The document discusses the importance of branding and business strategy in the value delivery process, defining branding as the differentiation of products to create consumer preference. It emphasizes that successful brands provide greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, showcasing how brands evolve through various stages to align with consumer expectations and market dynamics. Additionally, it highlights the necessity of integrating brand and business strategies to maintain competitive advantage and deliver superior value.

1. BRANDING &
BUSINESS STRATEGY
IN THE VALUE
DELIVERY PROCESS
By Bolaji Okusaga
Managing Director, The Quadrant Company

2. WHAT IS A BRAND?
 A brand is an identifiable entity that makes
specific promises of value.
 A brand is a mixture of attributes, tangible
and intangible, which creates value and
influence.
 Brands are created for the sole purpose of
redirecting consumer preferences.

3. WHAT IS BRANDING?
 Branding is the differentiation of an entity or
product from other similar entities or products in
the market place using a name, symbol or
colours or a combination of any of them.
 It is a programme designed for the creation of a
positive perception and pungent differentiation
which will induce a preference for the branded
product above that of competition.

4. WHAT DO BRANDS DO?
 Brands produce intangible outputs which impact
the bottom-line. Such outputs include :
1. greater customer satisfaction
2. reduced price sensitivity
3. fewer customer defection
4. a greater share of customer wallet
5. more referrals
6. higher percentage of repeat business.

5. ATTRIBUTES OF A BRAND
 A COMPELLING IDEA: this captures customers
attention and commands loyalty.
 A RESOLUTE CORE PURPOSE: this remains
the platform on which the brand concept is built.
 A CENTRAL ORGANISATIONAL PRINCIPLE:
this helps align the brand strategy with the
corporate / business strategy.

6. WHAT DO BRANDS THRIVE ON?
 Brands thrive on the ability to differentiate.
 Brands, most importantly, thrive on promises
and the ability of customers to verify these
promises.
 Brands communicate their promise to the
market, soliciting customer patronage.
 Everything the customer experience in the
process of evaluation, trial, purchase and
adoption is a verification of the promise.

7. THE PROMISES AND VERIFICATIONS OF A BRAND
Promises Verifications
Media Environ-
ment
Corporate Behaviour
literature
BRAND
Product
Signage
Advertising Service
Client
decision

8. HOW DO BRANDS EVOLVE? (1)
n BRAND AS COMMODITY: this is characterized
by an excess of demand over supply, products make
little effort to differentiate, emphasis is on mass
production, consumer’s perception is utilitarian.
n BRAND AS REFERENCE: here competitive
pressure stimulates a need for differentiation,
differentiation is achieved through changes in products
physical attributes, consumers memory expand
beyond basic product category, product branding
become a heuristic devise for decision making,
consumers still value brands for their utilitarian value.

9. HOW DO BRANDS EVOLVE? (2)
 BRAND AS PERSONALITY: here differentiation
through emphasis on rational / functional attributes
become difficult, brands are given a personality in order
to draw on emotional attributes, the use of brands
therefore become a medium of self expression.
 BRAND AS ICON: here branding becomes a
participative process between producers and
consumers, consumers draw associations from the
brand to boost their self identity, the more the
associations a brand has, the greater its network in the
consumer’s memory.

10. HOW DO BRANDS EVOLVE? (3)
 BRAND AS COMPANY: here brand equals the company and
assumes a complex posture because there are many points of
contact between the consumer and the brand, this is the beginning
of post-modern marketing, here consumers become more active in
the brand creation process, communication of the brands attribute is
no longer unidirectional, rather it flows from producers and
consumers alike, this interaction strengthens the relationship
between the consumer and the producer.
 BRAND AS POLICY: here there is an alignment of the
company’s ethical, social and political stance with the brand
concept, this stage draws heavily on emotion.

11. WHY BRAND?
 In a global economy, with changing
market dynamics and heightened
competition, the role of the brand has
become larger than being just a medium
of recognition
 Brands now serve for business success.
 Company’s must produce healthy brands
to stay competitive.

12. WHAT IS BUSINESS
STRATEGY?
 Business strategy is about giving order and
consistency to complexities.
 It is about plotting and executing sustainable
superior performance over competition.
 It answers the question, “what business should we be
in, based on competence and available resources?”
 Business strategy is about building differentiation
through the vehicle of people, technology and
ambience.
 It is about delivering superior value above
competition and gaining a higher market mileage.

13. ATTRIBUTES THAT MAKE FOR
SUPERIOR VALUE
 Functional Strategy: this focuses on such issue
like functional fits such as manufacturing,
engineering, marketing and finance.
 Institutional Strategy: this looks at the
administrative fits such as organisational
structure, information systems, incentive
systems, strategic planning process, corporate
culture and leadership style.

14. WHY DEPLOY STRATEGY?
 Companies are expending enormous energies to
reproduce the cost and quality advantages
already enjoyed by market leaders.
 Gaining competitive advantage therefore
requires thinking through a complex process.
 The adoption of a process which differentiates
offerings and deliver superior value can only
come through the deployment of strategy.

15. IT’S ALL ABOUT VALUE
DELIVERY
 Business Strategy is all about the delivery
of superior value.
Used Value Strategy
Perceived Used Value Branding

16. WHAT ARE VALUE
DISCIPLINES?
 These are the strategic thrust for the delivery of
value.
 These are:
- Operational Excellence – Dell
- Product Leadership - Nike,
Nokia
- Customer Intimacy -
Starbucks, Body-Shop

17. IT’S ALL ABOUT WINNING
 Companies that rose to global leadership over the years
began with ambitions that were out of proportion to their
resources and capabilities. But they created an
obsession with winning.
 Strategic intent envisions a leadership position and
establishes the criteria for charting the course. Honda
set out to beat Ford, Canon set out to out pace Xerox in
the market, Komatsu set out to encircle Caterpillar,
Coca-cola set out to put Coke within arms reach of every
consumer in the world. All are expressions of a strategic
intent.

18. BUSINESS IS WAR, STRATEGY
IS THE ARSENAL?
 Building a competitive advantage in today's
globalised market is like drawing a battle plan.
- Ever wondered how the Japanese ascended in the
auto-market while the European market leadership of
the auto market waned?
- Ever wondered how India became a force in the
Software market causing American companies to out-
source competence from the Indian market?
- Ever wondered why China has become a major obstacle
to America’s economic dominance of the world?

19. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN
 Companies that fail to innovate soon start to lose
ground to innovators: e.g. IBM loss was Dells
gain, Coca-Cola’s loss in the American market
was Pepsi’s gain. Wal-Mart became a market
leader in the U.S retail market beating
competitors like K-Mart.
 In Business the failure of one is the gain of
another.

20. IF BUSINESS IS WAR AND
STRATEGY IS THE ARSENAL THEN
BRANDING IS THE BULLET
According to Shelly Lazarus , Chairman of
Ogilvy & Mather:
“Once the enterprise understands what the
brand is all about, it gives direction to the whole
enterprise. You know what products you are
supposed to make and not make. You know how
you are supposed to answer your telephone.
You know how you’re going to package things. It
gives a set of principles to an entire enterprise”.

21. BRANDING AND MARKETING:
WHERE DO THEY MEET?
 Brands and branding gives character to marketing.
 Competition dictates a need to create a perception in the
mind of the target that there is no better product in the
market than the one you are offering.
 Today, products are bought and not sold. Brands helps
to pre-sell the product to the target.
 To stay competitive therefore, companies must deliver
superior value by producing winning brands.
 If market leadership is a sign of business success, then
branding is the key to sustainable growth and business
consolidation.

22. WHERE IS THE CONNECTION?
 Building a sustainable advantage in
today’s globalised market, requires the
linking of the brand and business strategy
with the market planning and management
framework of an organisation.

23. HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN?

24. Strategic Marketing Planning & Management Framework
Strategic
Context Environmental Marketing Mix
Market Market
or Situational
Company Analysis
Segmentation Targets
Mission
•Legal Market Market Product Promotion
SWOT •Regulatory Segmentation Targets
•Economic Price Place
•Political Market Market
Company •Social
•Cultural
Segmentation Targets
Strategy
•Trends
Org Structure Conditions &
Triggers for LCM
Capabilities
Marketing Research
Competition Industry Customers
New Product Post Launch Execution
Development Product
Life Cycle Life Cycles
Launch Outcomes
Management
Phase Gate Process
Product Portfolio Mgmt
Product Recycling Strategies

25. FOOD FOR THOUGHT
 Of the twenty world leading brands in the
Business-week brand rating, fifteen are
American. Does this mean that Americans
understand branding better than others?
 Business success is about risk-taking and
innovation that produce the big idea from which
big brands develop. Can a big idea ever
translate to business success without its
adoption of a brand concept?

26. THANK YOU.