Brand Management

Brand Management Developing Brand Vision Establishing Brand Position Fulfilling Brand Contract Communicating Brand Position Measuring RoBI

Brand Vision A clear articulation of the strategic, financial, and brand goals that management has created for the brand A first step to strategic screens as to where the brand can and cannot go

Brand Vision Provides a vision that forces management to articulate what they want the brand to "do" for the organization over the next five years, relative to brand value, revenue, and profit contributions

A brand's positioning is the place in consumers' minds that you want your brand to own—the benefit you want them to think of when they think of your brand.

A strong brand position means the brand has a unique, credible, sustainable, and valued place in customers' minds. Good positioning gives you the direction required to focus the organization and focus your strategic efforts.

A good positioning is a single idea to be communicated to your customers. It revolves around a benefit that helps your product or service stand apart from the competition.

Disney Wal – Mart Fedex McDonalds Apple Google Toyota Family Fun Entertainment Low Prices and Good Values Guaranteed Overnight Delivery Food and Fun Innovation Simplicity Reliability

A well-crafted brand positioning has three primary components:

A definition of the target market you wish to pursue

A definition of the business your company is in or the industry or category it competes in

A statement of your point of difference and key benefits

The Five Principles of Effective Positioning Fit : Seek to leverage strengths of existing brand position Value : Focus on the perceived benefits that customers value, as determined by the customer model Uniqueness : Go where the competitors are not.

The Five Principles of Effective Positioning Sustainability : Maximize the length of time this positioning can be owned within the competitive set Credibility : Get a credible fit between who you are and the supplier predicated by the customer model.

A Brand Contract is a list of all promises the brand makes to customers. Such a contract is executed internally, but it is defined and validated externally by the marketplace.

Brand Contracts can and should change over time. New promises can be added, other promises can be updated, and irrelevant promises can be deleted.

A Brand Contract is a critical piece of the brand position because it helps to further define marketplace perceptions and expectations and forces managers to be honest with themselves.

In addition to positive promises to customers, a Brand Contract can contain negative promises or attributes. It is important to build on the strong brand promises and mitigate the negative ones.

Starbucks' Implicit Brand Contract

Provide the highest quality coffee available on the market today

Offer customers a wide variety of coffee options as well as complementary food and beverage items

Have an atmosphere that is warm, friendly, homelike, and appropriate for having a conversation with a good friend or reading a book

Recognize that visiting Starbucks is as much about the experience of drinking coffee as it is about the coffee itself

Successful Brand-Based Communications

Use all communication strategies to help achieve your corporate strategy and brand vision.

Let your brand positioning largely determine the right communications strategy to execute.

Use an integrated marketing communications strategy to get maximum return from all dollar investments.

Some Metrics to Measure Return on Brand Investment:

Brand name knowledge, awareness, recognition, recall : measures strength of the brand as reflected by customer's ability to identify the brand under varying conditions

Contract fulfillment : measures the degree to which your brand is upholding its Brand Contract

Acquired customers : counts customers claiming they have come to your company based on the strength of the brand

Customer loyalty : measures the degree to which customers continue to purchase your brand and how long that loyalty has lasted

Financial value : reports the financial value of your brand in the marketplace

Price premium : finds the percentage of price premium your brand is able to command over private-label brands, as well as key competitor brands

Source of Reference: Scott M. Davis, Brand Asset Management : Driving Profitable Growth Through Your Brands , Jossey Bass. You can obtain this excellent book at this link: http://www.amazon.com/Brand-Asset-Management-Profitable-Jossey-Bass/dp/0787963941/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219801953&sr=1-1