Brand Management
Lecture 1
Brand = a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of
one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition. Network of associations, many of
them are learned – to some extent this network is collective, the other part is different for everyone.
Perspectives: organizations’ point of view: physical product vs. customers’ point of view: psychological product.
Brands Products
Product = anything that can be offered to a market for attention/acquisition/use/consumption that might satisfy a need or want.
4 Levels (Levitt)
Core benefit;
Tangible product; you can remove this layer and still have the core product not necessary (fifth wheel in a car)
Augmented product; something really extra
Total product; the company decides on the core, tangible and augmented part, after that the company has to see how
the product is being adapted.
Product Brand
- Tangible: can be touched by customer; - Intangible: lives in customer’s mind;
- Can be copied; - Unique;
- Can be outdated; - Potentially timeless;
- Involves transactions; - Forms basis of connections.
A brand is a product, but one that adds other dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other products designed
to satisfy the same need. These differences can be: rational and tangible; symbolic, emotional and intangible.
Reality is that most valuable assets that many firms have may not be tangible assets, but intangible assets (management
skills, marketing, financial and operations expertise and most important, the brands themselves).
The value proposition
Importance of brands for:
1) Consumers: identification of source of product –
assignment of responsibility to product maker –
risk reducer (different kinds of risk) – search cost reducer
(e.g. heuristic) – bond/pact with maker of the product –
symbolic device – signal of quality.
2) Manufacturers: means of identification to simplify handling or tracing – means of legally protecting unique features –
signal of quality level (e.g. ‘made by..’), means of endowing products with unique associations – source of competitive
advantage (entry barriers) – source of financial returns.
Everything can be branded
1) Physical goods; branded products doesn’t already imply that the brand actually adds something -doesn’t always add
value
o Fast moving packaged consumer goods: Almost 100% of all products are “branded”;
o Business-to-business products: Creating a positive image and reputation for company as a whole;
o High-tech products: Financial success no longer driven by product innovation or latest product specifications and
features alone.
2) Services – address potential intangibility and variability problems / brand symbols to make abstract nature more
concrete.
3) Retailers and distributors – generate consumer interest, patronage and loyalty in a store and consumers learn to expect
certain brands and products from a store private label brands.
4) Online products and services – improving customer services because unique aspects of the brand (convenience, price
etc.) are nog enough.
5) People and organizations;
6) Sports, arts and entertainment;
7) Geographic locations;
8) Ideas and causes.
, Challenges and opportunities
1) Savvy customers - it’s difficult to persuade the more experienced consumers with traditional communications … and to
be “respected” is not enough;
2) Brand proliferation - more complex brand families and portfolios, few “mono” products brands;
3) Media fragmentation (what are causes?) – firms spend more on nontraditional and new forms of communication, e.g.
interactive, electronic media / increase expenditures on promotion, decrease expenditures on advertising;
4) Increased costs – NP-intro / existing product support;
5) Increased competition more difficult to differentiate –
- Demand-side: mature markets;
- Supply-side: brand extensions / deregulation / globalization low-priced competitors (growth of private labels & increasing
trade power);
6) Greater accountability – short-term performance orientation / increasing job turnover.
Customer-Based Brand Equity (investment made in the past)
CBBE = (1) Differential effect that (2) brand knowledge has on (3) consumer response to the marketing of that brand.
A brand has positive customer-based brand equity when customers react more favorably to a product and the way it is
marketed when the brand is identified than when it is not (e.g., when it is attributed to a fictitiously named or unnamed
version of the product).
Brand Equity Concept – stresses importance of the role of the brand in marketing strategies.
• Differences in outcomes arise from “added value” as a result of past marketing activities for the brand;
• This value can be created in many different ways;
• Brand equity provides common denominator for interpreting marketing strategies and assessing value of a brand;
• Value can be manifested in different ways (e.g. greater proceeds a/o lower costs).
Brand management goals
• Consumer brand equity – build, sustain and leverage positive, strong, active, unique meanings of the brand;
• Financial brand equity - to enable the brand to earn more in the short and long run.
Strategic Brand Management Process – design and implementation of marketing programs and activities to build,
measure and manage brand equity.
Step 1: Identify and establish brand positioning and values
Positioning = act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target
customer’s mind (often determined from a brand audit)
Key concepts: • Mental maps • Competitive frame of reference • Points of parity and points of difference • Core brand
values • Brand mantra.
Step 2: Plan and implement brand marketing programs
Key concepts: • Mixing and matching of brand elements visual or verbal information that serves to identify and
differentiate a product • Integrating brand marketing activities • Leverage of secondary associations linking the
brand to another node or information in memory that conveys meaning to consumers.
Step 3: Measure and interpret brand performance
Key concepts: • Brand value chain in order to better understand the financial impact of brand marketing • Brand audits
• Brand tracking • Brand equity management system to provide timely, accurate and actionable information for
marketers to make best possible decisions (ST & LT).
Business Value Chain - use the brand value chain to determine measurement tactics and resulting marketing strategies.
Lecture 1
Brand = a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of
one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition. Network of associations, many of
them are learned – to some extent this network is collective, the other part is different for everyone.
Perspectives: organizations’ point of view: physical product vs. customers’ point of view: psychological product.
Brands Products
Product = anything that can be offered to a market for attention/acquisition/use/consumption that might satisfy a need or want.
4 Levels (Levitt)
Core benefit;
Tangible product; you can remove this layer and still have the core product not necessary (fifth wheel in a car)
Augmented product; something really extra
Total product; the company decides on the core, tangible and augmented part, after that the company has to see how
the product is being adapted.
Product Brand
- Tangible: can be touched by customer; - Intangible: lives in customer’s mind;
- Can be copied; - Unique;
- Can be outdated; - Potentially timeless;
- Involves transactions; - Forms basis of connections.
A brand is a product, but one that adds other dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other products designed
to satisfy the same need. These differences can be: rational and tangible; symbolic, emotional and intangible.
Reality is that most valuable assets that many firms have may not be tangible assets, but intangible assets (management
skills, marketing, financial and operations expertise and most important, the brands themselves).
The value proposition
Importance of brands for:
1) Consumers: identification of source of product –
assignment of responsibility to product maker –
risk reducer (different kinds of risk) – search cost reducer
(e.g. heuristic) – bond/pact with maker of the product –
symbolic device – signal of quality.
2) Manufacturers: means of identification to simplify handling or tracing – means of legally protecting unique features –
signal of quality level (e.g. ‘made by..’), means of endowing products with unique associations – source of competitive
advantage (entry barriers) – source of financial returns.
Everything can be branded
1) Physical goods; branded products doesn’t already imply that the brand actually adds something -doesn’t always add
value
o Fast moving packaged consumer goods: Almost 100% of all products are “branded”;
o Business-to-business products: Creating a positive image and reputation for company as a whole;
o High-tech products: Financial success no longer driven by product innovation or latest product specifications and
features alone.
2) Services – address potential intangibility and variability problems / brand symbols to make abstract nature more
concrete.
3) Retailers and distributors – generate consumer interest, patronage and loyalty in a store and consumers learn to expect
certain brands and products from a store private label brands.
4) Online products and services – improving customer services because unique aspects of the brand (convenience, price
etc.) are nog enough.
5) People and organizations;
6) Sports, arts and entertainment;
7) Geographic locations;
8) Ideas and causes.
, Challenges and opportunities
1) Savvy customers - it’s difficult to persuade the more experienced consumers with traditional communications … and to
be “respected” is not enough;
2) Brand proliferation - more complex brand families and portfolios, few “mono” products brands;
3) Media fragmentation (what are causes?) – firms spend more on nontraditional and new forms of communication, e.g.
interactive, electronic media / increase expenditures on promotion, decrease expenditures on advertising;
4) Increased costs – NP-intro / existing product support;
5) Increased competition more difficult to differentiate –
- Demand-side: mature markets;
- Supply-side: brand extensions / deregulation / globalization low-priced competitors (growth of private labels & increasing
trade power);
6) Greater accountability – short-term performance orientation / increasing job turnover.
Customer-Based Brand Equity (investment made in the past)
CBBE = (1) Differential effect that (2) brand knowledge has on (3) consumer response to the marketing of that brand.
A brand has positive customer-based brand equity when customers react more favorably to a product and the way it is
marketed when the brand is identified than when it is not (e.g., when it is attributed to a fictitiously named or unnamed
version of the product).
Brand Equity Concept – stresses importance of the role of the brand in marketing strategies.
• Differences in outcomes arise from “added value” as a result of past marketing activities for the brand;
• This value can be created in many different ways;
• Brand equity provides common denominator for interpreting marketing strategies and assessing value of a brand;
• Value can be manifested in different ways (e.g. greater proceeds a/o lower costs).
Brand management goals
• Consumer brand equity – build, sustain and leverage positive, strong, active, unique meanings of the brand;
• Financial brand equity - to enable the brand to earn more in the short and long run.
Strategic Brand Management Process – design and implementation of marketing programs and activities to build,
measure and manage brand equity.
Step 1: Identify and establish brand positioning and values
Positioning = act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target
customer’s mind (often determined from a brand audit)
Key concepts: • Mental maps • Competitive frame of reference • Points of parity and points of difference • Core brand
values • Brand mantra.
Step 2: Plan and implement brand marketing programs
Key concepts: • Mixing and matching of brand elements visual or verbal information that serves to identify and
differentiate a product • Integrating brand marketing activities • Leverage of secondary associations linking the
brand to another node or information in memory that conveys meaning to consumers.
Step 3: Measure and interpret brand performance
Key concepts: • Brand value chain in order to better understand the financial impact of brand marketing • Brand audits
• Brand tracking • Brand equity management system to provide timely, accurate and actionable information for
marketers to make best possible decisions (ST & LT).
Business Value Chain - use the brand value chain to determine measurement tactics and resulting marketing strategies.
