UNIT-1,2,3
Unit-1
Brand
Definition
Unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating
an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from its competitors. Over time, this image
becomes associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumer's mind
(see positioning). Thus brands help harried consumersin crowded and complex marketplace,
by standing for certain benefits and value. Legal name for a brand is trademark and, when it
identifies or represents a firm, it is called a brand name.
To understand branding, it is important to know what brands are. A brand is the idea or image
of a specific product or service that consumers connect with, by identifying the name, logo,
slogan, or design of the company who owns the idea or image. Branding is when that idea or
image is marketed so that it is recognizable by more and more people, and identified with a
certain service or product when there are many other companies offering the same service or
product.
Branding is also a way to build an important company asset, which is a good reputation.
Whether a company has no reputation, or a less than stellar reputation, branding can help change
that. Branding can build an expectation about the company services or products, and can
encourage the company to maintain that expectation, or exceed them, bringing better products
and services to the market place.
A strong brand must have following attributes:
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3.
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Relevancy
ConsistencyProper positioningSustainable
Credibility
Inspirationa
Uniqueness
Appeling
IMPORTANCE
Business branding is therefore important to every business regardless of the size, because it
communicates information about your business and product to the market. It will influence the
cost of your product, packaging, marketing and advertising strategies, distribution channels, and
more. Branding is all about establishing an identity, and becoming recognized for it.
There is no denying the importance of branding, especially for the small business. Consumers
are always willing to buy products they know and trust. A strong, well defined brand, gives you
a competitive advantage in the market. It allows you to charge more for your product, knowing
that consumers will remain loyal, and buy it at the higher cost. That is the result of consistent
reinforcing of the brand, which enables positive responses from the consumer.
Branding is one way to attract new customers. When a customer comes to you because of all
they have heard about your product and business, then you can be certain that they are serious
about buying. When you run marketing campaigns, you are simply throwing out a wide net to
attract a large number of customers. From there your marketing guys spend time with those
leads to find out who is really serious. That takes a lot of time and money, and in the end, you
are not sure that those customers will buy. On the other hand, branding puts you in a position to
attract serious buyers first off.
BrandsV /S Products
Brands are different from products in a way that brands are “what the consumers buy”, while
products are “what concern/companies make”. Brand is an accumulation of emotional and
functional associations. Brand is a promise that the product will perform as per customer’s
expectations. It shapes customer’s expectations about the product. Brands usually have a
trademark which protects them from use by others
To a consumer, brand means and signifies:
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Source of product
Delegating responsibility to the manufacturer of product
Lower risk
Less search cost
Quality symbol
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Deal or pact with the product manufacturer
 Symbolic device
To a seller, brand means and signifies:
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Basis of competitive advantage
Way of bestowing products with unique associations
Way of identification to easy handling
Way of legal protection of products’ unique traits/features
Sign of quality to satisfied customer
Means of financial returns
Branding challenges and opportunities
Brands build their strength by providing customers consistently superior product and service
experiences. A strong brand is a promise or bond with customers. In return for their loyalty,
customers expect the firm to satisfy their needs better than any other competitors.
Brands will always be important given their fundamental purpose – to identify and differentiate
products and services. Good brand makes people’s lives a little easier and better. People are loyal
to brands that satisfy their expectations and deliver on its brand promise. The predictably good
performance of a strong brand is something that consumer will always value.
The challenges to brands
1) The shift from strategy to tactics: - With the increasing pressure to generate ever-improving
profitability, it is often considered a luxury for managers to develop long-term strategic plans.
This is further exacerbated by short-term goal setting, which is frequently designed primarily for
the convenience of the financial community.
2) The shift from advertising to promotions: - As a consequence of the increasing pressure on
brand manager to achieve short-term goals, there is a temptation to cut back on advertising
support, since it is viewed as a long-term brand-building investment, in favour of promotions
which generate much quicker short-term results.
3) On-Line shopping: - The Internet is facilitating on-line shopping. On-line shopping is
different from traditional mail order because:
• Brands are available all the time and from all over the world;
• Information and interactions are in real time;
• Consumers can choose between brands which meet their criteria, as a result of selecting
information which is in a much more convenient format for them, rather than the standard
catalogue format.
This poses threats to brands, some components of added value, agent or the retail outlet which
originally added value by matching consumers with suppliers, may be eliminated.
4) Opportunities from technology: - Brand marketers are now able to take advantage of
technology to again a competitive advantage through time. Technology is already reducing the
lead time needed to respond rapidly to changing customers need and minimizing any delays in
the supply chain.
5) More sophisticated buyers: - In business-to-business marketing, there is already an emphasis
on bringing together individuals from different departments to evaluate suppliers’ new brands.
As inter departmental barriers break down even more, sellers are going to face increasingly
sophisticated buyers who are served by better information system enabling them to pay off brand
suppliers against each other.
6) The growth of corporate branding:- With media inhabiting individual brand advertising,
many firms are putting more emphasis on corporate branding, unifying their portfolio of brands
through clearer linkages with the corporation, which clarifies the those all the line brands adhere
to. Through corporate identity program functional aspects of individual brands in the firm’s
portfolio can be augmented, enabling the consumer to select brands through assessment of the
values of competing firms. Firms developed powerful corporate identity programmes by
recognizing the need first to identify their internal corporate values, from which flow employee
attitudes and specific types of staff behavior secondly, to devise integrated communication
programmes for different external audiences.
Brand Equity - Meaning and Measuring Brand Equity
Brand Equity is the value and strength of the Brand that decides its worth. It can also be defined
as the differential impact of brand knowledge on consumers response to the Brand
Marketing. Brand Equity exists as a function of consumer choice in the market place. The
concept of Brand Equity comes into existence when consumer makes a choice of a product or a
service. It occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand and holds some favourable
positive strong and distinctive brand associations in the memory.
Brand Equity can be determined by measuring:
Returns to the Share-Holders.
Evaluating the Brand Image for various parameters that are considered significant.
Evaluating the Brand’s earning potential in long run.
By evaluating the increased volume of sales created by the brand compared to other brands in the same class
The price premium charged by the brand over non-branded products.
From the prices of the shares that an organization commands in the market (specifically if the brand name is
the corporate name or the consumers can easily co-relate the performance of all the individual brands of the
with the organizational financial performance.
OR, An amalgamation of all the above methods.
Factors contributing to Brand Equity
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2.
3.
4.
Brand Awareness
Brand Associations
Brand Loyalty
Perceived Quality: refers to the customer’s perception about the total quality of the
brand. While evaluating quality the customer takes into account the brands performance
on factors that are significant to him and makes a relative analysis about the brand’s
quality by evaluating the competitors brands also. Thus quality is a perceptual factor and
the consumer analysis about quality varies. Higher perceived quality might be used
for brand positioning. Perceived quality affect the pricing decisions of the organizations.
Superior quality products can be charged a price premium. Perceived quality gives the
customers a reason to buy the product. It also captures the channel member’s interest. For
instance - American Express.
5. Other Proprietary Brand Assets: Patents, Trademarks and Channel Inter-relations are
proprietary assets. These assets prevent competitors attack on the organization. They also
help in maintaining customer loyalty as well as organization’s competitive advantage.
Brand Management Process: Key Components
• Identifying/defining your most important customers
• Understanding what motivates your customers and what could cause them to choose your brand
over your competitors’ brands
• Carefully selecting a brand position that could provide your organization with marketplace
advantages
• Translating that position to a strong and consistent brand identity, including:
- Intuitive brand architecture
- Strong name and icon
- Tagline that succinctly reinforces brand promise
• Developing brand messaging including an elevator speech
• Educating employees about the brand promise, elevator speech and identity standards and
giving them the incentives, tools and training to become effective brand champions
• Developing an integrated launch and ongoing marketing plan
• Reinforcing your brand’s promise at each point of customer contact
• Measuring the ongoing equity of the brand and making adjustments as necessary
Brand Management Responsibilities
• Monitor, measure and manage brand equity/strength
• Increase brand awareness, relevant differentiation, value, accessibility and emotional
connection
• Develop brand plan
• Monitor progress against brand plan
• Be responsible for results against brand plan
• Drive brand understanding and support throughout the organization
• Champion/drive initiatives that support delivery of the brand promise
• Brand messaging – elevator speech, tagline, campaign themes, proof points, etc.
• Manage the brand architecture
• Maintain brand identity consistency
• Chair the brand identity council/team/board
• Help determine identities for new brands/sub-brands
• Anticipate and accommodate new brand identity needs
Customer Relationship management is the strongest and the most efficient approach in
maintaining and creating relationships with customers. Customer relationship management is not only
pure business but also ideate strong personal bonding within people. Development of this type of
bonding drives the business to new levels of success.
Once this personal and emotional linkage is built, it is very easy for any organization to identify the
actual needs of customer and help them to serve them in a better way. It is a belief that more the
sophisticated strategies involved in implementing the customer relationship management, the more
strong and fruitful is the business. Most of the organizations have dedicated world class tools for
maintaining CRM systems into their workplace. Some of the efficient tools used in most of the
renowned organization are BatchBook, Salesforce, Buzzstream, Sugar CRM etc.
Looking at some broader perspectives given as below we can easily determine why a CRM
System is always important for an organization.
1. A CRM system consists of a historical view and analysis of all the acquired or to be
acquired customers. This helps in reduced searching and correlating customers and to
foresee customer needs effectively and increase business.
2. CRM contains each and every bit of details of a customer, hence it is very easy for track a
customer accordingly and can be used to determine which customer can be profitable and
which not.
3. In CRM system, customers are grouped according to different aspects according to the
type of business they do or according to physical location and are allocated to different
customer managers often called as account managers. This helps in focusing and
concentrating on each and every customer separately.
4. A CRM system is not only used to deal with the existing customers but is also useful in
acquiring new customers. The process first starts with identifying a customer and
maintaining all the corresponding details into the CRM system which is also called an
‘Opportunity of Business’. The Sales and Field representatives then try getting business
out of these customers by sophistically following up with them and converting them into
a winning deal. All this is very easily and efficiently done by an integrated CRM system.
5. The strongest aspect of Customer Relationship Management is that it is very costeffective. The advantage of decently implemented CRM system is that there is very less
need of paper and manual work which requires lesser staff to manage and lesser resources
to deal with. The technologies used in implementing a CRM system are also very cheap
and smooth as compared to the traditional way of business.
6. All the details in CRM system is kept centralized which is available anytime on
fingertips. This reduces the process time and increases productivity.
7. Efficiently dealing with all the customers and providing them what they actually need
increases the customer satisfaction. This increases the chance of getting more business
which ultimately enhances turnover and profit.
UNIT-2
SOURCES OF BRAND EQUITY
Sources of brand equity
Following are the sources of brand equity.
1.Market Research
Introducing brand in the market needs quantities or qualitative research to get familiar with the
trends and different attributes. Proper market research allows the company to launch a right
brand for the right segment.
2.Quality New product must incorporate quality ingredient because first impression is the last
impression. If customers are satisfied with the quality of your product then customers will
suggest other people to go for this product by sharing good thoughts.
3.Brand Name Brand name should be related to the product and easy to remember.
4.Brand Positioning Position brand in such a way that customer can remember it for a long time
and position in his mind.
5.Differentiation Always offer product different from your competitor add some exciting feature
to allow the customer to go for your brand. For Example– 3M always dominate the market with
their innovative products.
6.Marketing Mix
The proper use of marketing mix adds value in the brand marketing. Promotion
and personalrelation increase brand equity.
7. Brand Extension
To polish your brand, bring some new products and services under the umbrella of same brand
name. For example, Dettole Soap and shampoo, Lux Soap and Lux Shampoo, LG monitors and
mobiles.
8.Customer opinion
Always look for customer opinion because they know the best and worst about the product.
For example – Procter & Gamble ask for the customer idea for their product through
their customer portal.
Top brands of the world
Following are the top 5 brand in year 2009
1 -Google
2- General Electric
3- Microsoft
4-Cocal Cola
5-China Mobile
Brand building
Definition
Enhancing a brand's equity directly through advertising campaigns and indirectly
through promotions such as cause championing or event sponsorship.
Needs of Brand Building
For the success of any business, brand building is very crucial. Brand building helps the
company is making an impression in the mind of the potential customers. Now-a-days, business
is known more through its brand. Companies are now focusing more and more on the brand
building. It is important in the prevailing business environment that more than its products, the
brand should be known. Companies now are using various form of building strategies and
principle among them is website design promotion. Website design plays an important role in the
brand building strategy of a company. Apart from that, Logo is another aspect through which
brand building and promotion takes place.
Brand building is inevitable in order to survive in the competitive market of today. Brand
building plays an important role in order to carry the business to the top position. Even it is
found that some business remain on the top position just because of its amazing brand building
strategies. The importance of brand building brought branding building firms into picture.
Brand-Building Implications
1. Brand building drastically reduce marketing investment-
A strong brand needs lower and lower levels of incremental investment to sustain itself over
time. A new, unknown player will have to spend tow or four times the market leader to achieve
the same share of mind. Given the huge difference in business volumes, the pressure of the
bottom line is much higher for an un-established player.
2. Brand building facilitates long range planningAsk any business manager at Hindustan Liver (HLL), Nestle or even home grown organisation
like Wipro, Hero Cycle, or TVS Group. In an average year his ability to target and budget
primary sales would be infinitely simpler than for someone responsible for a relatively unestablished brand. The latter gentlemen would be targeting merely on desired volumes-almost
always dictated by top management. Strong brand always account for more stable businesses.
3. Brand Building commands a premiumAs long as there is a distinct value attach to your offering, the consumer will always be willing to
pay more for it. That is the only reason why an unknown brand called Titan could command
substantial premium over HMT. That is the same reason why a brand like BPL at a higher cost
beat the stuffing out of companies like Akai in a T.V. wars last years.
4. Brand Building builds entry barrierHuman being as a species love status quo. Therefore, a brand, which is entrenched in the
consumers mind, is very difficult to displace. If for nothing else, the sheer inertia will override
any cooing and wooing noises that the new entrant would create. This consequently implies
stability of business and therefore stability of revenue.
5. Brand Building increases cash flow efficiencyToday, an HLL distributor leaves signed cheque-books with the company to be filled in on
material dispatch. This is for most brands with strong franchises even if they be in the agarbatties
or Hawai chappal businesses. What more can a small business ask for?
6. Brand Building increases value of the businessExamples abound internationally and today even in India of businesses, which were sold for
several time their book value. Phillip Morris bought Kraft from General Force in 1991 for US
$13 billion. More than its book value. A little later at home, Coca-Cola paid US $60 M to aquire
Thumps-up from Parles. Neither Buyer had any lacunae in manufacturing, finance or human
resources. They merely bought business with very powerful brand equities and therefore paid
more than the net worth of the businesses.
Brand positioning refers to “target consumer’s” reason to buy your brand in preference to others.
It is ensures that all brand activity has a common aim; is guided, directed and delivered by the brand’s
benefits/reasons to buy; and it focusses at all points of contact with the consumer.
Brand positioning must make sure that:
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Is it unique/distinctive vs. competitors ?
Is it significant and encouraging to the niche market ?
Is it appropriate to all major geographic markets and businesses ?
Is the proposition validated with unique, appropriate and original products ?
Is it sustainable - can it be delivered constantly across all points of contact with the consumer ?
Is it helpful for organization to achieve its financial goals ?
Is it able to support and boost up the organization ?
In order to create a distinctive place in the market, a niche market has to be carefully chosen and
a differential advantage must be created in their mind. Brand positioning is a medium through
which an organization can portray it’s customers what it wants to achieve for them and what it
wants to mean to them. Brand positioning forms customer’s views and opinions.
Brand Positioning can be defined as an activity of creating a brand offer in such a manner that it
occupies a distinctive place and value in the target customer’s mind. For instance-Kotak
Mahindra positions itself in the customer’s mind as one entity- “Kotak ”- which can provide
customized and one-stop solution for all their financial services needs. It has an unaided top of
mind recall. It intends to stay with the proposition of “Think Investments, Think Kotak”. The
positioning you choose for your brand will be influenced by the competitive stance you want to
adopt.
Brand Positioning involves identifying and determining points of similarity and difference to
ascertain the right brand identity and to create a proper brand image. Brand Positioning is the key
of marketing strategy. A strong brand positioning directs marketing strategy by explaining the
brand details, the uniqueness of brand and it’s similarity with the competitive brands, as well as
the reasons for buying and using that specific brand. Positioning is the base for developing and
increasing the required knowledge and perceptions of the customers. It is the single feature that
sets your service apart from your competitors. For instance- Kingfisher stands for youth and
excitement. It represents brand in full flight.
There are various positioning errors, such as1. Under positioning- This is a scenario in which the customer’s have a blurred and unclear
idea of the brand.
2. Over positioning- This is a scenario in which the customers have too limited a awareness
of the brand.
3. Confused positioning- This is a scenario in which the customers have a confused
opinion of the brand.
4. Double Positioning- This is a scenario in which customers do not accept the claims of a
brand.
What is Brand Value?
Answer:
People are willing to pay more for a brand than a product. Brand value is the extra money a
company can make from its products solely because of its brand name. As an example, how
much more is a consumer willing to pay for a coffee at Starbucks as opposed to a coffee at a fastfood restaurant?
UNIT-3
Criteria for Choosing Brand Elements
1.Memorability:Brand elements should inherently be memorable and attention-getting, and therefore facilitate
recall or recognition.
2.Meaningfulness:Brand elements may take on all kinds of meaning, with either descriptive or persuasive content.
3.Likability:Descriptive and persuasive elements reduce the burden on marketing communications to build
awareness.
4.Transferability:To what extent does the brand element add to brand equity across geographic boundaries and
market segments?
5.Adaptability:The more adaptable and flexible the brand element, the easier it is to update it to changes in
consumer values and opinions.
6.Protectability:Marketers should:
1.Choose brand elements that can be legally protected internationally.
2.Formally register chosen brand elements with the appropriate legal bodies.
3.Vigorously defend trademarks from unauthorized competitive infringement.
Building Brand Equity
1. Target your audience. The surest road to product failure is to try to be all things to all
people.Decide who are the most likely users of your product and develop marketing materials
that speak exclusively to that group.
2. 2
2.Get the consumer’s attention. Here’s where a sound advertising strategy comes into play.
Your goal is to create public awareness and then build on that brand. You do this by getting
consumers to notice that your product stands out from the rest.
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Design an advertisement in the form of a mailer or an e-mailer.
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Alternatively, send out samples of a new product to a target group. Whichever form you
choose, make sure you’re making a great first impression.
3. 3
3.Make the public remember your brand. Your objective is to make consumers feel an
emotional attachment to the brand.
o
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Plan your marketing campaign around the most distinctive feature of your product, such as its
authenticity, high cost or reliability.
Design marketing materials that help consumers link to the brand by making them perceive
special benefits in your product that they cannot find in others.
For example, advertisements for costly designer handbags create the impression that consumers
who purchase them will look like Hollywood socialites. Consumers who view these
advertisements accept that the distinctive feature of the handbags-high cost-creates added value
that boosts the image of anyone who buys them.
4. 4
4.Build a solid brand image. Once again, consider your product’s special feature. Add to that
the character of your company. Combine these two factors to reinforce an image of the product
that reflects favorably on its manufacturer or provider.
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Pick one or two characteristics of your company and emphasize those in every advertisement.
Distinctive characteristics include excellent customer service, company executives who are
renowned experts in a field or a commitment to social responsibility.
5. 5
6. 5.Reinforce the brand image within the company. Make sure employees at every level of your
organization work and behave in a way that reinforces your brand image.
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Design orientation programs that introduce new hires to your company’s brand image.
Emphasize your brand image in all employee communications, such as brochures, employee
manuals, a company intranet and corporate newsletters.
Create incentives for employees at all levels who successfully communicate your brand image to
the public.
What is a product strategy?
A product strategy identifies, in broad terms, how you plan to sell your products to your
marketplace.
It documents how the people in your marketplace (your clients) think about your products and
business. It documents how your business positions its products and services and it contains your
strategies for selling.
A product strategy can encompass any number of products, depending on the nature of your
business. You could have one strategy for each major product or, perhaps, the same strategy for
all of them.
For example, an organisation that manufactures and sells high quality vacuum cleaners may sell
several product lines but they might all be positioned as high quality premium products. A more
diverse organisation selling different products such as finance, travel and music into different
markets would need several product strategies.
A product strategy is a document containing any of the following:
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business objectives
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descriptions of target market(s), usually based on results of market research
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results of research about your potential clients and their needs
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how you want your product to be viewed by your clients
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product features and benefits
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selling strategies
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how your product features and pricing compare to your competitors'
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product changes that might enable better market positioning of your product.
If you were an electrician, your product is the service you offer. Your product strategy helps you
determine exactly what services to offer. Do you focus on industrial electrical work or
household? Do you offer simple services, more complex services such as re-wiring or both? Are
you going to do business with developers of huge multi-residential complexes?
Developing a product strategy helps you analyse why clients should use your service instead of
your competitors'. You can do this by analysing your competitors and differentiating your
service. It might be your experience or prompt service. You can then use those particular
features and benefits to market your service. This is called product positioning.
A product strategy gives you an idea of how you should price your service. Will you undercut
the competition or charge more because you´re worth it?
Definition of Pricing Strategy
Pricing is one of the most important decisions a marketer must make regarding a product
since price plays a crucial role in competitiveness and consumer demand. Marketers
must determine price at the initial stage of a product's life and re-evaluate pricing to
manage the delicate balance between production and profits.
Here are three main approaches a business takes to setting price:
Cost-based pricing: price is determined by adding a profit element on top of the cost of making
the product.
Customer-based pricing: where prices are determined by what a firm believes customers will
be prepared to pay
Competitor-based pricing: where competitor prices are the main influence on the price set
Penetration Pricing
A small company that uses penetration pricing typically sets a low price for its product or service
in hopes of building market share, which is the percentage of sales a company has in the market
versus total sales. The primary objective of penetration pricing is to garner lots of customers with
low prices and then use various marketing strategies to retain them. For example, a small Internet
software distributor may set a low price for its products and subsequently email customers with
additional software product offers every month. A small company will work hard to serve these
customers to build brand loyalty among them.
Price Skimming
Another type of pricing strategy is price skimming, in which a company sets its prices high to
quickly recover expenditures for product production and advertising. The key objective of a price
skimming strategy is to achieve a profit quickly. Companies often use price skimming when they
lack financial resources to produce products in volume, according to the article "Pricing
Strategy" at NetMBA.com. Instead, the company will use the quick spurts of cash to finance
additional product production and advertising.
Product Life Cycle Pricing
All products have a life span, called product life cycle. A product gradually progresses through
different stages in the cycle: introduction, growth, maturity and decline stages. During the
growth stage, when sales are booming, a small company usually will keep prices higher. For
example, if the company's product is unique or of higher quality than competitive products,
customers will likely pay the higher price. A company that prices its products high in the growth
stage also may have a new technology that is in high demand.
Competitive-Based Pricing
There are times when a small company may have to lower its price to meet the prices of
competitors. A competitive-based pricing strategy may be employed when there is little
difference between products in an industry. For example, when people purchase paper plates or
foam cups or a picnic, they often shop for the lowest price when there is minimal product
differentiation. Consequently, a small paper company may need to price its products lower or
lose potential sales.
Temporary Discount Pricing
Small companies also may use temporary discounts to increase sales. Temporary discount
pricing strategies include coupons, cents-off sales, seasonal price reductions and even volume
purchases. For example, a small clothing manufacturer may offer seasonal price reductions after
the holidays to reduce product inventory. A volume discount may include a buy-two-get-one-free
promotion.
Integrated Marketing Communications
It is essential for organizations to promote their brands well among the end-users not only to outshine
competitors but also survive in the long run. Brand promotion increases awareness of products and
services and eventually increases their sales, yielding high profits and revenue for the organization.
To understand integrated marketing communication, let us first understand what does brand
communication mean?
Brand communication is an initiative taken by organizations to make their products and
services popular among the end-users. Brand communication goes a long way in promoting products
and services among target consumers. The process involves identifying individuals who are best suited
to the purchase of products or services (also called target consumers) and promoting the brand among
them through any one of the following means:
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Advertising
Sales Promotion
Public Relation
Direct Marketing
Personal Selling
Social media, and so on
Integrated Marketing Communication - Let us now understand what does integrated marketing
communication mean?
Integrated marketing communication refers to integrating all the methods of brand
promotion to promote a particular product or service among target customers. In integrated
marketing communication, all aspects of marketing communication work together for increased
sales and maximum cost effectiveness.
Let us go through various components of Integrated Marketing Communication:
1. The Foundation - As the name suggests, foundation stage involves detailed analysis of
both the product as well as target market. It is essential for marketers to understand the
brand, its offerings and end-users. You need to know the needs, attitudes and
expectations of the target customers. Keep a close watch on competitor’s activities.
2. The Corporate Culture - The features of products and services ought to be in line with
the work culture of the organization. Every organization has a vision and it’s important
for the marketers to keep in mind the same before designing products and services. Let us
understand it with the help of an example.
Organization A‘s vision is to promote green and clean world. Naturally its products need
to be eco friendly and biodegradable, in lines with the vision of the organization.
3. Brand Focus - Brand Focus represents the corporate identity of the brand.
4. Consumer Experience - Marketers need to focus on consumer experience which refers
to what the customers feel about the product. A consumer is likely to pick up a product
which has good packaging and looks attractive. Products need to meet and exceed
customer expectations.
5. Communication Tools - Communication tools include various modes of promoting a
particular brand such as advertising, direct selling, promoting through social media such
as facebook, twitter, orkut and so on.
6. Promotional Tools - Brands are promoted through various promotional tools such as
trade promotions, personal selling and so on. Organizations need to strengthen their
relationship with customers and external clients.
7. Integration Tools - Organizations need to keep a regular track on customer feedbacks
and reviews. You need to have specific software like customer relationship management
(CRM) which helps in measuring the effectiveness of various integrated marketing
communications tools.
Integrated marketing communication enables all aspects of marketing mix to work together in
harmony to promote a particular product or service effectively among end-users
What is Co-branding
Co branding is the utilization of two or more brands to name a new product. The ingredient
brands help each other to achieve their aims. The overall synchronization between the brand
pair and the new product has to be kept in mind. Example of co-branding - Citibank cobranded with MTV to launch a co-branded debit card. This card is beneficial to customers
who can avail benefits at specific outlets called MTV Citibank club.
Types of Co-branding
Co-branding is of two types: Ingredient co-branding and Composite co-branding.
1. Ingredient co-branding implies using a renowned brand as an element in the
production of another renowned brand. This deals with creation of brand equity for
materials and parts that are contained within other products. The
ingredient/constituent brand is subordinate to the primary brand. For instance - Dell
computers has co-branding strategy with Intel processors.
2. Composite co-branding refers to use of two renowned brand names in a way that they
can collectively offer a distinct product/ service that could not be possible individually.
The success of composite branding depends upon the favourability of the ingredient
brands and also upon the extent on complementarities between them.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Co-branding
Co-branding has various advantages, such as - risk-sharing, generation of royalty income, more
sales income, greater customer trust on the product, wide scope due to joint advertising,
technological benefits, better product image by association with another renowned brand, and
greater access to new sources of finance. But co-branding is not free from limitations. Cobranding may fail when the two products have different market and are entirely different. If there
is difference in visions and missions of the two companies, then also composite branding may
fail. Co-branding may affect partner brands in adverse manner. If the customers associate any
adverse experience with a constituent brand, then it may damage the total brand equity.