BRAND MANIFESTATIONS/ FUNDAMENTALS:Brand identity, Communication, Differentiation

<< INTRODUCTION:Brand Value and Power, Generate Profits and Build Brand Equity

BRAND MANIFESTATIONS/ FUNDAMENTALS:Layers/levels of brands, Commitment of top management >>

Brand Management (MKT624)

Lesson 3

BRAND MANIFESTATIONS/ FUNDAMENTALS

To manage your brand as an asset, full of value and power, you must understand a few

fundamentals that form the basis of brand asset management. Armed with that understanding,

you, as brand managers, will do your job right only if you understand brands correctly.

The following four fundamentals will allow you to develop with ease and consistency the

ability to build different strategic steps involved in creating a brand or refreshing an existing

one.

· Dimensions

· Characteristics

· Levels

· Brand Owners' Commitment

Foreword to Brand Dimensions

For comprehension of a brand's dimensions, three models are fundamental to any discussion

about the subject. That is the first and the foremost thing you have to keep in your mind. Those

are:

· Brand identity

· Brand image

· Communication

Brand identity: Brand identity is what a company transmits about the brand to the market

place. Identity has many components the name, the packaging, the colors, the typestyle,

the logo, and a host of other factors that comprise its personality. The personality of a brand

should be created for it to get expressed in terms of well-defined characteristics. For

example, reliable, friendly, durable, and serious etc.

What is most important here is that the company must be able to express the real essence of

the product to the target market. Any product, however high on the quality and reliability

grid, may not exploit its full potential if it is not expressed right by way of creation of the

right compatible personality.

If a brand is to be registered in the minds of consumers as "durable", then the whole

identity has to revolve around the aspects of durability. You must not develop a package

and related components that convey a sense of "fashionableness". That will be contrary to

the personality/identity of the brand.

Brand image: Brand image is a term used very loosely by people outside the sphere of

marketing. Changing the image is a favorite topic while discussing brands under distress.

But image is not something that can be changed or transformed with the speed we change a

color on the drawing board.

Brand image follows identity. It is a reflection of what we projected to send to the public.

Managers must be clear about what they want to send and how they want it received. Brand

image, then, is something that builds into the minds of the consumers.

To what extent that image is in line with the identity created by the company is the greatest

challenge for brand managers! The more the managers can have the market imagine their

brand's identity the way it is intended to be imagined, the more successful they are in their

effort. If there is a gap between the identity and the image, then there is a need for

corrective action.

Brand Management (MKT624)

Companies' efforts to build the right image span so many different means of

communication of which brand's own appearance is a part. Brand image, therefore, is the

totality of information, advertising, promotions, and other brand manifestations that the

consumer has seen and received about the brand over a period of time. It is, in other words,

his experience with the brand modified by certain perceptions, previous beliefs, biases,

social norms, and a level of forgetfulness1.

Due to a finite level of information retention in human mind coupled with the fact that other

variables mentioned above modify perceptions, the image on the consumer's side may not

be 100% identical with the identity. The reasons can be clarified with the help of the

following explanations:

· Your inability to continuously advertise may become one factor putting your brand

out of the mind of the consumer.

· Your bias about the origin (from a certain geographic area) of the product may

change the product's image in your mind.

· Your beliefs about the way a product should or should not be used may affect

product's image.

Communication: The vehicle that transmits brand's identity to the target market for

creation of the right image is communication. To ensure that image remains as close to

identity as possible, companies get into communications of different kinds. This is where

brand communication takes an important stage. Correct communication goes a long way in

creating and building brand identity.

In the words of Philip Kotler, "communication is an interactive dialogue between the

company and its customers that takes place at the pre-selling, selling, consuming, and post-

consuming stages"2 This implies that communication is a recurring process that starts

before you buy (advertising, promotions, and other), remains in force while you buy (the

brand itself communicates), and does not end even after you have consumed the brand

(brand's ability to satisfy you keeps reminding you of being loyal to it). It goes on and on.

It further means that communication is not restricted to the traditional communication

platform, which is advertising, promotions, public relations, personal selling, and also some

technologically advanced ways of reaching the consumers through e-mail and internet-

based direct marketing. The working of three models can be graphically illustrated as

follows:

Figure 6

Source: Jean-Noel Kapferer: Strategic Brand Management; Kogan Page

Brand Management (MKT624)

All components of brand's personality discussed earlier also form brand contact points that

strengthen or weaken customers' view of the brand, and, hence, work as brand communicators.

We, as brand managers, have to assess which impressions can influence the customer's buying

process more so that we can direct our communication toward that point.

Brand Dimensions

Having understood the three models, namely, brand identity, brand image and communication,

we can go ahead with our discussion of the dimensions of brands, which is graphically

represented hereunder:

Figure 7

Brand Management (MKT624)

Functions: Every brand has a reason for being. If managers have correctly created a brand

that fulfills a particular "need" in a convincing way, then their understanding of the brand is

clear about what function the brand is going to fulfill.

Functions, therefore, stand for the central purpose of a brand. Why it exists? What need(s) it

fulfills? Whose need (target market) it fulfills? Starting point in the process of brand

development, the functions are carefully studied before making the decision for brand's

introduction. Management must be clear about the value the brand is going to offer its

customers and the value it will generate for the company.

Differentiation: In order to fulfill a certain need, a brand has to have a certain level of

differentiation, which refers to different and extra features. It is these extra features that

attract your target and offer them value.

In the age of fierce competition, the comparison is not between products that are perceived

as "passed products" and "failed products". The competition is among excellent products.

According to Kapferer, some brands (products) are "more excellent" than others.

Differentiation can take so many shapes and forms. Apart from extra physical attributes of a

brand, differentiation may also take place in terms of creative distribution channels and

promotions.

The source: The source company is important in terms of its reputation. Consumers as well

as trade members who play an important role in promoting brands to consumers gauge

commitment of producers that they may have with their brands in light of their reputation,

history, and image in the market place.

Two brands of equally good quality by two different companies may not enjoy the same

level of following and loyalty. The one offered by a company with strong reputation in all

probability will have a better chance of gaining a wider customer base. Businesses must

carefully consider this source dimension to continually improve their reputation and

leverage their brand(s).

Personality/Image: Personality and image have been discussed in detail as part of identity

and image models and offer themselves as very important dimensions of any brand

management effort.

The reason for a separate discussion on identity and image models ahead of discussion on

dimensions stems from the fact that they are always at the center of any overall dimensional

model that may be described differently from the one above. Actually, different authors

have explained the dimensional model in different ways with terminologies different from

the four dimensions explained above. To understand any models, an understanding of

identity and image must take precedence over anything else.

What is of significance is that all the dimensions around the essence have to be consistent and

they must complement each other. The more consistent they are the stronger is the essence and

the brand identity.

Brand Management (MKT624)

Glossary of terms

Direct marketing: A direct marketing system is an interactive system without the help of any

intermediaries. The seller seeks direct orders from buyers who are influenced by one or more

advertising or promotional media.

Brand contact points: All those functional areas that interface with that of brand management,

namely finance, production, purchasing and supply chain, human resources, and information

systems and technology to name the major ones.

Bibliography

1. Geoffrey Randall: "Branding A Practical Guide to Planning your Strategy"; Kogan Page

(6)

Other suggested readings

Jean-Noel Kapferer: "Strategic Brand Management"; Kogan Page (90-119)

Table of Contents: