Brand is
probably one of the key success matrices for any business, it’s also one of the
most loosely used term in business landscape, with different people narrating a
different meaning @ different situation… 🤯🤣. What we
must remember---
Brand is always a perception for the consumer but a well-defined concept for the marketer
Have you
seen a lion… Goat… Snake… peacock… Fish… Spider… Dinosaur 😁 it
doesn’t matter whether you have seen them or not...? What it matters is you can
tell about them to almost perfection without even interacting with them…And the
description won’t vary between you, me, him, she, everybody or anybody in the
world… That’s a Brand... Animals are the biggest brands
since time immortal and they will continue to be so forever
Animals are the biggest brands on earth
This
article therefore covers the basics of brand management… to be more specific,
it covers the starting point of brand management. Mind it, I have kept two very
closely related terms - Brand Management & Product Management separate. Hence
the article doesn’t get into detailing of the Product management. For the same
read first100 days of Product Marketing Management
Although the basics of brand manager is same
across all business formats like B2C, B2B, B2B2C,C2C, and distribution based
business, both offline & online sales channel, but the importance of
various sub parameters of basics changes as per the format. This articles
explores the basics—for format wise & sales channel wise ( offline &
online) discussions, kindly refer to other articles of my blog
(www.ayan-biswas.com)
The article
talks about brand management in general & doesn’t get into details of Tradebrand and consumer brand or the relative importance of both
What is
Brand Management??...Well if one starts studying ….it will take may be few
years to read everything… 😳. &…by that time few new ones will
crop up…😂, let’s keep it simple...& easy to understand...
You as a
company make pen…so does my company….now think about a 3rd
person…how he tells somebody else about our pens…he has to earmark the pens
made by your company & mine in some different ways…else he won’t be able to
say about our pens…as both of us makes pens…that earmarking…which may be your/my name….address….color...logo etc...is brand
What is Brand?
So, a brand can be a name, color, logo etc which makes people understand which company has made the product…
How does it
help ??...it helps the buyer/government/any stakeholder to identify the
company which has made the product....
Since as a
part of Indian government regulation, you need to have @least a name for your
business, it means all we see around is a brand...😨 ….
yes…. they are…. 👍….@least theoretically…. all are
brands. Names are used by companies @ generally 2 ways….
Corporate v/s product brand
Types of Brand
1st company name…which is called a Corporate Brand…2nd product name… (products which we buy & use) …. it’s called Product Brand
Which means
when the company deals directly with the stakeholder (for eg. Customers), Corporate
brand finds more use…. For eg. L&T as a company (corporate brand) taking up
a turnkey infra project for govt. of India (customer)
When the
product from the company deals directly with the stakeholder (for eg. customer),
Product brand finds more use. For eg. Maggie (product brand) which we buy.
Hence,
generally, if it’s B2B business, corporate brand will be more discussed
(siemens, Accenture etc.) whereas if its consumer business, product brand will
be more in focus (Lux, pepsodent etc.). There are some exceptions to this, for
eg. In BFSI sector, real state etc. in the retail product division also,
consumer like you and me generally refer to corporate brand instead of product
brand. For eg. When we as a consumer buy an insurance, we don’t remember the
product name but remember the insurance company name or when we buy a house, we
tend to remember the builder’s name which a corporate brand is.😉😃
Having said that, both Corporate & Product Brand finds use in all business, but the contribution varies as per the business type😃
A good/well-known brand (for good reasons…haha) finds usefulness not only in the marketing
& sales side by attracting more loyal consumer base but also across all
other dimension in which the business functions like…
You get good vendors if you’re a
known brand
You attract better employees if you
are known brand
It’s easier to deal with government
authorities & other legislative bodies if your brand is known.
You are far more accepted in your
industry forums, industry bodies etc.
For any major legislative decision
changes in the industry, you may be consulted
There can
be a separate discussion on each of the above tangent but as of now, we are
going to restrict our discussion to general brand management corresponding to
marketing.
So, what is
brand management all about…. well...its managing the brand...i.e. the name/logo/color …any form by which consumers
can identify the brand…may be a sound…remember...olla la la ulae oo ulla la la
ae oo..yes…that’s kingfisher…it can also be a pneumonic…like fidodiddo…all
those name, logo color, sound etc etc of the brand is called Brand Element or
Elements of the Brand.
What is
meant by managing those elements…? let’s try to write down some of the points
of managing the brand
Ensure consumers know about the
brand—if they don’t know, how will they search/ask for your brand and
correspondingly the product, then they won’t buy it
Ensure whenever consumers see the
brand, they recognize the brand--- if they don’t, again they will not buy
The consumers maintain such a
supreme opinion about the brand, that anything your brand does, which may/mayn’t be related to business, they think the brand does a good job--apart from
your current products ( say pens) any other business that you may bring get in the
future ( say pencils), the consumers will feel it will be superior offer.
Whenever consumers see any brand
element, they think about the brand
Consumers never feel you charge more
than what you offer, but always feel they gain more compared to what they pay
to buy your brand
Brand Awareness
Consumers know about the brand, in technical terms, it is known as “Brand Awareness”
Brand Awareness
It means,
the consumers know there is a brand named say Maruti, Lux, SBI, Amazon etc...
Why is this important…because in maximum of the cases…consumers like us…you
& me…tend to buy (spent our money) on known brands…why??...because unknown
brands we are not so sure whether it will serve the purpose of buying that
product.For ex: One would always tend
to but a cricket bat of SS instead of a cricket bat from Ayan & Co ( no…I
am not into cricket bat production/marketing…it’s just for an example..wink
wink), because one is not sure how much time will the bat of Ayan & Co
last, whether the strokes will be good enuf…etc etc…
So, Brand Awareness is important…but…wait a second…is that enuf??...
Think about
any industry…u would be aware about a lot of brands in that industry….but you
don’t buy them all…!!...say in cars we know Maruti, Honda, Tata, Mahindra, Skoda
…the list is large….but we don’t buy all…which means…brand awareness is a necessary condition but not the sufficient
condition for a consumer to buy your brand…but the REVERSE is generally
true….if the consumer is not aware about your brand…he/she will most probably
never buy the brand…
Is that
all??.... almost…except one point…. has it happened with you before??...I have
heard this brand name/seen this logo…but can’t recollect what is it…!!
Brand Logo
Many times we confuse brand awareness with “Brand NAME/LOGO awareness” …
Brand name-logo-awareness
This means
I know the name/logo of the brand but don’t know what is the category/product/service the brand is into…then the purpose is again defeated …as when you as a
buyer plan to buy the product/service in the same category where the brand
exists…u won’t consider the brand @all…because u don’t know that the brand
operates in the same space where you are planning your purchase….so Brand NAME/LOGO
awareness is not complete brand awareness…one
needs to know the Brand Name or logo or color etc. along with the category in
which the brand operates….this is more true…as there are millions of brands
in this world…and no human being knows all of them..!!...
Brand Recall
Consumers see the brand, they recognize the Brand, In technical terms, its known as “Brand Recall”
Brand Recall
It means
whenever the consumers come across any brand element (logo, name, color etc etc), they are able to quickly relate it to
the brand in mind. Now think about a situation, a consumer is aware about a
brand but @ the time of purchase he can’t relate the brand elements with the
brand…ohhhhh…. then he/she is again not going to buy the brand…
Let’s spend
some more time on Brand Recall…. think about a practical day-to-day life…you
and your friend go a witness a movie on a Sunday, after a few days when you are
discussing general topics with a group of friends the following things can
happen:
When you all discuss movie as a
topic, you start talking about the movie you witnessed with your friend--- This
is Top of the Mind Recall (TOM). When the discussion started on movies,
you just spoke about that particular movie all by yourself i.e. you recalled
the movie as if it was there @ the top of your mind.
When you all discuss movie as a
topic, one of the members of the group ask what you did last Sunday… you said
you went to witness a movie & started talking about it—This is called Unaided
Recall. You didn’t talk about the movie all by yourself like in previous
case, but you started talking about it when your friend prompted, but after
being prompted, you didn’t take any help from anybody, but talked about the
movie by yourself.
When you all discuss movie as a topic,
one of the members started talking about the movie you witnessed last Sunday.
He talked about few points of the movie may be like the actors, few memorable
scenes from it, then suddenly it stuck you that you have also witnessed the movie—This
is called Aided Recall. Here, you were helped (aided) by one of your friends,
then you remembered the movie.I hope you understand there is no point in
discussing the situation where u don’t recall the movie @all, I mean forgot
about it completely….
It’s obvious that brands want to be in the TOM,
if not there then Unaided Recall & if nothing then @lest Aided Recall…
Brand Image
The consumers think your brand is superior, it’s technically called “Brand Image”
Brand Image
This is consumers perception about the brand.
Think about your first love…how everything he/she did was right, how you
always felt good about him/her…!! That’s a positive impression which shows you
had a positive image about the other person…or how one generally tries to
maintain positive image in front of teachers/bosses etc…a positive brand image
is always a blessing for the brand….in good & more importantly in bad
times….few popular food & beverages brands went through turbulent times in
terms of complains about their products having harmful particles for human
health, one of the big factors that pulled them out of the crisis was the
positive brand image among its millions of consumers.
It’s important to note that many times a
non-user of the brand also has opinion about the brand …for ex…very few buy
Mercedes, but generally everybody has a positive image about the brand,
similarly…not all Chinese products have poor quality…but the general image of
Chinese brands in not so positive …
Brand Identity
Whenever consumers see any brand element, they think about the brand, technically it’s called “Brand Identity”
Brand Identity
This is an
identification for the brand. The brand tries to create unique brand elements (name/logo/color/sound/mnemonic
etc) so that there is a distinct identity in the minds of the consumers
whenever they see the brand. The R within a circle/TM … that you see in lot of
brand names, means the brand name is Registered/Trade Mark applied, which are
efforts to protect the brand identity, because Registered/Trade Market name can’t
be used in the same way by any other brand…
Apart from
those detailed above there are 3 more terms one needs to be aware of:
Brand Positioning
This tells that value the brand offers to its customers…
Brand Positioning
There may
be many car manufacturers selling car…but one of them may offer/claim to offer better
Mileage… so Mileage is the positioning...
It’s very
clear all brands don’t have a unique positioning…although all of them try to
have a unique positioning….
Brands
generally write the positioning statement along with the brand name but whether
the brands have been able to correctly position themselves in consumer mind,
depends on whether the consumers think like that about the brand…
For ex: I
always wanted my friends to think that when I play cricket…I am the best
batsman…so I should open….actually….I rarely opened….which shows my friends
didn’t have the same opinion about my batting…so I couldn’t position myself
correctly…although I always tried to say it whenever I got the opportunity… now
the question is….why my friends felt like that…must be because my batting
didn’t give them that confidence ( may be because of my scores, the way I
batted etc etc), similarly consumers , in their mind, form opinions of the
brand performance ( benefits , drawbacks of the brands etc), which is the
actual positioning…although the brands may try to say a different thing in the
positioning statement….needless to say…brands would like the consumers to feel
the same as per the positioning of the brand.
Brand Association
Brand Association
Your brand
operates in a particular business (say engine oil i.e. lubricant business) and
has some attributes that it has to offer to its vehicle owners ( its customers)
which is reflected in the positioning of the brand. Now those attributes can be
tangible or intangible. For ex , you say your lubricants offers power to the
vehicle…..so POWER…is the intangible attribute. So any other business/brand/activity which depicts power, which is not direct part of your business, you
can tag on to your brand…..for example ……a wrestling competition is a depiction
of power……so you sponsor a wrestling competition…..& try to tell the
consumers that your brand is also powerful as the wrestlers..!!...this is an
example of brand association. It is partnering brands/business/activities
which resonates the same attributes of your brand within the same target
audience
Why you need to do it….primarily to increase your reach ( as you will
also communicate with the audience of the brand you associate
with)….secondly…..associations help to talk about your brand in a subtle way..!!....Many
times companies look only @ the similarity in Target group & try brand
association as tool…it can be devastating. For ex: Your lubricant brand has a
target audience between (25-40) years of age…. the same TG is also for a condom
brand…..now think if both associate …..😱😲😝…hence a holistic approach is required to identify the right brand
association.
Other proprietary brand assets:This primarily refers to things like
trademarks, patents, channel relationship etc, which acts as defense against
your competition getting into your customers.
All the
brand elements mentioned above is consumer perception about the brand…. which
means it varies from consumer to consumer for the same brand…. when you put all
those together & try to say it one word….
Brand Equity
Term which puts together all the consumer perceptions…it called Brand Equity
Brand Equity
There are
different tools & formulas available to measure the brand equity…. which
means the same brand can have different values of brand equity when measured
across different tools/formulas…. 😳😲…...hence brand
equity is generally considered in relative terms than absolute terms. Having
said that…. generally, a big brand will still have high brand equity measured
across different tools. The basic purpose is to know whether the brand equity
is low, medium or high…. instead of figuring out what’s the exact value of the
brand equity….so all tools/formulas generally serve the purpose. 👍
Brand Value
When one sales/buys a brand…. then the financial value of the brand is considered….as finally its monies right😃. This financial value is known as Brand Value
Brand Value
Measurement of Brand
I always
used to ask this question during my college days, ok…now that I have understood
those terms ….how do I use them….😲….where do I use
them,…😧….as I don’t come across a direct visible use
of it….!! Majority of those terms are measurable (in numbers) …. yes, u
heard it right…. measurable in terms of numbers…. & acts as an input for a
decision/action. Hence, brand management is, in most cases, a measurable
concept for the marketer & not “perception based” which many do believe…!! 😊. Maximum of those elements are measured by market research, which
throws the required numbers.
“Brand
Health” also sometimes known as “Brand tracks”/“Purchase Funnel”, “Ad Tracks”
are measurement matrix generally used in industries to measure the different
components of the brands which we discussed. Given the boom of digital, the
matrix has evolved over a period.P&G & later Google added further changes to this model. Furthermore, the matrix does change little based on industry types, but broadly the parameters remain the same
Brand Purchase Funnel
Those
are the stages a consumer goes through during the purchase process which is
measured by the brand elements. To give an example, you may be a mobile handset
manufacturer, where the research data shows something like this:
Awareness-
75% ---- (75% of your target audience is aware about your brand)
Consideration-
32%-- 32% of that (75%-consumers who are aware) may consider your brand while
making a purchase
Purchase-
11%-- 11% of the (32%-consumers who consider) purchases your product
MOUB-
4%-- 4% of the (11% of consumers who purchase your brand) consumers MOST OFTEN
buys your brand
Advocacy/Delight- 1% of the (4% of the MOUB consumers) talks positive about your brand/delighted))
“Measurement
of Brand” as a topic needs more elaborate discussion, hence I shall cover it in
separate article. Meanwhile, if you have any questions regarding the points
discussed & “measurement of Brand”, don’t hesitate to write to me. 👍
There are a
lot of other terminology in brands…. but those discussed here are good enuf to start
understanding, communicating and working in brand management….!!..😉😝
Ever since evolution few defining characters of Humans…
They areAnimalswho are genetically a self-Trainer and Ideator…hence they continue to be @ the top of food chain…
The urge to explore made themRoad Tripper by nature….
The genesis for continuation of any form of life…knowledge sharing with next generation…humans formalized and Standardized…its now called Education…
I also have all those in me like all other humans…only submission…I loved those & they are my passion…
About my Blog
My blog intends to bridge the gap between the sales & marketing theories taught in MBA schools and the requirements of Indian corporates.
I have leveraged my multi-industry expertise and teaching experience across various MBA schools in integrating academics to practical aspects followed in Indian market. At the same time, I have tied to keep the content simple to understand, easy to implement and more relevant with respect to the corporate sector in India
It shall be helpful for all those marketing & sales guys who...
Have just completed MBA or going to complete it…
Young executives in sales & marketing without a formal education in management…
Young-mid level managers looking for a role change
4 Comments
This is a great start point... Please keep sharing such articles
ReplyDeleteI am sure you will come up with some more information on the same topic very soon. Shall eagerly wait for it
ReplyDeleteSure and shall keep you posted on the same
DeleteShall soon come up with some more interesting topics like STP
DeleteWould love to hear from you, know your thoughts on this write up
Emoji