Brand
Management Strategies
Before we move on to strategies let
us understand why brands are created. The American Management
Association defines Brand as a “Name, term, design, symbol or any other
feature that identifies one seller’s goods or service as distinct from those of
sellers”.
Branding makes a product stand out from competitors to be the chosen
one.
Brand kindles customer expectations and builds trust and confidence when
expectations are met consistently.
Brand increases customer awareness of the business and its products and
services, by engaging with customers and creating a connection.
Branded products sell at a premium compared to equally good or better
products because of their image.
Brands enable companies to move into new market sectors effortlessly.
Having established the intrinsic value of a branded product and the
enhancement in its market value it is necessary to sustain this competitive
advantage.
This is where brand management
comes into play. Brand
Management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product
or product line to increase its perceived value to the customer and thereby
increase brand franchise and brand equity. Brand is seen as an implied promise
that the quality level will be maintained and handed down through future
purchase of the product. To this end brand management devises strategies to achieve desired
mileage for the product and sustain its growth through distinct advantage over
competitors.
Brand Management Strategies that may be adopted to be one-up on
competitors are listed below-
Establish and Maintain the Brand through enhanced product
characteristics, advertising, sales promotion, packaging and other marketing
techniques. The brand may traverse other product lines or geographical regions.
Focus should also be to identify prospective products and services to which the
brand should be extended.
Ensure consistency between brand strategy and corporate goals to
reflect positively on the company image. Promoting a dental cleanser with
medical practitioner’s approval enhances brand and corporate profiles.
Select Profitable and Innovative Partners to expand further
ventures without having to pump in excessive additional resources on new
products and uncovered areas. An innovative packaging company with similar
corporate ideology can give wings to the
product and brand together.
Observing Quality Control and Reporting Formats will ensure
continuity in Customer Expectation-Realisation Gap and boost confidence and
patronage to the Company. An eye for detail as displayed on a product and a
feed-back in some form can hold an audience captive and wedded to our brand.
Proactive approach towards products and services offered with a
view to keep the features updated and technological changes incorporated is
necessary for continued market presence and brand stability.
Brand Management Strategies are required to be continually adopted and
updated to safeguard against brand obsolescence. It is common inference that in
the absence of periodic insertions in newspapers even popular leaders are classified
either sick or pushed out of reckoning by enterprising youngsters.
Today we have a class of people who are paraded as Brand Ambassadors and there
is not a celebrity who has not taken note of this image booster. It is also a
Win-Win situation for both advertiser and the star who are benefited to rake in
millions through a simple coffee-break.
Coming to the ban on advertising of tobacco products there is a famous ad that
says-
“Smoking kills cigarette brands.”
Another pointer to what Brands really mean is spelt out by Walter Landor who
says-
“Products are made in the factory, but Brands are created in the mind.”
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