Download Brands have become a major player on modern markets and

Brands have become a major player on modern markets and consequently since the
90s they have become a real buzzword of marketing. That is why they are analyzed in many
possible ways and considered from a range of perspectives: economics, sociology,
psychology, anthropology and even semiotics and philosophy.
Curiously, this variety of researches, publications and finally resources spent on
building and measuring brand equity, creates many disagreements, undefined approaches and
conflicting theories.
This work focuses on the marketing perspective of branding to digest all brand equity
puzzles and also on how Polish managers deal with this dynamic brand environment to create
strong, well know names able to successfully compete on global markets.
A. Brand strategies come first. Chapter 1 introduces some basic notions about brands
and the role they have played and are playing in marketing strategies. Shows why brand are so
important, why they are most valuable assets in company portfolio.
1.
2.
Sign of time that top five world brands are worth more than 300 bilion usd.
Coca cola, microsoft, GE, IBM. Only one european and one japanies.
Focuses on buying decision process. Why we as consuments are willing to
overpay, spend our valuable time for searching for our brand if is not
available in local supermarket. Why we buy more than we really need. Why
we try to find and promote the advanatges of our brand over the competitive
one.
3.
From the other side only 32% of the enterpreneurs show brand as crutial
factor of market success and 88% customers says that price is as most
important buying trigger during the day to day shopping. Inter has had 80%
market share where introduced firs add. Apple has superb brand and
communication and stays niche brand. No ADD for price sensitive market
segments.
4.
It describes possible branding strategic options, including manufacturer’s,
reseller’s, generic and mixed branding approaches as well as product range
policy connected with individual, family and umbrella branding.
5.
It also includes the essentials of brand extension and explains basic relations
between brands in a company’s portfolio. Last but not least is competition
between dealers and manufacturer brands called “the battle of the brands”
and multiple brands market approach.
Chapter 2 describes a variety of brand equity definitions, more formally examines the
brand equity concept and shows how it stresses the importance of the role of brand marketing
strategies.
1. Simple but powerful.
Brand equity can be defined as the ability to retain existing customers and attract new
ones” (Scott White)
Brand equity is a set of product assotiations in the customer mind. (Auton)
And behaviors of marekting channel member which allow generating higier marging
and revenues on the brands
2. Aaker’s “"Brand equity is a set of assets (and liabilities) linked to a brand's name
and symbol that adds to (or subtracts from) the value provided by a product or service
to a firm and/or that firm's customers. The major asset categories are: Brand name
awareness, Brand loyalty, Perceived quality, Brand associations"
3. This part of the work includes a short description of brand equity elements: brand
awareness, brand identity, brand image, brand associations, brand familiarity, brand attitude,
brand preference, brand loyalty, brand position.
4. Describes the relation between brand equity importance and the sector a company
operates in.
6.
Brand Functions (customer): limits risk, shorten decision making process,
ensure product quality, identyfieing products and its benefits, let customers
feel modern, trendy up to date.
Chapter 3 describes a disciplined process to create and implement an affective brand
equity for the biggest possible benefits for the company, the brand owner. It provides
information about all stages of the brand equity creation process:
1.
system of visual identification creation – brand identity building up – brand
image – brand strength – brand equity and shows the limitations and pitfalls
of its planning, analyzing implementation and control.
brand marks, brand names, trade names, house marks, trade characters, brand icons.
Mnemotechnic value, communicate brand atributes and benefits, distinguish, typical
for product category, available, not offensive, persuasive, modern, easy to use in
promotion.
Types: initials and numbers, Dictionary words, geographical and historical names,
combined words, not existing word, joiners
2.
It also emphasizes the cost effectiveness side of the brand equity creation
process and typical mistakes, like overbranding (Thermos, Yoyo, Monopoly,
Walkman and the others) or brand equity disaster and recovery policies and
programs.
3.
Common mistakes made in huge international companies incorporating
world leading brand consultants (Pajero, Nova, Marea, Punto).
4.
During the communication process, brand identity is transformed into the
brand image – a set of associations created in the consumer’s mind. It is
called positioning – a brand is taking a position in customer perception.
Both positioning policies and tools are presented with special attention paid
to perceptual mapping and its contribution to the development of successful
brand launching and sustaining.
5.
The next step is translation of the positive brand image into brand strength,
defined by several market dimensions, such as stability, market share,
market position, revenues and sales trend, place in company's brand
portfolio, quality of communication and share of voice. The last part of the
chapter shows the influence of different marketing tools and marketing
policies (One to One marketing, CRM) for brand equity management.
6.
The second part of the chapter concentrates more on the concept of brand
identity building as a second phase of brand equity creation. The work
presents two leading models of brand identity: J.N. Kapferer’s PRIZM
construct (personality, relationship, reflected consumer, physical facet,
consumer mentalisation, values) and a slightly less confusing Interbrand
model (a leading brand consulting agency) consisting of such element as:
vision, mission, functional values and attributes, brand area, brand signals).
Chapter 4 is devoted to brand equity measurement. It aims to present a bundle of most
recognizable methods and techniques and is divided into two parts. The first presents
marketing tools used for measuring separate brand equity elements (brand image, brand
loyalty, brand strength) and gives examples of self-made measurements based on Spearman’s
correlation ranking and Thurstone scaling. It is accomplished by more complex techniques
checking all dimensions of brand equity models in the same time (Brand Assets Valuator,
Brand Dynamics, Brand Balance Sheet, Brand Builder). The second presents the financial
side of brand equity – brand valuation and shows three group of techniques used for
calculating the monetary value of the brand – market methods, cash flow techniques and cost
techniques.
Chapter 5 presents the results of the empirical part of the dissertation. The main goal
of the research is to check the level of development of Polish companies in the field of brand
equity management. The project utilized CATI (computer assisted telephone interviewing)
technique and was based on a 500 sample (quote according to number of employees and
sector of operation) / quasi-random sampling). The questionnaire contains 15 questions with
one checking (one non-existing technique of complex brand equity measurement) and one
filtrating among them. The list was compiled from internet resources and enriched by
additional information like turnover, capital, office space capacity, type of organization, IT
infrastructure type to have potential for checking correlation between those dimensions and
substantive questions. The respondents were recruited from senior marketing or sales staff –
Marketing Director, Sales and Marketing Director or Senior Brand Managers. The main
research topics include: determinants of brand equity, the correlation between brand equity
and brand strength, the perception of the quality, consistency and transparency of brand
strategy in Polish companies, relations between functional departments in the company and
brand equity building process, knowledge and utilization of brand equity measurement and
brand valuation tools, as well as usage of advance brand management tool, such as Brand
Contact Map and the quality of internal communication of brand strategy. The main findings
showed relative advancement in brand management both in organizational both market areas
of branding. These processes are perceived as important for sustaining the competitiveness of
the company and thus well managed to get synergy from branding and other company
activities.
On the other side, Polish company suffer a lack of cheap tools and services supporting
brand management from third party vendors like advertising agencies and market research
companies. Organizations, even relatively strong brand owner rely on well known reseach
products like FGIs, in-depth interviews and usage and attitudes databases like “Link”.
The outcomes shows that Polish companies have utilized other than brands tools to
build and sustain market position. Branding is perceive it as a crucial competitive strategy of
the future.