Introduction

What is branding?
Branding is the most important aspect of business strategy. A
brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a
combination of these, that identifies the maker or seller of a
product or service. Consumers view a brand as an important
part of a product, and branding can add value to a product.
Customers attach meanings to brands and develop brand
relationships.

For an organization, a brand has the following functions:

1. Ensures loyalty and orientation from customers.

2. Reduces dependency on short term promotional activities.

3. Enables to face the competition.

4. Safeguards from new entrants and potential threats.

5. Gives consumers a sense of exclusivity

Elements of
Branding

a) Brand Name
It must be simple and easy to pronounce. A
brand name should be familiar to
organizations and must be meaningful. It
should be unique and distinct from other
brand names.

Examples: Coca Cola, Microsoft, Nestle, Ford,

McDonalds etc.

b) Logo or Watermark
A well-crafted word mark or a logo can convey
a sense of professionalism. These can either be
corporate names or trademarks designed to
attract potential customers.

Examples of brands with strong word

marks/logo: Coca Cola, CNN, FedEx etc.

c) Characters
Characters are special types of brand symbols.
They can take the form of human or real-life
characters or they can also be animation. They
try to create a sense of difference from other
rival brands by giving their customers
something memorable or relatable.

Examples: Amul Butter’s polka dot girl,

Vodafone’s Zoozoos etc.
Elements of
Branding

d) Slogans or Jingles
Perhaps one of the most common advertising
techniques would be the creation of slogans or
jingles that express the brand in a different yet
catchy way. While slogans are phrases or
shorthand, which is used to build brand
equity, jingles are musical messages written
around a brand.

Examples of slogans: KitKat’s “Have a break,

Have a KitKat”, L’Oreal Paris’s “Because we’re
worth it”, KFC’s “Finger Lickin’ Good” etc.

Examples of jingles: Nirma’s “Sabki pasand

Nirma…”, Amul’s “Amul, the taste of India…”,
Hero MotoCorp’s “Hum mein hai hero…” etc.

e) Packaging
From the perspective of the organization and
the consumer, packaging aims to identify the
brand, convey descriptive information, and
facilitate product transformation and
protection.

Example: Cadbury’s purple chocolate pack,

Pepsi’s iconic red-blue-white combination.
Nestle Maggi Noodles’ yellow packaging etc.
 Branding
Decision

The Four Decisions of Branding

While developing a branding strategy, an organization first needs
to decide what kind of product needs to be developed as a band.
All the subsequent decisions depend on the type of product that
needs to be promoted. Branding poses challenging decisions to the
marketer. The major brand strategy decisions involve brand
positioning, brand name selection, brand sponsorship, and brand
development.

1. Brand Positioning
Marketers need to position their brands clearly in target
customers’ minds using attributes. However, a brand can be better
positioned by associating its name with a desirable benefit. Some
successful brands positioned on benefits are FedEx (guaranteed
on-time delivery), Nike (performance) and Walmart (low prices).
Some of the strongest brands are positioned on strong beliefs and
values.
 Branding
Decision

Thus, a brand is the company’s promise to deliver a specific set of

features, benefits, services, and experiences consistently to buyers.

2. Brand Name Selection

A good name can add greatly to a product’s success. However,
finding the best brand name is a difficult task. It begins with a
careful review of the product and its benefits, the target market,
and proposed marketing strategies. After that, naming a brand
becomes part science, part art, and a measure of instinct.
0
Branding
Decision

A good name should suggest something about the product’s

benefits and qualities should be distinctive, easy to pronounce,
recognize, and remember and should not infringe the copyrights of
existing brand names. Once chosen, the brand name must be
protected. Many firms try to build a brand name that will
eventually become identified with the product category. Brand
names such as Kleenex, Levis, Scotch Tape, and Ziploc have
succeeded in this way.

3. Brand Sponsorship
A manufacturer has several options with respect to brand
sponsorship. The product may be launched as a manufacturer
brand (or a national brand), a distributor brand (or a reseller,
store, house, or private brand), a licensed brand name, or produce
output under its own name and some under reseller labels.
 Branding
Decision

 A product may be launched as a manufacturer’s brand. This is

also called national brand. Examples include Kellogg selling its
output under the own brand name (Kellog’s Frosties, for
instance) or Sony (Sony Bravia HDTV).

 The manufacturer could also sell to resellers who give the

product a private brand. As consumers become more price-
conscious, they also become less brand-conscious, and are
willing to choose private brands instead of established and
often more expensive manufacturer’s brands.

 Also, manufacturers can choose licensed brands. This can also

involve names of well-known celebrities or characters from
popular movies and books. For a fee, they can provide an
instant and proven brand name.

 Finally, two companies can join forces and co-brand a

product. Co-branding is the practice of using the established
brand names of two different companies on the same product.
This can offer many advantages, such as the fact that the
combined brands create broader consumer appeal and larger
brand equity. For instance, Nestlé uses co-branding for its
Nespresso coffee machines.
 Branding
Decision

4. Brand Development/Brand Strategy

A company has four choices when it comes to developing brands. It
can introduce line extensions, brand extensions, multibrands, or
new brands.
 Branding
Decision

Line extensions occur when a company extends existing brand

names to new forms, colors, sizes, ingredients, or flavors of an
existing product category.
Brand Extensions extends a current brand name to new or
modified products in a new category.
Under Multibrands, Companies often market many different
brands in a given product category.
 Branding
Decision

A company might believe that the power of its existing brand name
is waning, so a New Brand name is needed. Or it may create a new
brand name when it enters a new product category for which none
of its current brand names are appropriate.

Branding Decisions at a glance…

 Building
Brand Identity

A product identity, or brand image are typically the attributes one

associates with a brand, how the brand owner wants the consumer
to perceive the brand - and by extension the branded company,
organization, product or service. The brand owner will seek to
bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity.
Brand identity is what the owner wants to communicate to its
potential consumers. However, over time, a products brand
identity may acquire (evolve), gaining new attributes from
consumer perspective but not necessarily from the marketing
communications an owner percolates to targeted consumers.

Therefore, brand associations become handy to check the

consumer's perception of the brand. Brand identity needs to focus
on authentic qualities - real characteristics of the value and brand
promise being provided and sustained by organizational and/or
production characteristics.
 Brand Equity

Brand equity is the differential effect that knowing the brand name
has on customer response to the product and its marketing. It’s a
measure of the brand’s ability to capture consumer preference and
loyalty. A brand has positive brand equity when consumers react
more favorably to it than to a generic or unbranded version of the
same product. It has negative brand equity if consumers react less
favorably than to an unbranded version.
 Brand Equity

Aaker distinguished five levels of customer attitude toward a

brand:
1. Customer will change brands, especially for price reasons. No
brand loyalty.
2. Customer is satisfied. No reason to change the brand.
3. Customer is satisfied and would incur costs by changing brand.
4. Customer values the brand and sees it as a friend.
5. Customer is devoted to the brand.
 Brand Equity

High brand equity allows a company to enjoy reduced marketing

costs because of high brand awareness and loyalty, gives a
company more leverage in bargaining with distributors and
retailers, permits the firm to charge more because the brand has
higher perceived quality, allows the firm to more easily launch
extensions because the brand has high credibility, and offers some
defense against price competition
Brand Building
Tools
Brand Building
Tools
 Branding
Strategy

Marketers need to position their brands clearly in target

customers’ minds using attributes. However, a brand can be better
positioned by associating its name with a desirable benefit. Some
successful brands positioned on benefits are FedEx (guaranteed
on-time delivery), Nike (performance) and Walmart (low prices).
Some of the strongest brands are positioned on strong beliefs and
values.
 Branding
Strategy

Marketers need to position their brands clearly in target

customers’ minds using attributes. However, a brand can be better
positioned by associating its name with a desirable benefit. Some
successful brands positioned on benefits are FedEx (guaranteed
on-time delivery), Nike (performance) and Walmart (low prices).
Some of the strongest brands are positioned on strong beliefs and
values.
 Branding
Repositioning

However well a brand is currently positioned, the company may

have to reposition it later when facing new competitors or
changing customer preferences.
For example, 7-Up was one of several soft drinks bought primarily
by older people who wanted a bland, lemon-flavored drink.
Research indicated that although a majority of soft-drink
consumers preferred a cola, they did not prefer it all of the time,
and many other consumers were Non-Cola drinkers. 7-Up sought
leadership in the Non-Cola market by calling itself the ‘Uncola’ and
positioning itself as a youthful and refreshing drink, the one to
reach for instead of a cola. Thus, 7-Up successfully established
itself as the alternative to colas, not just another soft drink.
 Branding
Repositioning

Some reasons behind brand repositioning are:

 Declining Sales
 Target audience is no longer the best target.
 Products and services have evolved significantly.
 New competitors have a better value proposition.
 Customers think that the brand is outdated instead of established.

Microsoft have achieved in repositioning their brand by giving the

brand a new look. The new designs for its logo, products, services,
and websites adopted principles and concepts of the Metro Design
Language. The flat design and simplicity brings out a sense of
modernity and high-tech.