Brand Management Report: Analyzing Woolworths and Kmart Brands

This report provides a comparative analysis of the brand management strategies employed by Woolworths and Kmart, two prominent brands in the Australian general merchandise industry. The report delves into various aspects of brand management, including personalization strategies, marketing communication approaches, leveraging secondary brand associations, and brand architecture. It examines Woolworths' successful strategies, such as its "pick-up" approach and comprehensive marketing communication, contrasting them with Kmart's less effective methods, such as its limited personalization and controversial marketing campaigns. The analysis highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each brand, offering insights into how Kmart can improve its brand equity and competitive position. The report also discusses the application of brand loyalty theories and the importance of customer-centric marketing strategies for building a strong brand image.

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Title: Brand Management
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Personalization Strategy..................................................................................................................2
Marketing Communication Strategy................................................................................................4
Leveraging Secondary Brand Association Strategy........................................................................6
Brand Architecture Strategy............................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Brand management can be defined as a marketing approach that utilizes techniques to
enhance the value of the brand or the product. The main objective of brand management is to
increase the value of the product in the eye of the customers, which will further help in attaining
loyal customers. In this assignment, two brands are being evaluated, which are Woolworths &
Kmart. Both these brands are popular in the general merchandise industry of Australia, though
both of them have different brand equity. The organization Woolworths is the top supermarket in
Australia, operating in approximately 995 locations. The organization has a huge market share as
it has been operating for more than 90 years. For managing its customers, the organization
utilizes strong marketing approaches, for increasing its brand equity regularly. On the other hand,
Kmart is the weaker organization that has been functioning for approximately 50 years in
Australia. The organization currently operates in 228 locations. Kmart marketing approaches are
minimal, it is due to this reason that the organization has low brand equity. In this assignment,
various brand management approaches of these organizations are examined, so as to identify
different brand operation issues, for developing a better brand management plan.
Personalization Strategy
The concept that I am focusing on here is personalization. In the current intense
competition in the market, organizations are forced to offer personalized services. A
personalization strategy helps an organization in identifying different customer segments and
their distinctive preferences and needs. This strategy helps in better targeting the customers. The
organization Woolworths “pick-up” approach is an effective personalization strategy. Under this
“pick-up” strategy, the customers will have the opportunity to easily place an order through the
mobile application. In addition to it, the customer can also get their order on the selected time
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and day, according to the personal preference of the customer (Koehn, 2017). With this
personalization strategy, the organization Woolworths is able to fulfill the personal needs and
demands of each customer. In my opinion, this personalization strategy is extremely effective, as
it adjusts with the schedule of every customer by delivering them with the products on their
preferred time.
On the other hand, Kmart “Bluelight Special” is a personalized strategy that involves
various different discounts. Along with this, the employees wear special T-shirts that engage the
customers to enquire about various discounts (Isaacs, 2019). The employee deals with each
customer in a personalized manner, which makes the shopping experience of customers fun and
happening. In my opinion, this is a good approach to manage the customers and offer them a
personalized experience. But this personalized approach is not appropriate for managing the
customers, especially due to the current competition in the market. In addition to this, the level of
personalization offered by Kmart is very limited, in comparison to the organization Woolworths.
In my opinion, for the organization Kmart, it is important to make certain changes to their
personalization strategy “Bluelight Special”. They should offer each customer with a special
personal discount. For this, the organization needs to ensure that under the “Bluelight Special”
approach, the discounts should be made more personalized in a way that they fulfill the needs
and preferences of maximum customers (Aitken, 2011). Along with this, Kmart also needs to
analyze the personalized approaches of competitors, so as to attain competitive advantages. The
organization Kmart needs to utilize the value-based brand theory, for gaining loyal customers.
The main focus of the value-based brand theory is on delivering customers with great value that
encourages them to become loyal customers. The value-based brand theory is great for attaining
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competitive advantages and defeating competitors. Also, the organization will be able to attain
long-term customers.
Marketing Communication Strategy
According to Robertson and Davidson, the main objective of integrated marketing
communication can be defined as an approach to fulfill a few of the organization’s strategic
objectives, which include increasing the sales of the organization and building a more powerful
image in the market (Robertson and Davidson, 2013). The integrated marketing communication
approaches are customer-centric, which also helps in the proper allocation of resources for
customer benefit. The organization Woolworths understands the importance of marketing
communication in targeting and positioning the organization effectively. It is due to this reason
that the organization utilizes various different types of marketing communication elements,
which include advertising, sales promotion, events, social media, and many more. The
organization for advertising utilizes mediums like television, radio, newspapers, and social
media. All these mediums are effectively used to convey the organization’s message, which is
developed around the vision, mission, and principles of the organization. Also, with the
emergence of social media, the organization keeps updating its customers with exciting offers
and other sales promotions for enticing the customers.
In my opinion, as the organization Woolworths has been functioning for so many years, it
has developed a credible image in the market. It is due to this, that the organization utilizes the
brand loyalty theory in its marketing communication approaches (Oakley, 2013). The
organization understands the customer’s psychology about Woolworths. The positive attitude
that a customer has towards Woolworths is due to three aspects, which are the behavioral aspect,
brand evaluation, and emotional attachment. The emotional aspect is the most crucial one in
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brand management. The Woolworths sales promotion approach of loyalty cards is also
developed around this branding theory that influences the buying behavior of the customers,
which further helps in developing a more powerful image in the market (Morgan, Pritchard and
Pride, 2011).
On the other hand, Kmart implements its marketing communication approaches through
mediums like social media, blogs, television, press release, radio, and newspapers. Kmart
marketing communication practices have been transformed recently, as the organization does not
utilize traditional style messages for communication. The organization uses communication
messages, which have a fun aspect in it, like “Big Gas Savings”, “Ship my pants”, and many
more (Parekh and Zmuda, 2013). Though these marketing communication approaches are
entertaining, the message and the television advertisements have not impacted the majority of the
people positively, due to its obscene presentation. The Kmart advertisement ‘Show your Joe”,
received a lot of flak, which has impacted brand image in the market. In my opinion, the
organization approach to developing brand value are creative but they are not appropriate for
diverse audience. In addition to this, the marketing communication approaches are not offering
the customers a strong value that helps in influencing the behavior or emotion of the customers
towards the brand. It is due to this that the organization has a weak brand image in the market in
comparison to Woolworths. Kmart has been operating for approximately 50 years and still the
organization does not have a prominent market share, in comparison to its competitors.
Therefore, in my opinion, the marketing communication of Kmart needs certain changes.
The organization should utilize its distinctive messages, as it can serve as a competitive
advantage, but the organization needs to ensure that it does not offend the target customers'
feelings and emotions. In addition to this, the marketing communication approaches though are
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creative, but they lack to offer any value that helps in influencing the purchasing behavior of the
customers or improving the brand image in the market. Thus, the organization Kmart should
ensure that they deliver a brand value, which is developed around three aspects of brand loyalty -
behavioral aspect, brand evaluation, and emotional attachment. This will help the organization in
attaining loyal customers, hence building a powerful brand image slowly and gradually (Zain and
Saidu, 2016).
Leveraging Secondary Brand Association Strategy
Secondary brand association strategy can be defined as a marketing approach of attaining
brand equity by utilizing specific aspects, which include origin country, distribution channel,
prior knowledge and many more. These different aspects are used for leveraging secondary
brand associations that help in developing a better brand image in the market. The leveraging
process is conducted through unique, positive, and strong responses that a brand attains from the
primary marketing approaches or the prior knowledge. The organization Woolworths has
introduced a number of products that it sells under its sub-brand “Woolworths Food Range”. For
leveraging the secondary brand association strategy, the organization has utilized the approach of
relating the new products with the parent company. By doing so, the organization informs the
customers that “Woolworths Food Range” is the sub-brand of the organization Woolworths. The
organization has successfully implemented this approach for developing a strong brand image in
the market. In addition to it, the organization has developed various sub-brands of Woolworths
offering regular or seasonal products to the customers. Therefore, Woolworths has utilized the
co-branding approach for leveraging secondary brand association strategy (R, G and Jesu, 2019).
In my opinion, as all the marketing approaches of Woolworths are designed around its
customers, this approach is similar to it, which has helped in developing a strong image of the
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organization in the market. The organization Kmart Australia has also started introducing new
products under its label, but the organization mainly offers to fold-up bags. In addition to it, the
secondary brand association strategy of Kmart is non-existing. Kmart was mainly founded in the
US, almost 120 years ago. But the organization announced itself bankrupt in the year 2002, after
which the stores in the USA have now reduced to only 115. Due to this reason, Kmart does not
use its origin country name, due to its humongous failure (Aitken and Campelo, 2011).
In my opinion, the secondary brand association strategy of Kmart is non-existing, which
the organization needs to change. The organization should collaborate with the local Australian
producers and sell their products under a different brand name. The product should be marketed
as “the best local produce, straight from the farm”, this will help in leveraging secondary brand
association strategy, which will help in developing a new image in the market of Kmart. In
addition to this, Kmart should also specialize in products that are popular in its US stores. For
this, the organization can utilize the country's origin approach, as it will help in developing a
more credible image in the market (Campelo, Aitken and Gnoth, 2010).
Brand Architecture Strategy
Brand architecture can be defined as an organization’s strategic, relational, and logical
structure. The main objective of the brand architecture approach is to ensure that the customers
associate with the brands at various levels. This association at different levels helps an
organization in developing a strong brand portfolio, along with developing different strategies
that fulfill the distinctive needs of diverse customer segments. In the organization Woolworths,
the brand architecture comprises of different sub-brands that target specific customers like
Essentials, Gold, Woolworths Food Range, Macro Wholefoods Market, Delicious Nutritious,
and many more. All these different approaches of Woolworths has helped in developing a strong
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portfolio. In my opinion, the organization Woolworth's brand architecture has been developed in
a systematic manner (Allaway et al., 2011). In addition to it, the approaches have targeted
different customer segments, which has helped the organization in building a personalized and
strong relationship with diverse customers (Rashmi and Dangi, 2016). Therefore, in my opinion,
the core aspect of the brand architecture of Woolworths is its relationship with distinctive
customers that it manages appropriately with its various sub-brands.
On the other hand, Kmart struggled with its branding approaches as it failed to utilize an
effective approach. But recently, the organization identified the tight budgets of the household
due to instability in the economy. It is due to this reason that the organization launched its new
approach of “low price for life” approach (Mitchell, 2019). This strategy is built around
customers with a tight budget. In addition to this, the approach also has the potential to attract
other customer segments too, due to attractive prices. In my opinion, Kmart has just started to
incorporate approaches that will help in developing a strong brand architecture. The organization
earlier approaches have failed as they didn’t have a unique selling proposition and even lacked to
offer brand value (Satgunaseelan, 2017).
Therefore, according to the current circumstances, in my opinion, the organization have
weak brand architecture. For this, the organization needs to ensure that it builds strong
relationships with different customer segments by fulfilling their distinctive needs and demands.
In addition to this, the organization needs to ensure that they examine different marketing
aspects, for attaining strong competitive advantages. Both these aspects will help the
organization in slowly building a strong brand image.
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Conclusion
After analyzing the different aspects of brand management, this can be concluded that the
organization Woolworths has a strong brand image in the market, as its marketing and branding
approaches are customer-centric, which aims at fulfilling the needs and demands of the targeted
customers. In addition to it, the organization also building all its branding approaches around
three aspects, which are the behavioral aspect, brand evaluation, and emotional attachment. On
the other hand, Kmart has failed to incorporate all these three aspects for delivering brand value
to the customers. In addition to it, many of its branding approaches have also suffered huge
criticism. Therefore, the organization Kmart needs to re-evaluate all its branding approaches and
should utilize the various recommendation suggested in this report, for better brand management.
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References
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Mitchell, V. (2019). Kmart launches new brand positioning, campaign. [online] Cmo.com.au.
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