Brand Management

From Products to Brands

Inside products

Define a brand

Are born as symbols, names and designs, which identify goods or services, anchoring them in
consumers’ minds

 Tell consumers who the product is

 Live in the mind of the consumer

Benefits of strong brands – buyer

Set of meanings that are associated with the brand and that say something about the buyer.

 Reduces the risk

Benefits of strong brands - seller

 Guarantee it will rotate

 Valuable assets
 More return

Branding Challenges

 Savvy Consumers (well informed/perceptive)

 Economic Downturns and Brands Proliferation
 Transformation of media consumption habits
o Digital media usage rose 17.5% in the last 4 years
o TV, Radio and print decreased.

How brands generate value?

The key to branding is that consumers perceive differences among brands in a product
category

 Brands are born and die through their products

o Despite their value, brands are created and destroyed through the products
that they carry.
  Consumers perceive a differential effect on the product

This differential effect

affects consumers’
responses to a brand

Consumer-based brand equity (CBBE)

It is the differential effect that brands imprint in consumers´ responses to a marketing mix.

CBBE - a result from Brand Knowledge

Brand Knowledge (associations with the brand)

 Brand awareness
o Captures the potential availability of a brand in the mind of the consumer.
o Created through repeated and memorable exposure to brand elements
o Contributes to establish brand nodes in consumers´ memory, strengthening
brands´ links with the product category, usage, consumption occasions and
recognisability.
 Brand Image
o Set of associations attached to the brand in the mind of the consumer
o Defined as the set of associations attached to the brand in the mind of the
consumer, reflecting the way that brands are perceived
o These associations are organized in seven levels of meanings:

 Components of Brand Knowledge

o Attributes:
 Delivers characteristics / functions
o Benefits
 Characteristics that solve people’s problems
o Attitudes:
 Evaluative judgement – summarized in the form of attitudes
o Awareness:
 Integrate the consideration set of others in the market
 o Values / Culture;
 Believes / what the brand stands for
 Brand’s culture/history
o Personality
 How the brand behaves
o User
 Typical user – generates empathy

From brand knowledge to purchase

The differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumers justifies that the same
products can be evaluated differently.

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The interactions between Awareness and Image

 Physiology of information storage

o Following a metaphor of a tree, cognitive nodes established in consumers´

memory secure associations (as branches of a tree);
o Each cognitive node is able to retain up to 5 associations, after which a new
node is established.
o At the bottom of the three is the brand name/symbols/designs/associations
with the category and usage(as the stem of a tree)
 Brands are the supporting structures that hold associations

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Strategic Brand Management Process

 Brand Management is a process

Identify and stablish brand positioning and values

Brand Positioning
Positioning consists on designing the offer and image that you intend to convey in consumers´
minds regarding the product.
 Build on a relevant point of difference
 Be expressed through UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION
o Is the unique differentiating customer value that a company offers

Types of Differentiation
 Brand Performance ( performance in benefits that prompt consumption )
o Performance in benefits that prompt consumption
o Brand reliability, durability, serviceability
o Effectiveness, efficiency, empathy
o Style and designs
o Value and Price
 Brand Imaginary
o established by depicting who uses the brand and under what circumstances
 Consumer Insight
o When a brand is capable of showing its consumers that it has insights and
understands them well

Differences worth converting into Unique value propositions

Brand Positioning Statement

 This is how is built

Target
 The one who chooses the brand. (buyer/user)
 Person that the brand is or want to be the first choice
 The chooser needs to be defined in terms of attitudes, behaviors and values as well as
in socio economics.
 Make the target as colorful and vivid as possible (know how they are/what they want)

Competitive Environment (Frame of Reference)

 Describes the choices available to the consumer, with which your brand competes.
(Who loses volume while my brand wins?)
 It is not a description of the product category as defined by ourselves, research
companies or retail customers.
 Clearly state the value segment (economy, mid-tier or premium)

Consumer Insight
 The penetrating understanding of consumers that provides hooks and clues to lead a
company to new brand building opportunities
 Seeing INSIDE the consumer
 Insights function at every level
o Launching a category
o Launching a brand
o Launching a brand extension
o Creating a new campaign
o Create a fresh execution for an existing campaign

The understanding of consumers´ needs

Humanist psychology:

 Every human being needs to achieve its full potential

 For that to be possible, it is important other needs are addressed
in a hierarchical order
 Benefits
 Combine Points-of-Difference and Points-of-Parity
 Points-of-Difference
o Attributes or benefits consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively
evaluate and believe they could not find to the same extent with a competing
brand
o Points where you are claiming superiority or exclusiveness over other products
in the category.
 Points-of-Parity
o Associations that are not necessarily unique to the brand but may be shared
by other brands i.e. where you can at least match the competitors claimed
bets.
o While POPs may usually not be the reason to choose a brand, their absence
can certainly be a reason to drop a brand.
 Perceptual Map
o A marketing tool that enables marketers to plot the position of their offering
against those of the competition concerning consumers´ perceptions.

Reasons to Believe

 These are the proof points that support the POP and POD
 Various forms:
o Functional design: Unique shaving technology: 2x more efficient shaving
o Key Attributes: Unique design: Exclusivity
o Key Ingredients: Contains calcium: Stronger bones
o Key endorsements: Recommended by Heart Health Inst.: Lowers cholesterol

Values and Personality

 You want to relate with the person that you perceive behind the brand, not to its
attributes or portfolio.
 Helps select the most appropriate message and media, or more effective and suitable
sponsorships or partnerships.
 Enables the brand owner to deliver a consistent brand experience that connects with
consumers and leaves a deeper and more sustainable impression.
 When identified and cultivated they can effectively guide the creative tone of
communications.

Unique Value Proposition

 Clear statement that describes the benefit of your offer, how you solve your
customer’s needs and what distinguishes you from the competition.

Mantra

 It captures the essence of a brand.

 It is the short 3-5 words sentence that captures the irrefutable essence or spirit of a
brand positioning.
 It is meant as the bounding element that all employees and external partners may use
to adjust their actions accordingly.
 Drives consistency and allows expanded horizons for creativity.
Choosing Brand Elements

 Called as brand identities –these are trade markable devices that serve to identify and
differentiate the brand.
 The main ones are
o Brand names,
o URLs,
o Logos,
o Symbols,
o Characters,
o Spokespeople,
o Slogans,
o Jingles,
o Product descriptors
o Packages
o Signage.
 The main criteria to select them are:
o Do they add to the brand awareness (recognisability and recall)?
o Do they add to the brand image?
o The torture test: if this was all your consumers would know about the brand –
what would it say about it?

Criteria for choosing brand elements

The process for ´brand naming´

1. Define objectives - In view of the complete marketing program

2. Generate names
3. Screen initial candidates
4. Evaluate
5. Research the final candidates
6. Select final name
 Brand ´product descriptor´

 Legally acceptable
 Relate to the source of volume

Brand ´packaging´

Leveraging secondary brand associations

Secondary Brand Associations

 Brands may borrow meanings from other brands and entities

 To create or reinforce points of parity vs. competitors
 To create or reinforce points of difference vs. competitors

Types of secondary brand association

 Co-Branding (other brands)

 Country of origin
 Producer
 Events
 Spokesperson
 Celebrity endorsement
 Characters (Licensing)
 3rd. party (awards, reviews, entities)

Additional sources of secondary associations

 Channels of Distribution

Requirements for selecting secondary associations

 Awareness and knowledge of the entity

 Meaningfulness of the knowledge of the entity
 Transferability of the knowledge of the entity

Considerations on celebrity endorsement

 They are not EXCLUSIVE and NOT controlled

 They need to have a good fit (transferable) with the brand otherwise consumers get
LOST
 They should not OVERTAKE and distract consumers from the brand
 Need of well discussed contracts
 Other types of secondary associations

 Environmental issues
 Ethical issues
o Fair Trade
 Social causes
o Poverty
o Breast cancer
o Depression
o Obesity
o Child´s labor

From brand messages to the promo mix

Promotion mix

The Promotion Mix is the specific blend of advertising, sales promotion, public relations,
personal selling and direct-marketing tools that the company uses to persuasively
communicate customer value and build customer relationships.

Challenges in communicating

 From encoding to decoding

 From short-term memory to long-term

 Information clutter

Decisions related to promotion

 Identifying the target audience

 Define the communication goal

o What is the main desired audience response to the communication?
o How closer to the purchase stage are they?

Awareness

Knowledge

Liking

Preference

Conviction

Purchase
 o The phases of an effective message
 AIDA model
 A – Attention – does it capture attention? Is it memorable? Is
it enjoyable?
 I – Interest - Will it communicate our core message?
 D – Desire - Is it branded intrinsically at its core?
 A – Action - Does it communicate effectively enough to affect
behavior?
 Design the message
o Content: What to say? Positioning statement (brief)
 A good brief must have a clear purpose, an intention
 Principles of good brief:
 Be CLEAR about what is needed (A ONE page document) -
Provide critical information to complete the task
 Inspired to greatness
 The briefing meeting is as important as the brief itself.
 Part 1: Background
 Background: Usually covers the business and marketing
context and why the task is important
 Marketing or Sales Objectives: This sometimes includes the
business case for the activity
 Brand: Remarkably this is often overlooked. It might include
brand identity/brand capsule/brand vision/brand
architecture/brand status/brand values/brand personality
 Previous Learning: Again a section which is only used
occasionally, but may have wider potential
 Part 2: The brief itself
 Has the power to
o Change
o Reinforce
o Invert/revert
o Create
 Perception – what I see and feel
 Attitude – what I feel and think
 Behavior – what I feel and act

 Communications objectives: Sometimes they might be

expressed as communications imperatives/challenges/barriers
 Target audience: Usually this section asks for more than
simple demographics and specifically prompts for attitudes or
other motivators
 Consumer insights: Sometimes specifically linked to the
objective
 Key message/proposition: Often phrased as the single-minded
proposition/the one thing we want to say
 Consumer takeout: Or consumer take away/what they will
think or do
  Tone of voice: distinct from brand personality
 Part 3: Implementation process
 Timings/key dates: May include project timelines as well as
timing for response
 Budget: May specify if production is included or not
 Evaluation/success criteria: A critical element for most
disciplines
 Mandatories/guidelines: May include what must be included
and executional considerations
 Approvals: Signatures of both those issuing/approving the
brief and the agency
o Advertising idea: Brings the Unique selling proposition to life in an involving
and compelling way (the basis for a campaign)
o The execution
 Format: How to say it symbolically?
 What is the executional idea?
 Structure: How to say it logically?
 Positive vs. Negative arguments
 Comparative advertising
 Order of arguments
 Source: Who should say it?
 Principle of congruity
 Expertise, trustworthiness, likability
 Endorsers: Experts, celebrities, lay endorsers
 Choose the communication tools
o Non personal
 Advertising
 Before purchase: Classical advertising; Product Placement
 At purchase: Point-of-Purchase-Advertising
 Sales Promotion
 Consumer-Promotion
 Trade-Promotion
 Other Forms
 Corporate Identity
 Public Relations
 Sponsoring
o Personal communication
 Personal Selling
 Sales Force
 Key-Account-Management
 Direct Marketing
o Advertising
 Tool for building awareness and penetration
 Dramatization –amplified expressiveness
 Control
 Types of platforms - Print; Posters; broadcast adds; Radio; POS
displays
o Sales promotion
 Ability to be attention-getting
 Incentive
 Call for action
 Types of platforms - Contests; games; coupons
o Public Relations
 High credibility
 Ability to reach hard-to-find buyers
 Dramatization
 Types of platforms - Press kits; Seminars; Annual Reports; Charitable
donations; Publications
o Events and experiences
 Relevant
 Engaging
 Implicit
o Personal selling
 Build on the power of one to one relationships
 Shaping relations
o Direct marketing
 Direct approach
 Easy to control
 Interactivity
 Types of platforms - E-mail; catalogues; telemarketing; mailings; social
media
o How do you choose the communication tools?
 1. It depends on the type of market

o Profile of budget allocation

 2. It depends on the type of product
  3. It depends on the communication objectives – buyers´ readiness stage
 4. It depends on the decision for a pull or push strategy to create sales
 Investors/producers
 Consumers
 Setting the total promotional budget
o Affordable Method – you have this budget and you can do this
o Percentage-of-Sales Method - Method of estimating cash requirements by
expressing revenues and expenses as percentages of sales
o Competitive – Parity Method – you want to beat the competitors
o Objective-and-Task Method – you have an objective and act accordingly
 Factors affecting budget decisions
o Stage in the product life cycle
 stay with the cash cow
 You depend on your investment in the life cycle (when a product reaches
maturity it requires less investment)
o Objectives of market share
o Advertising frequency and reach intended
o Competition and clutter
o Product substitutability

How to manage CBBE?

How to evaluate consumers´ brand knowledge?

 Key measures for managing CBBE:

o How many consumers know who your brand is? (brand identity)
o How do they see it? (brand meaning)
o What do they think or feel about your brand? (brand responses)
o How much connection do they want to have with you? (brand relationships)

Brand resonance Pyramid to evaluate brand knowledge

The right side is the emotional side and the left side is the rational side

 Brand Salience
 o Brand awareness refers to customers’ ability to recall and recognize the brand
under different conditions and to link the brand name, logo, symbol, and so
forth to certain associations in memory.
o Building brand awareness helps customers understand the product or service
category in which the brand competes and what products or services are sold
under the brand name.
o It also ensures that customers know which of their “needs” the brand—
through these products— is designed to satisfy.
o Two levels of awareness: depth and breadth
 Need to understand how the product categories are organized in
consumers´ memory
 When faced with purchase decisions consumers go through that
structure
 Describe in which contexts the brand is recalled.
 (Brand Performance & Imaginary)
o Reflect consumes´ associations regarding brands´ POP and POD
o These associations can be formed
 Directly, from a customer’s own experiences and contact with the
brand
 Indirectly, through advertising or by some other source of information,
such as word of mouth.
 Brand Performance
o Describes how well the product or service meets customers’ more functional
needs.
o How well does the brand rate on objective assessments of quality? To what
extent does the brand satisfy utilitarian, aesthetic, and economic customer
needs and wants in the product or service category?
o Types of benefits and attributes that often underlie brand performance:
 Primary ingredients
 Product reliability, durability and serviceability
 Service effectiveness, efficiency and empathy
 Style and design
 Price (expensive or inexpensive)
 Brand Imaginary
o It is the way people think about a brand abstractly, rather than what they think
the brand actually does.
o Imagery refers to more intangible aspects of the brand
o Many kinds of intangibles can be linked to a brand, but four main ones are:
 User profiles
 Purchase and usage situations
 Personality and values
 History, heritage, and experiences
o User profile
 The type of person or organization who uses the brand.
 This imagery may result in customers’ mental image of actual users or
more aspirational, idealized users (conveyed in advertising).
o Purchase and Usage Imagery
  A second set of associations tells consumers under what conditions or
situations they can or should buy and use the brand.
 Associations can relate to type of channel, such as department stores,
specialty stores, or the Internet, to specific stores and to ease of
purchase and associated rewards (if any).
 Associations to a typical usage situation can relate to the time of day,
week, month, or year to use the brand; location—for instance, inside
or outside the home; and type of activity during which to use the
brand—formal or informal.
o Values and Personality
 Five dimensions of brand are:
 sincerity(down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, and cheerful);
 excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, and up-to-date);
 competence(reliable, intelligent, successful);
 sophistication (upper class and charming);
 Ruggedness (outdoorsy and tough).
 Judgements

It represents customers’ personal opinions about and evaluations of the brand, which
consumers form by putting together all the different brand performance and imagery
associations. Customers may make all types of judgments with respect to a brand, but four
types are particularly important: judgments about quality, credibility, consideration, and
superiority.

o Brand Quality
 The most important attitudes regarding brand quality relate to
products´ perceived quality and to customer value and satisfaction.
 The performance and imaginary associations evoke consumers´
attitudes (favorable or not favorable) towards:
 Product quality
 Perceived value
 Satisfaction
o Brand Credibility
 Measures whether consumers see the company or organization
behind the brand as good at what it does, concerned about its
customers, and just plain likable
 In order to deliver that, three components are considered:
 Perceived expertise: Competent and innovative
 Trustworthiness: Keeping consumers´ interests in mind
 Likability: Fun, interesting and worth spending time with
o Brand Consideration
 Depends in part on how relevant customers find the brand.
 No matter how highly they regard the brand or how credible they find
it, unless they also give it serious consideration and deem it relevant,
customers will keep a brand at a distance and never closely embrace
it.
o Brand Superiority.
  Measures the extent to which customers view the brand as unique
and better than other brands. Do customers believe it offers
advantages that other brands cannot?
 Is absolutely critical to building intense and active relationships with
customers and depends to a great degree on the number and nature
of unique brand associations that make up the brand image.
 Feelings
o Customers’ emotional responses and reactions to the brand
o Types of feelings
 Experiential and immediate
 Warmth
o The brand evokes soothing types of feelings and
makes consumers feel a sense of calm or peacefulness
 Fun:
o Upbeat types of feelings make consumers feel
amused, lighthearted, joyous, playful, cheerful, and so
on.
 Excitement:
o The brand makes consumers feel energized and that
they are experiencing something special.
 Private and enduring
 Security:
o The brand produces a feeling of safety, comfort, and
self-assurance
 Social approval:
o The brand gives consumers a belief that others look
favorably on their appearance, behavior, and so on.
 Self-respect:
o The brand makes consumers feel better about
themselves; consumers feel a sense of pride,
accomplishment, or fulfillment. A brand like Tide
laundry detergent is able to link its brand to “doing
the best things for the family” to many homemakers.
 Resonance
o Describes the nature of this relationship and the extent to which customers
feel that they are “in sync” with the brand
o Types of resonance
 Behavioral loyalty
 We can gauge behavioral loyalty in terms of repeat purchases
and the amount or share of category volume attributed to the
brand –Customers´ lifetime value.
 Attitudinal attachment
 Some customers may buy out of necessity—because the brand
is the only product stocked or readily accessible, the only one
they can afford, or other reasons.
  Resonance, however, requires a strong personal attachment.
Customers should go beyond having a positive attitude to
viewing the brand as something special in a broader context.
 Some consumers may state that they love the brand.
 Sense of community
 The brand may also take on broader meaning to the customer
by conveying a sense of community.
 Active engagement
 One of the strongest affirmation of brand loyalty occurs when
customers are engaged, or willing to invest time, energy,
money, or other resources in the brand beyond those
expended during purchase or consumption of the brand.