2. 9-2
STRATEGIC BRAND
MANAGEMENT
Challenges in Building
Strong Brands
Strategic Brand Analysis
Brand Identity Strategies
Managing
Products/Brands
Managing the Brand
Portfolio
3. 9-3
STRATEGIC BRAND
MANAGEMENT
Strategic Brand Management: Creating
and Sustaining Brand Equity Long Term
Just like Total Quality Management (TQM)
is an integrative philosophy of management
for continuously improving the quality of
products and processes,
Strategic Brand Management is a long-term
and integrative approach that the company
adopts in creating, developing and managing
its brand.
4. 9-4
A product is anything
that is potentially valued
by a target market for
the benefits or
satisfaction it provides,
including objects,
services, organizations,
places, people, and
ideas
CHALLENGES IN
BUILDING STRONG
BRANDS
5. 9-5
A brand is a name, term, sign,
symbol, or design, or combination
of them, intended to identify the
goods or services of one seller or
group of sellers, and to
differentiate them from those of
competitors.
American Marketing Association
Goods Versus Services
Services are intangible
consumed at the time they are
produced, often linked to the
people who produce the
services.*
* Leonard Berry, “Services are Different,” Business, May-Jun 1980, 24-30.
6. 9-6
Strategic Role of Brands
A strategic brand perspective requires
managers to be clear about what role
brands play for the company in
creating customer value and share-
holder value.
FOR BUYERS, BRANDS CAN:
• reduce customer search costs by
identifying products quickly and
accurately,
• reduce the buyer’s perceived risk by
providing an assurance of quality and
consistency (which may then be
transferred to new products),
• reduce the social and psychological
risks associated with owning and using
the “wrong” product by providing
psychological rewards for purchasing
brands that symbolize status and
prestige.
7. 9-7
FOR SELLERS, BRANDS CAN
FACILITATE:
• repeat purchases that enhance the
company’s financial performance because
the brand enables the customer to identify
and re-identify the product compared to
alternatives,
• the introduction of new products, because
the customer is familiar with the brand
from previous buying experience,
• promotional effectiveness by providing a
point of focus,
• premium pricing by creating a basic level of
differentiation compared to competitors,
• market segmentation by communicating a
consistent message to the target audience,
telling them for whom the brand is intended
and for whom it is not,
• brand loyalty, of particular importance in
product categories where loyal buying is an
important feature of buying behavior.
Source: Marketing Science Institute Report No. 97422, 1997
8. 9-8
Brand Management
Challenges*
Internal and external forces create
hurdles for product brand managers in
their brand building initiatives:
Intense Price and Other
Competitive Pressures
Fragmentation of Markets and
Media
Complex Brand Strategies and
Relationships
Bias Against Innovation
Pressure to Invest Elsewhere
Short-Term Pressures
*David A. Aaker, Building Strong Brands, 1996, 26-35.
9. 9-9
Product/Brand Management
Planning, managing, and
coordinating the strategy for a
specific product or brand
Product Group/Marketing
Management
Product director, group
manager, or marketing manager
Product Portfolio
Management
Chief executive at SBU
Team of top executives
Responsibility for
Managing
Products
10. 9-10
Marketing’s Role in
Product Strategy
1. Market sensing
2. Identifying the
characteristics and
performance features of
products
3. Guiding target market and
program-positioning
strategies
Strategic brand management
decisions are relevant to all
businesses, including
suppliers, producers,
wholesalers, distributors, and
retailers.
14. 9-14
Relevant issues in PLC
analysis include:
Determining the length and
rate of change of the PLC
Identifying the current PLC
stage and selecting the
product strategy that
corresponds to that stage
Anticipating threats and
finding opportunities for
altering and extending the
PLC
Product Life
Cycle Analysis
15. 9-15
Product Grid Analysis
Management’s performance
criteria
Strengths and weaknesses relative
to portfolio
Brand Positioning Analysis
Perceptual maps for brand
comparison
Buyer preferences
Other Product Analysis
Methods
Information Services
Research studies
Financial analysis
16. 9-16
Brand Equity
Effective strategic brand management requires that we
understand brand equity and evaluate its impact when
making brand management decisions:
“Brand equity is a set of brand assets
and liability linked to a brand, its name,
and symbol, that add to or subtract
from the value provided by a product or
service to a firm and/or to that firm’s
customers.*
Measuring Brand Equity. Several measures are
needed to capture all relevant aspects of brand
equity.**
• loyalty (price premium, satisfaction/loyalty),
• perceived quality/leadership measures (perceived
quality, leadership/popularity),
• associations/differentiation (perceived value, brand
personality, organizational associations),
• awareness (brand awareness), and
• market behavior (market share, price and
distribution indices).
These components provide the basis for developing
operational measures of brand equity.
* David A. Aaker, Managing Brand Equity, The Free Press, 1991, 15.
**Ibid, 102-120.
17. 9-17
BRAND IDENTITY
STRATEGIES
Brand identity is a unique set of
brand associations that the
brand strategist aspires to create
or maintain. These associations
represent what the brand stands
for and imply a promise to
customers from the organization
members.*
Four Brand Identity Perspectives
Product
Organization
Person
Symbol
* David A. Aaker, Building Strong Brands, 1996, 68.
20. 9-20
Strategies for
Improving Product
Performance
Product mix strategy
Product line
Strategy
Add
new
product(s)
Cost
reduction
Product
improvement
Alter
marketing
strategy
Eliminate
specific
product(s)
Delete
product
line(s)
Change
product line
priorities
Add new
product
line(s)
21. 9-21
Strategies for
Brand Strength
Brand-Building Strategies
– Developing the brand identification
strategy
– Coordinate identity across the
organization
Brand Revitalization
– Find new uses for mature brands
– Add products related to heritage
Strategic Brand Vulnerabilities
– Brand equity can be negative
– Retailer private brands compete with
manufacturer brands
– Major shifts in consumer tastes
– Competitive actions
– Unexpected events
22. 9-22
Motivation for changing the
product mix:
Increase the growth rate of the
business
Offer a more complete range of
products to wholesalers and
retailers
Gain marketing strength and
economies in distribution,
advertising, and personal
selling
Leverage an existing brand
position
Avoid dependence on one
product line or category
Product Mix
Modifications
26. 9-26
SEVEN DEADLY SINS
OF BRAND
MANAGEMENT*Failure to fully understand the
meaning of the brand.
Failure to live up to the brand
promise.
Failure to adequately support the
brand.
Failure to be patient with the brand.
Failure to adequately control the
brand.
Failure to properly balance
consistency and change with the
brand.
Failure to understand the complexity
of brand equity measurement
and management.
*Kevin Lane Keller, Strategic Brand Management, Prentice Hall, 2003, 736.
27. 9-27
MANAGING THE BRAND
PORTFOLIO
Objectives:
– Leverage commonalities to
generate synergy
– Reduce damage to brand identity
– Obtain clarity of product offering
– Enable change and adaptation
– Guide resource allocations among
brands
Source: Aaker, Building Strong Brands, 1996.
28. 9-28
GLOBAL
BRANDS International markets:
strategic branding
challenges
Global brands supported by
increasingly cosmopolitan
consumers in many
countries
Don’t build global brands but
strive for global brand
leadership
Challenge for MNCs:
managing brand systems
containing global, regional,
and local brands
29. 9-29
Internet Brands
Interactivity enhances brand
relationships and corporate
reputation
Guidelines for a website used to
reinforce an existing brand
Create a positive experience (ease
of use, value, interactive,
personalized, timely)
Reflect and support the brand
Synergy with other communication
programs
Provide home for loyalists
Differentiate with strong sub-
branded content
Source: Aaker and Joachimsthaler, Brand Leadership, 2000, 242.
30. 9-30
HOW MANY
BRANDS?
1. Is it different enough
to merit a new name?
2. Will the brand identity
add value?
3. Are there risks in
using an existing
brand name?
4. Is the new brand a
viable business
venture?
