brand mangt

8/14/2019 Brand Mangt

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INDEXIntroduction

Branding-Importance in Marketing

Types of Brands

Brand Positioning

Brands - Building a Brand

Brand Management

Brand Architecture

Brand Revival

Strategies for Brand Revival

Challenges while reviving a brand

Cases of Brand Revival

Celebrity Branding

Internet Branding

Challenges

Conclusion



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

IT IS THE MATTER OF GREAT PLEASURE AND

PRIVILEGE TO BE ABLE TO PRESENT THIS PROJECT REPORT

ON PRODUCT AND BRAND MANAGEMENT.

THE COMPILATION OF THE PROJECT IS A MILESTONE

IN THE LIFE OF THE MANAGEMENT STUDENT AND ITS

EXECUTION IS INEVITABLE WITH THE CO-OPERATION OF

THE PROJECT GUIDE. I WISH TO RECORD A DEEP SENSE OF

RESPECT AND GRATITUDE TO ITM EXECUTIVE-MBA FOR

THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO COURSE OF MY WORK.

I CANNOT JUST CONDONE THE VALUABLE

OPPORTUNITY GIVEN TO ME BY THE ITM EXECUTIVE-MBA

FOR COMPILING AND SUBMITTING THE PROJECT, WHICH I

FEEL IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPRESS MY VIEWS ABOUTPRODUCT AND BRAND MANAGEMENT.

I ACKNOWLEDGE MY INDEBTNESS TO VARIOUS

AUTHORS FOR MAKING USE OF VALUABLE INFORMATION

LIBERALLY.



PREFACE

Product and Brand Management is a topic requiring deepstudy and understanding for which I have tried my level

best to analyze and incorporate all the relevant

information in this project. All the material contained is

this project is true and original to the best of my

knowledge. All the pictures used in the project are for

representational purposes only.

I am greatly indebted to ITM Executive MBA for making me

understand the finer points of Marketing; And alsoacquainting us with the workings of the Product and

Brand Management.

It has been a great delight for me to work on this project.

The knowledge I have gained while working on this project

will stay with me through all the years of my professional

life.



Introduction

Brand management is a philosophy and a total approachto managing companies, and as such includes much aboutchanging minds.

Brand management is the application of marketingtechniques to a specific product, product line, or brand. Itseeks to increase the product's perceived value to thecustomer and thereby increase brand franchise and brandequity. Marketers see a brand as an implied promise thatthe level of quality people have come to expect from abrand will continue with future purchases of the same

product. This may increase sales by making a comparisonwith competing products more favorable. It may alsoenable the manufacturer to charge more for the product.The value of the brand is determined by the amount of profit it generates for the manufacturer. This can resultfrom a combination of increased sales and increased price,and/or reduced COGS (cost of goods sold), and/or reducedor more efficient marketing investment. All of theseenhancements may improve the profitability of a brand,

and thus, "Brand Managers" often carry line-managementaccountability for a brand's P&L profitability, in contrastto marketing staff manager roles, which are allocatedbudgets from above, to manage and execute. In thisregard, Brand Management is often viewed inorganizations as a broader and more strategic role thanMarketing alone.

MeaningBrands are a means of differentiating a company’sproducts and services from those of its competitors.

There is plenty of evidence to prove that customers willpay a substantial price premium for a good brand and

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Branding-Importance in

Marketing Strategy

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a"name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of themintended to identify the goods and services of one seller or groupof sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.

Therefore it makes sense to understand that branding is notabout getting your target market to choose you over thecompetition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you asthe only one that provides a solution to their problem.

The objectives that a good brand will achieve include:

• Delivers the message clearly• Confirms your credibility• Connects your target prospects emotionally• Motivates the buyer• Concretes User Loyalty

To succeed in branding you must understand the needs andwants of your customers and prospects. You do this by integratingyour brand strategies through your company at every point of public contact.

Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers,clients, and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences andperceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that youcannot.

A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifiesday by day. It's important to spend time investing in researching,defining, and building your brand. After your entire brand is thesource of a promise to your consumer. It's a foundational piece inyour marketing communication and one you do not want to bewithout.



Types of Brands

There are two main types of brand – manufacturer brands andown-label brands.

Manufacturer brands

Manufacturer brands are created by producers and bear theirchosen brand name. The producer is responsible for marketingthe brand. The brand is owned by the producer.

By building their brand names, manufacturers can gainwidespread distribution (for example by retailers who want to sellthe brand) and build customer loyalty (think about themanufacturer brands that you feel “loyal” to).

Own label brands

Own-label brands are created and owned by businesses thatoperate in the distribution channel – often referred to as

“distributors”.

Often these distributors are retailers, but not exclusively.Sometimes the retailer’s entire product range will be own-label.However, more often, the distributor will mix own-label andmanufacturers brands. The major supermarkets (e.g. Tesco, Asda,Sainsbury’s) are excellent examples of this.

Own-label branding – if well carried out – can often offer theconsumer excellent value for money and provide the distributorwith additional bargaining power when it comes to negotiatingprices and terms with manufacturer brands.



Three other important terms relating tobrands:

1. Brand Equity

“Brand equity” refers to the value of a brand. Brand equity isbased on the extent to which the brand has high brand loyalty,name awareness, perceived quality and strong productassociations. Brand equity also includes other “intangible” assets

such as patents, trademarks and channel relationships.

2. Brand Image

“Brand image” refers to the set of beliefs that customers holdabout a particular brand. These are important to develop wellsince a negative brand image can be very difficult to shake off.

3. Brand Extension

“Brand extension” refers to the use of a successful brand name tolaunch a new or modified product in a new market. A successfulbrand helps a company enter new product categories more easily.

For example, Fairy (owned by Unilever) was extended from awashing up liquid brand to become a washing powder brand too.



Brand PositioningPositioning can be defined as follows:

“Positioning is how a product appears in relation to other products in the market.”

Brands can be positioned against competing brands on aperceptual map.

A perceptual map defines the market in terms of the way buyersperceive key characteristics of competing products.

The basic perceptual map that buyers use maps products in termsof their price and quality, as illustrated below:



Brands and ProductsBrands are rarely developed in isolation. They normally fall withina business’ product line or product group.

A product line is a group of brands that are closely related interms of their functions and the benefits they provide. Agood example would be the range of desktop and laptopcomputers manufactured by Dell.

A product mix relates to the total set of brands marketed bya business. A product mix could, therefore, contain severalor many product lines. The width of the product mix can bemeasured by the number of product lines that a businessoffers.

For example Hewlett-Packard (“HP”) has a broad product mixthat covers many segments of the personal and businesscomputing market.

Managing brands is a key part of the product strategy of anybusiness, particularly those operating in highly competitiveconsumer markets.

Principles

A good brand name should:

•

Be protected (or at least protectable) under trademark law• Be easy to pronounce• Be easy to remember• Be easy to recognize• Be easy to translate into all languages in the markets where

the brand will be used• Attract attention



• Suggest product benefits (e.g.: Easy-Off ) or suggest usage(note the tradeoff with strong trademark protection)

• Suggest the company or product image• Distinguish the product's positioning relative to the

competition.• Stand out among a group of other brands - like that one

compared to the others.

Brands - Building a Brand

Professor David Jobber identifies seven main factors in buildingsuccessful brands, as illustrated in the diagram below:

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1. Quality

Quality is a vital ingredient of a good brand. Remember the “core

benefits” – the things consumers expect. These must be deliveredwell, consistently. The branded washing machine that leaks, orthe training shoe that often falls apart when wet will neverdevelop brand equity.



Research confirms that, statistically, higher quality brandsachieve a higher market share and higher profitability that theirinferior competitors.

2. PositioningPositioning is about the position a brand occupies in a market inthe minds of consumers. Strong brands have a clear, often uniqueposition in the target market.

Positioning can be achieved through several means, includingbrand name, image, service standards, product guarantees,packaging and the way in which it is delivered. In fact, successfulpositioning usually requires a combination of these things.

3. Repositioning

Repositioning occurs when a brand tries to change its marketposition to reflect a change in consumer’s tastes. This is oftenrequired when a brand has become tired, perhaps because itsoriginal market has matured or has gone into decline.

The repositioning of the Lucozade brand from a sweet drink for

children to a leading sports drink is one example. Another wouldbe the changing styles of entertainers with above-average

longevity such as Kylie Minogue and Cliff Richard.

4. Communications

Communications also play a key role in building a successfulbrand. We suggested that brand positioning is essentially aboutcustomer perceptions – with the objective to build a clearly

defined position in the minds of the target audience.

All elements of the promotional mix need to be used to developand sustain customer perceptions. Initially, the challenge is tobuild awareness, then to develop the brand personality andreinforce the perception.



5. First-mover advantage

Business strategists often talk about first-mover advantage. Interms of brand development, by “first-mover” they mean that it is

possible for the first successful brand in a market to create a clearpositioning in the minds of target customers before thecompetition enters the market. There is plenty of evidence tosupport this.

Think of some leading consumer product brands like Gillette, CocaCola and Sellotape that, in many ways, defined the markets theyoperate in and continue to lead. However, being first into amarket does not necessarily guarantee long-term success.Competitors – drawn to the high growth and profit potential

demonstrated by the “market-mover” – will enter the market andcopy the best elements of the leader’s brand (a good example isthe way that Body Shop developed the “ethical” personal caremarket but were soon facing stiff competition from the major highstreet cosmetics retailers.

6. Long-term perspective

This leads onto another important factor in brand-building: the

need to invest in the brand over the long-term. Building customerawareness, communicating the brand’s message and creatingcustomer loyalty takes time. This means that management must“invest” in a brand, perhaps at the expense of short-termprofitability.

7. Internal marketing

Finally, management should ensure that the brand is marketed

“internally” as well as externally. By this we mean that the wholebusiness should understand the brand values and positioning. This is particularly important in service businesses where a criticalpart of the brand value is the type and quality of service that acustomer receives.



Think of the brands that you value in the restaurant, hotel andretail sectors. It is likely that your favorite brands invest heavily instaff training so that the face-to-face contact that you have withthe brand helps secure your loyalty.

Brand Management This involves managing the tangible and intangible aspects of thebrand. For product brands the tangibles are the product itself, thepackaging, the price, etc. For service brands (see Service Brands),the tangibles are to do with the customer experience - the retail

environment, interface with salespeople, overall satisfaction, etc.For product, service and corporate brands, the intangibles are thesame and refer to the emotional connections derived as a resultof experience, identity, communication and people. Intangiblesare therefore managed via the manipulation of identity,communication and people skills.

Understanding Brand Management

Brand management is a process of used in marketing; in fact itcomes under one of the 4Ps of the marketing mix. This meansthat the brands of the company have to be managed so as tocreate a positive image about the brand and the company in theminds of the customers. This is a difficult task and one that has tobe handled delicately. The other purpose of brand management isto build customer loyalty by means of creating an emotion bondbetween the customers and the brand itself. People in thecompany responsible for brand management are the brandmanagers who naturally must have an understanding of the

market and customers. Brand managers are responsible forcreating a promise through a particular brand; the promise couldbe healthy food and healthy lifestyle or something on those lines.For the brand to be successful and for brand management also tobe successful, it is important that the promise is met andsatisfied, else it is going to seriously damage the brand image.



This is what brand management is all about.

Tips for Brand Management

Here are some tips that should help in brand management:

Consistency – where brand management, brand building or

branding is concerned there should always be consistency, and itshould be consistent with the ideologies of the brand itself. Peopleshould be consistently be able to identify with the brand.

Brand Equity – an important aspect of brand management isbrand equity. This is the monetary value of the brand. Think of brand management as creating brand equity and making it grow.

Be aware of other brands – one idea used in brand

management is to use sub-brands, while this is good, you do notwant to confuse the customer with too many brands under onebrand name.

Do not be sidelined by profits – most companies work in amanner where they employ different product managers, whohave to work on target basis. It is important for them to makeprofits, but brand managers have to be careful so as to not getsidelined by the money and compromise the brand image.

Be Dynamic – an important aspect of brand management is toavoid stagnation and to be continuously changing or dynamic.

There is no place for stagnation in the corporate world or themarketing world. Brands should continuously do something newto keep things fresh and the customers interested.



Why should businesses try tobuild their brands?

There are many advantages to businesses that build successfulbrands. These include:

• Higher prices• Higher profit margins• Better distribution• Customer loyalty

Businesses that operate successful brands are also much morelikely to enjoy higher profits.

A brand is created by augmenting a core product with distinctivevalues that distinguish it from the competition. This is the processof creating brand value.

All products have a series of “core benefits” – benefits that aredelivered to all consumers. For example:

• Watches tell the time• CD-players play CD’s• Toothpaste helps prevent tooth decay

• Garages dispense petrol.

Consumers are rarely prepared to pay a premium for products orservices that simply deliver core benefits – they are the expectedelements of that justify a core price.



Successful brands are those that deliver added value in additionto the core benefits.

These added values enable the brand to differentiate itself fromthe competition. When done well, the customer recognizes theadded value in an augmented product and chooses that brand inpreference.

For example, a consumer may be looking for reassurance or aguarantee of quality in a situation where he or she is unsureabout what to buy. A brand like Mercedes, Sony or Microsoft canoffer this reassurance or guarantee.

Alternatively, the consumer may be looking for the brand to add

meaning to his or her life in terms of lifestyle or personal image.Brands such as Nike, Porsche or Timberland do this.

A brand can usefully be represented in the classic “fried-egg”format shown below, where the brand is shown to have corefeatures that are surrounded (or “augmented”) by less tangiblefeatures.



Brand Management

Research

The Market Intelligence Co. sees five main areas where

research can contribute to brand management within any

business.



1. Brand distillation: offering clarity of brand essence

and distilling its value proposition.

2. Brand execution: assisting in the development and

evaluation of communication strategies which convey your brand both in/externally (e.g. testing brand tag lines, logos,

livery and brochures).



3. Brand change: evaluating the potential impact of a

proposed change to the brand (for example, brand livery,

positioning, message and name).

4. Brand alignment : assessing the alignment of the

brand with the business/markets to identify whether the

brand is reflected in the internal values, vision and culture

of the organisation and is suited to its target market

segments.

5. Brand performance: assessing the contribution of the brand to the business by measuring brand awareness,

associations and competitive market positioning.

Brand Architecture

The different brands owned by a company are related to eachother via brand architecture. In product brand architecture, thecompany supports many different product brands each having its



own name and style of expression but the company itself remainsinvisible to consumers. Procter & Gamble, considered by many tohave created product branding, is a choice example with its manyunrelated consumer brands such as Tide, Pampers, Ivory and

Pantene. With endorsed brand architecture, a mother brand istied to product brands, such as The Courtyard Hotels (productbrand name) by Marriott (mother brand name). Endorsed brandsbenefit from the standing of their mother brand and thus save acompany some marketing expense by virtue promoting all thelinked brands whenever the mother brand is advertised.. In thethird model only the mother brand is used and all products carrythis name and all advertising speaks with the same voice. A goodexample of this brand architecture, most often known ascorporate branding, is the UK-based conglomerate Virgin. Virgin

brands all its businesses with its name (e.g., Virgin Megastore,Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Brides) and uses one style and logo tosupport each of them.

TechniquesCompanies sometimes want to reduce the number of brands thatthey market. This process is known as "Brand rationalization."

Some companies tend to create more brands and productvariations within a brand than economies of scale would indicate.Sometimes, they will create a specific service or product brand foreach market that they target. In the case of product branding,this may be to gain retail shelf space (and reduce the amount of shelf space allocated to competing brands). A company maydecide to rationalize their portfolio of brands from time to time togain production and marketing efficiency, or to rationalize a brandportfolio as part of corporate restructuring.

A recurring challenge for brand managers is to build a consistentbrand while keeping its message fresh and relevant. An olderbrand identity may be misaligned to a redefined target market, arestated corporate vision statement, revisited mission statement or values of a company. Brand identities may also lose resonancewith their target market through demographic evolution.Repositioning a brand (sometimes called rebranding), may cost

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some brand equity, and can confuse the target market, butideally, a brand can be repositioned while retaining existing brandequity for leverage.

Brand orientation is a deliberate approach to working with brands,both internally and externally. The most important driving forcebehind this increased interest in strong brands is the acceleratingpace of globalization. This has resulted in an ever-toughercompetitive situation on many markets. A product’s superiority isin itself no longer sufficient to guarantee its success. The fastpace of technological development and the increased speed withwhich imitations turn up on the market have dramaticallyshortened product lifecycles. The consequence is that product-related competitive advantages soon risk being transformed into

competitive prerequisites. For this reason, increasing numbers of companies are looking for other, more enduring, competitive tools– such as brands. Brand Orientation refers to "the degree to whichthe organization values brands and its practices are orientedtowards building brand capabilities” (Bridson & Evans, 2004).

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Brand Revival

Conventional marketing wisdom says that for every 100 brands

that are born upto 90 could perish. In fact the life expectancy of many brands in countries like Japan is an average 18 months.

The stronger brands, the ones that become heritage brands andoccasionally become larger than the companies that gave birth tothem, they last longer sometimes longer than the company itself.

However old age can take a toll on brands. At times seeminglyinvincible brands age too often and too soon. Dalda vanaspati,Weston televisions, Kelvinator refrigerators, Murphy radios, Polsen

butter and Campa Cola are just some names that no longer havethe visibility in most Indian shops. However, about two- threedecades back shopkeepers could not do without these brands.

Can these brands that were snowed under in changingcircumstances be revived? Can a new proposition be built on theold legacy? That’s where the business of brand revival comes in.

Today it is the buzz word among the corporations who arescrambling in carrying out those old fashioned yet still effective

cost revenue analysis in seeing if they can bring back the old! Toget the heritage brands back to the market.

The reason for this is not too difficult to see. Simply becausebusinesses are realizing that brands have a tremendous assetvalue or resale value. Also companies in a passive thought arealso revitalizing brands so that they can realize more value fromthese before getting rid of these. And today if companies want tosell off brands that make no strategic sense for them, there isn’t ashortage of buyers for defunct brands either.

Sometimes, however, even if brands get a second chance toprove them at the altar of consumerism it will not be a cakewalk.

That’s because a reborn brand has a much difficult task at handthan a new brand-- new brands take off from ground zero but inthe case of a dead brand then, company relaunching it has to first



clean up the negative baggage associated with the brand’s earlierfailure before it lands on the same level as the new brand. At theconceptual level, it is an uphill task.

E.g. -- When Dalda was introduced; it successfully entered mostcustomer homes as Indian households were looking for a cheaperalternative for ghee. However, Dalda came with 2 negative labelsstuck to its neck-- it was a cheaper alternative and it was not thereal thing.

As customers started preferring healthier alternatives like cookingoils, Dalda lost popularity. Now even though Dalda is on itscomeback trail in Indian markets, not many consultants areimpressed.

In short, they do what Lakshmi Mittal did in the steel industry,which is to say he picks up the sick steel plants and has turnedthem around.

Generally a reviving of brand is madewhen:

• It is apparent to the marketer that the brand in question islosing share because its physical qualities need a change.

• It is also possible that, in comparison to competition, thebrand is looking tired and old-fashioned, so that this could bea reason to strengthen the brand communication.

• In addition to making changes to the product, there aremany instances of brands of products being re-launched inthe market.

• The key factors that marketers review in order to decidewhether a brand needs a revival are a decline in its marketshare and the brand's strength showing a decline.

•

Very often, an expensive revive fails to be successfulbecause it was done in a hurry or the management actuallydid not take into account market research evidence that themarketing mix was not fully satisfactory

• It could be the revive of an existing brand in order to makethe consumer look at the product in a different light



BRANDS THAT NEED REVIVAL

1. Heritage Brands These are the brands that were the first ones to come in themarkets. They could be referred to as the pioneers of themarkets. These products are generally in the last stage orsometimes in the second last stage of their product life cycle.However, just as Sir Hector Laing, Chief Executive Officer,United Biscuits plc. remarked, “Buildings age and becomedilapidated. Machines wear out. People die. But what live onare the brands”; these brands too lived on. However, theirimage among customers changes from that of a brand to a

special brand. E.g. - Hindustan Motors’ car Ambassador. It hasbecome a heritage car with the memories of its yesteryears.

2. Orphan BrandsOrphan brands are the neglected ones. These are the brandsthat despite their high recognition factors may suffer from poormarket positioning, a lackluster business environment, or justplain neglect from the parent.Orphan brands also include those brands that after beingneglected have also been disowned from their parentmanufacturers. A major example that could be cited in thisregard is that of the ointment Burnol. Burnol was originally abrand of Boots Company plc. It was bought over by Knoll AG of Germany in 1995 and was then bought by Reckitt Piramal in1998. It relaunched Burnol as " Antiseptic Burnol plus" in1994, which widened its usage from minor burns category toan antiseptic cream. Now recently, Morepen labs ltd. acquiredof the brand Burnol from Reckitt Piramal ltd. for Rs. 8.95 crores.

3. Ghost BrandsGhost Brands are brands that are shadows of their formerselves. They may be existing in the market or even sometimesphased out, but they continue to haunt the minds of theconsumers. These are the brands were once the top brands in



their market, but have now been overshadowed due to any of the various reasons, such as launch of new improved products,or change in the consumer needs or preferences, etc. Theywalk the fine line between life and death, and are often

demoted to the bottom shelf, which is the death row in manystores.

The companies, which own these brands, have four options:Revive them,Milk them,Sell them, orKill them.

Reviving, in such cases, could be the best option as milking

them won’t yield much and eventually it would have to bekilled. Also, selling would give the producer a much lower priceas compared to the profits that the buyer could make if herevives it. Hence, though revival involves considerable costs tothe companies, but it could yield those profits more than theirinvestments.



THE PROCESS

1. Identify potential productsIt is Important to identify and select the right brand to reviveand choosing the right as not all brands can be revived.While reviving a brand many different considerations have tobe taken into the mind like the market in which the brand is tobe revived, the targeted market, and the advertising strategies.

Thus in the brand revival process the first step is by far themost important step as all other steps are directly dependenton the efficiency of the first step.

2. Listen to your consumers They are the best source for information about products andneeds. The Himmel Group has effectively utilized the followingconsumer research tools to gather critical information: (1)Brand Research Cards (BRC) questionnaires and on-linesurveys used to collect consumer feedback on every product,(2) Concept test research, (3) Focus groups, (4) Product useresearch, (5) Toll free consumer hotline and consumer mail andemails. Management read all consumer correspondence.

3. Create compelling creativemessages that strike a chord withtarget consumersFocus attention on consumer needs and wants with single-minded, believable messages. Create an advertising "hook" (inthe case of medicines, a proprietary name for a medicalcondition, and then create the solution through the Himmel

brand) and have strong brand registration. Control the creativeprocess and cost by utilizing In-house creative developmentand production resources and contract out manufacturing of products and utilize outside consultants for research anddevelopment, medical expert advice, etc., to keep fixed costslow.



4. Differentiate your product from thecompetitionDiscover and exploit the unique selling proposition (USP) of thebrand. Motivate consumers to choose the Himmel brand overthe competition by promoting brands 52 weeks a year. Createan emotional connection with consumers and treat brands likechildren — they must be "nurtured."

5. Advertise, Advertise, and Advertise.Maintain a heavy investment inadvertising

There is a direct correlation between investment in advertisingand consumer awareness, brand loyalty, market share, abilityto resist price competition, and leverage with the retailer.Maintained the frequency of advertising — advertisingfrequency creates awareness and awareness creates sales bydeliver advertising messages on television, radio, etc.Control

cost and maintained efficiency by utilize in-house media buyingservice.



STRATEGIES FOR BRANDREVIVAL

To make a brand comeback, successful, the first thing is to createa new economic value for the customer, identify alternatedistribution channels. For instance, brands can go online, get intonew organized retail format and so on. Today, channels aremarket makers. One must find alternative ways of doing the 4Psof marketing which may even require a modification of packagingin certain cases.

The companies need to trace the ailments that led to the brand

becoming defunct. Brands become defunct for many reasons.Sometimes not enough effort is put behind them when they werefirst launched. Otherwise they could have been ahead of time ornot as relevant as it was conceived for. For e.g. - If a product likea fabric softener was relaunched at present, it could find moretakers than the comeback of a “Neel” (the blue fabric after wash).

• Repositioning strategySometimes global product portfolio rationalization could affect

local brands. A case in point is Kelvinator refrigerators whichwere put on a slow burner after it was taken over. ButKelvinator’s strong brand proposition--“it’s the coolest one”-istimeless and would be equally relevant to the customers atpresent.In another instance, Dabur repackaged its Real fruit juice; thecompany’s flagship product; as a natural, great tasting fruit

juice for kids. They aligned the packaging, communication andall elements of the marketing mix to communicate the brand’s

benefit (i.e., “REAL-tastes like eating a fruit”).



Following the rules & doing the basics

right This is the case with Lifebuoy, a brand that although did notdisappear from shop shelves, but nevertheless made asuccessful comeback. From just being a carbolic soap whichwould be used in office toilets and dhabas, Lifebuoy has cometo be‘family bathe soap’. They played by the rules to win. Forinstance, the carbolic soap form of Lifebuoy had reached astate of maturity. As the strong brand started to plateau, thecompany started to revamp and reposition it. Importantly therelaunch of Lifebuoy was backed by consumer insights andsignificant marketing spends, both of which are completelyessential.

• Having new applicationsBrands can also be revived by the marketers by developing orinventing some new and innovative uses of their product. Thisworked wonders for the US based Arm & Hammer, a bakingsoda company. For years the company stuck to its corebusiness baking soda and marketing it as it is; but thencustomers frequently baked at home. As lifestyles becamehectic, baking became a hobby and sales suffered. Thecompany took its core product baking soda and put it into newapplications. At present it marketed it as it could not only beused for baking but it is also a treat cleanser and odour killerand can kill odour in refrigerators. All this exercise helped thebrand to remain contemporary.

•

Finding New segmentsSometimes just finding a new segment of users for the samebrand can help in a successful revival of the brand. Forinstance, the largest users of are actually adults as opposed tochildren. That’s because customers who grew up with videogames are continuing to play and their tribe is increasing. Inanother instance, companies in US have revitalized the orange



juice industry from being only on the breakfast table to a juicefor all occasions. It’s also being touted as a healthy alternativesince it has vitamin C. With bulk of population in US beingelders has broadened the product scope and has helped it

make a comeback.

• Geographical segmentationEven without new applications or new customer segments, adwindling brand in one country can find solace in another.

Companies are increasingly putting their brands into a newcountry or geography where they never existed. As there is noprior image of the brand in the new geography, the companycan market the brand in a way so as to create the image theywant customers to remember the brand as. Relevant examplein this case could be that of General Motors, who managed tomake its passenger car Buick a hit in China when the sales of the brand were not good in the US.

•

Clever positioningClever positioning and promotions can be deciding factors inbrand comebacks. A creative approach to communications canrevitalize the brand. E.g. -- Chewing gum brand Chiclets.Previously a pack of Chiclets had eight pieces in a box.Naturally the unit price was high. But price was not theproblem for the brand. No consumer would eat eight gums at ago and when consumers put the rest into their pockets,Chiclets would melt if the climatic conditions were unfavorable.

The recommendation was that if Chiclets had only 2 pieces in a

packet it would also bring the unit price down. Afterimplementing these changes, the company came with a ‘two of you’ campaign targeted at young couples. The Chiclets casehad all the must haves for the brand revitalization: a neweconomic value, new packaging and a new promise.



New strategies beingfollowed

Some firms offer an outsourcing service to parentfirms for the marketing and management of oldbrands. The parent retains a stake in the business, soit shares in the profit when the brands are revived.

Saatchinvest, for example, holds a 51% majoritystake in Complan globally, but Heinz has retained a34% share.

Chartered brands started out with a full acquisitionstrategy for orphan brands, but now take onlyminority stakes in them. They, in their words, ‘takerisks, inject cash, manage the process and share thebenefits with the owners’.

Outsourcing marketing can make sense for bothparties. First, the small firm does not need to worryabout the seller refocusing on a category. Second, themultinational does not sire a new competitor.



In nutshell, consumers will buy a brand only if they findvalue and trust (which could be in the form of pastgoodwill) in it. It does not matter if it has gone out of public view for a while. In fact marketing consultants add

that as long as consumers can be convinced about thevalue and as long as they connect with a brand, sales willhappen. But conditions apply. No strong negatives mustexist to be associated with a brand that’s awaitingrevival.

CHALLENGES WHILEREVIVING A BRAND

• Understanding the market

If your product is aimed at a very specific target market thenthere is a good chance that this product will require only basicmodification from country to country. If your product is aimedat a larger, more general market, there is a higher chance thatwider-reaching changes will have to be implemented in orderto make the product suitable for mass marketing.

• Gathering intelligenceIn order to achieve international success, a business must

understand its target customers, not only in measurable wayssuch as education levels and income, but on more intangiblelevels. While customers may not be aware of their depth of response to design they do respond strongly to form, detail,colour and balance. Design relates to every aspect of theexperience, visual, tactile, and emotional. While your customermay not easily be able to articulate their feelings about these



aspects of your product, they are nevertheless extremelyimportant.When carrying out customer research it is essential that youformulate an approach that allows you and your design team to

understand what your customers actually need, rather thanwhat they say they need.Over the past decade there has been an increasing interestfrom business in non-quantitative customer research. Usingtechniques such as ethnography will not provide a clear set of answers that can be presented in graphs. It is open-ended,holistic and discovery-orientated and if used correctly will giveincredible insight and knowledge into their customers’ needsand desires that can then be used to inform and guide thesubsequent design process.

• Understanding what you are selling To understand what exactly a company is selling, manycompanies use the strategy called 'value exporters'. Thesecompanies have strong values that are often linked to nationalcharacteristics. They use design as a tool to emphasize eithertheir national origin or the set of values that differentiate themfrom other products.

Then, some companies use a strategy called 'value collectors'.

These companies may well have a strong internal culture, buttheir outward style is less identifiable. They have to investmore time and money in researching their potential marketsand then use design in order to create products to connect withtheir international customers. Understanding which of theseapproaches is most applicable to your product is central to yourapproach to design for international markets.

Managing the design processA marketer maybe having the most brilliantly designedproduct in the world, but if he has a poor understanding of the target audience, a poor business plan, or both; it wouldfail. For good design to be good business it must be pursuedas an integral part of a wider set of activities.



For example, while a company may have invested in a

successful industrial design and engineering process it may

have failed to consider the total customer experience. This

includes how the customer becomes aware of the product - will

it be, for example, through TV advertising, product promotionor product placement? And how will the customer take

ownership of the product? Will this be by ordering from a

catalogue, purchasing online or in store?

Considering all these areas and more leads to a significantly

improved total customer experience and the likelihood of

success is dramatically improved.



CASES OF BRAND REVIVAL

In the span of the last decade or so many companies over the

world has taken to the route of brand revival of its either popularbrands or brands that didn’t click in its first place. Thesecompanies have used different tactics, style, and methods to winover the customers.In the following pages an attempt has been made in this directionto find out these companies, the product it relaunched and thegeneral perception of the people towards it.

CASE#1

Apple Computer IncIn 1997, after reporting losses of $1billion, it was widelyassumed that Apple Computer was about to go out of business.

The company had lost its way. Its core market of creative’s andstudents had become alienated and were switching over tocheaper PC products.



However later that year, the return of Steve Jobs as CEOchanged all this. He gave the company back its vision, and,working with the design team headed by British designer

Jonathan Ive, he created a product driven identity for Applewhich is based around a high quality total product experience.With the iMac, Apple redefined the home computer as afriendly domestic object. With the iPod and iTunes musicmanagement software, it defined the digital music market andcurrently holds about 80% of the hard drive-based portablemusic player market in the USA and approximately 50%worldwide. At the end of 2005 Apple reported the highestrevenue and earnings in the Company’s history, andinternational sales accounted for 40 percent of the quarter’s

revenue.

Case#2

ElectroluxWhen CEO Hans Strasberg joined Electrolux in 2002 he tookthe helm of a company in crisis. He faced spiraling costs while

its middle market products were gradually losing out tocheaper goods from Asia and Eastern Europe. Strasberg knewthat the only way that the company could hope to surviveamidst this ferocious competition was through innovation anddesign to create products with good looks and clever featureswhich people could understand without having to pore througha thick users’ manual.



To do this he broke down the traditional barriers betweendepartments, forcing marketing, designers and engineers to worktogether in cross-disciplinary teams. These teams brainstorm anddevelop new product ideas – the most successful are fast trackedinto production.

To support this drive for innovation spending in R&D has been

bumped from 0.8% of sales to 1.2% with the eventual goal of raising to 2%. This investment is now beginning to showreturns, after dropping for two straight years annual sales rose8% to $16.5 billion, in 2005. The number of product launchesthat result in outsized unit sales is currently running at over50% of all introductions up from around 25% previously. Theaward winning Electrolux Pronto commands 50% of the USAstick vacuum cleaner market despite being double the cost of comparable models.



CELEBRITY BRANDING

Introduction

Indian advertising started with the hawkers who used to shoutout their goods right from the days when cities and marketsfirst began. Since then, Indian advertising has been convertedinto a strategic tool that enhances sales, more profits and helpsin the process of brand-building and product promotion. Withthis evolved a strategy that tried to benefit from the emotionalattachment of the admirers or the fans of the celebrities; in theform of celebrity endorsement. It does help in creating instantawareness and visibility; but for a cost.

Today, celebrity endorsement became a buzzword. DaburGlucose endorsed Amitabh Bachchan. T. V. S. Scootyintroduced new hoardings with Preety Zinta. Shahrukh isendorsed in Lux, Santro etc. Vivek Oberoi is endorsed inBabool. Aishwarya Rai is endorsed in Coca Cola ad. It looks thatwithout a Film or Sports star, companies don't want to give you



anything!

Why celebrities?

Why do corporate choose celebrities in their advertising?Amitabh endorsing Reid & Taylor campaign was a much knownendorsement. The objective was to acquire faster brandrecognition, association and emotional unity with the targetgroup. The Reid & Taylor ad showed the highest recall amongstfabric ads. Similarly, when S Kumar’s used Hrithik Roshan, thenthe hottest advertising icon for their launch advertising for

Tamarind, they reckoned they spent 40 - 50 per cent less onmedia due to the sheer impact of using Hrithik. Ad recall was

as high as 70 per cent.

Basically, celebrity endorsements give a brand a touch of thatpersonality, and the hope that a famous face will provide addedappeal and name recognition in a crowded market. In the battlefor the mind, you get the customer excited by showing him aknown face, and an effective demand is created. This wouldnormally work best when the concerned brand has closesubstitutes, or has a need for differentiation, or requires quickentry in a short lifecycle category.

The trouble with celebrity branding

There are several viewpoints for troubles with celebritybranding as given below.

1. One problem that the company faces from the advertisers'point of view is that the celebrity being "larger" than the brand.For example, in B. P. L. ads Amitabh Bachchan overshadowed

the company.

2. The other problem is that of duration of endorsement and apossible mismatch between the celebrity's life cycle and that of the brand. Owing to unavailability of dates, sometimes long-term contracts are signed, but the celebrity's life might be over



soon. For example Vinod Kambli came in many ads at his time,which was running even after he was not in the "Team India".

3. Multiple endorsements is even other problem. That is called

'lazy advertising'. There is unfortunately a limited pool of celebrities who can influence consumers. So you have thesame celebrity endorsing several categories, as in AmitabhBachchan and Sachin Tendulkar, who are over-exposed.Consumers may be confused in recalling the ads when theyremember the ads.

Celebrity Branding Conclusion

For advertisers, everything depends upon customers and thecompany's budgets. Celebrities do wonder – no doubt! But, thecompany has to pay a huge cost too. Though some problemsare there, it is believed that celebrities work far better than thetraditional models.

INTERNET BRANDING The advent of the Internet technology has made available to man

a virtual highway, a free medium to cross over, without leavingthe base domain. The options to using the facility and optimizingthe benefits are all free, and there are no set or pre-determined

maps involved.

With information and technology only a click away, it is intriguing

that the Internet and technology marketing avenues are still sounderutilized. This is primarily due to the fact that the technologyharnessed is now not only free, but also sadly taken for granted.

This has resulted in the subsequent loss of strong-hold andpotential power. This complacency probably springs from thenotion that man knows and has tried everything and now, there is



nothing further left to do. This is where the magic of internetbranding makes its presence known, by addressing the requisitefor a domain name, a web site and e-mail, for a business orpersonal pursuit to flourish.

The speed at which changes within this new avenue unfold, it islittle wonder that it keeps getting reinvented and furthered everysecond! Most of the web sites operative today are redundant andmany, too old to be fixed or totally unfit to ensure businesstargets and special industry-specific requirements. Today, thetechnology gurus have redefined the approach, to make it morelucrative. This is achieved under new rules of Internet brandingthat are designed to address the current online business needsunder e-commerce protocols. The internet branding services offer

customers around the world complete access to products,services and a thorough understanding of core corporatemanagement areas.

The internet branding services are able to efficiently incorporatenew changes and revolutionize the method and message deliverypackage. The entire gamut is designed to ensure that thebusiness witnesses a smooth transition, which doubles the profits.New internet branding techniques involve a dedicated system of

developing a powerful and unique URL that is backed bytrademark protection. For proper implementation, the entireorganization, at all levels, is required to first understand the effectof successful Internet branding. The concept is best understoodand applied with streamlined educational support. The variousstrategies to counter the e-commerce challenges and newtechnologies enable the team to stay ahead of the curves!

Internet branding literally harnesses the intricacies globalizationand expands your local market base. The concept is your ticket toopportunity and a huge international market. You are able toidentify the potential customers searching for you as theirresource base and step out from behind the computer. Mostonline business web sites carry confusing marketing messages,which are targeted to multi group audiences and a combined,rather than dedicated effort. In this wholesale approach, the poor



customer is simply shut out. Dedicated internet branding enablesthe business to be correctly highlighted amidst the fancy slogansand effectively translate technology issues.

Corporations very often promote ideas in strange color schemesor single color motifs. Instead of wasting time, money and energytowards this kind of kinky color-specific branding theme tomarketing problems, the internet branding option should beconsidered for its functionality. With internet branding, theconcentration is on the business message and identity and not onthe creation of spinning, flashy sites. The concept allowsentrepreneurs to cash in on the rewards that accompany correctand simple content, instant accessibility and a concise URL.Internet branding enables the businessman to expose the

business to a wider and more profitable global customer base.

The adherence to the international rules and standards and thedevelopment of a clear corporate image and identity allow theentrepreneur to tap and navigate global e-commerce. Internetbranding helps the business to function without constraint or anyrestriction. The strategy also helps with reputation management,which is very critical in today’s internet market place. Anydamage to the brand, online or the absence of a strong and

positive online brand ensuring strategy for the company leads tothe potential risk and loss of business. It has therefore become anecessity to understand and adopt internet branding, both on andoff line. With the dedicated approach of the concept, the onlinepresence of any business venture can be turned into a successfulbrand experience, for the company, as well as the client.

Challenges

There are several challenges associated with setting objectivesfor a brand or product category.







• Brand managers sometimes limit themselves to settingfinancial and market performance objectives. They may notquestion strategic objectives if they feel this is theresponsibility of senior management.

•

Most product level or brand managers limit themselves tosetting short term objectives because their compensationpackages are designed to reward short term behavior. Shortterm objectives should be seen as milestones towards longterm objectives.

• Often product level managers are not given enoughinformation to construct strategic objectives.

• It is sometimes difficult to translate corporate levelobjectives into brand or product level objectives. Changes inshareholders' equity are easy for a company to calculate. It

is not so easy to calculate the change in shareholders' equitythat can be attributed to a product or category. Morecomplex metrics like changes in the net present value of shareholders' equity are even more difficult for the productmanager to assess.

• In a diversified company, the objectives of some brands mayconflict with those of other brands. Or worse, corporateobjectives may conflict with the specific needs of your brand.

This is particularly true in regard to the trade-off between

stability and riskiness. Corporate objectives must be broadenough that brands with high risk products are notconstrained by objectives set with cash cows in mind (seeB.C.G. Analysis). The brand manager also needs to knowsenior management's harvesting strategy. If corporatemanagement intends to invest in brand equity and take along term position in the market (i.e. penetration and growthstrategy), it would be a mistake for the product manager touse short term cash flow objectives (ie. price skimming strategy). Only when these conflicts and tradeoffs are madeexplicit, is it possible for all levels of objectives to fit togetherin a coherent and mutually supportive manner.

• Brand managers sometimes set objectives that optimize theperformance of their unit rather than optimize overallcorporate performance. This is particularly true wherecompensation is based primarily on unit performance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholders'_equity

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/metric

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade-off

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C.G._Analysis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penetration_pricing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_skimming

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholders'_equity

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/metric

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade-off

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C.G._Analysis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penetration_pricing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_skimming



Managers tend to ignore potential synergies and inter-unit joint processes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synergy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synergy



CONCLUSION

Brands must make the product relevant and meaningful for the

target customers. It must enhance the product over and abovethe basic generic level. A product that comes off the assemblyline tends to be merely a physical object. Branding pushes theproduct into a perpetual realm by integrating what it is. Brandinggives the customers reasons to buy and use the products. Brandrejuvenation gives a second life for a brand.

More than 80% of the brands that are launched die off, a mere 8%of these brands, which are retiring, try to rejuvenate/ revive thebrand. Today Brand Revival is in very high demand as companies

realize that building a brand would take ten times more moneythan reviving an existing brand. New product development triesto create brand equity from a blank sheet of paper. But it canfrequently be more rewarding to start with a sheet already writtenon, with a hidden message we can decode for a relatively smallinvestment.

Many companies have identified the necessity of Brand Revivaland entrepreneurs have brought in “Brand Spas” to rejuvenate,

indulge and refresh the brands. While understanding theimportance of brand revival

Most dead brands died not with a bang but a whimper. This paperhas examined the revitalization of established brands; a topic thathas been overlooked for too many years. Brand managers havenumerous options for revitalizing the sales of an establishedbrand in a mature category. The strategies suggested herepresent opportunities for many managers to salvage and leveragethe equity that has been built over the lifetime of the brand.Brands die because of neglect and consumer indifference.

In this context what we basically identified as the reason whybrand revival is a big hot topic on the mind of the corporate world



now and not 10 years back has been the mental block of “takingout from the dustbin concept”.

Several companies particularly the big MNCs, FMCG haven’t even

thought of giving many of their failed brands a second chancewhich if they had would have catapulted their brands into worldclass brands

In this paper we have examined and discussed many cases wherein the brands that were once written off have been successfullyrevived and now they are hugely successful in the market

As part of our effort in getting the material, reading andunderstanding the matters concerning the brand revival process

we have in this process identified and extracted a basic check listor the points that the marketer has to keep in mind while revivinga brand.



BIBLIOGRAPHY:Websites:• www.brandrepublic.com•

www.brandchannel.com• Wikipedia.org• www.designcouncil.org• cnn.com• www.himmelgroup.com• www.lornamead.com

Articles:• Venkatesh Babu; “Issues in brand revival”• “Nurturing brands back to health”; Indian Management-

Journal of AIMA• www.findarticles.com• www.yahooanswers.com• www.rediff.com• icmr.icfai.org

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