Brand Analysis

Why brand strategy

• Create brands that resonate with customers
– Ex., The Hindu, Lifebuoy, Fair & Lovely, Meera

• Avoid competitor strengths and exploit

weaknesses
– Ex., Scope taking on Listerine

• Exploit our strengths and neutralize our

weaknesses
– Ex., Listerine’s response
 Objectives of brand analysis
• The primary objective of strategic brand analysis
is to precipitate and improve strategic decisions
– Specify the brand identity
– Decide product classes with which to associate with
• Gillette = shaving; Oral B = dental care
– Define role within the organization’s brand system
• Vaseline Body Lotion and Pond’s Dreamflower Lotion
– Ascertain level of investment required

• Another objective is to identify strategic

uncertainties that will affect brand strategy
 Three phases of brand analysis
1. Brand is analyzed using existing internal info
– Past research; Market/brand sales data & patterns
– Historical positioning; Known competitor identity strategies

3. Info is gathered using original customer research

– To fill info gaps and to explore branding options

5. Target brand identity, value proposition, brand–

customer relationship, position are specified
– Another study for testing/refinement might be required
– The studies explore implementation tactics/strategy options
Perspectives of brand strategy

 Customer Analysis

 Competitor Analysis

 Self Analysis
Customer Analysis
 Trends
• A trend is a direction or sequence of events that
has some momentum and durability

• Trends provide insights into changing motivators

and emerging segments

• Analysis of sales volume trends and profitability

prospects of sub-markets can also provide
insights
– Decline in cigarette consumption
 Trends: Examples

Increasing nuclear Home loans, fast food,

families branded sweets, small cars

Mineral water, cooking oil,

Fascination for health shampoos, creams, hair oil,
air conditioner, gym
 Trends: Examples

Preference for herbal / Shampoos, hair oil, soaps,

ayurvedic ingredients creams

Increasing number of Eating out, luxuries, RTE

women going to work foods, vacation packages
 Customer motivations
• The goal of customer analysis is determining
benefits that will motivate customers to buy and
use the brand

• The need is to get below the surface and probe

areas not obvious to customer and marketer
– But are influential in brand choice and use experience

• The aim should be to seek a motivation that can

be leveraged into a unique advantage for the
brand
 Means of spotting motivations
• Qualitative research is generally directed at
detecting emotional and self-expressive benefits

• Assessment of functional benefits involves three

sets of questions:
– What functional benefits are relevant to customers?
– What is the relative importance of each benefit?
– How can customers be grouped with respect to
functional benefits?
– Can benefit segments be identified?
 Segmentation
• Can’t serve all and hence need to segment into
groups who share similar set of wants

• Marketer does not create segments; he/she just

identifies them

• The task is to consider which segments are the

most attractive target for the brand and most
relevant to brand identity development
 Methods of segmentation
• The segments should be…
– Measurable
– Substantial
– Accessible
– Differentiable
– Actionable

• Segmentation could be broadly…

– Geographic
– Demographic
– Behavioural
– Psychographic
 Unmet needs
• Spot customer needs that are not being met by
existing product offerings

• Unmet needs are strategically important since

they represent opportunities
– Sliding doors in cars to overcome cramped parking lots

• Some possible unmet needs in current context:

– Long-lasting fragrance and freshness in talcs
– Easy and quick way of lice removal
– Underarm hair–remover for males
Competitive Analysis
 Competitor brand image / position
• A critical input into identity implementation is how
customers perceive competitive brands
– With respect to benefits, personality, relationships

• The two sources of brand image data are customers

and competitor communications
• Info gathering could rely on many techniques
– Story-telling, brand grouping, metaphor games etc.,

• Important to bear in mind the fact that users will have

different perceptions than non-users
• Also, understand how competitors want to be perceived
 Grouping competitors’ positions
• In-depth study of competitors’ position might
throw useful insights
• Arrange ads into a brandscape
– To spot clusters, brands and brand strengths

• A positioning approach to take into cognizance:

– Strength of clusters
– Number of competitors
– Individual strength of competitors
– Entrenched positions
– Etc.,
 Changes in competitor images

• Critical to consider not only current images

of competing brands…
– But also past changes
– And possible future changes in these images

• The reasons for the changes can provide

valuable insights
– Pond’s attempt to get younger
– Hamam going herbal
Competitors’ strengths & vulnerabilities
• Going head-on against a competitors’ strength
and ignoring its vulnerabilities could be recipe for
disaster
• What do you think are strengths and
vulnerabilities of Vaseline Petroleum Jelly?
• Strength of VPJ is its barrier property; its
weakness is its greasiness
• Remember, a brand’s biggest vulnerability could
be in its strength!
Self Analysis
 Existing brand image
• Key questions to be asked include:
– How is the brand perceived?
– What associations are linked to the brand?
– How is it differentiated from competing brands?
– How has its image changed over time?
– Does the image differ across segments?
– What benefits do customers feel they are getting?
– Does the brand have a personality?
– What are the intangible attributes / benefits?
– What visual imagery does the brand evoke?

• Imperative to focus both on functional attributes

and emotional elements
 Brand heritage
• It’s useful to understand heritage of the brand
– Who were the early pioneers of the brand?
– How did it originate?
– What was its first image when it first started?

• Knowledge of what the brand first meant can

provide insight as to what identity should include

• A brand heritage analysis can also generate

strategic insight about how to get a brand back
on course
– Onida’s back to basics story
 Strengths and weaknesses
• In order to be sustainable, a brand identity
should be supported by organizational strengths
– These strengths need to be developed

• Process starts by determining strengths and

weaknesses of product or service and company
– What are we good at?
– Where are we deficient in?

• Ascertain what brand identity is desired and

what’s attainable given resources, capabilities
and priorities
– Futile to develop an identity that can’t be supported
 Soul of the brand

• Good strong brands have a ‘soul’

– Basic values of the brand that provide
character and meaning to the business

• Identify and articulate the soul of the

brand and the organization
– Its dream and its vision too
Restoring feminity
Dreams of beauty
Confident closeness
Command respect
Style statement
 Links to other brands
• A brand position decision cannot and should not
be made in isolation

• A brand should have well-defined roles within

the context of other brands in the company
– Cartoon Network & Pogo
– Pantene & Head & Shoulders
– Clinic Plus & Sunsilk
– Pond’s Body Lotion & Vaseline Body Lotion
– Chik & Meera & Nyle