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Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand. It seeks to increase the product's perceived value to the customer and thereby increase brand franchise and brand equity. Marketers see a brand as an implied promise that the level of quality people have come to expect from a brand will continue with present and future purchases of the same product. This may increase sales by making a comparison with competing products more favorable. It may also enable the manufacturer to charge more for the product. The value of the brand is determined by the amount of profit it generates for the manufacturer. This results from a combination of increased sales and increased price. A good brand name should:
- be legally protectable
- be easy to pronounce
- be easy to remember
- be easy to recognize
- attract attention
- suggest product benefits (eg.:Easy off) or suggest usage
- suggest the company or product image
- distinguish the product's positioning relative to the competition
A premium brand typically costs more than other products. An economy brand is a brand targeted to a high price elasticity market segment. A fighting brand is a brand created specificlly to counter a competitive threat. When a company's name is used as a product brand name, this is referred to as corporate branding. When one brand name is used for several related products, this is referred to as family branding. When all a company's products are given different brand names, this is referred to as individual branding. When a company uses the brand equity associated with an existing brand name to introduce a new product or product line, this is referred to as Brand Leveraging. When large retailers buy products in bulk from manufacturers and put their own brand name on them, this is called private branding. Private brands can be differentiated from manufacturers' brands (also referred to as National Brands). When two or more brands work together to market their products, this is referred to as Co-Branding. When a company sells the rights to use a brand name to another company for use on a non-competing product or in another geographical area, this is referred to as brand licensing.
Brand rationalization refers to reducing the number of brands marketed by a company. Companies tend to create more brands and product variations within a brand than economies of scale suggest they should. Frequently they will create a specific product or brand for each market that they target. They also do this to gain precious retail shelf space ( and also reduce the amount of shelf space allocated to competing brands). But this can be a very inefficient strategy so a company may decide to rationalize their portfolio of brands from time to time. They may also decide to rationalize their brand portfolio as part of an overall corporate downsizing.
There are several problems associated with setting objectives for a brand or product category.
- Many brand managers limit themself to setting financial objectives. They ignore strategic objectives because they feel this is the responsibility of senior management.
- Most product level or brand managers limit themselves to setting short term objectives because their compensation packages are designed to reward short term behaviour. Short term objectives should been seen as milestones towards long term objectives.
- Often product level managers are not given enough information to construct strategic objectives.
- It is sometimes difficult to translate corporate level objectives into brand or product level objectives. Changes in shareholders equity is easy for a company to calculate : It is not so easy to calculate the change in shareholders equity that can be attributed to a product or category. More complex metrics like changes in the net present value of shareholders equity are even more difficult for the product manager to assess.
- In a diversified company, the objectives of some brands may conflict with those of other brands. Or worse, corporate objectives may conflict with the specific needs of your brand. This is particularly true in regards to the trade-off between stability and riskiness. Corporate objectives must be broad enough that brands with high risk products are not constrained by objectives set with cash cow's in mind (see B.C.G. Analysis). The brand manager also needs to know senior managements harvesting strategy. If corporate management intends to invest in brand equity and take a long term position in the market (ie. penetrationPenetration pricing is the pricing technique of setting a relatively low initial entry price, a price that is often lower than the eventual market price. The expectation is that the initial low price will secure market acceptance by breaking down existing and growth stratergy), it would be a mistake for the product manager to use short term cash flow objectives (ie. price skimmingPrice skimming is a pricing strategy in which a marketer sets a relatively high price for a product or service at first, then lowers the price over time. It is a temporal version of price discrimination/yield management. It allows the firm to recover its strategy). Only when these conflicts and tradeoffs are made explicit, is it possible for all levels of objectives to fit together in a coherent and mutually supportive manner.
- Many brand managers set objectives that optimize the performance of their unit rather than optimize overall corporate performance. This is particularly true where compensation is based primarily on unit performance. Managers tend to ignore potential synergies and inter-unit joint processes.
