Brand Management Assignment: Building and Managing Brand Equity

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

BRAND
MANAGEMENT
1

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................................. 3
TASK 1- BUILDING AND MANAGING BRAND OVERTIME..........................................................4
TASK 2- BRAND PORTFOLIO AND HIERARCHY MANAGEMENT.................................................8
TASK-3 BRAND EXTENSION AND LEVERAGE...........................................................................14
TASK-4 MEASURING AND MAINTAINING BRAND VALUE.......................................................17
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 20
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 21
2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This assignment is based on brand and brand management. The case study of the optimum
impressions ltd will be discussed first with a branding strategy to improve the brand equity
will be determined. Google’s brand structure and brand hierarchy will be identified and how
Google manages its brand equity with such a big brand portfolio. Google’s strength and
weakness are to be determined and analyzed with its collaborative partnership agreements
and how Google is superior from its competitors are also determined here. Lastly, the brand
value of Google is to be measured and then managed is also to be discussed in this
assignment.
3

TASK 1- BUILDING AND MANAGING BRAND OVERTIME
“BRAND POWER “
A brand is a unique design, symbol, logo or collection of these to create an image of the
organization which differentiates it from its competitors.
Brand equity is the extra or the premium value that a company builds by its services or
products and makes the company or the brand recognizable in the market. Brand equity is
also called positive goodwill of the company and its brand. To create brand equity the
company has to make its products easily recognizable, easily memorable and have unique
and superior quality. Brand equity has three factors- positive and negative effects,
perception and ranking or value of the product (Nam et al., 2011).
Stages of building a brand-
Target audience- The first step involves segmenting the population according to the
demographics like age, gender, income then deciding which audience or segment is to be
targeted for luxury product brands like apple the target audience is the upper-class people.
Create logo /tagline- after determining the target audience the next step is to create a brand
logo, tagline that is short, simple, catchy and unique, easily remembered and easily
recognized. The logo must be easily recognizable and different. The logo and the tagline
should represent the vision of the brand and its core competency of the mark for the
product they offer (Nam et al., 2011).
Role of the marketing department in creating brand equity-
The marketing department has a significant role in promoting the company and building its
brand, the marketing department is the one that has the responsibility to promote and
position the brand by highlighting the best features and luxury that the brand provides, how
this luxury is different from the other brands. The marketing department has to create an
innovative and creative marketing strategy that attracts the attention of the targeted
audience. Like some companies like rebook, Nike only target the athletes and they think
that everyone who is human is an athlete so the marketing department highlights the
4

perfectness of their products hoe it is better than others. The marketing department is also
responsible for scanning the customer needs in current and in future times to update their
products and to increase their market share in the environment (Tuškej et al., 2013).
Successful Strategies for Brand Equity –
Keller’s brand equity model- This model is also known as the CBBE model (customer base
brand equity model). In today's era, the customer is treated like a king and every product is
designed according to the customer wants and desires as the satisfied customers yield more
profit. This model makes the brand to focus on a specific group of people and specific
feature like Nike focus on sports, Audi focuses on the luxury cars and target the rich people.
There are 4 components in the pyramid (Keller et al., 2011).
Figure 1- Keller’s Brand Equity Model
(Source- Keller’s Brand Equity model, 2019)
Level 1(brand identity)- means to decide the brand identity i.e. who we are meant to create
awareness of the brand, the way in which the consumers position or see the specific brand
is called brand identity. To create a positive brand identity firstly the company should define
the brand, what are the benefits of the brand and key tagline or the message which the
company needs to associate with the brand. The next step is to check what the customer
5

has understood and what the image brand has in the eyes of the customer (Keller et al.,
2011).
Level two(meaning)- is explaining and representing people what does the brand do and
what is its speciality, in which sector the brand works. The meaning of the brand will define
the reason why should the consumer be proud after buying the brand and the meaning will
make the consumers return to the same brand again and again. Nike uses 9 plastic bottles to
make a pair of shoes this will make the customers proud about their decision and will
continue to buy more products from Nike as it supports sustainability with a good message.
This CSR activity can also be used to create a brand image that increases the value of the
brand and can gain the assurance of people for supporting a natural cause to help the
environment or to help the mankind. There could be an environment-friendly message, the
message to excel in customer services or to support a social cause (Keller et al., 2011).
Level three (Response) - what are the feelings associated with the brand. What is expected
from the brand from the customers, if the brand meets the expectation then the brand is hit
and feelings creates a positive image of the brand in the consumer market. Response is the
feedback of customers after buying the brand did they like the product or not. Does the
brand live up to the expectations of the customers which brand tried to build through its
promotion and positioning. If the brand has fulfilled the expectations of the customers then
it will survive with great future opportunities in future but if the brand fails to satisfy the
high expectations o the consumer than the image of the brand will be damaged and will
negatively affect the goodwill of the company (Keller et al., 2011).
Level four (brand resonance or relationships) there only a few brands that have the
competency to reach at this level as at this level there is a huge physiological attachment of
the consumer towards its brand, for example, apple, Harley Davidson bikers love their bike.
At this level the brand has achieved highest ranking in the consumer market above all other
competitor brands, this means the loyalty of the customers is at its peak and the consumer
will be purchasing the same brand and will be refereeing to the same to others. This level is
very difficult to achieve for the average companies but if they have an x-factor or a unique
factor which can shift them to the biggest brand from the normal brand (Keller et al., 2011).
6

This Keller model is followed by Google, Microsoft, Netflix, apple etc. and these companies
have reached the highest level of the pyramid-like people preferring apple over other
products and this brand is attached physiologically with the feelings of customer, same goes
with Microsoft people know that they don’t have to search for other operating systems is
Microsoft is the only choice.
Figure 2- KBEM examples
(Source- Keller’s Brand Equity model, 2019)
Figure 3- KBEM Examples
Source- (Keller’s Brand Equity model, 2019)
7

TASK 2- BRAND PORTFOLIO AND HIERARCHY MANAGEMENT
Brand portfolio is the umbrella which collects all the brands and product lines of the
company which are segregated to satisfy different needs of the market and consumers. This
means the brand portfolio represents all the brands that an organization offers to sell to
satisfy the different needs and desires of different category people in the population (Chien
et al., 2011).
Brand portfolio can be done by implementing three models of the brand portfolio-
1. House of brands model- this model is used by the firms that use the different brand
name for a different line of products. This branding model is followed by companies
like Procter and gamble where each house (brand) has a different marketing
strategy, different names and different product and different industry. This model is
very effective in launching the new product as of the product is ineffective and
cannot grab the consumer attention and is rejected by the audience than the brand
image of the firm is not affected and no negative promotion will be made (Hanna
and Rowley, 2015).
2. Branded house model-this model of portfolio branding is used where the company
uses one brand name to promote all its different brands. This branded model is very
risky way as of the newly launched product fails then the brand image of the
company as a whole is degraded. But this model; is very effective as the loyal
customers of the brand will help in increasing the consumer market for the new
product launch (Hanna and Rowley, 2015).
3. Hybrid model- this model is a mixture of the above two models, house of brands
model and branded house model. In this model, the company is not represented by
one brand name but also not differentiated with the different brand name with
every new product. This model is used by coca cola and Marriott (Hanna and Rowley,
2015).
8

Figure 4- Types of Brand portfolio
Source- (https://dkyinc.com/2016/05/building-a-winning-brand, 2019)
9

Source- (Google, 2019)
Google is the subsidiary of its parent company alphabet and it has many diversified
portfolios that are digital technology based. Google was the project of two founders Larry
Page and Surgery Brin. These two American people have created Google in the year 1998;
this company is specialized and focused on providing the best digital services in an
organized manner for everyone on this planet.
The brand portfolio of Google is so much diversified and google offers 100s of products and
services that constitute a large market share in the information system industry. The brand
is so diversified that it is almost in every sector of the global products and connects the
world with all its globally viable services. Google’s brands are so innovative that they far
beyond the ideas that can be searched. The most recent innovation in Google brands is
Google Bluetooth speaker echo which runs on commands and the future plans of launching
artificial intelligence based technology which will be very popular in the near future. As
widely used services of Google are its search engine but there are future products that will
add to the large portfolio are airborne wind turbines, balloons which help in broadcasting
internet signals. The current brand portfolio includes a thermostat, web browser, Google
maps for the world, computerized contact lenses, robot assistants, a photograph collection
for every street in the world, an online store for video rentals. Google music, cloud
computing, Google duo (video conferencing application) etc.
10
Figure 5- Google Logo

Figure 6- Google brand portfolio
Source- (https://dotkay.github.io, 2019)
11

Brand hierarchy - brand hierarchy is summarizing all the distinguish products and services
offered by the brand according to their nature and distinguish the quality and nature of the
product. This brand hierarchy helps in representing the branding strategy of the company
and the relationship between the products (Herrero et al., 2017).
There are 3 types of architecture –
1. Monolithic– this type of architecture is very popular as many companies market
their all the brands and product line under one umbrella and under one name, one
strategy for all brands. The main logo of the firm is common and used for advertising
the colour of its subsidiary brands is changed but the suffix or the prefix is attached
with all the subsidiary brands. This type of architecture is used by Google like its
brands of Google duo, Google music, Google maps etc. are attached with the prefix
of go Google (Harish, 2010).
2. Endorsed- this type of architecture hierarchy is used by the companies which market
their subsidiary brands without the parent firm’s name. This is applying different
names; logos to the subsidiary brands like the firm Proctor and gamble market it's
subsidiary product pampers without even representing the name of Host Company.
Another example is Unilever where dove, Lipton and Vaseline are not having the
names of the firm but belong to the same firm and the branding strategy also differs
according to the targeted audience (Kunkel et al., 2013).
3. Pluralistic/ hybrid- this is the newest and most current type of brand hierarchy
where one of the product or brand of the parent company is represented as its
product line. For example, coca cola is the firm that has different brands of coca cola
drink, sprite etc. (Kunkel et al., 2013).
12