BRAND MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

Brand management assignment

Brand management assignment

Brand-building activities for consumer goods versus financial services

Service is a form of product that consists of activities, benefits, or satisfactions offered for sale that are essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything. Branding on the other hand, is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of these, that identifies the maker or seller of a product or service and seeks to differentiate them from those of competitors (Kotler, 2003).

Branding began with the great ranch-owners and cattlemen in communicating a clear message to others, which said “hands off, this is mine”. Today it has completely opposite purpose. It says “hands on, this is for you”. A brand is a singular idea or concept that a product owns inside the mind of the prospect (Ries, 1998). The successful seller must surround his generic product with a cluster of value satisfaction. The seller must provide a total proposition; the content of which exceeds what comes out of the production line. Branding is particularly important as “people choose the brands in the same way they choose friends” (Vrontis, 2005, p. 81).

Brands vary in the amount of power and value they have in the marketplace. Some brands are largely unknown to most buyers. Other brands have a high degree of consumer brand awareness. Still others enjoy brand preference (buyers select them over the others). Finally, some brands command a high degree of brand loyalty.

A powerful brand has high brand equity. According to Fill (2002) brand equity is just a reflection of a brand's market share. Brands have higher brand equity to the extent that they have higher brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, strong brand associations and other assets such as trademarks and channel relationships. A brand with strong brand equity is a valuable asset. In fact, it can even be bought or sold for a price. High brand equity provides a company with many competitive advantages. A powerful brand enjoys a high level of consumer brand awareness, performance, quality, reputation and loyalty. Also, the brand name carries high credibility, the company can more easily launch line and brand extensions. Above all, a powerful brand offers the company defence against fierce competition.

As indicated above, homogeneity of markets and services' distinct characteristics have made branding increasingly important in the service industry. Dobree and Page (1990) identify the following five steps for effectively branding services and recommend the development of a “service contract” internally for creating ownership for the service brand across all levels of the organisation:

Building a brand proposition.

Overcoming internal barriers.

Measuring delivery against the proposition.

Continual improvement.

Expansion.

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands often focus on brand-building activities, whilst services organisations need to decide whether to build the brand on a specific product or on the corporate identity. Love and Roberts (1997) postulate that corporate identity is an essential corporate asset, which provides both an internal focus for employees and an interrelated and comprehensive network of consumer perceptions. According to Balmer (1998) corporate identity requires that the corporation moves beyond the traditional ...