Brand Management Report: Building and Managing Brand Equity

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Brand Management
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Table of Contents
Task 1 – Building and managing brand over time.......................................................3
Task 2 – Brand portfolio and hierarchy management.................................................7
Task 3 – Brand extension and leverage....................................................................10
Task 4 – Measuring and managing brand value.......................................................12
Reference List...........................................................................................................16
Akbar, S. and James, P.T., 2014. Consumers' attitude towards online shopping
Factors influencing employees of crazy domains to shop online. Journal of
Management and Marketing Research, 14, p.1........................................................16
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Task 1 – Building and managing brand over time
Introduction
This segment of study will provide a
brief overview of a brand and its
brand equity. The process of building
a successful brand is comprised of
several stages. These stages can be
mentioned as analysing business
environment, packaging, and
printing of manufactured products,
online advertising and website
designing, social media promotions
and services of customer services
and sales. However, marketing
department of any organisation plays
an important role in creating its brand
equity. Marketing programs are
responsible for distributing channels
and pricing of products through
advertisements, which in turn
establishes brand image and creates
brand equity as well.
Case study of Optimum Impression
Limited will be considered. It is an
organisation operating in the field of
advertising. Founded on 6th August
2003, it is headquartered at Wilfred
Avenue, West Yorkshire, United
Kingdom.
Brand is Power
Establishing brand image in the market
is essential for creating brand equity
by building brand awareness and
manages the brand in long run.
Optimum Impression implements
several strategies in order to generate
its own brand equity. Development of
brand equity for a running business is
comprised of associating and
tracking psychological experiences
of consumers during their purchases
with the brand. Having a healthy
relationship between company
personnel and their customers is
essential in organisational growth and
sustainability in context of global
market. Strong customer-company
bond is proportional with higher
amount of brand equity. Flow of
communication within and outside the
organisation, performance of
company-manufactured products in
current market scenario, quality of
services provided to customers,
attractive name of the brand; these
are the factors applying in
combination, which are responsible for
upgrading or degrading of brand equity
(Ene and Özkaya, 2014).
Aaker’s Brand Equity model
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Brand equity is defined as the value
behind a particular brand name in
market sector. Company will be to
generate more revenue and establish
its goodwill in broad range of
customer base only if it is well known
and renowned enough regarding
current market scenario. David Aaker,
a professor of University of California,
proposed this model of brand equity
during year 1996. Brand equity is a
combination of brand loyalty, brand
awareness, and brand associations,
which are interrelated with each other,
according to this model. The first
building block for management of a
brand is establishing brand identity
and subsequent affiliations for getting
desired status of the brand relevant to
customer satisfaction. According to
Aaker, brand identity is a combination
of four distinguished perspectives such
as brand as product, brand as
person, brand as symbol, and brand
as organisation (Farjam and Hongyi,
2015).
Optimum Impression is an
organisation, which is still in its
growing stage in the field of advertising
and hence, needs to incorporate this
model in their business ventures for
creating desired brand equity.
Figure1: Aaker’s Brand Equity
model
(Source: Farjam and Hongyi, 2015)
Keller’s Customer-Based Brand
Equity model
It is also known as CBBE model, which
is the abbreviation for Customer
Based Brand Equity. It is comprised
of four factors, which are brand
identity, brand meaning, brand
response, and resonance. Big
successful firms use this model for
establishing brand equity in their target
market. For instance, organisations
like Nike and Adidas operating in the
shoe industry, BMW, and Audi
operating in the automobile industry
incorporates this model for being
renowned worldwide.
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Figure2: Keller’s Brand Equity
model
(Source: Çifci et al., 2016)
Brand extension
It is also known as brand stretching,
is an important part of forming a
marketing strategy for any firm.
Company like Optimum Impression,
which is operating as an advertising
firm and not established yet in the
context of global market, has to stretch
their brand through developing their
brand name and shifting to a different
product category. This specified
product of new category is termed as
spin-off. It increases brand’s net worth
and long-term sustainability in global
market (Ramanathan and Purani,
2014).
Advantages
 Reduces risk and threats
 Gaining of product distribution and
trial expands
 Productivity of promotional
expenditure increases
 Selling costs are reduced
 Development cost is saved
 Efficiency increases regarding
labelling and packaging of
manufactured products
 Expenses of follow up and
introductory marketing programs
are reduced
 Image of parent brand is enhanced
 Clarification regarding brand name
 Increased amount of market
coverage regarding brand
franchises
 Quality associated with products
are improved
Disadvantages
 Extension of brand image in
unrelated market context may lead
to loss of reliability within
customers
 New Spin-off nay lead to
reputational damage for the brand
 Chances that management of the
will become less aware about its
relevant competitors
 Brand extension may encounter
failure for Optimum Impression
because of bigger competitive
advertisement firms
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Reinforcing and revitalising brands
or overcoming a brand crisis
Revitalising of brands incorporate
many factors, which are enlisted as
follows. Company has to be aware
regarding their present goals and
objectives. Emphasise should be
provided on elevating level of
motivation for employees. This will
keep them engaged with their
assigned tasks, which in turn will
increase organisational efficiency and
productivity as well. Open two –way
communication processes and
improvement in quality of customer
services are also key factors of
revitalisation. On contrary, brand
reinforcement is defined as collective
activity of being repetitive with a
particular product and enhances its
quality rapidly in order to grow.
Therefore, companies as Optimum
Impression can overcome its brand
crisis and be renowned in the UK
based advertising sector through
revitalising and brand reinforcing
(Cooper et al., 2015).
Conclusion
Marketing is one of the most important
aspects for any organisation to expand
its businesses rapidly. Marketing
department works in accordance with
several other departments like logistics,
financial and customer services
department in order to provide
necessary resources and sustain in the
constantly changing market conditions.
Human capital is one of the most
essential assets for any business and
hence, marketers work in combination
with human resource managers.
Establishment of brand image helps to
increase sales revenue and yearly
turnover. Therefore, it can be concluded
that branding is the most important tool
for companies like Optimum
Impression.
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Task 2 – Brand portfolio and hierarchy management
This section of the study shall analyse Unilever’s brand portfolio strategy. For a
successful brand portfolio strategy, it is important that each brand have a specific
role to play in the market. Each brand should target at a specific section of the
market and the budget for its promotion should be allocated accordingly. In the case
of Unilever, one of its brands, Magnum ice creams are targeted at the elite. The
marketing strategy developed by Unilever is therefore targeted at the premium
segment. The packaging is stylish with the cones wrapped in gold coloured foil. The
company launched a new clothing line as a reward for the one who wins a contest to
promote the launch of white chocolates and cookies in the UK. On the other hand,
another brand owned by the company, Lifebuoy is targeted at the middle class. The
role of this product is to capture the middle class market. As such, the advertising
campaign in the media is targeted at the middle class. The packaging is attractive,
but not luxurious.
The next activity in Unilever’s brand portfolio strategy is locating those brands that
are the major sales drivers. Such brands help Unilever stay ahead of their
competitors. One such brand is Knorr soups. It has a virtual monopoly over the
market of instant soups. Another such brand is Unilever has marketed Lux. Lux
soaps so effectively that it has an amazing recall value among consumers. Such
products have helped Unilever to establish itself as a leader in the fast moving
consumer goods segment. These brands are those that consumers actually ask for
while shopping.
Another important aspect of brand portfolio strategy is to create differentiators. This
implies stressing on features in a brand that help Unilever stand out from others.
One such brand for Unilever is Dove soaps. Such is the recall value of these soaps
that the very advertisement on television makes the viewer associate it with Unilever.
There are situations when some established brands might lose their appeal in the
sense that they tire. They slip out of the consumers’ minds. One such brand noticed
in the Unilever range of products is Lipton. Unilever has been found to promote the
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product again through advertisement and promotional campaigns. Another effective
strategy taken by Unilever in this situation is sponsorship. Unilever has appointed
Redmandarin to assess how they can further improve their sponsorship strategy
(campaignlive.co.uk, 2019).
The brand hierarchy refers to the summarising of brand strategy by identifying the
number of common and unique elements across the products offered by the
company. Brand hierarchy has its foundation in the belief that a brand can be
marketed based on a blend of existing and new elements of a brand (Herrero et al.,
2017).
There has been only one brand with the subsequent entry of others in the lower
levels.
At the highest level of the brand hierarchy, there is usually just one brand, which is
the company brand. In the case of Unilever, the company brand is Unilever itself. It
is for legal reasons that the company brand is usually present on the product. There
may however be occasions when it may not. Magnum ice cream is one such brand
owned by Unilever. On the package of Magnum, the Unilever logo is not present
(Herrero et al., 2017).
Next in the hierarchy, comes the family brand. This sort of brand is used to
represent more than one product. This may increase the chances of sale of a new
product, as it is able to drive home the advantage of the popularity already enjoyed
by the brand in the market. In the case of Unilever, Axe is one such brand. Axe had
started its journey in the market as a men’s deodorant. After the brand established
itself in the market, other products like shampoos shower gels, hair stylers were
launched too.
A product line brand is one that a company introduces as a marketing strategy to
sell a product to a targeted segment of consumers. The strategy usually involves
selling a product at a lower price initially to gauge the trend in the market. One such
Unilever product is Dove. The popular brand of soaps was initially targeted at the
premium market. It was later that under the popular brand of Dove, the soap was
also made available to consumers in smaller packages at a lower price. The
intention was to gauge how well the brand would do in the middle class market.
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A modifier brand comes last in the hierarchy. This type of a brand includes a certain
type or version of a product. In the case of Unilever, one such brand is the
Tresemme range of shampoos. This particular brand of shampoo comes in various
versions. The examples are Keratin Smooth Shampoo, Smooth and Shine
Shampoo, Hair Fall Defence Shampoo and others (Keller and Brexendorf, 2017).
Hence, it is seen that the brand hierarchy or the brand architecture refers to a
various range of brands owned by a company. These are launched in the market to
serve a range of marketing needs for a company.
This section of the study focuses on the strategies used by Unilever to manage the
equity of various brands that it offers in the market.
Looking into some of the brands owned by Unilever like the Magnum brand of ice
creams, the packaging of the ice creams plays a vital role in strengthening its image
as a premium brand. Its luxurious packaging in a golden foil helps establish its brand
equity as a product targeted at the upper segment of consumers. The launch of
Magnum white chocolate and cookies. The marketing strategy involved a
promotional campaign where the winner of a competition was rewarded with
designer wear. Such a campaign further established Magnum’s brand equity as a
premium brand (Athanasopoulou et al., 2015).
The Axe range of products launched a range of men’s cosmetics. The packaging of
the products is usually in dark shades of colour. That has been done in the belief that
such shades look masculine. The products being targeted at men are intended to
have a manly look and appeal. The packaging in dark shades has indeed made the
products popular among men and strengthened Axe’s brand equity as a men’s
product.
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Task 3 – Brand extension and leverage
Brand leveraging can be defined as the strategy used for empowering existing
brand equity in order to support an organisation’s inclusion of a new relevant
product category (Zhang et al., 2015). This can be achieved by means of fluent two-
way communication between individuals from the company and their respective
consumers in order to get relevant information regarding current market scenario
and needs of the target consumers. For instance, Unilever is a company of
transnational consumer goods operating across the globe. They have leveraged
their brand by introducing the product ‘Axe’ in their list of international male
grooming products that is inspired by another Unilever brand named Impulse.
However, this brand leveraging has created certain disadvantages, which can be
termed as weaknesses for organisational growth. The name Axe had created
trademark issues in the past. Therefore, it is named as ‘Lynx’ in few countries like
United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland (Axe US, 2019). Marketing
department of Axe is very strong. It has helped the company to gain instant
recognition between consumers as it has an expertise of almost 34 years in the
grooming industry. However, it has encountered certain challenges and
controversies during its organisational business venture. This product has gained
adverse publicity earlier through its advertising ventures as many individuals
complained it for encouraging sexism and sexual promiscuity. Several incidents
had taken place where individuals have suffered from cardiac arrhythmia due to
using too much of the deodorant in a confined space. Additionally, it was reported
that teenagers had themselves on fire and Axe was responsible for that.
Therefore, company have to take the responsibilities for the above-mentioned
incidents for establishment of trust and goodwill of the brand within its loyal
consumers. Unilever has created two advertisement campaigns, where they have
tried to convey the message of preventing the use of Axe as an inhalant and
warning people about the flammability property of Axe as well. However, people
may lose their faith on this deodorant brand because of its increasing price range
and lesser variety compared to its competitors in the global market. Therefore, it is
recommended for the brand to collaborate with various grooming brand across the
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globe through franchising and joint ventures. They should also have
collaborative approaches by means legislative alliances and partnership
agreements with its competitive grooming brands for organisational growth and
sustainability in near future regarding constantly changing market conditions globally.
Conclusion
Brand leveraging has a combination of positive and negative impacts upon
organisational business ventures depending upon situational context. Unilever has
launched their men’s grooming brand Axe. It has helped the organisation in gaining
recognition within masses and has contributed towards generating more net
revenue. However, it has gained adverse publicity as well because of its advertising
ventures. Thus, company has to collaborate with competitive brands through joint
ventures, franchising and partnership agreements for successful business growth
and sustainability in global market scenario.
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Task 4 – Measuring and managing brand value
Introduction
This segment of study will provide a brief overview of various tools and techniques,
which are used for measurement and management of several aspect of a brand.
Firstly, it will measure and manage brand value. Subsequently, it will mention brand
awareness and measure it relevant to the current market scenario. Additionally, it will
evaluate management of appropriate market share. Moreover, it will analyse attitude
and behavioural patterns of consumers and their intent regarding purchasing of
company-manufactured products. For instances, case studies of different
organisations will be considered.
Measurement and management of various brand attributes
Brand Value
Valuation of a brand can be measured from calculating net worth of money or asset
an entity is willing to expend for purchasing that specific brand equity. However,
there are several methods implemented by big firms across the globe in order to
increase value behind their brand name, which are enlisted as follows. Companies
focus on their target consumers by conducting surveys in order to meet their
expectations regarding manufactured products and quality customer service. They
receive valuable reviews and feedbacks from their customers as well in order to
improve their services. Web traffic and search engines preferences of individuals
are also tracked. Establishing emotional connection is also necessary in order to
retain prime customers and make them loyal towards the organisation (Roy and
Banerjee, 2014). For instance, Burberry is an UK based organisation operating in
the fashion and apparel industry. They promote their clothing through various social
media platforms in order to retain its position as an elite class brand as UK is one of
the most technologically advanced countries globally. Open two-way communication
also takes place between company officials and consumers in order to comprehend
their needs and build an emotional bonding as taste of UK based people is shifting
more towards high street fashion (Henninger et al., 2016).
Brand awareness
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