Brand Management and Place Branding

The provided document is an extensive project on brand management and place branding, highlighting the importance of branding in achieving success and growth for both large and small firms. The project includes various references to books, journals, and online sources that cover topics such as employer brand management, luxury fashion brand consumers, destination brands, and customer engagement with self-expressive brands.

Brand Management
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Branding role as a marketing tool and impact on business activities:-............................3
P2. Key elements of successful brand strategy and managing brand equity:-.......................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P3 Different strategies of portfolio management, brand hierarchy and brand equity
management............................................................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P4 Management of brand collaboratively at both domestic and global level.........................9
TASK 5..........................................................................................................................................11
P5 Different types of techniques for measuring and managing brand value........................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
The word BRAND can be used as a synonym of trust. Brand is created by consistently
delivering the quality over a period of time. Brand can be considered as the image of product in
customer mind. This product positioning is done by various marketing efforts and strategies. In
this project the utility of brand, process of brand creation and strategies of branding are
elaborated. To give a better clarity of the topic, Apple Inc. the world leading touch screen phone
manufacturer is taken as an example (Ashworth and Kavaratzis, 2010). There are various
strategies of branding which are practiced by Apple. In this era where competition is so tough
branding has emerged as an important tool of marketing. In order to become a brand the
company needs to do innovation in its product from time to time. In this time customer are
becoming brand conscious and spending a large amount on branded product has become an
investment not expenditure.
TASK 1
P1 Branding role as a marketing tool and impact on business activities:-
Brand: Brand means a symbol, name, logo, design or any other identity through which
customer can recognize a company’s offering easily and distinguish from other similar products
or services available in the market. A brand creates both positive or negative image on consumer
through its qualities, service delivery and benefits for company’s customer base. A customer
takes decision to buy a product or service by the use of product, its brand image and many other
marketing stimuli.
Branding as an important marketing tool:- In today’s competitive era branding is an
important marketing tool to defeat from its rivals through differentiation among the offering of
company and rivalry firms. Giant company like APPLE branding is most valuable assets and
worlds top 10 most trusted brands and preferred brands by the customers. Apple company’s all
offering like mobile I-phone, laptop, tablet, watch, ipod have different market segment and
recognition and company build this brand image through continuous innovation and creativity
and providing best features to its customer and satisfy them (Brodie and et. al., 2013).
Brand equity:- It’s refers the commercial or market value of company brand. Its value
analyze by the different methods by the different companies. It’s a realistic sale value of brand in
market at present and this associate with customer perception towards firm’s offering. According
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to the (Annual Brand Finance Global 500 Ranking) Apple’s brand value estimate to be $160
billion and it’s maintain the 2nd position continuously higher 37 percent then year 2017 due to
increase in sale of company and net profit also.
Differentiation between brand and product:-
Base Brand Product
Meaning It means a name, symbol,
design, quality which
differs it from its rivals.
It’s a set or collection of
various attributes
Offer Its offer quality, trust or
faith in company’s offering.
Its offer to satisfy customers
unfulfilled needs and wants.
Selling A company can not be sell
to its customer.
It offered to customer for
selling purpose.
Legal Its can’t be copy by others
legal rights are reserved by
the company.
Its can be copy by
competitors.
Key elements of a Strong Brand:- Offering quality:- Brand recognize by a customer through its quality. Today’s customer
is the king of marketing. A marketer can’t make fool customer in the name of brand. So
its all related to customer faith, believe or trust in company’s offering (Buil, De
Chernatony and Martínez, 2013). A strong brand image of company can maintain its
exiting and new customers and convert them as loyal customers. Competitive advantage:- A strong brand image provides competitive advantage to the
company. In case of Apple, the offering of the company is technological advanced and
provide all security and hogh standard features to its customers. Its all different and
innovative features make the company different from others so quality, innovation and
customers trust are competitive advantage for the company. Customers perception:- The main and important thing is that customers perception
towards company’s existing or new products and services because every individual
perceive the same thing quiet different from others due to its personality, upbringing,
Lifestyle, attitudes and behavioral traits. So its important to brand manager while
designing marketing strategy for the company.
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 Brand management policy of the company:- A brand manager consider all the factors at
the time designing branding and positioning strategy for brand image for their target
segment (Christiaans, 2012). Its depend upon the target customer base due to their similar
characteristics like:- age, race, lifestyle, behaviours patterns etc.
 Managing and develop of brand over time:- There are various theories used by the brand
manager respect to managing brand and develop overtime. These are brand portfolios/
architectures, corporate brands, brands extension etc. its depend upon the company
strategic management and top management to take decision regarding that. But its takes
time to build and establish brand among customers through company’s policy,
communication. Product or service quality etc.
Challenges faced by the company while developing brand:- Satisfy customer expectation:- The all offering main aim to satisfy customers needs and
wants without it a company can’t survive in long time if the products can’t meet customer
standard (Dempsey and Gruver, 2012). Competition:- A challenging problem faced by the company by its competitors due to
innovation, price, quality, brand image etc.
 Technological advancement:- Today’s world where technology play an important role
its both positive or negative impact on the company while developing of brand due to
technology advancement.
There are many challenges like educate customers, retain existing loyal customers, price
increase, quality assurance etc.
P2. Key elements of successful brand strategy and managing brand equity:-
There are various elements which contribute to make of branding strategies successful.
Few are described below:
1. World class service or quality strategy: This strategy is based on the fact that the word
brand means trust. This trust is created by delivering high quality goods and services over
period of time. By providing quality product the company becomes famous through
customer feedback and mouth publicity (Hollebeek, 2011). This creates trust among
customer and public for company product. This trust later turn into the image of the
product. The company start knowing as trust oriented company for quality product and
hence become an example in the industry. Thus it establishes itself as a brand. The key
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element for any company to become a brand should be delivering quality goods and
services. Apple Inc. is famous for its quality product. The company is focused on
delivering quality goods by doing continuous innovation in the existing product. That is
why company has successfully created and established its on customer segment which
quality conscious and pays a very high amount for the same.
2. Branding Tools: The next key element are the those areas which visible and that helps
customer differentiate the company product from its competitor. This is a very famous
tool of branding. Company logos are placed at every store and advertising material. This
creates an identity of company product in customer mind. Unique logos are identified by
the customers very soon (Hwang and Kandampully, 2012). It also has a high chance to
memorize the company logo for a long period of time. A part from this company tagline
also helps in remembering company products. Simple and catchy tagline is created by the
marketing team so that the customer could remember it easily and it also helps to
understand the theme of the company product.
3. Expert branding: In this approach the company adopt the strategy to recommend its
product by any expert or consultant. The expert branding is done on the product where
the quality of product can be very crucial. This branding is usually done in healthcare
product. Where customer are comfortable in buying products from recommendation of
experts only.
4. Differentiation strategy: In this strategy the company focus on building brand by
differentiating its product from competitor. This differentiation strategy can be low cost
product, high quality goods, Innovation, technology up gradation etc. This differentiation
strategy is very useful for in many ways. The low cost product make itself a brand by
providing goods to a large customer segment by reducing cost of production hence it
increases the demand for product as well as it also changes the product life cycle. The
high quality goods make themselves a brand by taking care of customer concern about
quality and deliver them the same (Jiang and Iles, 2011). It increases the satisfaction of
the customer hence customer spread a good news about product and company hence it
creates a trust among customers. Innovation is key element of success in current business
scenario. Some company belief in differentiating itself from competitor by doing
continuous improvement in the product. The method of differentiation strategy is
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technology up gradation. By doing upgrading technology the product can be
differentiated from its competitor. Apple Inc. uses two techniques of differentiation
strategy high quality goods and innovation. It provides high quality goods with
continuous innovation and improvement in the product.
Managing brand equity: The critical aspect of brand equity is that it is very difficult to
measure. The brand equity stand for the values attach with a brand. In order to maintain brand
equity the company needs to focus on the tangible and intangible values that the product delivers.
It can be said that the brand equity is the perception of customer about the tangible and
intangible value that a product delivers. If a product has a negative image in customer mind it
will result into the lower brand equity (Som and Blanckaert, 2015). To manage the brand equity
the company should create a right picture in customer mind by balancing the tangible and
intangible values of the product. In order to create a high equity the brand should deliver value as
well as it should also associate itself with social welfare work.
TASK 2
P3 Different strategies of portfolio management, brand hierarchy and brand equity management
House of brand and branded house
The two main models of brand portfolio are named as House of brand and Branded
house. It is observed that concepts of these models are different from each other and having
different importance for organisation. The basic functions and meaning of above mentioned
models are defined below:
House of brands: This model of branding is used by the organisation if its main product
is not recognised by the customers in market. This will includes about the branding of their
different multiple sub products to bring awareness about them improvement of sales figure.
According to the provisions of this model more emphasis provided to sub products instead of
their main product (Wallace, Buil and de Chernatony, 2014). This will creates the confusion
among the customers about the identification of the products of organisation which is provided
by them under same brand name.
Branded house: It is one of the important model of branding which issued by the most of
organisation as it helps in recognition of their sub products through the branding of their main
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product. This approach is important if the main product which is provided by organisation is well
known in market. It is observed that both the organisations Samsung and Apple uses this model
of branding for their products.
Brand portfolio strategy
The provision of this strategy applies on the organisation which provides diversified
products in market at the same time. There are many branded products are prevail in market of
both the organisations like Apple and Samsung. The major products of Apple which are
available in market includes I phone, Mac book etc. On the other hand, Samsung provides
refrigerators, mobile phones, AC etc. It is the obligation upon the management of organisation is
to built new and innovative strategies which contributes in effective management of their brand
in market (Zaglia, 2013). The role of these different strategies is defined below:
 Application of profit and growth strategy: This strategy is providing the principles
about positioning of product in market such manner that it is easily available to customers
in market and satisfies the different requirements of customers. It provides the
opportunity to the organisation improve their market share and build their good image in
market.
 Investing in business and brand: To attain long term sustainability in their business
operations organisation is need to make continuous investments in their brands and
business activities. These will helps in adoption of innovative technologies to make the
business processes more effective and application of good marketing strategies which
spread awareness about the brand among the customers which helps to make good
connection with them.
 Improvement of efficiency: To improve the efficiency of their products need to develop
more quality products which easily compete with the products of their competitors in
market. In this regard, there is also need to reduce the price of products which can be
achieved through reduction in the cost of production (Kavaratzis, Warnaby and
Ashworth, 2014).
Management hierarchy
Followed by Apple
 Umbrella brand: One of the effective form of branding of products where all the
products of organisation is known from the single brand name. It is important for
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customers to find out the diversified products which are provided by organisation and
always became loyal towards products. In the case of Apple, The different products
which are provided like I Phone, Mac book etc. Are known from the brand name of
Apple in market.
 Endorsement of sub brands: This will includes the procedure of endorsing of their
products in market for influencing the buying behaviour of customers. In this regard,
Apple appoints the celebrity for endorsement of their existing and potential products to
make strong bond with customers which helps to earn large number of revenue (Li and
Kambele, 2012).
Followed by Samsung
 Umbrella brand: Samsung is also using umbrella strategy for the branding of their
products which provided by them in market. All the different kind of products which are
prepared by the organisation whether mobile, refrigerator, AC are considered under same
brand name and recognised in the market with that only.
 Endorsed sub Brands: To attract the large number of customers from worldwide and
improve their sales and revenue, management of organisation uses the method of
television advertisement which helps to easily reach in between the end customers
(Morgan, Pritchard and Pride, 2011). This will provides the chance is to attain good
position in market and drive their rivals out of the market.
TASK 3
P4 Management of brand collaboratively at both domestic and global level
It is important for organisation is to manage their brand at domestic and global level
simultaneously. These will helps the organisation is to maintain good image in the entire world
in between the customers and become the market leader in their sector. For effective
management of their brand need to adopt different strategies and approaches which contributes
in monitoring of the different aspects which contributes in enhancing the brand value at both
domestic and global level.
Brand leveraging: One of the important strategy which is applied by the organisation
while entering into the new market. It provides about using of their brand image and name to
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capture the new market but in the same category in which already they provide product. This will
have importance for organisation regarding expansion of their business.
Brand extension: The provisions of this strategy are used by the organisation while they
want to provide new product in different sector through using common brand name. The use of
this strategy is made by the organisation with the purpose of that uses their customer base and
their loyalty towards their brand for the success of new product in market.
Brand leverage and extension: The principles of both these strategies are used by
Samsung Apple to maintain and improve the brand image at domestic and global level (Dempsey
and Gruver, 2012). These strategies is used by these organisations for expansion of their business
through entering into new market or providence of new product in different sector.
Difference between Brand and line extension
Brand Extensions Line Extensions
It is broad concept which includes the process
regarding expansion of brand in new market
It is narrow concept which provides the
process about expansion of existing goods in
new market
This will includes providence of new product
in new country
This will includes providence of existing
product in new country for attraction of large
number of customers
The products which are developed under this
strategy includes innovative features and
design and different in all respect and falls
under different category
This will provides about development of new
product with new features in same product line
Brand extension strategy
For extension of their brand, management of both the organisation Samsung and Apple
uses Ansoff matrix in both domestic and international level. The different aspects of this strategy
are defined below:
 Market penetration: This will provides about expansion of business through use of
existing products in same market where they have already established business activities
through development of innovative features which makes their product different from its
rival. This will have direct impact upon their sales and revenue figure.
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 Market development: Here organisation expands their business operations in new
territory where they don’t have any business activities through providence of their
existing products (Christiaans, 2012). This will helps to capture the market through
influencing the behaviour of customers.
 Product development: This step includes the process of development of the new product
according to the needs of customers and current trends and provides it to the existing
markets. This will have huge importance to attain the trusts of customers and make their
competitors out of the market. This can also be refers as adding of the new features in
their existing products to make it better.
 Diversification: This approach includes development of new product for entering into
new markets.
TASK 5
P5 Different types of techniques for measuring and managing brand value
To get maximum return on investment and to survive in today’s business environment, it is
very essential for an enterprise to get and maintain a competitive position in market. A business
organisation face various type of issues while carry out its activities. To work in an adequate
manner, it is very essential for manager to identify and examine the factors exist in business
environment. Further collect information about needs and demand of customers is also very
important for a business entity (Buil, De Chernatony and Martínez, 2013). Big brand like Apple
and Samsung determine the value of brand in order to maintain their market share and to attract
large number of customers. One of the main benefit of examine brand value is that it help firm in
identify the current position and all this help in formulate effective policies for various business
activities.
Techniques of manage and measure brand value
Various techniques are there that can be use by entity deter mine the value of brand such
as brand awareness, consumer attitude towards brand, market share and many more. Major and
most popular approaches use b y Apple and Samsung to measure the value of brand can be
understood by the following points:
 Brand awareness: This is one of the most effective approach this involve determine the
popularity of brand in market and among all customers. For this approach, opinions and
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feedbacks of customers known as an relevant factor as this support manager in determine
the value of brand. One of the most relevant factor of consumer awareness is known as
examine the time, brand comes up in daily news about different type of products offer by
entity (Brodie and et. al., 2013). In addition to this various other methods are there related
with determine the awareness among all consumers some of them are survey or focus
groups, social reviews and web traffic.
 Customer attitude towards brand: Under this value of brand is determine on the basis
of customer’s experience with the brand. Under this, various efforts are done by manager
to examine the expectation, quality, current services offer by brand to its customers and
their attitudes towards the same. One of the main benefit of this is that it help in identify
how satisfy a customer is with the products and services offer by firm.
Approaches to valuing brand
 Research based approach: Under this approach various methods and tools of research
are use by firm in order to examine the performance of both brand in market.
 Financial based approach: Financial performance of both brand is identified in this
approach. This approach is further divided into following points:
o Comparable: In this manager identify the price of products offer by firm’s rival.
o Cost based: This method consists determine the value of brand by b ring average
of all funds invest by firm to make it popular among large number of customers
(Ashworth and Kavaratzis, 2010).
Tracking techniques and brand equity audit
Both Apple and Samsung are big brand and different method is use by these firm for
brand audit. Main stages involve in this process are as follows:
Market context: Various factors that affect the brand equity in negative way is
determine in this.
Strengths and weakness of brand audit: This consists determine the brand loyalty and
market share of brand.
CONCLUSION
Branding is core of marketing in the current scenario. No company can survive for a long
time without making itself a brand. In this project all important aspect of branding has covered
from strategies to portfolio to tools of marketing to application measuring branding. All famous
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techniques and tools are described in the project. In order to give a more clear understanding this
project has given the reference of very famous brand APPLE. This project has also covered
various concept and theories of marketing and branding. In this project an attempt has also made
to help understand that marketing and branding goes hand in hand. The importance of branding
can be easily understood by this project. The project has also highlighted the areas that will
witness the tremendous growth in future. In this project it can be easily concluded that branding
has become key element of success and growth for large as well as medium and small firms.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ashworth, G. and Kavaratzis, M. eds., 2010. Towards effective place brand management:
Branding European cities and regions. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Brodie, R. J. and et. al., 2013. Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An
exploratory analysis. Journal of Business Research. 66(1). pp.105-114.
Buil, I., De Chernatony, L. and Martínez, E., 2013. Examining the role of advertising and sales
promotions in brand equity creation. Journal of Business Research. 66(1). pp.115-122.
Christiaans, L., 2012. International employer brand management: A multilevel analysis and
segmentation of students' preferences. Springer Science & Business Media.
Dempsey, J. M. and Gruver, E., 2012. “The Public Interest Must Dominate”: Herbert Hoover
and the Public Interest, Convenience, and Necessity. Journal of Radio & Audio Media.
19(1). pp.96-109.
Hollebeek, L., 2011. Exploring customer brand engagement: definition and themes. Journal of
strategic Marketing. 19(7). pp.555-573.
Hwang, J. and Kandampully, J., 2012. The role of emotional aspects in younger consumer-brand
relationships. Journal of Product & Brand Management. 21(2). pp.98-108.
Jiang, T. and Iles, P., 2011. Employer-brand equity, organizational attractiveness and talent
management in the Zhejiang private sector, China. Journal of Technology Management
in China. 6(1). pp.97-110.
Som, A. and Blanckaert, C., 2015. The Road To Luxury: The Evolution, Markets and Strategies
of Luxury Brand Management. John Wiley & Sons.
Wallace, E., Buil, I. and de Chernatony, L., 2014. Consumer engagement with self-expressive
brands: brand love and WOM outcomes. Journal of Product & Brand Management.
23(1). pp.33-42.
Zaglia, M. E., 2013. Brand communities embedded in social networks. Journal of business
research. 66(2). pp.216-223.
Kavaratzis, M., Warnaby, G. and Ashworth, G. eds., 2014. Rethinking place branding:
Comprehensive brand development for cities and regions. Springer.
Li, G., and Kambele, Z., 2012. Luxury fashion brand consumers in China: Perceived value,
fashion lifestyle, and willingness to pay. Journal of Business Research, 65(10).
pp.1516-1522.
Morgan, N., Pritchard, A. and Pride, R., 2011. Destination brands: Managing place reputation.
Routledge.
Online
Brand Management - Meaning and Important Concepts. 2017. [Online]. Available
through.<http://www.managementstudyguide.com/brand-management.htm>.
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