Brand Management on Optimum Impression Ltd Assignment

Brand Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Article of Brand is Power............................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Brand portfolio and hierarchy management................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Brand extension and leverage......................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
Measuring and managing brand value.........................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Brand management can be defined as the set of activities which are conducted by an
organisation in order to perceive the brand and establish a positive image in the mind of
customers. With the help of it different goods and services are promoted by companies in order
to attract large number of clients. Main goal of it is to establish good relationships with target
market segment by providing them detailed information regarding products and services offered
by the company (Cavender and H. Kincade, 2014). If an enterprise is not able to establish a good
brand image then it will become difficult for it to sustain in the market. Main aim of this project
is to develop understanding regarding importance of brand management for organisations. This
report is based upon two different organisations first one is Optimum Impression Ltd and another
one is Unilever which is one of the largest retailer of UK and executing business all around the
world.
This report covers various topics such as an article on Brand is Power which is based
upon understanding of the way in which brand is built and managed over time, brand portfolio,
hierarchy management, extension and leverage. Along with this, measuring and management of
brand value is also covered under this report.
TASK 1
Article of Brand is Power
Manager of the marketing department of an advertising organisation called Optimum
Impression Ltd is asked to write an article for company's new brochure for the purpose of
reflecting importance of brand. The article which is being written by the manager is as follows:
Brand is Power
Introduction
Brand: It can be defined as the name, term, sign, symbol or a tag line which is used by
organisations to aware clients regarding the products that are offered by it. Main purpose of
using all these elements is to establish a separate identify of the company as compare to other
enterprises. It helps organisations to present a distinct image in front of its customers from other
sellers in same sector. It is mainly used by Optimum impression Ltd for different purposes such
as marketing, advertising and other business activities as it is mainly concerned with delivering
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advertising services to its clients (D. Hollebeek and Chen, 2014). It helps customers in crowded
and complex market places by standing for certain benefits and values.
Brand equity: It can be defined as the name which is generated by the company by providing
such products to clients that they were willing to buy. It could be created by organisations by
making their goods and services superior in quality and recognizable for the customers and
highly reliable. Optimum Impression Ltd. uses mass marketing campaigns for the purpose of
creating brand equity for all its clients. If a company is having high level of it then it will result
in ability of customers to pay higher amount for the products. In order to achieve sustainability
in the market it is very important for companies to make sure that they are having good brand
equity. It if focused with three different elements which are consumer perception, resulting
value and negative or positive impacts.
Stages of building successful brand: For all the business entities it is very important to build
brand successfully. Optimum Impression Ltd. is an organisation which provides services
regarding building the brand and it make sure that all its clients achieve all their objectives
regarding branding. Steps which are followed for this process are as follows:
 Step 1- Creating a skill inventory: In order to build the brand it is very important for
the companies to create skill inventory which can help to attract large number of
customers. In order to alter brand image it is vital to make sure that organisations are
having capabilities to fulfil requirements if clients (DiMartino and Jessen, 2016).
 Step 2- Assessing customer's needs: At this stage, business entities are required to
conduct market research and analyse needs and demands of customers. It will help to
offer them products or services according to their requirements which will be beneficial
for capturing larger market share and establishing a good brand image. If an
organisation is not able to figure out needs of consumers then it will become difficult to
build brand.
 Step 3- Trying to be different from others in industry: When needs of all the clients
are assessed then it is very important for companies to try to add such features in their
products or services which can make them different from other companies. It helps help
organisation to stand out among the rest of the entities. If an organisation is not able to
differentiate it from others then it will be difficult for the company to sustain the market
and build a brand successfully.
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 Step 4- Creating logo: In this stage managers of the companies are required to create a
unique logo for the brand so that it can attract large number of customers. With the help
of it an organisation could be differentiated from others that are operating business in
same sector.
 Step 5- Making a tag line: When a logo is being created for the brand at last a tag line
is made for the brand so that it can grab attention of target market (Du Preez and
Bendixen, 2015).
Role of marketing department in creating brand image: Marketing division plays a vital
role in creation of brand image because it is the main responsibility of all the employees who
are working in this department. By conducting successful marketing campaigns brand image
could be established.
Main body
Successful strategy for strengthen brand equity: In order to strengthen brand equity it is very
important for the organisations understand Aaker's brand equity model. All the elements of it
are described below:
Aaker's brand equity model: There are five different elements of it which should be focused
by all the companies so that brand equity could be established successfully. All the five
components of it which are taken in to consideration by Optimum Impression Ltd. are discussed
below:
 Brand loyalty: It can be defined as a favourable behaviour of clients towards a brand
which motivates them to buy products from the particular organisation.
 Brand awareness: It can be defined as ability of a brand which helps to inspire clients
to recall or recognise a brand. It is considered as the key element for consumer
behaviour, brand management, strategy development and advertising.
 Perceived quality: It is the perception of customers regarding quality of products or
services offered by the organisation (Ertimur and Coskuner-Balli, 2015).
 Brand association: It can be defined as such elements which are deep seated in the
mind of clients regarding the brand. In order to motivate customers to relate to the
products it is vital for organisations to associate something with brand.
 Other proprietary assets: In order to establish brand equity it is very important to
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focus on different proprietary assets such as patents, trademarks and channel
relationships.
All the elements that are described above should be focused by organisations to establish brand
equity as it helps to attract customers and enhance market share.
Brand extension: It can be defined as a marketing strategy in which organisations market a
specific product with well developed image uses the same brand name in a different product
category. Main purpose of using it is to enhance brand equity (Heding, Knudtzen and Bjerre,
2015).
Reinforcing and revitalising brands or overcoming a brand crisis: If an organisation faces
crisis such as decreased customer loyalty related to brand then business entities plan for
reinforcing and revitalising as both of them are considered as the best options.
Conclusion
Branding is a type of marketing tool which is required for all the business entities as it helps to
spread awareness of products and services so that large number of customers could be attracted
towards organisation. For all the companies it is very important to focus on it as it can result in
attainment of long term business goals.
TASK 2
Brand portfolio and hierarchy management
Unilever is one of the largest retailers of UK which are executing business all around the
world. In order to manage the brand appropriately different brand portfolio strategies are there
which could be used by the marketers of the company to spread awareness regarding products
and services. The strategy which is used by Unilever in order to manage portfolio of organisation
is formulated by following three different steps which are as follows:
 Identifying most powerful brands in portfolio: While setting brand portfolio strategy
for Unilever managers focus on analysing the most powerful brands from the portfolio so
that it could be managed properly. These brands are Dove, Lipton, AXE and Ben &
Jerry's (Strong brands of Unilever, 2019).
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Illustration 1: Strong brands of Unilever, 2019
(Source: Strong brands of Unilever, 2019)
 Defining solutions for brand portfolio: When all the powerful brands are analysed
afterwards solution for brand portfolio are defined so that the brands that are at decline
stage could be revived. The brands such as Heinz are at decline stage due to low demand
of them. Managers are required to form best suitable solutions such as revitalising to
overcome the situation.
 Establishing a brand portfolio roadmap: At the last stage brand portfolio is roadmap is
established by managers in order to make sure that all the brands get promoted
appropriately (Iglesias, Ind and Alfaro, 2017).
Hierarchy management of Unilever: In Unilever all the brands are managed properly in
order to make sure that all of them attract large number of customers. The portfolio of brands
showing a hierarchy of brands is as follows:
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Illustration 2: Brand hierarchy of Unilever, 2019
(Source: Brand hierarchy of Unilever, 2019)
From the above chart it has been analysed that all the brands in the portfolio are managed
properly by the organisation in order to enhance brand equity. With the help of it organisational
goals such as attracting large number of customers. For the propose of managing in appropriately
managers in Unilever segregate them in different segments (Brand hierarchy of Unilever, 2019).
Following theory is used within the organisation to form strategy to manage equity of
brands within the portfolio:
Keller's brand equity model: It is model which is used by organisations such as
Unilever for the purpose of formulating strategy to enhance brand equity of the portfolio. There
are four different elements of it which are described below:
 Identity: At this stage managers in Unilever figure out the features and characteristics of
the brand and the qualities which can attract customers to buy it. At this stage
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organisations are required to define benefits or brand so that key message regarding it
could be delivered to the customers.
 Meaning: At this stage managers of Unilever are required to create meaning the brand so
that customer loyalty could be grabbed. In order to establish it, it is very important for the
organisation to provide good quality products to clients.
 Response: In order to develop brand equity it is very important for Unilever to analyse
response of customers when they purchase the products. For this purpose after sales
services are provided to them so that their loyalty towards the company could be
enhanced (Kavaratzis, Warnaby and Ashworth, 2014).
 Relationships: For organisations such as Unilever it is difficult to establish relationship
with customers because a small mistake can result in bad experience of them. For this
purpose god quality products are offered to them by the organisation so that their level of
loyalty could be maintained and brand equity could be acquired for company.
From the above described points it could be assessed that managers in Unilever are using
various strategies to maintain brand equity which includes offering good quality products,
providing after sales services etc. With the help of them portfolio is managed properly as brand
equity is acquired by providing such benefits to clients.
TASK 3
Brand extension and leverage
Brand leveraging: It can be defined as a process which is considered as the power of
brand. Unilever is a very large organisation and Dove is one of its famous brands which has
captured a large market area. With the help of it the organisation to support the brand name in
new or existing market. It provides various information to the customers so that they could be
motivated to buy products and attracted towards the company. If an Unilever is not able to
leverage its brands such as Dove then it will be difficult for it to attract large number of clients as
they will not be able to gather information regarding it. There are various strengths which could
be leveraged to clients and weaknesses to overcome. All of them are described below:
Strengths to be leveraged: The main strengths of Dove which should be leveraged are
discussed below:
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 One of the major strength which should be leveraged to customers regarding Dove is its
product design as it is a combination of soap and cream. It is one of the best feature of it
which specialise in cleansing and smoothing of skin. This quality of it differentiate the
brand from other competitors and attract customers.
 Another strength of it is that to market the products real people are used instead of
celebrities which means the individuals who are recommending Dove to other are using it
actually. With the help of it organisation can connect with customers as they think that
the brand is speaking for them therefore they prefer it to buy rather than other
competitors (Kelley, Sheehan and Jugenheimer, 2015).
 Its cost effectiveness is also a strength of it which attract large number of customers
because it do not use celebrities so the cost of hiring them gets reduced.
 Distribution channel of Dove is very large which is one of the leveraged strength of it.
Due to this it is easily available to clients that results in brand loyalty of them.
 Performance of the company in new markets is very good as it has acquired expertise in
entering in new markets. It has helped the organisation to enhance its profits and
revenues.
Weaknesses which require attention: Different weaknesses of Dove which should be
focused by the managers are as follows:
 The target market of Dove is upper class customers as it majorly concerned with metro
clients. Due to this, price of all its products is very high so it will be difficult for it to
attract lower class customers.
 Ratio of profitability is very low where managers of the company are required to pay
attention so that brand could be managed properly.
 Managers in Dove are not able to perform activities related to financial planning in
appropriate manner which affects availability of working capital.
 It do not take initiative in new technology which is resulting is decreased loyalty of
clients. In order to attract large number of customers and retain existing patronages it is
vital for the brand to pay more attention toward investing in new technologies (Mosley,
2014).
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 Competition in the market for Dove is very high and it is resulting in decreased market
share of it. In order to overcome this weakness it is very important for the organisation to
pay attention towards such factors which can help to attain competitive advantage.
 Targeted segment of it is female it is not popular in males. This weakness is also required
attention and managers have to formulate strategies to launch men focused products in
market so that market share could be expanded.
Way to become superior to competition: There are two different modes available for
Dove to become superior to competition. Description of them is as follows:
 Collaborative agreement: It is a type of agreement in which two or more companies
come together and work on a project for the purpose of attaining long term business
goals. In order to become superior to competition Dove can select this option and
collaborate with any other organisation for a certain period of time. With the help of it
competitive advantage could be acquired by the brand (Punjaisri and Wilson, 2017).
 Partnership agreement: It is a type of agreement in which two or more parties come
together and agrees to a concept of operating business in partnership. In order to become
superior to competition Dove have announced global partnership with Cartoon Network's
Steve Universe. It has helped Dove to sustain in the market and attain competitive
advantage (Partnership agreement of Dove, 2018).
TASK 4
Measuring and managing brand value
For all the business entities it is very important to measure various elements so that actual
position of the company could be analysed. There are various types of components which should
be focused by organisation. All of them with the techniques to measure and manage them are
discussed below:
Brand value: It can be defined as the monetary value of a brand which is estimated with
the help of current data. A theory which is used by most of the companies to measure brand
value is conversion model equity monitor. In Unilever it is used by managers to analyse quality
of brand to customer attitude, market share and perception of clients. With the help of it future
strategies are also formulated so that the value of the brand could be enhanced (Rosenbaum-
Elliott, Percy and Pervan, 2015). It also guides managers to make sure that brand value is
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managed and measured in appropriate manner so that organisation can proceed for further
developments.
Brand awareness: It can be defined as the set of different activities that are used to
aware customers regarding the brand. In order to manage and monitor it surveys are conducted
by companies (Schallehn, Burmann and Riley, 2014). Currently Mc Donald's is using this
method to spread awareness regarding all the food items that are offered by it to the customers.
For this purpose a specific website is used by it. With the help of it views of customers are
analysed and then different food products are manufactured by the company. In these surveys the
organisation tries to provide information regarding all the food items that are sold to clients and
ask for their perspectives regarding them. This technique is also used to analyse their responses
on different products that are sold to them (Brand awareness of Mc Donald's, 2019).
Market share: It can be defined as the percentage of market which is being acquired by
a specific company by selling different products to the customers. In order to manage and
monitor market share different KPIs are used by Amazon. It helps to assess that organisation is
able to maintain it or not. These KPIs are sessions, conversion, profit and average rating. With
the help of all of them actual share acquired by the company is managed and measured by
managers (KPI in Amazon, 2018).
Consumer attitudes: It can be defined as the feeling of customers and it could be in
positive or negative terms. For all the companies it is very important to measure and manage it so
that all the clients could be retained for a long period in future (Veloutsou and Guzman, 2017).
In Rolls Royce, managers are offering after sales services to the customers so that they attitude
towards the cars could be managed and measured. It helps to determine their satisfaction level
and change their unfavourable feeling in to positive one. It has resulted positively for the
company because with the help of it a strong customer base is built by the company which is
helping it to capture large market share. It has also resulted in the large number of brand loyal
customers which are highly loyal to Rolls Royce (After sales services of Rolls Royce, 2019).
Purchasing intent: It can be defined as a probability of customer behaviour of buying or
not buying a product or service. In order to measure it predictive modelling technique is used by
most of the organisations to make sure that their product is able to meet the level of purchasing
intent or not. In Marks and Spencer Predictive modelling technique is used for the purpose of
managing and measuring purchasing intent of customers to analyse that their product will be
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bought by them or not. With the help of it decisions regarding attracting them towards different
products of the organisation (Predictive modelling in Marks and Spencer, 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that brand management is a
procedure in which different activities are performed by business entities for the purpose of
enhancing awareness regarding the brand. There are various theories and strategies such as
Keller's brand equity model and Aaker's brand equity theory which are used by companies to
manage brand equity. While managing portfolio of organisation it is very important for
marketers to make sure that proper steps are followed to formulate strategy. While planning for
promotion of a single brand it is vital for companies to identify its strengths and weaknesses so
that brand could be made superior and competitive. While measuring and managing different
elements such as brand value, awareness, market share, consumer attitudes, purchasing intent
etc. it is very important for companies to make sure that appropriate strategies are used by them.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
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D. Hollebeek, L. and Chen, T., 2014. Exploring positively-versus negatively-valenced brand
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DiMartino, C. and Jessen, S. B., 2016. School brand management: The policies, practices, and
perceptions of branding and marketing in New York City’s public high schools. Urban
Education. 51(5). pp.447-475.
Du Preez, R. and Bendixen, M. T., 2015. The impact of internal brand management on employee
job satisfaction, brand commitment and intention to stay. International Journal of Bank
Marketing. 33(1). pp.78-91.
Ertimur, B. and Coskuner-Balli, G., 2015. Navigating the institutional logics of markets:
Implications for strategic brand management. Journal of Marketing. 79(2). pp.40-61.
Heding, T., Knudtzen, C. F. and Bjerre, M., 2015. Brand management: Research, theory and
practice. Routledge.
Iglesias, O., Ind, N. and Alfaro, M., 2017. The organic view of the brand: A brand value co-
creation model. In Advances in corporate branding (pp. 148-174). Palgrave Macmillan,
London.
Kavaratzis, M., Warnaby, G. and Ashworth, G. J. eds., 2014. Rethinking place branding:
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Kelley, L., Sheehan, K. and Jugenheimer, D. W., 2015. Advertising media planning: a brand
management approach. Routledge.
Mosley, R., 2014. Employer brand management: practical lessons from the world's leading
employers. John Wiley & Sons.
Punjaisri, K. and Wilson, A., 2017. The role of internal branding in the delivery of employee
brand promise. In Advances in corporate branding (pp. 91-108). Palgrave Macmillan,
London.
Rosenbaum-Elliott, R., Percy, L. and Pervan, S., 2015. Strategic brand management. Oxford
University Press, USA.
Schallehn, M., Burmann, C. and Riley, N., 2014. Brand authenticity: model development and
empirical testing. Journal of Product & Brand Management. 23(3). pp.192-199.
Veloutsou, C. and Guzman, F., 2017. The evolution of brand management thinking over the last
25 years as recorded in the Journal of Product and Brand Management. Journal of
Product & Brand Management. 26(1). pp.2-12.
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