BRANDING

A brand can be defined as a name, term, symbol, design or a combination of these terms which not
only influences the perceived values and expectations of customers, but also helps in differentiating
firms products from that of competitors.

A brand is the process of stamping the product with some name or mark or combination of both.
Brands have greater influence on the minds of customers that motivates them to purchasing specific
products.

Ex: KENT purifier for purifying the water, LUX soap for bathing, Asian paints for painting the wall etc.

According to Kotler & Amstrong:

“A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of these that identifies the maker or
seller of a product.”

Thus, brands are powerful assets that must be carefully developed and managed. In this section, we
examine the key strategies for building and managing brands.

Brands Equity:

Brands are more than just names and symbols. They are a key element in the company’s relationship
with consumers. Brands represent consumer’s perceptions and feelings about a product and its
performance-everything that the product or services means to consumers. As one well- respected
marketer once said, “Products are created in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.”

A powerful brand has high brand equity. Brand equity is the differential effect that knowing the brand
name has on customer response to the product and its marketing. Brands vary in the amount of power
and value they hold in the marketplace. Some brands – such as Coca-cola, Nike, Sony, McDonald’s, and
others brands create fresh consumer excitement and loyalty, brands such as Google, YouTube, Apple,
eBay. These brands win in the marketplace not simply because they deliver unique benefits or reliable
service. Rather, they succeed because they forge deep connections with customers.

Building Strong Brands: Brand strategies decisions

Branding poses challenging decisions to the marketer. The major brand strategy decisions involve brand
positioning, brand name selection, brand sponsorship, and brand development.

Brand name selection

Selection
Protection
Brand positioning

Attributes
Brand development
Benefits
Brand sponsorship
Line extensions
Beliefs and values
Manufacturer’s
Brand extensionsbrand
Private brand
Multi brands
Licensing
New brands
Co-branding

1) Brand Positioning: Marketers need to position their brands clearly in target customer’s minds.
Positioning refers to the act of designing the company’s offering and image in such a way that it
occupies a distinctive place in the minds of the target customers.

They can position brands at any of three levels. At the lowest level, they can position the brand on
product attributes. Ex: P&G invented the disposable diaper category with its Pampers brand. Early
Pampers marketing focused on attributes such as fluid absorption, fit, and disposability.

A brand can be better positioned by associated its name with a desirable benefit. Thus, Pampers can go
beyond technical product attributes and talk about the resulting containment and skin health benefits
from dryness.

The strongest brands go beyond attribute or benefit positioning. They are positioned on strong beliefs
and values. Brands such as Cadbury, Apple and Kingfisher Airlines rely less on a product’s tangible
attributes and more on creating surprise, passion, and excitement surrounding a brand.

2) Brand Name selection:

Selection of brand name and logo: A brand name will not be same for all the products. Each product
has unique brand name which differentiates them from the product lines of a competitor.

However, finding the best brand name is a difficult task. It begins with a careful review of the product
and its benefits, the target market and proposed marketing strategies. After that naming a brand
becomes part science, part art, and a measure of instinct.

Ex: Colgate tooth paste, Kenley mineral water, and Ponds cream.

Companies use some pictorial representation or symbol for visual identification of the products
manufactured by them. A logo may include words, alphabets, graphics etc. Ex:

Brand Name Logo Slogan

Thumps up The thumb showing upward Taste the Thunder
direction with four folder
fingers

Desirable qualities for a brand name include the following:

1) It should suggest something about the product’s benefits and qualities. Ex: Fair & Lovely, fair
and Handsome, Sugar Free Natura.
2) It should be easy to pronounce, recognize, and remember: Tide, Nirma.
3) The brand name should be distinctive: Indica.
4) It should be extendable
5) It should be capable of registration and legal protection.

3) Brand Sponsorship: A manufacturer has four sponsorship options. The product may be launched as a
national brand (Manufacturer’s brand), as when Sony and Kellogg sell their output under their own
brand names. Or the manufacturer may sell to resellers who give the product a private brand (also
called a store brand or distributor brand).Although most manufacturers create their own brand names,
others market licensed brands. Finally, two companies can join forces and co-brand a product.

c) Licensing: Most manufacturers take years and spend millions to create their own brand names. Sellers
of children’s products attach an almost endless and other item. And currently a number of top-selling
retail toys are products based on television shows and movies, such as the Spiderman Deluxe Spinning
Web Blaster, the Talking Friendship Adventures Dora, and Dostana swimwear.

Name and character licensing has grown rapidly in recent years. Licensing can be a highly profitable
business for many companies.
D) Co-branding: Co-branding is the strategic partnership between two or more companies to associate
more than one brand name with an offering to create marketing synergy.

Apple & Nike,

The two notable points in the definition are:

Strategic partnership: Strategic partnership refers to the process where brands partner to derive profit
out of the combined effort. This profit may include- better appeal, increased customer reach, publicity,
conversions, etc.

Creating marketing synergy:

The principle of marketing synergy states-‘the whole must be greater than its parts’. This means that co-
brands pool their resources, creativity, and existing brand images to develop an offering that is
greater than the sum of its parts.

Ex: Intel often gets into co branding contracts with several computer manufacturers to offer its expertise
in CPUs. One such contract is with Dell.

 Dell makes laptops that need fast processors.

 Intel makes compact and fast processors that are used in laptops.

Therefore, both their products are perfectly compatible and match the other.

4) Brand Development: A company has four choices when it comes to developing brands. It can
introduce line extensions, brand extensions, multiband, or new brands.

a) Line extension: Line extensions occur when a company extends existing brand names to new forms,
colors, sizes, ingredients, or flavors of an existing product category. Thus, Bata- one of the oldest
footwear brands in most countries- has expanded its footwear line to include regular shoes, premium
shoes, sports shoes, sandals, socks, and several others like monsoon wear.

b) Brand Extension: A Brand extension extends a current brand name to new or modified products in a
new category. There are three types of Brand extensions,

 Expansion of items in the same product line. Ex: Black hit used for killing cockroaches, Hit
power issued for killing both mosquitoes’ cockroaches.
 Expansion of items in a related product line. Ex: Maggie noodles. Maggie ketchup, Maggie
soup.
 Expansion of items in an unrelated product line. Ex: Tata broadband connections, TATA steel,
TATA tires and so on.
c) Multi brands: Companies often introduce additional brands in the same category. Thus Hindustan
Unilever (Dove,
Lipton, Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s, and more.) and Procter &
Gamble(Pampers, Gain, Tide, Pantene, Always, Crest, Braun, and more) & Nestle
markets many different brands each of their product categories. Multi branding offers a way to
establish different features and appeal to different buying motives. It also allows a company to lock up
more reseller shelf space.

A major drawback of multi branding is that each brand might obtain only a small market share, and
none may be very profitable.

d) New Brands: A company might believe that the power of its existing brand name is waning and a
new brand is needed. Or it may create a new brand name when it enters a new product category for
which none of the company’s current brand names are appropriate. Ex: Tata Motors created the
separate Ace brand, targeted toward small transporters or those who have just started their transport
business.
Advantages of Brand:

 Identification of product
 Differentiation of product
 Legal protection
 Competitive Advantages
 Signal of Quality product
 Risk reducer
 Helps in introducing a new product
 Helps in repeat purchase by customer

Disadvantages of Brand:

 Branding involve huge cost

 If Brand gets bad reputation then it is very difficult to regain the good position.