Analyzing Stakeholder Touchpoints in Brand Image Creation: Report

This report delves into the crucial role of stakeholder touchpoints in shaping a company's brand image. It begins by defining brand image as the perception customers have of a brand, emphasizing the marketing department's role in creating brand identity through innovative product launches and customer engagement. The discussion covers brand identity creation, highlighting the importance of organizational beliefs, clear objectives, and storytelling to attract customers. It examines brand management's role in making strategic decisions to implement brand image and foster customer loyalty, emphasizing the pressure on brand managers to create unique and appealing brand images. The report then explores stakeholder touchpoints, including employees, customers, and suppliers, and how they contribute to brand value. Specific examples, such as Maybelline, Nike, and DANONE, illustrate how different companies leverage these touchpoints to build and maintain their brand images. The report concludes that effective brand management requires a focus on multiple stakeholder touchpoints to build brand value and secure a strong market position.

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STAKEHOLDER TOUCHPOINTS IN BRAND IMAGE
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion..............................................................................................................................2
2.1. Brand Identity and Creation............................................................................................2
2.2. Brand Management.........................................................................................................3
2.3. Stakeholder Touch Points...............................................................................................4
3. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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1. Introduction
The perception that the customers have about the products of a renowned organization
is termed as ‘brand image’. The ‘brand image’ of a company does not happen overnight. The
customers use the products of the organization; provide feedbacks based on their experience
and helps in forming the ‘brand image’ for the particular organization (Wang et al. 2019).
The marketing department is hugely responsible in creating the brand identity because they
determine the innovative ways to launch a product and create interest amongst the customers
about the brand in the market (Mete and Davies 2017, October). The report will discuss how
the brand managers create unique brand images that will not only attract the customers but
also the stakeholders to invest in the business more.
2. Discussion
2.1. Brand Identity and Creation
The most important aspect about creating a brand is to know about the beliefs of the
organization, the offers that will be provided by them and what their brand stood for.
According to Caroline McNally, the co-founder of Global Brand Works, the company should
zero in the issues they are trying to handle, determine the resolve operations and be
transparent throughout the development procedure in order to maintain a brand image
(Törmälä and Saraniemi 2018). The next important aspect in creating a brand identity is to
have a clear vision about the objectives and create a good intention amongst the customers.
The brand managers should focus on telling their stories to people as a company that will
help in attracting the customers rather than solely focusing on the sale of the product. For
instance, the brand of Yeti creates incredibly beautiful videos to make the customers aware
about their products through their story-telling approach.

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The brand image is also created efficiently if the company is well aware about its
target audience. If the company knows whom they are selling the product to and build it
accordingly, it will be easier for them to reach their customers through their stories. For
instance, the organization of ‘Apple’ targets high profile customers who can afford an
exclusive price range for their smart devices (Fan 2018). On the other hand, ‘Samsung’ has a
wider range of customers starting from low-class to high-class customers. Hence, they create
a greater range of products for their customers. Creative messaging and attractive content also
plays a key role in building the brand image of the product (Centeno and Wang 2017).
Organizations like ‘Vox Creative’, ‘Digitas’ and many more help the reputed companies in
creating their content for the brand image and make it appealing to the customers.
2.2. Brand Management
Brand Management is an important functionality of the marketing department of the
companies that are responsible for making strategic decisions on how to implement the brand
image in the market, generate loyalty amongst customers through enhancing associations of
the brand (Wheeler 2017). With increase in competition between the various organizations,
the brand managers are in peer pressure to create unique as well as appealing brand image
that will help the customers grow a keen interest to experiment with the brand and stay loyal
to it henceforth.
The duty of the brand manager is to not only create personified brand identity but also
engage the stakeholders associated with the brand to help the customers connect more with
the brand image of the organization. There are internal as well as external stakeholders to an
organization. Thus, while creating a product and its brand image, the different stakeholders
play their own specific role in contributing value to the brand identity.

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2.3. Stakeholder Touch Points
Stakeholder touch points according to a brand is specifically the creation of brand
value that will help in meeting the brand performance for the different stakeholders of the
organization. The stakeholders comprises of the employees, the customers, the shareholders,
the suppliers and so on. The employees are considered the primary asset to build a brand
value for the products. If the employees do not have faith in the product they are making,
they will not be able to convince their customers use the same (Black and Veloutsou 2017).
For instance, the employees of the company of ‘Maybelline’ in New York should themselves
promote on using the makeup products of their company, such that the other customers show
an interest in using their items.
Customers are another major stakeholder touch point in building brand identity. The
more the value of a brand, the more customers will buy the product for themselves and
recommend others too. For instance, the shoe company of ‘Nike’ possess an optimum brand
value and thus, their loyal customers tend to use variety of their products and suggest their
acquaintances to use the same (Išoraitė 2018). Suppliers are another stakeholder touch point
in building the brand image because, it is the suppliers that provide with the raw materials
while creation of the product. For instance, organizations like ‘MRF’ or ‘Bridgestone’ are
famous for its rubber products; hence, if a supplier is providing these organizations with
resources, it will help in the enhancement of the business of the supplier as well as maintain
the brand image consistently for the mammoth organizations.
The brand of ‘DANONE’ has a community of female members that focuses on
producing ‘Activia Yoghurt’ products. In order to sell them effectively in the market, they
have implemented communication strategies to attract female clients and sale their products
at large. The ‘Times Group’ have developed digital strategies and specifically emphasizes on
the pay-wall strategy to restrict their content being stolen by other brands. This is also

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applicable for customers who have purchased or paid via subscription because the company
does not want to allow other brands to use their style and gain popularity amongst the mass.
The ‘National Lottery Commission’ is another brand that implements strategies to apply
boundary on their customer touch points. They have adapted ways to ensure that the national
lotteries and the participants associated remain within the British public and does not go
outside the nation.
The ‘Sony Music’ is an organization that focuses on the primary stakeholders that are
artists and musicians. These primary people can understand the value of the music brand.
Hence, the community of Sony focused on helping these artists in UK to gain their brand
popularity (Ind, Iglesias and Schultz 2013). The brand of ‘Prudential’ has developed an
insight community that will guide the organization to assist them in financial services. The
primary focus of this brand is to tailor products, develop them according to the customers’
needs, and inform the communications department about it. The ‘Tata Global Beverages’ is a
brand that has eyed on the three market to popularize themselves. They have developed
strategies to define new products and spread their business in the consumer market, the
business market as well as the government.
3. Conclusion
The various stakeholders of an organization are equally responsible for the creation of
brand image for the available products of a company. The brand value helps to secure the
position of an organization in the market and stand against its competitors. In conclusion, it
can be said that, if the brand managers focus on the multiple stakeholder touch points
individually, it will be successful in creating the brand value or identity with optimum
quality. The touch points will determine how well a brand image is built with every stage of
touch point being achieved.

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References
Black, I. and Veloutsou, C., 2017. Working consumers: Co-creation of brand identity,
consumer identity and brand community identity. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.416-
429.
Centeno, D. and Wang, J.J., 2017. Celebrities as human brands: An inquiry on stakeholder-
actor co-creation of brand identities. Journal of Business Research, 74, pp.133-138.
Fan, B., 2018. The Intrinsic Relationship Between Creative Culture Industry and City Brand
Image Creation.
Ind, N., Iglesias, O. and Schultz, M., 2013. Building brands together: Emergence and
outcomes of co-creation. California Management Review, 55(3), pp.5-26.
Išoraitė, M., 2018. Brand Image Theoretical Aspects. Integrated Journal of Business and
Economics, 2(1), pp.116-122.
Mete, M. and Davies, G., 2017, October. A comparative study on brand image
measurements. In Global Conference on Services Management (GLOSERV 2017) (Vol. 10, p.
291).
Törmälä, M. and Saraniemi, S., 2018. The roles of business partners in corporate brand image
co-creation. Journal of Product & Brand Management.
Wang, F., Wong, C.H., Ng, A., Hong, H. and Lim, K.Y., 2019. Online brand image, luxury
value perception and brand equity. INTI JOURNAL, 2019(1).
Wheeler, A., 2017. Designing brand identity: an essential guide for the whole branding team.
John Wiley & Sons.