9 – Sustaining Brand Equity III: Management Flashcards
Reinforcing Brands
Making sure that meaning attached to brand is still aware and relevant to the consumer. Reminding consumers that the brand exists.
Nike
Building brand equity in brand identity and meaning. Consumers aware of brand, know that it is trying to communicate performance and imagery
Maintaining Brand Consistency
Maintaining brand consistency: consistency of marketing support is essential for maintaining strength and favourability of brand. Shrinking RnD and communication budgets may risk brand becoming out of date, irrelevant or forgotten. Ensuring there is a marketing budget to ensure brand is not forgotten. This may happen because marketing is not a priority in an organisation. In order to stay relevant, marketing departments have a responsibility to keep showing there is a return in investment, to prevent competition, and from consumers forgetting brand. Benefits of consistency are fortunes of brands that have constantly repositioned/ changed ad agencies. Consistency may require making numerous tactical shifts to maintain the strategic thrust and direction of the brand. Without this, consumers will forget about the brand.
Pepsi and Coca Cola
Brands are important to firms, consumers, management, investors, and employees. Brand positioning. Building brand equity through consumer judgements – credibility, superiority, quality and consideration.
Protecting Sources of Brand Equity
Key brand associations should not be altered because consumers still buy into brand. There is likely little need to deviate from a successful positioning.
Maggi, Dove
Brand positioning already successful. Remind consumers of target market, competitors, POPs and PODs.
Fortifying
Ways of increasing brand equity and furthering brand image through continuous marketing and advertising efforts but change method to make you relevant so consumers won’t get bored of brand. Make consumers excited about the brand. Doing it again but in different ways. Consumers can design campaigns making it more exciting for them, and more memorable.
Coca Cola
Brand elements, IMC and leveraging secondary associations to fortify brand position. Reminding consumers of strong, favourable and unique associations. Degree of fit
Leveraging
Capitalising on existing brand equity to reap accruing benefits in terms of cost savings (reduced communication expenditure) and revenue opportunities (seeking increasingly higher premium and introducing brand extensions). Capitalise on brand developed, and over time this becomes necessary. This can be reactive to competitors, but other times it is more proactive.
Dove
By increasing relevance, it increases awareness and solidifying positioning. Builds equity through brand identity and performance. Brand positioning. Degree of fit.
Fine Tuning Marketing Program
Small changes over time. Investing to ensure brand relevance. If a core positioning is:
• Product related performance associations: innovation in product design and manufacturing is critical. Failure to innovate can have dire consequences. It may include brand extension based on new/improved product ingredient/feature. Important not to change too much, timing and introduction to market is important.
• Non-product related imagery associations, more beneficial and symbolic, then don’t flip-flop; user and usage imagery is critical. It may confuse/ alienate consumers. Consumers may choose to ignore/unable to remember new positioning. Marketers must present convincing new brand claims in a compelling fashion.
Gillette. Heineken, Rolex
Building brand equity through brand performance and consumer judgements for product related associations or through brand imagery and consumer feelings for non-product related associations. Remind consumers of strong, favourable, and unique associations. Degree of fit
Revitalisation
When things go wrong for the brand, serious threats, bored with the brand, quality has decreased, brands need to either go back to their roots, or reinvent itself.
Mountain Dew
When brands are in commodity or erosion quadrant of BAV power grid. Needs to improve consumer judgements and feelings. Slider brands.
Expanding Brand Awareness
Expand breadth (new ways to use the product)/ increased usage (ways to increase consumption of a product). Involves changes in brand salience and awareness. • Quantity: difficult to change, exception – impulse consumption (availability). Trying to increase amount people consume of a product. • Frequency: new opportunities and ways. Increasing consumption by showing that product should be consumed at more than just special occasions. Brand has to retain premium brand association while convincing customers to adopt broader usage habits. Tie act of replacing the product to a certain time of the year or provide consumers with better information about when they first used product/need to replace it/ current level of product performance. Trying to increase how often people consume a product. New and different usage application. Using product in ways originally weren’t used for. May need more than new ad campaigns/ merchandising approaches. Sometimes they can arise from new packaging. Alka Seltzer. Chiraz, De Beers. Wrigley’s. Brand awareness (recognition and recall). Building brand identity – category identification and needs satisfied. Changes in quality and frequency achieved through brand elements, IMC, leveraging secondary associations. Improves brand image by understanding user profiles and usage information. Degree of fit. Slider brands
Improving Brand Image
This occurs when consumers no longer find brand meaningful and the positioning has been wrong. Two options of doing this is:
• Back to basics: caused by marketing program failures, insufficient customers, less damaging and enforce positive associations.
• Reinvention caused by positioning failures, sufficient but dissatisfied customers, extremely damaging, difficult to overcome negative associations
Harley Davidson, Mountain Dew
Brand positioning needs to be change through brand image. Image is no longer strong/ favourable/ unique. Degree of fit. Brand crisis management. Brands in commodity/erosion quadrant of BAV power grid. Slider brands.
Reasons for repositioning and Changing for Brand Elements
• Changes in brand awareness not sufficient
• A new marketing program through 4Ps, branding etc.
• Old positive associations to bolstered
• New positive associations to be created
• Negative associations to be neutralised
• Brand elements may need to be updated
• Back to basics/ reinvention
Burger King
Brand positioning needs to occur when there are issues with target market, competitors, POPs and PODs. Also affected when there is lack of brand salience – category not identified easily and needs not met. Difficult recognition and recall. Slider brands.
Adjustments Approaches to Brand Portfolio
Brands compete in different markets, brands need to constantly adjusted in terms of their brand portfolio by making constant adjustments
Puma
Brand portfolio and architecture. Slider brands, discard brands or wallflowers. Erosion quadrant of BAV power grid.
Migration Strategy
Migration strategy: helps consumers understand how various brands in portfolio can satisfy their needs as they change over time. Moving them to higher/lower products. As customer needs change, and they move up in social status, ensure products can depict this.
• Entry level brands: critical in bringing new customers
• Logical ordering: hierarchical structure in consumers mind.
BMW
Brand portfolio and architecture. Brand positioning needs to be altered. Low-end entry products or high-end prestige products.
Acquiring New Customers
• Reach out to new customers
• Reach out to decision making segment instead of users
• New market segments based on cultural dimensions. Starting new ways to target different customers.
• Multiple marketing programs: separate advertising campaigns and communication programs for segments. Different marketing campaigns for various customer segments.
• Brand extensions and sub branding
• New distribution outlets
Kellogg’s, Old Spice, Harley Davidson/ Burger King, Sunglass Hut.
Brand positioning needs to be altered in terms of target market, POPs and PODs. Different IMC campaigns for different target markets. Channels of distribution in terms of leveraging secondary associations.
Withdraw Marketing Support (Orphan Brand)
A once popular brand with diminished equity that a parent company allows to decline by withdrawing marketing support. It is too small to warrant advertising and promotional expenditures. Do not spend money on marketing and let consumers seek it out.
Tab with Coca Cola
Brand portfolio and architecture. Discard brands. Erosion quadrant of BAV power grid. No IMC. Retiring brands.
Consolidation
Merging two brands rather than giving up on the product line completely.
Charmin and White Cloud
Brand portfolio and architecture. Discard brands. Erosion quadrant of BAV power grid. Retiring brands.
