Starting Point of Brand Management

BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
Start Point of Brand Management




    Start Point of Brand Management

    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
    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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….
    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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…

    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”

    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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” …

    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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”


    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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”

    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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”


    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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…


    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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



    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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



    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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

    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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


    BrandManagement, Brand, ProductBrand, CorporateBrand, BrandAwareness, BrandIdentity, BrandRecall, BrandImage, BrandMeasurement, BrandAssociation, BrandPurchaseFunnel, BrandEquity, BrandPositioning, BrandMarketing, Marketing, AyanBiswas, Ayan-Biswas.com, Ayan
    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….!!..😉😝



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    4 Comments

    1. This is a great start point... Please keep sharing such articles

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    2. I am sure you will come up with some more information on the same topic very soon. Shall eagerly wait for it

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      1. Sure and shall keep you posted on the same

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      2. Shall soon come up with some more interesting topics like STP

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