the
market demand or the demand of the customers.

The Building, Leveraging, Identifying, and Protecting Brands (BLIP) process is a new framework for
understanding, managing, and organizing the full scope of brand management task. It emphasizes the need
to consider not just how to build and advertise brands, but how best to leverage them, how to identify the
position of that they hold, and how to protect past brand investment. Strategic brand management is not only
a question of building brands, but also using a broader consideration framework when managing established
brands. Marketers should consider the BLIP process when managing their brands. To maintain healthy and
vital brands, firms need to pay attention to brand building, but should not neglect important issues related to
brand leveraging, identification, and protection.
It identifies four components of branding :
1. Building
2. Leveraging
3. Identifying
4. Protecting Brand
1. Building Brand:As a first step, marketers should define what they want their brand to represent(brand identity). A brand identity
can be pictured in the form of a map with concentric circles, with the core defining elements of the brand in the
center and secondary elements of the brand in an outer circle. Once marketer have a clear idea of the brands
identity, they can use marketing tool to build the brand. Using a 4 Ps framework (product, price, place,
promotion), marketer can create a promotional strategy that utilizes both promotional advertising and inventive
approaches.
2. Leveraging Brands:Marketers want to achieve a return on their investment, and one vital decision is how to best utilize their brand
assets. Marketers may choose to leverage some of the brands established equity to create line
extension, brand extension, or co-brand products.
a. Line Extension : Adding a new form of a product or service is generally regarded as the easiest extension,
but is likely to generate low incremental revenue.
b. Brand Extension : This type of extension differs from a line extension in that it consist of extending the
products or services brand into a new category. A brand extension has the benefits of real growth opportunity,
but the drawback is the potential for costly mistakes.
c. Co-Branded Products : This method of leveraging brands consist of an alliance of complimentary brands.
This can often take the form of ingredient branding. A good marketing strategy will consider whether cobranding is appropriate for particular situations.
3. Identifying and Measuring Brands:The questions of identifying brands considers: What does the brand mean to customers? What product
associations do customers have and their attitudes toward the brand? A marketer should also consider the nonproduct associations that accompany the brand. For ex. What colors are associated with the brand? What is
the brands personality and what are the perceptions of the brands country of origin? Monitoringcustomers
impression of all these important elements of the brand plays an important role in brand management.

4. Protecting the Brand:The area of strategic brand management has historically been short-changed, being forgotten as the brand
building bandwagon took off. However, it is not taking its rightful place as a key element of strategic brand
management. Traditionally, protection come from legal teams whose work with trademark remains an element
of protecting the brand but is, by no means, the entire protection needed.

Branding challenges and opportunities

Brands build their strength by providing customers consistently superior product and service experiences. A
strong brand is a promise or bond with customers. In return for their loyalty, customers expect the firm to satisfy
their needs better than any other competitors.
Brands will always be important given their fundamental purpose to identify and differentiate products and
services. Good brand makes peoples lives a little easier and better. People are loyal to brands that satisfy their
expectations and deliver on its brand promise. The predictably good performance of a strong brand is
something that consumer will always value
The challenges to brands
1) The shift from strategy to tactics: With the increasing pressure to generate ever-improving profitability, it
is often considered a luxury for managers to develop long-term strategic plans. This is further exacerbated by
short-term goal setting, which is frequently designed primarily for the convenience of the financial community.
2) The shift from advertising to promotions: As a consequence of the increasing pressure on brand
manager to achieve short-term goals, there is a temptation to cut back on advertising support, since it is viewed
as a long-term brand-building investment, in favour of promotions which generate much quicker short-term
results.
3) On-Line shopping: The Internet is facilitating on-line shopping. On-line shopping is different from
traditional mail order because:
Brands are available all the time and from all over the world;
Information and interactions are in real time;
Consumers can choose between brands which meet their criteria, as a result of selecting information which is
in a much more convenient format for them, rather than the standard catalogue format.
This poses threats to brands, some components of added value, agent or the retail outlet which originally
added value by matching consumers with suppliers, may be eliminated.
4) Opportunities from technology: Brand marketers are now able to take advantage of technology to again
a competitive advantage through time. Technology is already reducing the lead time needed to respond rapidly
to changing customers need and minimizing any delays in the supply chain.
5) More sophisticated buyers: In business-to-business marketing, there is already an emphasis on bringing
together individuals from different departments to evaluate suppliers new brands. As inter departmental
barriers break down even more, sellers are going to face increasingly sophisticated buyers who are served by
better information system enabling them to pay off brand suppliers against each other.
6) The growth of corporate branding:- With media inhabiting individual brand advertising, many firms are
putting more emphasis on corporate branding, unifying their portfolio of brands through clearer linkages with
the corporation, which clarifies the those all the line brands adhere to. Through corporate identity program

functional aspects of individual brands in the firms portfolio can be augmented, enabling the consumer to
select brands through assessment of the values of competing firms. Firms developed powerful corporate
identity programmes by recognizing the need first to identify their internal corporate values, from which flow
employee attitudes and specific types of staff behavior secondly, to devise integrated communication
programmes for different external audiences.

Brand equity is a phrase used in the marketing industry which describes the value of having a
well-known brand name based on the idea that the owner of a well-known brand name can
generate more money from products with that brand name than from products with a less well
known name, as consumers believe that a product with a well-known name is better than
products with less well-known names
Brand equity refers to the value of a brand. In the research literature, brand equity has been
studied from two different perspectives: cognitive psychology and information economics.
According to cognitive psychology, brand equity lies in consumers awareness of brand features
and associations, which drive attribute perceptions. According to information economics, a
strong brand name works as a credible signal of product quality for imperfectly informed buyers
and generates price premiums as a form of return to branding investments. It has been
empirically demonstrated that brand equity plays an important role in the determination of price
structure and, in particular, firms are able to charge price premiums that derive from brand equity
after controlling for observed product differentiation

What is 'Brand Equity'

Brand equity refers to a value premium that a company generates from a product with a recognizable name,
when compared to a generic equivalent. Companies can create brand equity for their products by making them
memorable, easily recognizable, and superior in quality and reliability. Mass marketing campaigns also help to
create brand equity.

General Example of Brand Equity

A general example of a situation where brand equity is important is when a company wants to expand
its product line If the brand's equity is positive, the company can increase the likelihood that customers might
buy its new product by associating the new product with an existing, successful brand. For example, if
Campbell's releases a new soup, the company is likely to keep it under the same brand name rather than
inventing a new brand. The positive associations customers already have with Campbell's make the new
product more enticing than if the soup has an unfamiliar brand name.