Analysis of Brand Management Techniques at Marks & Spencer

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BRAND MANAGEMENT

Executive summary
Brand management is essential in providing business sustainability and ensures
global growth in organisation. This study aims to analyse different brand
management strategies and its elements to improve brand image in order to
increase organisational sale and profitability. Marks and Spencer is one of the
leading retail company in UK that indulges oneself in brand management strategies
to make benefit in global business market. The study discusses the importance of
brand management its emergence in the context of M&S. Keller’s brand equity
model and contract theory are discussed for brand management. Moreover,
organisational portfolio management, brand hierarchy and brand equity management
are discussed as the important element of brand management in M&S. In addition,
collaborative brand management techniques are evaluated for business expansion.
Brand measurement and management techniques are essential and discussed in the
view of brand awareness and measurement metrics to influence brand management.
It was concluded that effective brand management in a holistic approach is effective
in business expansion. It can be recommended to improve leadership style for
successful brand management in M&S.
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................. 4
Findings and analysis..................................................................................................4
LO1 Process of brand development and management............................................4
P1 Importance of branding in marketing and its emergence................................4
P2 Branding strategy for brand equity..................................................................5
M1 Application of theories for brand management...............................................7
M2 Examples of brand management in M&S.......................................................7
LO2 Organisation of brand portfolios considering hierarchical management...........8
P3 Strategies for brand equity and hierarchy and portfolio management.............8
M3 Critical analysis of portfolio, hierarchy and equity of brand...........................10
LO3 Evaluation of domestic and international extension of brand.........................11
P4 Evaluation of brand management in a collaborative way..............................11
M4 Critical evaluation of brand expansion techniques........................................12
LO4 Evaluating techniques for brand measurement and brand management.......12
P5 Evaluation of techniques in M&S for measurement and management of brand
value................................................................................................................... 12
M5 Critically evaluating techniques to develop strong and viable brand............13
D1 Critical evaluation of branding in M&S with examples...................................14
Conclusion and recommendations............................................................................14
Reference list............................................................................................................ 15
Appendices............................................................................................................... 17
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Introduction
Brand management of an organisation consists of tangible as well as intangible
characteristics. Tangible characteristic of product brand includes price, products, and
packaging. However, intangible characteristic includes service brand and customer
experience. This study in intending to analyse the method of building and managing
a brand of Marks & Spencer. Moreover, some ways are there to organise in portfolio
within an organisation. M&S is a leading retailer in UK that committed to make
special moment by high-quality products and services. Mission statement of M&S is
to make an inspirational quality that is accessible to others. This report is aiming to
highlight the techniques of brand metrics.
Findings and analysis
LO1 Process of brand development and management
P1 Importance of branding in marketing and its emergence
Marketing is supported with branding as it supports the management of issues
regarding business development through marketing strategies. Moreover, designing
suitable strategies to highlight and improve brand image helps in business expansion
and sustainability. M&S emphasises on maintaining and improving brand image to
increase the marketing potential and gain competitive advantage over Macy’s,
Debenhams, John Lewis plc and many more. As directed by Elikan & Pigneur
(2019:17), customer attraction through brand promotions can help in increasing
interaction between stakeholders and enhancing motivation among customers for
product purchase and favouring the specific brand. Further, business organizations
can gain new and improved revenues with the help of branding as a marketing tool
by implementing customer-oriented strategies effectively.
With increasing digitisation, organisations are needed to develop their specific brand
image in order to secure marketplace. M&S has collaborated with top branding
campaign agencies to build the hype for the brands and resulted in increasing the
grand value up to $3.8 billion (marketingweek.com, 2018). The incorporation of
branding in business development has evolved and modernised with the innovation
and management of technological adaptation in business. However, Kristal et al.
(2018:334) mentioned that the behaviour of customers and availability of products
also influenced the strategic brand development and management within the
organisations to favour organisational growth. The difficulty in trading period has
resulted in the drop of pre-tax profits at 62.1%, which provided the need for branding
with cultural incorporation in M&S (marketingweek.com, 2018).
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Figure 1: Impact of brand image in company growth
(Source: Influenced by Alnawas & Altarifi, 2016:111)
Customer satisfaction and the intention of online purchase affect the brand image.
Therefore, it is important to outreach customers with the help of digital media to
present the unique brand value and influence the decision-making related to product
purchase. Moreover, the increasing value of branding has helped in increasing the
profit ratio of M&S by 7.6% as it supported the international business by increasing
business value, generating new customers, improving employee satisfaction, and
competing within the market. As commented by Schivinski & Dabrowski (2015:31),
brand communication supports broadening the recognition opportunity for the
company and developing trust and loyal customers within the market. Through
promotional activities, such as campaigns named ‘Leading Ladies’, ‘Adventures in…’
and ‘This is not just food’ have helped in increasing the brand value in the three
categories of food, high street fashion and retail effectively. Moreover, strategic
brand value management has helped in increasing the revenue by 0.7%, which
resulted in the group revenue of £10.7 billion (corporate.marksandspencer.com,
2018).
Positive brand image helps in increasing customer loyalty and corporate image
radically. Therefore, the product sale and customer attraction are facilitated with
improved service image and signal image that can influence the customer behaviour
and intention in maintaining the brand specific product purchase. As mentioned by
Alnawas & Altarifi (2016:113), enhancing customer satisfaction through developing
brand image and providing services accordingly can help in managing market
competition. Further, market segmentation and brand imaging if combined
successfully can support the business growth with single-handed market acquisition
and improved product sale and revenue growth. [Referred to Appendix 1]
P2 Branding strategy for brand equity
Branding strategies are useful in determining the scope of representing the elements
of the company strengths to maximise customer attraction and profitability through
market acquisition. As proposed by Heding et al. (2015:12), strategies for brand
image development and building brand equity are needed to be evaluated to
comprehend about their objectives, organisational operations and market
environment. With the aid of supportive branding strategy, Coca-cola, Nestle like
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leading brand have reduced market competition and increased their market
acquisition by 1.08% and 1.2% respectively. Moreover, the branding decisions are
needed to be controlled with the aid of experience, analysis of market environment
and maintenance of the organisational operations.
Figure 2: Branding strategy for decision-making
(Source: Influenced by Davcik et al. 2015:6)
Management of the requirements and resources of the company can help in
improvement of business performance. Likewise, developing strategies for
stakeholder involvement and market analysis and operational management can help
in developing unique brand image to influence the company profitability. Moreover,
the chief objective of the branding strategy is to develop brands recognition and
develop new market and customers to increase the sale of product and gain
competitive advantage. As proposed by Davcik et al. (2015:6), branding strategies
need to have a purpose to maintain consistency in brand performance addressing
the emotions of customers by using flexibility of stakeholder involvement and
commitment. Moreover, competitive awareness is required to provide with a strategic
plan for enhancing brand image of the company.
Public relations:
Increasing public relations can help in developing high brand image and increasing
the product sale along with brand equity. As mentioned by Alnawas & Altarifi
(2016:118), leadership-related promotions and reputable management of the
company products can be increased with improved public relations. Moreover, this
can help in promoting emerging trends for the business. M&S implement this
strategy through organising campaigns and programs that involved customers
effectively.
Digital marketing:
Digital marketing strategy addresses customer preference and desire in a time and
cost-effective manner. With the easy access and marketing tools, digital marketing
can support promotion of the brands through visual attraction. In addition, the
increased PR and customer attraction help in creating high brand value effectively.
Optimisation of the search engine:
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Online brand promotion through different websites is effective ion brand image
development and management. Optimisation of the search engine supports easy
access and recognition for the brand. It supports enhancement of brand loyalty and
commitment, increasing product sale efficiently. Further, the user-friendly approach
aids in allowing trends and addressing larger target customer effectively.
Social media:
Promotional strategies for brand image development and improvement can b
conducted through social media. Social media influences customers at personal
level making the brand promotion more effective to support the product viability.
Robust promotional activities in social media support brand recognition with
relevance of products and increase customer satisfaction.
Nonetheless, cohesive management supports the effective implementation of
branding strategies to bring brand equity. As stated by Brexendorf et al. (2015:549),
holistic approach in maintaining cohesion of business performance and market
environment can play crucial role in increasing the opportunity got increased
organisational growth in business market. In M&S, the application of innovative
strategies has supported effective branding to reduce competition in retail market.
M1 Application of theories for brand management
Keller’s brand equity model states that strong brand equity is essential in building
brand image and increase product sale. Different marketing tools can be used to
analyse the market environment, customer demand and trends to determine
promotional activities for increasing brand image effectively. As mentioned by
Heding et al. (2015:19), brand identity and its resonance with customer needs and
market environment can help in sustaining beneficial brand image to increase
business profitability through sale. However, the performance of internal
stakeholders is needed to be controlled to make the application of this model
effective.
Contract theory provides intelligence about the agreements between the
organisational construct and customer through legal understanding. As mentioned by
Tarnovskaya (2015:586), contract theory supports the evaluation of financial and
economic environment along with customer behaviours to regulate organisational
sale. Therefore, the symmetrical contract between the economic behaviours and
organisational operations can help in increasing the organisational productivity
through attracting customer. Application of this theory can help in determining
strategy for brand image development and management as per customer
requirement to make it effective for organisational growth. In addition, M&S like retail
companies can balance between the internal and external environment to decide
branding strategy for organisational growth and management.
M2 Examples of brand management in M&S
M&S has modified its branding strategy over time to address the trending customer
needs and manage the issues for strategic management of competition, financial
stability and customer attraction. The gradual changes in the logo provided the
comprehension that they modify their values with the changing marketing
environment to satisfy the customer needs efficiently.
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Figure 3: Gradual modification of M&S logo
(Source: corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2019)
This branding strategy provided the concern of changing value with constant
heritage to provide products that are satisfactory for the community. Moreover, the
branding idea of “Spend it well” improved recognition of the brand that focused on
social performance and environment-friendly responsibility. In addition, the major
campaigns supported the marketing and advertising of the brand, which increased
the public relation and sales by 4.9% (corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2018). The
brand predominantly focused on luxury and developed a vision of addressing quality
before price to make the new image of the brand along with the slogan of "Only
M&S". the increasing emotive experiences among the customers with their products,
M&S has increased their profit by 2.9% and the sales have been increased by 5.2%
through e-commerce and increased international stores up to 428 stores. Therefore,
collaborative management of branding strategies and productivity can ensure
sustainable development in retail industry effectively.
LO2 Organisation of brand portfolios considering hierarchical
management
P3 Strategies for brand equity and hierarchy and portfolio
management
Management of portfolio
Efficient strategies support management of portfolio that supports the management
of brand image and support organisational growth. As mentioned by Thakur &
Workman (2016:4095), management of customer portfolio provides enough
information on customer needs and marketing environment to develop brand
development and management strategies for profitability.
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Figure 4: Portfolio management
(Source: Influenced by Topaloglou et al. 2017:45)
Efficient market theory and indexing of passive portfolio management provide with
information related to market that supports economy and pricing strategy of the
company. Analysing the index funds, M&S ensured a return on capital by 14.0%
effectively (corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2018). On the other hand, active
portfolio supported the analysis of economic cycle to manage the stocks.
Patient portfolio Aggressive portfolio Conservative portfolio
 Investment in
known sticks
 Support classic
growth
 Investment in
expensive stocks
 Rapid annual growth
 Critical analysis of
market returns
Table 1: Types of portfolio
(Source: Influenced by Topaloglou et al. 2017:7)
Management of brand hierarchy
Brand hierarchy summarises the brand strategies by displaying brand elements to
obtain highest profit level. As opined by Case et al. (2017:21), maintaining brand
strategy for obtaining profit requires management of the critical elements and brand
equity in accordance with business environment. In order to implement brand
hierarchy for developmental purpose, the objectives of clarity, leverage and
synergy are to be considered to ensure brand growth both vertically and horizontally
and capture market segments. In addition to these, the company needs to analyse
issues in financial resources, customer “bandwidth” and strategic decisions to make
strategic decisions for brand image development. The clear brand architecture of
M&S has helped in developing brand awareness among customers and it was
conducted through the evolution of the brand logo. Leveraging brand name provides
the opportunity to attract new customers for the benefit of the company.
Management of brand equity
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Brand equity has consisted of the components namely, differentiation, knowledge,
relevance and esteem, which supports the development of brand image that fulfils
the achievement of organisational objectives. As described by Ligon et al. (2015:27),
brand equity management must consider recognition of brand through awareness
and addressing customers emotionally to increase brand sale. In addition, the
strategic management of brand equity involves brand image maintenance through
consistency and business expansion with proactiveness and stakeholder
involvement. In order to increase brand equity, the following management strategies
can be undertaken:
Brand strategy: It supports product recognition through representation of value and
quality of the products. The consistency of product can be presented effectively for
maintaining brand equity.
Communication: Cultural and marketing collaboration through communication can
support new customer attraction. It supports the management of promotional and
organisational operations effectively.
Awareness: Brand awareness provides competitive advantage and customer
attraction. Promotional activities for brand awareness increase product sale after
analysing market demand appropriately.
Reputation: Reputation of company affects the brand image. Professional
communication between customers and stakeholders can bring about high-
performance level to increase company reputation and brand equity.
Decision-making and Collaboration: Effective collaborative approach helps in
decision-making by considering legal and ethical approach. This is supportive in
developing brand image and increase brand equity effectively.
M3 Critical analysis of portfolio, hierarchy and equity of brand
Organisational management must encompass strategies for brand management,
portfolio and brand hierarchy management for increasing brand image and the scope
of increased profitability. Effective management of strategies as per objectives can
help in obtaining superiority over rival companies. In M&S, the strategies of brand
image development through campaigns and management of company logo has
supported attracting customers effectively (corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2019).
In addition, portfolio managers at M&S follow a mixed method of active and passive
portfolio management to gain business advantage. Further, the brand equity of the
company is managed with collaborative approach among the stakeholders and
arranging campaigns to analyse the satisfaction of customers with brand products
and services effectively.
The effective management of brand hierarchy and portfolio provide support for
developing unique brand image that supports the business goal of acquisition higher
market share and increase target customer group. As mentioned by Sørensen et al.
(2018:14), brand equity and the heritage of the brand improve the brand image.
Thus, the marketing operations need to consider the development of strategies that
effectively regulates the brand image to increase production. In M&S, the strategies
involved valuing customer opinion and implementing innovation to upgrade the
strong base of customer attraction and develop loyal customers effectively. This has
supported the growth of the business to increase its revenue by 7%.
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LO3 Evaluation of domestic and international extension of brand
P4 Evaluation of brand management in a collaborative way
Brand collaboration supports the effective management of brands and provides
opportunity for sustainable development of the company. M&S being the
multinational retail company provides products related to food and clothing.
Therefore, a branding strategy is needed to be undertaken to make the growth
thriving at domestic and international level.
Figure 5: Opportunities and issues of collaborative branding
(Source: Influenced by Zenker & Braun, 2017:273)
Opportunities for collaborative branding
Customer loyalty and reputation are the opportunities that the branding strategy
provides to make the growth of the business in the country and at international level
successful. As proposed by Zenker & Braun (2017:273), branding strategies can
help in developing interaction with customers to help and support company
productivity and marketing strategy. M&S has supported to obtain this opportunity
with the aid of campaigns and modifying values in the operations. Moreover, co-
branding with clothing and food industry has helped in gaining advantage over other
retail industries in UK. Further, branding strategy provides the scope of cost-
effectiveness and sharing of risks that help in increasing company production and
sales. The risk-sharing opportunity aids in minimising the potential threats and
boosts up sale volume rapidly. On the other hand, Atwal & Williams (2017:43)
commented that technology-mediated luxury brand promotions provide the
opportunity to increase sale by addressing larger target population and create brand
effectiveness. Nonetheless, it is important to address varied range of customers
through attractive advertisements to make the business successful.
Issues of the collaborative branding
Co-branding can impact negatively on brand image as it considers varied business
ethics and management style. The alliance with other brands such as WHS, MOTO,
BP and SSP with M&S has affected in the enhancement of brand image. However,
the increased differences have resulted in the fall of the profit by 4.2% in 2017
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(marketingweek.com, 2018). The company needed to deal with the negative issue of
co-branding by unifying the organisation culturally. Moreover, the management of
brand equity is disturbed with intense partnership and collaborative branding that
directed towards issues regarding promotional strategies, communication and
improving public relations. Thus, management of collaborative branding is needed to
be analysed critically to weigh the opportunities and problems to make the business
successful.
M4 Critical evaluation of brand expansion techniques
Brand extension is the application of establishing brand name with new categories of
product. Additionally, brand leveraging is vital of M&S to provide consumers positive
brand characteristics. This adds an attitude in product and service category. In case
of recognition of brand has built, customers will get favourable brand opinion.
Co-Branding: The effort of co-branding of M&S is consequences to various
promotions including advertisements and sponsorship. This benefits the brand in
implying togetherness in brand management, rather than promoted individually.
Over-branding: This focuses on people more than company's product. This
marketing approach pushes M&S to push a new brand or product into current
marketplace.
LO4 Evaluating techniques for brand measurement and brand
management
P5 Evaluation of techniques in M&S for measurement and
management of brand value
Various techniques are there in customer market in order to evaluate the premium
that they pay for a specific brand above baseline. Assessing and measuring brand
value by asking the customers helps to place a monetary value and separate out that
brand. Brand equity is capitalization of a company that is not only liabilities, assets,
and revenues, but also its intellectual property (Malhotra et al. 2017:57). On this
basic ground, brand equity is the difference between total market value and
measurable factors of M& S. Without a clear concept about current resources, M&S
cannot struggle in setting equity metrics for its improvement. A range of ways is
there to measure as well as manage brand value. Six different factors allow an
apprehensive understanding of brand equity.
Brand awareness
Consumer knowledge about services and products of M&S is a vital part of brand
equity. A fast-driving indicator of consumer's awareness of M&S is a "conversation
share". This means the amount of time the company consumes for conversation
about services and product. Many forms can be chosen to measure brand
awareness among target customers. Some methodology includes survey within
focus group, search volume of products and brand as well as interpretation of web
traffic and reviews.
Preference metrics
One of the power factors regarding brand metrics is consumer preference of
purchase decision. The aspects of customer preference can be measured through
sale data, focus group along with survey. This includes the following components.
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