Brand Management Report: Marks and Spencer, Strategy, and Portfolio

This report delves into the realm of brand management, employing Marks and Spencer as a case study to illustrate key concepts. It begins by highlighting the significance of branding as a marketing instrument, tracing its evolution in business practices. The report then dissects the crucial components of a successful brand strategy, emphasizing the building and management of brand equity through models like Aaker's and Keller's. It further explores how brands are managed over time using value-based brand theory. The report includes analysis of portfolio management, brand hierarchies, and brand equity, critically evaluating these elements within the context of Marks and Spencer. The report concludes by summarizing the key takeaways and insights into effective brand management techniques.

BRAND MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P 1 Importance of branding as a marketing tool and why and how it has emerged in business
practice.........................................................................................................................................1
P 2 Analysis of key components of a successful brand strategy for building and managing
brand equity.................................................................................................................................2
M 1 Ways in which brands are managed successfully over time using application of
appropriate theories, models and concepts..................................................................................4
M 2 Appropriate and validated examples within an organisational context...............................4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
M 3 Critically analyse portfolio management, brand hierarchies and brand equity using
appropriate theories, models and frameworks.............................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Brand management can be defined a kind of function of marketing whose main function
is to increase overall value of brand, its products and services using different kinds of techniques
over time (Veloutsou and Guzman, 2017). It is one of the most important concepts which is
required to be focused upon by organizations so that they can increase their overall brand value,
products and services value and lastly achieve pre- defined goals and objective of organization. It
directly helps a business in increasing brand awareness, increase loyalty towards brand among
existing customers and attract new customers. This assignment will focus upon brand
management of Marks and Spencer. This assignment will lay emphasis upon importance of
branding as a marketing tool, components of a successful brand strategy, strategies of portfolio
management, ways in which brands are managed collaboratively, and different types of
techniques for measuring.
Overview of organization
Marks and Spencer is a British Multinational retailer founded in 1884 whose main
headquarter is in London, England. They sell products like clothing, home products and food
products.
LO 1
P 1 Importance of branding as a marketing tool and why and how it has emerged in business
practice
Branding is an important concept for organizations which is required to be focused upon
by firms (Schwöbel-Patel, 2018). Most of the firms use it as an important tool for marketing. It
helps organizations in developing a positive image among customers. Today branding as become
a part of business practises due to increasing competition. Marks and Spencer has also included
branding within their marketing strategy for maintaining positive impact in front of their
customers, increase reliability of their products and services in order to sustain within the
environment in which they operate.
There are various ways that can help in explained reason because of which importance of
branding has increased for organization as a marketing tool. One of the reasons because of which
Marks and Spencer uses branding as marketing tool so that their targeted customers can get to
know about this brand, products and services provided by them in a much better and appropriate
manner. It further helps Marks and Spencer in developing positive brand image and attract more
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customers. Another reason because of which branding has become an important marketing tool is
increasing competition (Curtis and Reddy, 2017). Due to technology advancement and
increasing use of high-tech technology by customers, most of the organizations are implanting
and using advance technology because of which competition fo Marks and Spencer has
increased. In order to increase awareness of customers abut their brand, products and service it
has become important for them to adopt new technology and use branding as a marketing tool.
It is an important marketing tool because it provides different kinds of benefits to
organizations, customers and intermediaries like: it helps companies in gaining loyalty and trust
of customers. It helps customers to understand different kinds of products and services provided
by brand. It also helps intermediaries to become credible and reliable and also provides a
platform to them that can support them and help them to grow.
In order to understand ways in which branding has emerged as business practise and its
important as marketing tool Brand pyramid can be used. Brand pyramid is important to be
focused upon because it helps in establishing or increasing customer loyalty (Filippini and
Campagna Foglietta, 2020). Five main components of brand pyramid are:
 Level one is attributes and features that focuses upon unique features of brand, USP of firm
so that they can differentiate their products and services.
 Level two is functional benefits that focuses upon resolving any kind of issue or problem
associated with brand, products and services provided by them so that their productivity and
return on investment can be increased.
 Level three is emotional benefits. At this level all kinds of intangible additional benefits
provided to customers are focused upon like customers of Marks and Spencer will be
provided with additional time, attention etc.
 Fourth level is brand personality in which connection with customers is developed at
emotional level so that their loyalty towards brand can increase (Marques and et. al., 2020).
 Last level is Essence of brand which focuses upon identifying ways in which overall position
of a brand can be accelerated in the market.
This model clearly explains ways in which branding has emerged in business practise and
way it has become an important marketing tool for organizations like Marks and Spencer.
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P 2 Analysis of key components of a successful brand strategy for building and managing brand
equity
Brand equity is a kind of value that helps an organization in determining customers
perception and experience in an appropriate manner (Marques and et. al., 2020). It can be
measured in terms of loyalty of customers, prices of products that can change over time and
many more. It is important for a firm to build and manage brand equity over time and for this it
is important for them to develop a successful brand strategy. There are various kinds of
components of a successful brand strategy that can help Marks and Spencer in management of
their brand equity in a successful manner. It has been observed that in order to maintain
reputation of providing high quality products and services to customers, Marks and Spencer need
to manufacture high quality products and deliver them to customers (Hunt, 2019). It is an
important component because it directly helps firm like Marks and Spencer to develop loyalty
towards brand among customers. It is one of the main components of effective brand strategy
that will not only help Marks and Spencer in developing positive brand image and increasing
customer loyalty but will also help in bringing improvement within their sales and promotion
aspect for successful brand management. There are many models that can be used to understand
important component of successful brand strategy for management of brand equity. One of the
models that can help in understanding main components is Aaker Brand Equity model.
Aaker Brand Equity model: as per this model brand equity is a combination of brand
awareness, association and loyalty. This combination directly helps in increasing overall value of
brand, its products and services. this model says that there are four main components of brand
equity. It provides value to customers by providing satisfaction to customers, help in in building
confidence in making purchase decisions. This model also provide value to firms by enhancing
their overall efficiency of marketing programs, increasing brand loyalty, enhancing brand
extension, and lastly helps in gaining competitive advantage ( Veloutsou and Guzman, 2017). As
per this model five main components of brand equity are: brand loyalty, brand awareness,
perceived quality, brand association, and other proprietary aspects.
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This model can be used by Marks and Spencer for development of positive brand image and
provide high quality products and services to them in order to enhance their satisfaction level and
experience. In order to develop effective brand equity, Marks and Spencer need to focus upon
this strategy for development of effective marketing strategy by focusing upon above specified
give components of brand equality as these components will also help firm in growing.
Another aspect of this model is to focus upon perceived quality by engaging into provision
of high- quality goods and services as per the needs and demand of customers. Another
perspective is to enhance brand value by responding to each and every query of customers,
Keller brand equity model that can be used by Marks and Spencer. in this there are four stages
that are
Brand identity (who are you)- it is related with creating brand awareness. Here Marks and
Spencer needs to stand out so that customers can recognize it and are aware about Marks and
Spencer. Besides that company needs to make sure that the brand perception in mind of people is
proper. it means that brand is rightly positioned in their minds. Also there is no negative
perception regarding the brand.
Brand meaning (what are you)- It means to communicate what your brand means and why it
exist in the market. In this data two elements (Kalpokas,2017). First is how well product fulfill
people needs and second is how Marks and Spencer fulfil social and psychological needs
Brand response (what about you)- It means that what customers feel about the brand as it is
based on judgment and feelings. Here it includes quality consideration etc of Marks and Spencer.
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Brand relationship it is related to brand resonance that is willingness of customers to reach
Marks and Spencer.
How to strengthen brand equity and brand extensions?
In order to strengthen brand equity and brand extension, first of all brand equity should be
measured in order to understand chance of successful launch. Then potential risk should be
identified in order to understand ways in which it can be strengthened.
M 1 Ways in which brands are managed successfully over time using application of appropriate
theories, models and concepts
There are various kinds of theories that can be used for explaining ways in which brands
are managed successfully over time. Value based brand theory is one of the theories that can help
in explaining different ways though which brands are managed over time (Filippini and
Campagna Foglietta, 2020). As per this they brand intend to build long term customer value as it
can directly impact competition for firms and can further help them in gaining competitive
advantage. Focusing upon this they will help Marks and Spencer to gain competitive advantage
over time and manage brand successfully. It will further help them in identifying factors that are
important to be focused upon for management of brand.
M 2 Appropriate and validated examples within an organisational context
It is important for a brand to focus upon their target audience who are capable of buying
their products and services. For example, Marks and Spencer need to focus upon identifying their
target customers who are capable and interested in buying products and services provided by
them. This will easily help them in identifying perception of their customers for brands, its goods
and services. Customers of Marks and Spencer see it as a brand that has wide category of product
and most of the products of Marks and Spencer are of high quality.
LO 2
M 3 Critically analyse portfolio management, brand hierarchies and brand equity using
appropriate theories, models and frameworks.
There are various strategies that portfolio management that can help brands in understanding and
managing their brand within targeted audience. Portfolio management is done on the basis of
three main elements perception of consumers for price, quality and competition in the market in
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which they operate. It helps in focusing upon main objectives of organization. But it also has a
disadvantage i.e. it is a bit complicated (Filippini and Campagna Foglietta, 2020). Whereas,
brand hierarchy is a distinctive branch of organization that helps categorising elements of brand
in their respective categories. Advantages of brand hierarchy is it helps in developing clear brand
structure. But process of building brand hierarchy is a bit difficult. Whereas brand equality helps
in identifying worth of brand and its products and services. it helps in getting competitive edge in
busines. But it is difficult to maintain and is a bit complex.
P3 Various strategies of brand hierarchy, portfolio management, brand equity management
A brand can consist of various sub brands in it which contains variety of products and
services. apart from that there are various types of strategies that is followed by companies in
order to maintain their brand. Similarly Marks and Spencer also follow strategy of brand
management which is as follows
Portfolio management
It is defined as practice of managing various brands in this there are various strategies
which is followed. it is as below
Branded house
It is a strategy in portfolio management in which all the brands of company operate under
its name. It means that these all brands are owned by the parent company. Here, an example can
be taken of Apple. IPhone iPad Mac book etc are some of the brands which is sold under Apple.
House of brand this is also any strategy that is followed by company to manage their brand. In
this the parent company do not sell their products under its brand name (Childs. and Kim, 2019).
The example art ITC, Unilever, etc that are having variety of products but which is not sold
under its brand name
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Figure 1 Branded house
Hybrid strategy
it is integration of both House of brand and branded house strategy. hair products are
branded under company name and also under different brand name. for example Aston Martin
Brand hierarchy
It refers as structuring of brand under organization. It states how brands differentiate
from other brands. The strategies in it are
Corporate brand strategy in which companies name is used for brand. The product and groceries
of Marks and Spencer uses its name
Family brand in this various products of company are given same brand name
Individual brand in this unique brand name is used for each product of the company
Brand equity management
It refers to practice of maintaining and managing brand image of a company for a
particular period of time. Marks and Spencer operating retail sector and having a strong brand
image in the market. however there are certain strategies which can be implemented by them to
manage its brand equity. it is as follows
Communication
Here company can communicating effectively way to its target market. With that they
can deliver message of strong brand image. Moreover, various communication channels can be
used for it.
Awareness -It is necessary to create brand awareness in the market so that brand equity can be
developed. Marks and Spencer can create brand awareness to engage with this customer.
M3 Critical analysis of brand hierarchies, brand equity, portfolio management.
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There are three strategies in portfolio management. Brandon house is beneficial in terms of
marketing. House of brand benefiting reaching different customer segment. The corporate brand
is useful in creating brand awareness so that people easily recognize brand.
The disadvantage of branded houses brand image influence success of each product of
Marks and Spencer. In brand hierarchy customer perceived all products brand image in similar
way.
LO 3
P4 Collaborative management of brand and in partnership both at global and domestic level ?
Collaborative – It can be termed as a collection of several management techniques that can
enlighten a sense of unity as well as teamwork among supervisors, managers as well as staff
members in an organisation. Marks and Spencer has launched a new online interactive platform
can be encourages collaboration across its suppliers.
Such new supplier chain will gives them a forum where around more than 6000 members from
all over the world can connect with one another. Marks and Spencer also boosts suppliers to
share their ideas as well as thought so that improves the goods that the consumer can enjoy.
Brand Leveraging- It is consider as a strategy that Marks and Spencer can use its existing brand
name in order to support firm’s entry into a new but associated product category through
communicating valuable good’s information to the costumers (Kalpokas,2017). Strategies for
brand leveraging includes such as
Line Extension- It includes leveraging and expansion product line as it also includes using brand
name for new item within such category. Marks and Spencer can uses its brand name so that
involves new product within existing product line.
Category Extension- It includes using the name of the existing brand of new good category
within firm. It means that Marks and Spencer requires to utilises its brand name so that to extend
categories of the goods.
Brand collaboration- It can be concerned with extension of brand by collaborating with
several brand within similar industry as well as those who are dealing within same product or
category. Brand collaboration’s success depends on benefits that brands get from one another.
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Co- branding- It can be concerned with utilising various brand names on a specified product. It
focuses on the co- branding of the milk products as Golden Vale and Avonmore Waterford were
testing a co- branding with Marks and Spencer (Kalpokas,2017).
M4 Analysis of several techniques so that leverage and extends brands
Here category extension and Line extension are considered as two techniques that can
used for the brand leveraging. Line extension includes enhancing several numbers of products
that can be offered through a firm, in which Marks and Spencer requires to introduce new
packets of the milk packet. Benefits of this is that it has less risk compare to the category
extension, and also failures of new products will not cause loss but also at the same time
disadvantage of this is that it can also limit expansion and growth of the firm or similar consumer
segments aids new goods.
LO 4
P5 Several types of techniques for managing and measuring brand value
In order to identify and analysis what value does Marks and Spencer in market and
managing brand include within this. it is consider as vital practise so that Marks and Spencer
can identify as well as understand practises in order to improve their brand value (Yanenko,
2016). Mentioned below Mentioned below methods through which brands can be valued
Market based brand value
It includes Estimation of that can be sold within market relied on price.
Equity Approach- this include considering off cost advantage of Marks and Spencer or any
other entity that can be launched within marketplace where the Marks and Spencer is operating.
Comparable Approach -According to this technique Marks and Spencer consider the price
through which it’s rivalries within the marketplace was sold
Cost based approach value
Such approach of Brand valuation includes valuation of brand relied of course that can be
incurred through Marks and Spencer in order to create the brand value of organisation. Form also
needs to calculate overall cost can be incurred in order to create the brand as well as costing that
might incurred. if they can replace the brand. Several methods within such approach are given
below
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Replacement cost – Through this firm can measures. Brand value by considering the
expenditure in relation alongside creating new brand that can be equivalent to its Current brand.
Accumulated cost- Within such method Marks and Spencer requires calculating cost that can
be incurred order to build its value.
Income based brand value
This brand value can be concerned with the earnings of Marks and Spencer. That can be
directly linked with brand as well as describing value of the brand. Within relation of its current
use of earnings. That means (Couto. and Ferreira, 2017). Identify potential earning of Marks and
Spencer that can be associated with its brand image. Mentioned below is some of its method.
Royalty relief technique- Within such technique. The school is needed to consider. The
royalty of such firms and people who are ready to pay. When Composed provides them licence
to use its trademark. Test it is not considered a suitable Approach relied on the Marks and
Spencer’s nature.
Price Premium technique- Within such technique calculation of brand value is needed so that
recognises various differences within the price of branded and premium products as well as other
generic products. Marks and Spencer is a retailer brand and considering this type of element is
suitable for premium and branded products for entity. Organisation requires to recognises
various prices for its products as well as generic products of the firm (Ahn 2019).
Awareness level- Recognising the consumer level of consciousness about the Firm Marks and
Spencer.
Brand Knowledge- Here it refers to the understanding of the brand as well as its products. It is
basically concerned with the ability of the consumer in order to remember associated a brand.
Brand satisfaction – Favourable and positive attitudes of the costumer that develops an
outcomes of using product of Marks and Spencer.
M5- Analysis of application of techniques for managing as well as measuring brand value in
order to develop a strong brand.
Basically there are three approaches by which Marks and Spencer can recognises as well as
measure its brand value. These are income based, cost based and market based brand value
methods. Such approaches can be utilised within several situations and also developing an
enduring and developing brand values that can be used income based approach which is highly
suitable for Marks and Spencer (Matusitz, 2018). The income based brand value is suitable as it
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