BRAND EQUITY

Strategic Brand Management: The Means and Limitations of Building Brand Equity (Comparing Mindshare and Cultural Models)

Strategic Brand Management: The Means and Limitations of Building Brand Equity (Comparing Mindshare and Cultural Models)

Introduction

Strategic Brand Management is a concept that has become the key focus for organizations all around the world. Businesses have realized that the brand is incomplete unless a proper strategy is formulated to increase its position in the mind of the customer and make it visible at a level where it supersedes the competition. The reason why strategic brand management has become so significant is because there are so many companies on the rise that the availability of substitute products has increased significantly. Since the competition has increased, the buying and bargaining power of customers has increased, making the brand vulnerable to abandonment. Hence, companies have to formulate strategies to make their brand stand out from the rest and stay fresh in the mind of the customer, always (Riezebos, 2003, 75).

A brand is essentially the identifier that differentiates a product or service from its competitors. Marty Neumeier, author of “The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance between Business Strategy and Design” summed it up nicely by stating: “A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service or company”. There are ever increasing amounts of potential “touch points” that create opportunities to facilitate branding, to increase awareness of a product or service and build its customer loyalty. These touch points include: social media, websites, mobile devices, in store experiences, advertising, packaging, direct mail, tradeshows, employees etc. For an entity to be successful at branding a product, it must comprehend the needs and wants of its customers and prospects. Integrating concise brand strategies at every point of contact makes it possible to achieve desired results (Investopedia, 2012).

Discussion

Consumers have become extremely aware of the markets today. In the entire world, the bargaining power of the suppliers is decreasing and customers are starting to get an upper hand in the entire scenario because they have the option of substitute products. Customers have a number of products to choose from, which makes it easier for them to choose the product with the least price and quality according to their need.

Mind Sharing Branding

The concept of mind sharing focuses on USP, personal benefits, DNA and other related factors. The basis of the concept is associations and ownership of the product. It is one way to position a brand in the mind of customers. As discussed in the picture provided above, mind sharing branding is an effective way to create brand equity by creating a perception in the mind of customers, according to which, the product relates to the personality of the consumer and attracts the consumer towards itself due to the creation of a personal association.

Cultural Branding

Cultural branding focuses on utilizing cultural associations of a person to create importance of the product in the mind of the consumer. In this type of branding, the consumer uses the brand because it relates to his ...