EMO 303 Brand Management 2 Credits

Effective from AY: 2023-24

Prerequisites for the A core course in Marketing
course:
Objective: To introduce concepts of brands and to explain the
different strategies used to increase market reach
Content: Branding:
Introduction to Brands and Branding, Rationale for 12 hours
Building Brands, Types of Brands, Creating a Brand
Designing Brand Identity using Kapferer’s Identity
Prism, Customer Brand Building Equity Model, Brand
Mantras, Brand Equity, Measuring Brand Equity.
Brand Positioning:
Brand Positioning, Consumer Behaviour, Crafting Brand
Positioning Strategy, Building Marketing Programmes for 12 hours
Brands, E-Branding and building virtual Brands, Brand
Strategies including Line and Category Extensions,
Umbrella Branding and Managing the Brand Architecture.

Pedagogy: Lectures/ tutorials/laboratory work/ field work/ outreach

activities/ project work/ vocational training/viva/
seminars/ term papers/assignments/ presentations/ self-
study/ Case Studies etc. or a combination of some of
these. Sessions shall be interactive in nature to enable peer
group learning.
References/ 1. Kevin Keller, Vanitha Swaminathan Ambi
Readings Parameswaran; Strategic Brand Management:
Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand;
Pearson; 2020 or Latest Edition.
2. Kirti Dutta; Brand Management, Principles, and
Practices; Oxford University Press; 2022 or Latest
Edition.
3. Tapan Panda; Product and Brand Management;
Oxford University Press; 2016 or Latest Edition.
4. Jean-Noël Kapferer; The New Strategic Brand
Management; Kogan Page; 2012 or Latest Edition.
5. Johny Johansson, Kurt Carlson; Contemporary
Brand Management; SAGE Publications; 2014 or
Latest Edition
Learning Outcomes An ability to use knowledge and tools to manage Brands
Introduction to Brands and Branding

John Stuart, CEO of Quaker Oats from 1922 to 1956, famously said that in the event of the company
splitting up, he would only take the brand and trademarks. He would have a better chance of
succeeding than someone who had all the plant, property, and equipment.

According to the American Marketing Association, a brand is a “name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a
combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to
differentiate them from those of competition.”

Brand Management

Brand Management is the systematic and continuous process of building and sustaining a brand’s long
term competitive advantage. Effective brand management demands constant monitoring and
interpretation of consumer attitudes and behaviour, and of competitive operations. All aspects of brand
activity must be managed to reflect consistent brand positioning, and to secure the brand’s long term
future as well as short-term business results.

Rationale for Building Brands

Consumers Identification of source of product

Assignment of responsibility to product maker
Risk reducer
Search cost reducer
Promise, bond, or pact with maker of product
Symbolic device
Signal of quality
Manufacturers Means of identification to simplify handling or tracing
Means of legally protecting unique features
Signal of quality level to satisfied customers
Means of endowing products with unique associations
Source of competitive advantage
Source of financial returns

Types of Brands

Corporate brands, Product brands

Umbrella brands, mono or single brands
Physical goods brands (consumer brands, business to business brands, commodity brands, tech. brands)
Service brands
People and organisation brands
Place brands

Brand Equity
A term coined to emphasize the commercial value of the awareness and positive perceptions of a brand,
which accumulate in consumers’ mind over time. Using the financial term ‘equity’ stresses the fact that
a brand is one of a company’s principle assets – albeit intangible – and must be managed accordingly.

Brand Equity has been defined in a number of different ways for a number of different purposes. No
common viewpoint has emerged about how to conceptualize and measure brand equity.

Fundamentally, branding is all about endowing products and services with the power of brand equity.

Despite the many different views, most observers agree that brand equity consists of the marketing
effects uniquely attributable to a brand. That is, brand equity explains why different outcomes result
from the marketing of a branded product or service than if it were not branded.

Branding is all about creating differences.

Most marketing observers also agree with the following basic principles of branding and brand equity:

• Differences in outcomes arise from the “added value” endowed to a product as a result of past
marketing activity for the brand.

• This value can be created for a brand in many different ways.

• Brand equity provides a common denominator for interpreting marketing strategies and assessing the
value of a brand.

• There are many different ways in which the value of a brand can be manifested or exploited to benefit
the firm (in terms of greater proceeds or lower costs or both).

Strategic brand management involves the design and implementation of marketing programs and
activities to build, measure, and manage brand equity.

Strategic brand management is a process having four main steps (see Figure 1-12):

1. Identifying and developing brand plans

2. Designing and implementing brand marketing programs

3. Measuring and interpreting brand performance

4. Growing and sustaining brand equity

Identifying and Developing Brand Plans

The strategic brand management process starts with a clear understanding of what the brand is to
represent and how it should be positioned with respect to competitors.

Brand planning uses the following three interlocking models:

• The brand positioning model describes how to guide integrated marketing to maximize competitive
advantages.

• The brand resonance model describes how to create intense, activity-loyalty relationships with
customers.

• The brand value chain is a means to trace the value creation process for brands, to better understand
the financial impact of brand marketing expenditures and investments.

Designing and Implementing Brand Marketing Programs

Building brand equity requires properly positioning the brand in the minds of customers and achieving
as much brand resonance as possible.

In general, this knowledge-building process will depend on three factors:

1. The initial choices of the brand elements making up the brand and how they are mixed and matched;

2. The marketing activities and supporting marketing programs and the way the brand is integrated
into them; and

3. Other associations indirectly transferred to or leveraged by the brand as a result of linking it to some
other entity (such as the company, country of origin, channel of distribution, or another brand).

Measuring and Interpreting Brand Performance

To manage their brands profitably, managers must successfully design and implement a brand equity
measurement system which is a set of research procedures designed to provide timely, accurate, and
actionable information for marketers so that they can make the best possible tactical decisions in the
short run and the best strategic decisions in the long run.

Implementing such a system involves conducting brand audits, designing brand tracking studies, and
establishing a brand equity management system.

A brand audit is a comprehensive examination of a brand to assess its health, uncover its sources of
equity, and suggest ways to improve and leverage that equity. A brand audit requires understanding
sources of brand equity from the perspective of both the firm and the consumer.

Once marketers have determined the brand positioning strategy, they are ready to put into place the
actual marketing program to create, strengthen, or maintain brand associations.

Brand tracking studies collect information from consumers on a routine basis over time, typically
through quantitative measures of brand performance on a number of key dimensions marketers can
identify in the brand audit or other means.

A brand equity management system is a set of organizational processes designed to improve the
understanding and use of the brand equity concept within a firm.
Three major steps help implement a brand equity management system:

Creating brand equity charters,

Assembling brand equity reports, and

Defining brand equity responsibilities.

Brand Charter

The first step in establishing a brand equity management system is to formalize the company view of
brand equity into a document, the brand charter, that provides relevant guidelines to marketing
managers within the company as well as to key marketing partners outside the company such as
marketing research suppliers or ad agency staff.

Brand Equity Report

The second step in establishing a successful brand equity management system is to assemble the results
of the tracking survey and other relevant performance measures for the brand into a brand equity
report to be distributed to management on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually).

Brand Equity Responsibilities

To develop a brand equity management system that will maximize long-term brand equity, managers
must clearly define organizational responsibilities and processes with respect to the brand.

Growing and Sustaining Brand Equity

Brand equity management activities take a broader and more diverse perspective of the brand’s equity
—understanding how branding strategies should reflect corporate concerns and be adjusted, if at all,
over time or over geographical boundaries or multiple market segments.

Defining Brand Architecture

The firm’s brand architecture provides general guidelines about its branding strategy and which brand
elements to apply across all the different products sold by the firm.

Two key concepts in defining brand architecture are brand portfolios and the brand hierarchy.

The brand portfolio is the set of different brands that a particular firm offers for sale to buyers in a
particular category.

The brand hierarchy displays the number and nature of common and distinctive brand components
across the firm’s set of brands.

The concepts of corporate brand, umbrella brand/family brand, parent brand, sub brand, mono brand,
differentiator brand, line extension and category extension as explained.
Managing Brand Architecture

The firm’s brand architecture strategy helps marketers determine which products and services to
introduce, and which brand names, logos, symbols, and so forth to apply to new and existing products.

It defines both the brand’s breadth and its depth. Which different products or services should share the
same brand name? How many variations of that brand name should we employ?

The role of brand architecture is twofold:

• To clarify brand awareness: Improve consumer understanding and communicate similarity and
differences between individual products and services.

• To improve brand image: Maximize transfer of equity between the brand and individual products and
services to improve trial and repeat purchase.

Developing a brand architecture strategy requires three key steps:

(1) Defining the potential of a brand in terms of its “market footprint,”

(2) Identifying the product and service extensions that will allow the brand to achieve that potential, and

(3) Specifying the brand elements and positioning associated with the specific products and services for
the brand.

Brand Portfolio

Firms introduce multiple brands -

● To pursue different price segments, different channels of distribution, different geographic

boundaries,
● To increase shelf presence and retailer dependence in the store,
● To attract consumers seeking variety who may otherwise switch to another brand,
● To increase internal competition within the firm, and
● To yield economies of scale in advertising, sales, merchandising, and physical distribution.

Other roles of brands in the brand portfolio are –

1. To attract a particular market segment not currently being covered by other brands of the firm
2. To protect flagship brands
3. To serve as a cash cow and be milked for profits
4. To serve as a low-end entry-level product to attract new customers to the brand franchise
5. To serve as a high-end prestige product to add prestige and credibility to the entire brand
portfolio
6. To increase shelf presence and retailer dependence in the store
7. To attract consumers seeking variety who may otherwise have switched to another brand
8. To increase internal competition within the firm
9. To yield economies of scale in advertising, sales, merchandising, and physical distribution.
Managing Brand Equity over Time

Effective brand management also requires taking a long-term view of marketing decisions.

A long-term perspective of brand management recognizes that any changes in the supporting marketing
program for a brand may, by changing consumer knowledge, affect the success of future marketing
programs.

A long-term view also produces proactive strategies designed to maintain and enhance customer-based
brand equity over time and reactive strategies to revitalize a brand that encounters some difficulties or
problems.

Managing Brand Equity over Geographic Boundaries, Cultures, and Market Segments

Another important consideration in managing brand equity is recognizing and accounting for different
types of consumers in developing branding and marketing programs. International factors and global
branding strategies are particularly important in these decisions. In expanding a brand overseas,
managers need to build equity by relying on specific knowledge about the experience and behaviors of
those market segments.

Defining Customer-based Brand Equity (CBBE)

The CBBE concept approaches brand equity from the perspective of the consumer—whether the
consumer is an individual or an organization or an existing or prospective customer. Understanding the
needs and wants of consumers and organizations and devising products and programs to satisfy them
are at the heart of successful marketing. In particular, marketers face two fundamentally important
questions:

What do different brands mean to consumers? And,

How does the brand knowledge of consumers affect their response to marketing activity?

The basic premise of the CBBE concept is that the power of a brand lies in what customers have learned,
felt, seen, and heard about the brand as a result of their experiences over time. In other words, the
power of a brand lies in what resides in the minds and hearts of customers.

The challenge for marketers in building a strong brand is ensuring that customers have the right type of
experiences with products and services and their accompanying marketing programs so that the desired
thoughts, feelings, images, beliefs, perceptions, opinions, and experiences become linked to the brand.

Therefore, Customer-based brand equity can be defined as the differential effect that brand
knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand.
A brand has positive customer-based brand equity when consumers react more favorably to a product
and the way it is marketed when the brand is identified.

Thus, customers might be more accepting of a new brand extension for a brand with positive customer
based brand equity, less sensitive to price increases and withdrawal of advertising support, or more
willing to seek the brand in a new distribution channel.

On the other hand, a brand has negative customer-based brand equity if consumers react less favorably
to marketing activity for the brand.

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is the ability of a potential buyer to recognize or recall that a brand is a member of a
certain product category. A link between product class and brand is involved.

A strong brand has high levels of recall and recognition and it ‘top of mind’ or salient, when consumers
think of the product categories in which the brand operates.

Brand awareness involves a continuum ranging from an uncertain feeling that the brand is recognized,
to a belief that it is the only one in the product class.

It involves the following stages:

Unaware Recognition Recall Top of mind Dominant

Value of Brand awareness:

• Familiarity / recognition influencing buying decision

• A platform for building associations and loyalty

Brand Association

A brand association is anything “linked” in memory to a brand.

The association not only exists but also has a level of strength. A link to a brand will be stronger when it
is based on many experiences or exposures to communications, rather than few. It will also be stronger
when a network of other links supports it.

Value of Brand associations:

• Provides assurance
• Influences buying decision
• Differentiates
• Enhances awareness
• Builds loyalty
• Improves perceived quality
Some typical brand associations:

• Celebrity endorsement
• Customer benefit
• Lifestyle
• Relative price
• Country of origin

Brand Image

Brand image is a set of associations, usually organized in some meaningful way. It is the total impression
of a brand in the consumers’ mind, which comprises all its associations, both functional and non-
functional.

Creating brand awareness by increasing the familiarity of the brand through repeated exposure (for
brand recognition) and forging strong associations with the appropriate product category or other
relevant purchase or consumption cues (for brand recall) is an important first step in building brand
equity. Once a sufficient level of brand awareness is created, marketers can put more emphasis on
crafting a brand image.

BRAND POSITIONING AND BRAND STRATEGY

Brand positioning is at the heart of marketing strategy.

It is the “act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in
the target customer’s minds.”

As the name implies, positioning means finding the proper “location” in the minds of a group of
consumers or market segment, so that they think about a product or service in the “right” or desired
way to maximize potential benefit to the firm. Good brand positioning helps guide marketing strategy by
clarifying what a brand is all about, how it is unique and how it is similar to competitive brands, and why
consumers should purchase and use it.

Deciding on a positioning requires determining a frame of reference (by identifying the target market
and the nature of competition) and the optimal points-of-parity and points-of-difference.

In other words, marketers need to know

(1) Who the target consumer is,

(2) Who the main competitors are,

(3) How the brand is similar to these competitors, and

(4) How the brand is different from them.

Developing a Good Positioning

1. A good positioning has a “foot in the present” and a “foot in the future.” It needs to be
somewhat aspirational so that the brand has room to grow and improve. The real trick in
positioning is to strike just the right balance between what the brand is and what it could be.
2. A good positioning is careful to identify all relevant points-of-parity. Too often marketers
overlook or ignore crucial areas where the brand is potentially disadvantaged to concentrate on
areas of strength.

Brand Mantras

To better establish what a brand represents, marketers will often define a brand mantra.

A brand mantra is a short, three- to five-word phrase that captures the irrefutable essence or spirit of
the brand positioning. It’s similar to “brand essence” or “core brand promise,” and its purpose is to
ensure that all employees and external marketing partners understand what the brand most
fundamentally is to represent to consumers so they can adjust their actions accordingly. For example,
McDonald’s brand philosophy of “Food, Folks, and Fun” nicely captures its brand essence and core
brand promise.

The Marketing Advantages of Strong Brands

Greater Loyalty and Less Vulnerability to Competitive Marketing Actions and Crises

Larger Margins

Greater Trade Cooperation and Support

Increased Marketing Communication Effectiveness

Possible Licensing and Brand Extension Opportunities

(A brand extension occurs when a firm uses an established brand name to enter a new market.

A line extension uses a current brand name to enter a new market segment in the existing product class,
say with new varieties, new flavors, or new sizes.)

Other Benefits: Brands with positive customer-based brand equity may provide other advantages to the
firm not directly related to the products themselves, such as helping the firm to attract or motivate
better employees, generate greater interest from investors, and garner more support from
shareholders. Several research studies have shown that brand equity can be directly related to
corporate stock price.
BUILDING A STRONG BRAND: THE FOUR STEPS OF BRAND BUILDING

The brand resonance model looks at building a brand as a sequence of steps, each of which is contingent
on successfully achieving the objectives of the previous one.

The steps are as follows:

1. Ensure identification of the brand with customers and an association of the brand in customers’ minds
with a specific product class, product benefit, or customer need.

2. Firmly establish the totality of brand meaning in the minds of customers by strategically linking a host
of tangible and intangible brand associations.

3. Elicit the proper customer responses to the brand.

4. Convert brand responses to create brand resonance and an intense, active loyalty relationship
between customers and the brand.

That is,

1. Who are you? (Brand identity)

2. What are you? (Brand meaning)

3. What about you? What do I think or feel about you? (Brand responses)

4. What about you and me? What kind of association and how much of a connection would I like to have
with you? (Brand relationships)

Brand Elements or Brand Identities

Brand Elements or Brand Identities are those trademark-able devices that serve to identify and
differentiate the brand.

The main ones are brand names, URLs, logos, symbols, characters, spokespeople, slogans, jingles,
packages, and signage.

Marketers should choose brand elements to enhance brand awareness; facilitate the formation of
strong, favorable, and unique brand associations; or elicit positive brand judgments and feelings.

The test of the brand-building ability of a brand element is what consumers would think or feel about
the product if they knew only that particular brand element and not anything else about the product.

CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING BRAND ELEMENTS

In general, there are six criteria for brand elements:

1. Memorable 2. Meaningful 3. Likable 4. Transferable 5. Adaptable 6. Protectable

Each brand element can play a different role in building brand equity, so marketers “mix and match” to
maximize brand equity.

Designing Marketing Programs to Build Brand Equity

How marketing activities in general—and product, pricing, and distribution strategies in particular—
build brand equity. How can marketers integrate these activities to enhance brand awareness, improve
the brand image, elicit positive brand responses, and increase brand resonance?

Marketing activities and programs are the primary means that firms build brand equity.

Successful brands often create strong, favorable, and unique brand associations to both functional and
symbolic benefits.

Although perceived quality is often at the heart of brand equity, there is a wide range of associations
that consumers may make to the brand.

Marketers are personalizing their consumer interactions through experiential and relationship
marketing.

Experiential marketing promotes a product by not only communicating a product’s features and benefits
but also connecting it with unique and interesting consumer experiences.

Relationship marketing includes marketing activities that deepen and broaden the way consumers think
and act toward the brand.

Mass customization, one-to-one, and permission marketing are all means of getting consumers more
actively engaged with the product or service.

After-marketing and loyalty programs are also ways to help create holistic, personalized buying
experiences.

In terms of pricing strategies, marketers should fully understand consumer perceptions of value.

Increasingly, firms are adopting value-based pricing strategies to set prices and everyday-low-pricing
strategies to guide their discount pricing policy over time.

Value-based pricing strategies attempt to properly balance product design and delivery, product costs,
and product prices.

Every day-low pricing strategies establish a stable set of “everyday” prices and introduce price discounts
very selectively.

In terms of channel strategies, marketers need to appropriately match brand and store images to
maximize the leverage of secondary associations, integrate push strategies and shopper marketing
activities for retailers with pull strategies for consumers, and consider a range of direct and indirect
distribution options.
FOUR MAJOR MARKETING COMMUNICATION OPTIONS

Four vital ingredients to the best brand-building communication programs:

(1) Advertising and promotion,

(2) Interactive marketing,

(3) Events and experiences, and

(4) Mobile marketing.

E-branding/Online branding

Websites, internet advertisements, google and others, affiliate marketing, SEO, paid content, blogs,
Facebook events, Facebook and other alerts and updates/notifications, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp
promotions, emails, sms, paid email services, YouTube channels and YouTube ads, YouTube live events,
internet news and articles on internet media sites, permission marketing, Twitter and all other forms of
social media marketing, Apps, chat-bots, etc.

BRAND AMPLIFIERS

Word-of-mouth and public relations and publicity.

Publicity is non-personal communications such as press releases, media interviews, press conferences,
feature articles, newsletters, photographs, films, and tapes.

Public relations may also include annual reports, fund-raising and membership drives, lobbying, special
event management, etc.

Consumer Behaviour in Brand Building

According to the brand value chain, sources of brand equity arise from the customer mind-set. In
general, measuring sources of brand equity requires that the brand manager fully understand how
customers shop for and use products and services and, most important, what customers know, think,
and feel about and act toward various brands. In particular, measuring sources of customer-based brand
equity requires us to measure various aspects of brand awareness and brand image that can lead to the
differential customer response making up brand equity. Consumers may have a holistic view of brands
that is difficult to divide into component parts. But many times we can isolate perceptions and assess
them in greater detail. A variety of Qualitative and Quantitative research techniques are used to
understand the following:

Who: Who is the consumer? What are the consumer's demographics? Where does he/she stay? Which
socio-economic class does she hail from? Who can influence their purchase behavior?
Why: Why does she/ he buy this product? What are his/her beliefs? What is the attitude towards this
brand / product / competitors? What needs does this brand fulfill?

When: When does the consumer buy this brand? How often is it bought?

Where: Where is the brand bought? Where else can the brand be bought? Where is the brand used?

Some of the research techniques are as follows:

I. Qualitative Research Techniques

Free association
Adjective ratings and checklists
Projective techniques
Photo sorts
Bubble drawings
Story telling
Personification exercises
Role playing
Experiential methods

II. Quantitative Research Techniques

A. Brand Awareness
Direct and indirect measures of brand recognition
Aided and unaided measures of brand recall
B. Brand Image
Open-ended and scale measures of specific brand attributes and benefits
Strength
Favorability
Uniqueness
Overall judgments and feelings
Overall relationship measures
Intensity
Activity