Brand Management Strategies for Virgin Group: A Comprehensive Analysis

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BRAND MANAGEMENT
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................ 4
P1 Explain the importance of branding as a marketing tool and why and how it has emerged
in business practice....................................................................................................................4
P2 Analyse the key components of a successful brand strategy for building and managing
brand equity.............................................................................................................................. 5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................ 9
P3 Analyze different strategies of portfolio management, brand hierarchy and brand equity
management..............................................................................................................................9
TASK 3.......................................................................................................................................... 15
P4 Evaluate how brands are managed collaboratively and in partnership both at a domestic
and global level........................................................................................................................ 15
TASK 4.......................................................................................................................................... 18
P5 Evaluate different types of techniques for measuring and managing brand value using
specific organisational examples............................................................................................. 18
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 21
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................22
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INTRODUCTION
The assignment will consist of the understanding of the development of the brand image in the
company that is essential for the growth of the company in the competitive market. A brand
can be identified as the complete experience of the consumer that differentiates the company
from the other competitors in the market (Annie Jin, 2012).
Branding has been utilized as the tool by the companies for the promotion of the products
marking the position in the market. In the first task the brochures has been presented that will
comprise of the article that is based on the brand equity and brand strategies that are required
for the strengthening the position of the Virgin Groups in the market. Further in the assignment
the hierarchy management along with the brand portfolio will be described with the
management and measurement of the brand value.
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TASK 1
Brand is power
P1 Explain the importance of branding as a marketing tool and why and how it
has emerged in business practice.
Introduction
Brand: A brand is the particular name that is associated to the company that has been
providing the particular kind of the products and services (Balmer., 2012). These specific kinds
of the elements that are supplied by the company helped them in gaining the identity by itself
among the other competitors.
Brand equity: brand equity is the marketing term that is used to identify the brand value of the
company. The overall value of the brand equity can be determined with the assessment of the
perception of the consumers and their experiences. This represents and evaluates the values
that have the well-recognized brand name. Brand value portrays the perception of the
consumers of the company and the level of satisfaction they have with the products and
services offered to them (Gundala and Khawaja, 2014).
Importance of the brand: Brand is the significant aspect of the success of the organization. The
different kind of the organizations uses branding as the tool for the marketing of the products.
This helps in raising the revenue of the company along with attracting the various consumers.
This also increases the brand image of the company in the market and among the consumers
base. Branding helps in attracting the investors for the organization (Hanna and Rowley, 2011).
Thus through the proper branding of the company the cost of the promoting and other
application is reduced. This is the best technique for the establishment of the good identity in
the market along with the repurchasing.
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Role of the marketing department in creating the brand equity
The brand equity of the company has been built by the marketing department of the
organization. For this there are marketing programs conducted that are linked with the
product, channels of distribution and price. These practices of the marketing include advertising
the brand and communicating the goods to the consumers so that the brand awareness among
the conquers of the company can be raised further leading to the brand equity. The marketing
practices influence the movements of the brand equity in both of the downward and upward
direction and main aim of these practices of the marketing is to generate the brand image for
which the advertising plays the significant role (Jugenheimer et al., 2015). This communicates
the information related with the brand abilities.
P2 Analyse the key components of a successful brand strategy for building and
managing brand equity.
Stages of building a successful brand
There are generally four stages of building the successful brand that are given as below:
1. Conduction of in depth brand audit
This is the initial stage that involves the determination of the position in the market of the
brand in the market with the knowledge of the potential consumers of the company. This
involves the in-depth knowledge of the competitors in the market. The leader of the
organization has the duty to assess the key elements of the growth of the organization along
with the view pointy of the consumers about the products (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014).
2. Establishment of USP and messaging statements
For the branding of to be successful it is essential that the organization identifies the mission
and vision statement along with the values that are linked to the core philosophies. It is also
crucial that that elements like the brand value preposition is the determined by the consumers
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(Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014). This is the fundamental through which the brand of the
organization can be built.
3. Developing the creative elements for branding
The second stage includes the formation of the feel, representation and voice of the brand that
should be implied with the support of the marketing sources for the examples from the
websites, social media, advertisements and packaging. The brand of the organization must be
portrayed from the logo, name, fonts and style (Jahn and Kunz, 2012).
4. Implementation of the strategies for the formation of the brand equity
The identity of the brand is built in the span of time. The organization should imply the various
strategies for developing the brand awareness and strengthening the brand image (Jalilvand et
al., 2011).They must utilize the proper channels for communicating with the target consumers
and implication of the strategies for building the identity of the brand.
5. Refine and assess brand identity
It is crucial for a brand to generate the value to the customers in order to handle the
competition in the market. This is done with the assessment of the brand and ensuring that the
brand is delivering the quality of the products and promises to the consumers of the
company(Jalilvand et al., 2011).
Main Body
A recent case study based on overcoming the brand crisis
The Southwest airlines in the year 2016 got in the trouble due to the failure of the wide range
of the technology in the summer season. This led to the shutdown of the websites and the
systems of the company for the more than the 12 hours. Due to this many flights of the airline
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were cancelled. In the five days the company has initiated to respond to the complaints and
queries of the consumer effectively with the support of the social media and its techniques
supports in handling the crisis of the brand (Kapfere, 2014). The apologies by the companies
were made to the consumers through the social media for the faults that they have made.
A successful strategy to strengthen brand equity
Aaker’s brand equity model
This model represents the brand equity model as the integration of the five types of the brand
liabilities and assests that are linked to the brand of the organization that eliminate from and
integrate to the value of the goods and services (Jugenheimer et al., 2015). This involves the
following five components:
Brand loyalty: this can be recognized as the currency of brand as per the model given by the
Aaker. The cost of the marketing in the organization can be reduced with the higher loyalty of
the consumers and employees towards the firms. Brand loyalty provides companies with the
time in competing with strong organizations and responding to the new strategies (Kapferer,
2014).
Brand awareness: It is the first stage of building the brand equity that supports the customer
during the decision making procedure while purchasing the products and services of the
organization.
Perceived quality: The perception of the individual of the products provides the extra
advantage over the actual characteristic of the product (Kapferer, 2014). This perceived quality
of the products supports in surviving for the short span of time but it is not beneficial for the
long term.
Brand associations: This is the extent through which the brand can are enabled to retrieve the
organizations from the perception of the customers, development of the positive thoughts and
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role in the buying processes with the number of extensions of the brand available in the market
(Keller, 2017).
Other proprietary assets
This involves patents, channel relationship and trademarks that can be implied by the brands in
the span of time so that it can be secured and safeguarded.
Revitalizing and reinforcing brands
This is the strategy that involves the recapturing of the lost links of the brand equity and
forming new sources of the brand equity. Brand revitalization involves the up gradation in the
product and brand repositioning (Nagurney and Yu, 2012). This is not feasible but can be
considered as the attractive strategy for the launch of the new brand. For example, Ford has
taken the brand name of Tauras that has generated 90% of the brand recognition in the market
and proved to be successful for the company.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that the branding is the crucial tool for the marketing of the products and
raising the sales of the company. Branding is the element that helps in creating in the
recognition among the market and other competitors (Nagurney and Yu, 2012). Through this
they can gain the competitive advantage and form the permanent identity along with
motivating the individuals for re-purchasing. Further this helps the company in getting over the
crisis with the creation of the positive perception of the consumer for the products and
services.
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TASK 2
P3 Analyze different strategies of portfolio management, brand hierarchy and
brand equity management.
A brand portfolio management is termed as business having side business which of totally
different nature (Nirmali et al., 2017). It works as an umbrella which has many attachments but
all these attachments connected to 1 body which is main company.
A) Brand Portfolio Strategies
A company hasdifferent sub companies which carry different business nature and different
identity as an individual that defines brand portfolio e.g. virgin group has companies named
under it likes of virgin mobile, virgin casinos, virgin games etc. It seems like an umbrella in
rhetorical point of view where all different companies of different nature come under one main
company who manages to run them all (Nirmali et al., 2017). For better management two
portfolio strategies to be considered for the Virgin group:
 A Breadth of Product Mix- In this strategy, there is wide range of product varieties but
less number of articles of each variety e.g. A store has thousands of products variety
but it sells only 2-3 product of each variety.
 The Depth of Branding–In this strategy, there are less range of product varieties but
more number of articles of each product variety e.g. a store has 4-5 different product
variety but 500-600 articles of each product variety.
Some of the models of Brand Portfolio are the branded house, house blend and the house of
brands.
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The brand house is company uses same brand name for all its sub companies. It is like one
brand covers its entire product. Virgin group is one of like that which has brand house portfolio.
Figure 1: Virgin group portfolio
Source: Keller, 2017
The next model of portfolio is House Blend; it is a method of portfolio in which main company
work as a parent company, it acquires other main company within itself (Powell, 2016). e.g.
Facebook took over other main company likes of whats app, Instagram whereasFacebook
remain itself and running successfully.
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The third and last model is House of Bran, in this method of portfolio main company runs and
manage different of its sub company under different names other than its original name e.g.
Virgin company which has many companies under it likes of airlines, mobiles and others.
B) The Brand Management Hierarchy
Brand image is very important for any company; often people compare different companies
through their brand name. Company uses different brand management strategies to pursue its
customer, as virgin group uses branded house strategy in their business in which it carries same
name for all its sub companies (Qian, 2014). This will lead people to identify the virgin group for
different products they are using as virgin use its name for virgin mobile, virgin Australia, virgin
casino etc.
Figure 2: Brand pyramid
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Source: Keller, 2017
C) Brand Equity Management
Brand Equity is a type of asset which attached to Brand name of company as it provides trust,
Reliability, Loyalty to its customers. Brand Equity is a termed as goodwill of the company as it
shows positivity of the company which leads people to use their services (Qian, 2014). For a
company it’s very important to maintain that quality of trust and reliability as Brand Equity
develops through long period of time. Keller’s Brand Equity Model is widely used to carry out
enhancement.
CBBE Model
CBBE stands for Customer-Based Brand Equity model where understand the customer is top
priority to satisfy them accordingly. To build better brand equity the CBBE model is very helpful
to find needs of the customers and strategies for it accordingly (Qian, 2014). The better the
bond between brand and customers the better for the company to increase brand equity and
taking advantages of customer.
In this CBBE model 4 steps is taken into consideration which are:
 Who are you? – Brand Identity
 What are You?- Brand Meaning
 What about You?- Brand Response
 What about you and me? – Brand Response
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