Analyzing Brand Equity and Portfolio Strategies of Virgin Group

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

Brand Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
Main body....................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................6
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
Brand portfolio strategy...............................................................................................................7
Provide an illustration of the hierarchy management of brands within organizations portfolio. 8
Analyze strategies used for managing the equity of the brands within the organization’s
portfolio.......................................................................................................................................9
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................10
Strengths of the brand that can be leveraged.............................................................................10
Weaknesses that may need attention providing some possible suggestions..............................10
Collaborative and partnership agreements.................................................................................11
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................13
Techniques used for measuring and managing..........................................................................13
Brand Value...............................................................................................................................13
Brand Awareness.......................................................................................................................13
Market Share..............................................................................................................................13
Consumer Attitude.....................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Keller's Brand Equity Model............................................................................................3
Figure 2: House of Brands...............................................................................................................8
Figure 3: Market share of Virgin Mobile in UK............................................................................14

Introduction
Brand management is the activity of supervising or promoting specific products and services
with specific brand. Marketing within the brand management plays an important role in creating
the brand equity. As an introductory part, the report will discuss the importance of brand and
brand equity along with stages of building a successful brand. It will also highlight the strategies
for strengthening brand equity as well as reinforcing and revitalizing brands. The report will
consider the example of brand ‘Virgin’ that will further support analyzing the strategies related
to brand hierarchy, portfolio management, and brand equity. Collaboration and partnership for
management of brand along with techniques for identifying brand value will also be discussed in
the report.

Task 1
Introduction
Virgin group is well known venture capital conglomerate that was founded by Nik Powell and
Richard Branson. The Group owns and operates large number of other businesses such as
records, media, airlines, and many more successfully under its own name. It has gained
opportunities in number of sectors that ranges from healthcare sector to fitness centers. The
brand has gained intensive success because of its positive reputation in the market and has also
gained competitive position in the market which was the value addition for its entire growth.
Overview of brand equity
Brand equity can be defined as overall value of the specific brand that is associated with the
image as well as satisfaction depicted by the customers. Business organization can generate
brand equity for their products by making them memorable, and easily recognizable. In this
context, business needs to focus on reliability and quality of the product. Marketing also plays an
important role in creating brand equity (Keller, 2016). For an example, Virgin Group with
positive brand equity gains the advantage of getting higher prices for its products however
customers can also get same product from other competitors in the market at lower prices. In
other words it can be said that customers willingly pay higher prices for recognized products in
the market.
Stages for building a successful brand
Virgin Group exist in the market with huge customer base however for strengthening the brand,
the business must focus on various stages for building a successful brand. It has been identified
that there are number of factors that influence the overall strength of the brand. Brand Equity
Model is also known as Customer Based Brand Equity Model that supports building strong brand
and also alters the perception of customers towards the product.

Figure 1: Keller's Brand Equity Model
(Source: Keller's Brand Equity Model, 2019)
Brand Identity: Main aim of this stage is to create brand awareness or on other words to make
customers aware of the brand. Considering the example of Virgin Airlines, it is important for
business to know the target customers. Airlines provide high quality of airline services to its
passengers and therefore it target customers majorly from high income who could afford higher
prices for the services and also undertake marketing strategies such that its target customers are
well aware about its premium airline services (Keller's Brand Equity Model, 2019).
Brand meaning: The stage is crucial in communicating about the meaning of the brand and what
does it stands for. It exhibit importance of performance and imagery. Performance can be defined
as fulfillment of customer expectation in terms of reliability, serviceability, durability, efficiency,
design, price and many other attributes. Imagery on the other hand is the level of customer
satisfaction. For an example, Virgin Airlines provides value for money services that depicts its
higher performance and at the same time, it support customers by providing additional meals and
discounts which depicts positive brand imagery.
Brand Response: The stage is categorized as feeling and judgment. Judgment related to the brand
is done on the basis of quality, credibility, superiority and unique considerations of the brand
while feelings include excitement, security, self respect, and social approval. For an example,
Virgin airlines focuses on providing loyalty points to the customers which can be redeemed
while their next travel with similar airlines will help the customers to judge the brand in the

terms of unique consideration and superiority. In addition to this, strict safety and security
system will also develop a positive feeling of security towards the brand.
Brand Resonance: This is the top most stage of the brand equity model and is categorized as
behavioral loyalty, sense of community, attitudinal attachment and active engagement. For an
example, customer loyalty programs encourage customers to repeat their purchase and supports
business to improve behavioral loyalty (Apéria and Persson, 2018).
Role of marketing department in creating brand equity
Marketing is one of the most crucial attribute that supports creating brand equity. The
department supports formulating brand management strategies such that business can establish
communication with the target customers and can make them aware about the brand value.
Therefore marketing is important for creating brand awareness among the consumers. For an
example, marketing department of Virgin Group has higher focus over conducting marketing
research such that necessary changes in its pricing, packaging, and distribution strategies can be
implemented with an aim of delivering premium products and services to their customers in
various segments ahead of its competitors. The group for strengthening or creating the brand
equity in much better manner must improve its existing advertising strategies as well as online
sales method.
Main body
Strategies for strengthen brand equity
Virgin Group serves different sectors like travel, entertainment, hospitality, communication, etc
and therefore for strengthening the brand equity, business must focus on developing strategies
for better retention and attention of customers. Quality of products and services is one of the
important strategies that will help the business to repeat the purchase of customers towards the
products and services. It is important for the group to fulfill the needs of customers in an each
and every aspect. Consistent brand image also contribute towards strengthening brand equity. In
this context, business must focus on improving its existing marketing strategies such that
customer interaction can be improved (Rather et.al.2018). Brand image can also be improved
with the consistent use of social media for better recognition of its products and services.

Strategies for brand extension, reinforcing and revitalizing brands
Brand extension is the process adopted by the business organization to introduce new segment
and varied range of products under the similar brand name. For an example, Virgin Group has
successfully adopted the strategy by providing wider range of services with the prefix brand
name as Virgin such as Virgin Unite, Virgin Books, Virgin Atlantic, etc. This has helped the
group to develop stronger customer base.
Brand reinforcement focuses on maintaining the brand equity by making brand alive for both
new and existing customers. Branding reinforcement includes brand awareness and brand image.
Strategies that are essential for Brand reinforcing that further contribute to improved brand
image and brand awareness includes various types of marketing programs (Oliveira‐Castro
et.al.2016). For an example, advertisement is one of the most common tools that influence the
mindset of customers. Virgin Group also makes use of promotional strategies such as discount
offer while making airline bookings, gift packs along with purchase of Virgin Products, etc
contribute towards brand reinforcement.
Brand revitalization can be defined as the marketing strategy that is adopted by the business
when its overall profitability starts declining or it has reached at its maturity stage in terms of
product life cycle. Virgin Group adopts various strategies to bring specific product or service
back to the market in a successful manner. Business must focus on becoming customer centric by
identifying and fulfilling the needs of customers. For an example, adding Wi-Fi to the flights as
earlier compared to competitors or by improving the overall performance by improving flight
cancellations will help to revitalize Virgin Airline.
Overcoming a brand crisis
Brand crisis are seen in major of the business organizations because of poor customer service.
Therefore there is greater need of identifying and implementing actions that supports improving
customer satisfaction (Shin et.al.2017). Poor customer service will put negative impact on brand
which in turn will put negative impact on business reputation, purchasing intention of customers,
as well as brand attitude.

Conclusion
Marketing can be referred to as significant tool that supports creating brand awareness and brand
equity in the market. The tool helps extending brand by adopting various brand extension
strategies also support introducing new product in the product while explaining about its positive
aspects. Branding in context to Virgin Group will help the business to maintaining transparency
while communicating with customers which will further lead business to raise its performance.
Marketing tool enhance the brand motive by assuring customers with quality and brand
positioning in the market.

Task 2
Brand portfolio strategy
Brand portfolio can be referred to as the collection of brands with the control of similar
organization. In other words it can be defined as the umbrella under which various brand lines
are offered by particular business organization that support fulfilling the need of various market
segments (Spry and Lukas, 2016). This is considered as the strategic decision on whether to
introduce new or sub brand, to extend the existing brand into new product category, brand
positioning as low or premium cost, to enter to into new market or new category and likewise. In
this context it is important to consider brand architecture models.
Brand architecture models can be defined as the ways on how brand portfolio are structured and
managed as well as how they are related to each other and are valuable to the organizations.
Various types of brand architectural model include:
Branded House: This is also called mono brand portfolio strategy that uses their own corporate
brand name to exhibit its other products and services. Its benefits include brand awareness and
also reduce the expenses related to marketing and advertising. However the risk associated with
this strategy is reputational risk. If there is an issue identified with one of its product, there will
be negative impact on other brand products as well. Virgin Group is an example of this strategy.

House of Brands: Under this strategy, individual brands are developed for different markets and
products. Some of the business organization might disclose the parent identity on product
packaging or some might use logo to address the brand (Austin and Wilson, 2017). One of the
major benefits of using this strategy is that if there is an issue with one product than other
products remains unaffected. However there is greater need of resources such as marketing
people, financial resources, etc that increases the overall cost of the business.
Figure 2: House of Brands
Provide an illustration of the hierarchy management of brands within organizations portfolio
Brand Hierarchy can be defined as the ways of summarizing branding strategy by exhibiting
common branding elements of the firm’s products. There has been identified various ways of
defining brand elements along with level of hierarchy and that includes:
Endorsed branding: This type of branding is developed while merging wider range of product
with the parent brand (Tian and Deng, 2017). It helps the business organizations to gain the trust
and commitment of customers. Under this type of architecture endorsing brand parent plays an
important role. This allows flexibility of brand marketing for distinct product brand however it is
expensive in terms of marketing and utilization of other resources.

Product branding: Products are under this type of strategy are sold without the influence of
parent brand. The organization such as Cadbury sells its products such as bars, ice creams, etc
with the new product name.
Umbrella Branding: The approach uses the name of individual brand name to sell the other
products or services in the market. Business organizations mainly use this type of strategy to gain
more brand recognition. For an example, Virgin Group make use of umbrella branding and offer
all its products and services with the name Virgin such as Virgin Airlines, Virgin Atlantic,
Virgin Records, etc (Sebri and Zaccour, 2017).
Analyze strategies used for managing the equity of the brands within the organization’s portfolio
Virgin Group can make use of various strategies for managing the brand equity within the
organization’s portfolio. Brand equity can be managed by building an amazing value while
offering product or services. For an example Virgin Group is well known for its airline services
because of its comfortable and higher quality of services. In addition to this, continuous
differentiation is also an important strategy that can be used for managing the brand equity.
Differentiation and innovation helps the business to stay stable even in the tough and competitive
business environment. Apple can be considered as perfect example for that relies on innovation
and differentiation by launching products such as iPod and iPhone and this has contributed
largely towards positive brand equity.
Consistent brand image is also significant in terms of brand equity. In this context, it is important
for the business organization to keep the promises that has been made to new and existing
customers (M'zungu et.al.2019). Brand image will lead the business organization to set high
margins for the products that are available by the competitors also. For an example, Fashion
retailers such as Prada, Chanel, etc has higher focus over marketing activities to build strong
brand image and therefore they are able to effectively manage their brand equity.