BRAND PERSONA:Need-based segmentation research, Personality traits through research

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Brand Management (MKT624)

Lesson 11

BRAND PERSONA

Determination of attributes and benefits

To have your brand present its customers the right attributes and benefits, you have to first

determine what those attributes and benefits are that brands present and values they address.

The key to the whole process is clarity about the need to be satisfied.

You must not under-serve or over-serve the customers. In other words, the segment that you are

serving has to be fully aligned with the features and attributes that you envisage your brand to

carry. Under- or over-doing will let you unintentionally navigate the segmental territories not

meant for your offering.

Determination can come through one way and that is research. The objective is to compare

your brand with that of competitors and gauge the level of associations all evoke. The results of

the research will enable you to be specific about the features that you must create for your

brand and the benefits your brands must offer to your customers.

In the absence of this comparison, it is hard to formulate a sustainable competitive strategy a

strategy that highlights the features and benefits and sets your brand apart from the rest of the

crowd. Refer to industry analysis and consider a couple of established competitors to draw the

right comparisons that can lead you through the competitive path with success.

Need-based segmentation research

It is good to get into segmentation research that should cover demographics as well as

psychographics to give the findings a true need-based dimension. Needs drive all the strategies

and always emerge as the most purpose-serving research basis. Right identification of needs

also offers the best alignment between strategies and associations that we are out to evoke on

part of the customers. It is here that we are able to determine the balance between under- or

over-serving the segment of population that is our target market. The following two examples

explain the phenomenon of the balance between under- or over-doing.

Example 1

A fast food restaurant should not start offering in the manner of a full-served fine

dinning restaurant, nor should it demote its offerings below the level of product profile

perceived by customers as authentic fast food.

Example 2

A 1300 cc car offering inside and outside temperature readings and dual air

conditioning is borrowing features from a sibling of a higher segment. A higher

segment bigger model not having the features (temperature reading and dual air

conditioner) deemed unnecessary for a 1300 cc sibling is under-serving its customers.

Population to be researched and relevant questions asked

The population to be researched should consist of company's present, past, and potential

customers and competitors' customers in relation to determining the levels of association with

the brand. Members of the trade (distributors, wholesalers, and retailers) who are category

influencers should also be included in the population.

The respondents should be approached with the objective of determining the right attributes

and benefits to be offered by the brand and values addressed. The responses, when put side by

side, for different brands will lead you through realistic mode of decisions for your brand.

Brand Management (MKT624)

The questions should revolve around the level of awareness about your brand versus

competition and strengths and weaknesses as respondents perceive in relation to your brand

versus competition. The series of questions should also take you through determining whether

respondents consider your brand up to their expectations and worthy of recommendation to

others! All questions should be asked in the simplest and direct form to have straightforward

and credible answers.

With no ambiguities of answers you should be able to gauge the levels of associations your

brand evokes vis-à-vis competition.

Purpose served by asking the right questions

The objective of asking the questions is to precisely determine the level of associations your

brand has evoked. An even bigger objective is to see whether customers think your brand has

reached the pinnacle. If the answers to your questions are mostly "yes", then it is a testimony to

your hard work of identifying the right need, developing the right product, and making the right

branding moves. You must maintain your brand's position and further fortify it.

If the answers to your questions are mostly in negative - which it should not be then you must

look into the reasons and make corrections wherever those are warranted. The typical questions

that you must ask yourself are the following:

· Why is our brand not right on top?

· Why is competition right on top?

· What can you do to bring your brand right on top?

The answers to the above questions will be of comprehensive nature and will not allow you

escaping any shortcomings. Whether your company has the resources or not to come to grips

with the problems is another issue. The assumption here is that it is capable of handling all

major problems; otherwise it would not have undertaken the brand development process in the

first place.

Keys to developing associations

According to Scot Davis, the build up of brand value has to be an incremental process1.

· No brand can get into the pinnacle without moving incrementally through the stages.

· There has to be a complete alignment of associations all across the three stages. The

alignment can be achieved through the process discussed above, that is, identify the right

need for the right segment, have the target market perceive the benefits as the ones

desired by them, and make them believe that your brand addresses the values they hold

dear to themselves.

· Make the whole process difficult to copy. This can be achieved by creating customer

value highly meaningful to customers.

The following example of Toyota Corolla is expressive enough about the levels of associations

and the alignment that exists among the three levels to the benefit of the brand and the

customers as well.

Features and Attributes

o Good styling

o Fair pricing

o Great value

o Spacious

o Looks of a bigger car

o Sturdy

Brand Management (MKT624)

Benefits

Good consumption

Good resale value

Good quality

Dependable

Widespread availability of inexpensive spares

Beliefs and Values

o Gives you confidence

o Friendly; makes you feel good and important

o Approval of neighbors, friends, and relatives

What is after the brand pinnacle?

Whether to stay within the same pyramid or go beyond it into a new one is defined by the

leader of the category. The leadership role comes with the power the brand has. It depends on

how high the leader wants to go within the same pyramid.

Most of the brands have the potential to ladder further up. It is here that business managers

have to decide whether to create higher standards of excellence within the same pyramid or go

beyond it with a new brand name by adding more attributes to existing products and create a

new identity altogether.

Is new category needed?

Companies choose to go into a new pyramid for two reasons. One, laddering up under the same

name may offer resistance from the customers. Two, a new identity under a different brand

name with endorsement from the same manufacturer can bring the company premium pricing

that may get subject to resistance under the existing brand name. This is why Toyota introduced

Lexus; Honda launched Acura, and Nissan Infinity. Lexus, Acura, and Infinity are all very

expensive cars that fall within pyramids different from those belonging originally to Toyota,

Honda, and Nissan. The new offerings came to the market with high premium on them.

What is important about the brand value pyramid is that the pinnacle has to be reached so that

the emotional value connection can be established with the consumer.

BRAND PERSONA

The second part of image is brand persona. Along with associations it

provides a complete understanding of the brand image. Brand managers

look at brands from the standpoint of human and other characteristics that

can be easily identified and understood.

The objective of the exercise is to personify your brand so that consumers

can express and associate themselves with the brand just as they associate

themselves with other persons.

Persona examples

· Car. It is like you describe a car as rugged; you can describe a person from a certain area

as rugged.

· Biscuits. You may describe a high-end expensive biscuit brand as "sophisticated" as

opposed to another you may want your fun-loving kids to take as "funny". People can be

described as sophisticated and funny.

Brand Management (MKT624)

SUV. A four-wheel vehicle can be personified as "warrior, tough, and no-nonsense" as

opposed to a family car having a "majestic and well-composed" personification. People

can be described in just about the way a four-wheel vehicle or a family car is described in

this example.

Need to create the right traits

The exercise of personification is meant to fully understand what personality traits you should

create for your product so that it is perceived by the consumers the same way. The objective

therefore is the same as it stands in developing associations. Customers must perceive your

product the way it is intended to be perceived.

In order to understand the traits of your brand right, you again have to carry out market

research and ask consumers questions to arrive at the right most personification.

Personality traits through research

A few questions can resemble the following:

· Does the product look educated?

· Does it look fashionable?

· Is it urbane or a villager?

· Is it babyish or mature-looking?

The most important factor is to ensure that your brand's persona must be matching with

consumers' perceptions. A baby shampoo has to be perceived as such not because you have

introduced it as baby shampoo, but because its personality traits are such that anyone taking a

look at the retail shelf can pinpoint the product is meant for babies.

When you combine your results with those of brand's associations, you come up with a

complete understanding of the valid and sustainable positioning of your brand. The right

position of the brand will evoke right image of the brand and serve as the focal point of all

strategies that will follow to make the brand a success.

Summary lectures 10 and 11

Brand picture is based on brand image, which is a function of brand associations and brand's

persona. Customers develop associations with brands for the reasons of benefits that brands

offer and customer values that brands address. If a customer values being known for wearing

expensive clothes, then some brand has to address that value of the customers falling in that

segment.

Good brands have good features that get translated into benefits. Unless features get translated

into benefits, brands cannot have customers develop the desired associations. Associations have

different levels. From being able to address basic needs of customers, brands get on to offering

extra benefits and addressing certain emotional values. When a brand is just able to address the

basic needs, it is at the lowest level of associations. When a brand addresses emotional needs,

the level of association is at the highest the brand value pyramid. All brands should strive to

get to that point and generate loyalty of the highest order. An important aspect of the brand

value pyramid is that it is an incremental process in which associations get strengthened

through different phases, not skipping any.

Brand managers have to identify customers' needs in the most realistic way to come up with

the compatible product features and then be able to develop the right, desired associations.

Brand's persona is the second part of the image. It is personification of the brand in human

terms. The tricky part is to determine the right traits of the product and then developing the

brand's personality in a way that customers perceive it the way it was intended to be perceived.

Brand Management (MKT624)

Glossary of terms:

Demographics: It is referred to as demographic segmentation. The market is divided into

groups on the basis of demographic variables such as age, family size, gender, income,

occupation, education, religion, race, generation, nationality, or social class1. It is generally

seen that consumer likes, dislikes, preferences, and usage rates have a lot of similarities within

the demographic groups and they are closely linked to demographic variables. Research

stemming out of a design based on demographics is generally more reliable and easier to

measure.

Psychographics: This refers to psychographic segmentation in which buyers are divided into

different groups on the basis of lifestyle and/or personality. People within the same

demographic group can exhibit very different psychographic profiles2. Example: A consumer

who drives a Mercedes-Benz may mostly like to use an inexpensive ball point pen and wear

blue jeans, whereas a consumer driving a Suzuki may always like to use an expensive pen and

wear designer clothes. The likes and preferences in this example have a relationship more with

lifestyle than demographic variables.

Bibliography:

1. Philip Kotler: "Marketing Management Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and

Control"; Ninth Edition, Prentice Hall (258)

2. Philip Kotler: "Marketing Management Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and

Control"; Ninth Edition, Prentice Hall (259)

Suggested readings:

Scot M. Davis: "Brand Asset Management Driving Profitable Growth through Your

Brands"; Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint (53-72)

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