MARKETING

Process of Building a Strong Brand

Process of Building a Strong Brand

Introduction

Brand is one of the most important intangible assets of an organization and marketing is responsible for its appropriate management. Strong branding is not just an art, it is also a science. Strong brand building asks for careful planning, a profound long-term commitment, and creatively developed and executed marketing. A strong Brand is the one which commands deep consumer loyalty where at its heart is a valuable service or product (Kotler & Keller, 2011, p.241). According to S. King, WPP Group London, “A product is the thing organizations develop in factories, whereas a brand is something that customers buy. Competitors can copy the product where a brand is exclusive, and a product can be outdated rapidly, where a flourishing brand is timeless” (Klein & Partners Inc., 2009, p.3). Thus, in order to become successful, companies need to develop brands not just products and to do so companies need to have proper process for strong brand development.

Discussion

In today's highly competitive and rapidly advancing business world, organizations are determined to beat the expectations of customers, where marketers play a significant role in it by building the correct rank of prospects and determining the experiences of customers. In order to create positive brand value it is essential to exceed or at least meet customer prospects. With the passage of time organizations can develop a powerful brand i.e. product having strong brand image and value, like Wall Mart, Google, Cisco, and many others are classic examples of how firms develop powerful brand through experiences of customers (Kottolli, 2006, n.d). These companies began with small but with the passage of time they developed a solid reputation in the market and in between the process time the organization's name evolved into a powerful brand as well (Kottolli, 2006, n.d). Hence, in order to get succeed companies need strong branding.

Process of Building a Strong Brand

Brand management process goal must be to attain, retain, or regain brand leadership position, where it involves new brand creation, existing brand repositioning, brand leadership position defending, or brand damage repairing (Klein & Partners Inc., 2009, p.45). The process of building a strong brand involves following steps:

Clearly Articulate Your Brand Identity

What the brand means t consumers indicates your brand identity, thus it sets the customer expectations. The key to successful strong brand development is clearly articulating your brand and that helps defining how customers will interpret your brand. Company needs to set a clear brand identity in order to set right level of expectation by the customers that your brand can meet or exceed. For example, Starbucks coffee has a special meaning to its consumers; their coffee articulates an identity of warm, relaxing, and pleasant experience (Kottolli, 2006, n.d). Thus, it should be well clear that how your brand should be perceived; what are the attributes of product, brand personality, brand heritage, competitive differentiation, logos or visual imagery, and its relations with customers (Anonymous, 2010, ...