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BRAND MANAGEMENT, RESEARCH, THEORY AND PRACTICE ( Part 1) - Coggle Diagram

- - - - • The identity approach: the brand as linked to corporate identity.
      - • The consumer-based approach: the brand as linked to consumer associations.
      - • The personality approach: the brand as a human-like character.
      - • The relational approach: the brand as a viable relationship partner.
      - • The community approach: the brand as the pivotal point of social interaction.
      - • The cultural approach: the brand as part of the broader cultural fabric
      - • The economic approach: the brand as part of the traditional marketing mix.
  - - - A name. term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them which to intended to identify the goods or services of one sellers or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors ( The American Marketing Association - in 1960)
    - - A brand audit assesses the health of a brand. Typically, it consists of a brand
        inventory and a brand exploratory. The brand inventory is a detailed internal
        description of exactly how the brand has been marketed. The brand exploratory is an external investigation of what the brand means to consumers (through focus groups and other marketing research techniques).
    - - A brand community is a social entity where consumers interact socially with a brand as the pivotal point of their interaction Brand communities take place in Internet-based settings, in geographically bound clubs, and at so-called brand Fests (social gatherings arranged by the marketer). The emergence of brand communities implies a shift in negotiation power between marketer and consumer as consumers claim more power when acting in groups.
    - - Brand culture is a term that has been increasingly used over the last few years. It sometimes refers to the organizational culture of the brand and sometimes to the brand as part of the broader cultural landscape
    - - Brand equity defines the value of the brand and can refer to two understandings of brand value, namely a strategic, subjective understanding or brand equity as a financial, objective expression of the value of the brand. In the financial understanding of brand equity, the concept is a way to account for how much value a brand holds. Brand equity is one of the intangible entries on the balance sheet (like goodwill and know-how). Being able to account for how much the brand holds is extremely important, both in relation to financial statement, mergers, acquisitions, and as a tool for brand managers to argue their case. The subjective understanding of brand equity refers to the consumers’ perception The subjective understanding of brand equity refers to the consumers’ perception Consumers are the ones who experience the brand, and their perception of brand equity can be defined as: ‘A consumer perceives a brand’s equity as the value added to the functional product or service by associating it with the brand name’ (Aaker and Biel 1993 p. 2). Creation of brand equity is at the heart of brand management and the seven brand approaches feature seven varied perspectives on how to work strategically with brand equity optimization
    - - Most academic brand management authors agree that every brand has an identity and that every brand identity contains an essence (DNA or kernel) that is the very core of the brand. The brand essence is most often an abstract idea or sentence summarizing what is the heart and soul of the brand. In order for the brand not to become compromized, the brand essence should stay the same over the course of time and no marketing actions that will compromise the brand essence should be allowed.
    - - A brand can be extended into new product categories. Brand extensions are often necessary when adapting to changes in the environment or in order to reap the full benefits of a strong brand. Extensions have many benefits. In the beginning, brand extensions were used as a strategic tool mainly to enter new markets (Aaker and Keller 1990). Today, brand extensions are also used to underpin and develop the brand to meet market changes . A successful brand extension should respect the brand essence and thereby be based on the core of the brand and be true to the brand vision. If a brand is extended to a product category or to clients in a way that does not at all consider the core of the original brand, both brands risk dilution
    - - A genealogist goes back in history, uncovers family histories and constructs family trees. Brand genealogy is a managerial mindset introduced in the cultural branding model (Holt 2004) where the brand manager goes back and uncovers the brand’s history. In the cultural approach, it is assumed that brands play important roles in mainstream culture and that the ways they play these roles determine their level of success
    - - An exclusive elite of valuable brands can claim icon status, which is considered the holy grail of brand management. An iconic brand holds references that most people agree upon and it obtains that status by playing an active role in contemporary culture.
    - - Brand identity refers to the identity of the brand. There are many different perception of what the brand identity consists of. But the more common definition of brand identity is that it is; ‘a set of associations the brand strategist seek to create. or maintain’ (Aaker and Joachimsthaler 2002, p. 43). The brand identity is hence something that the marketer ‘has’ as well as something he tries to create through
        the right brand strategy. The brand identity must express the particular vision and uniqueness of the brand – what the brand stands for basically, and the brand identity must be of a long-lasting or permanent nature. If the brand identity is both unique, distinct, and a clear expression of what the brand is all about as well as long-lasting, then it can create the basis of a solid, coherent and long-lasting brand and be the driver of all brand-related activities
    - - The image of the brand is the perception of the brand by consumers. The goal of working strategically with brand image is to ensure that consumers hold strong and favourable associations of the brand in their minds. The brand image typically consists of multiple concepts: perception, because the brand is perceived cognition, because that brand is cognitively evaluated; and finally attitude, because consumers continuously after perceiving and evaluating what they perceive form consumers continuously after perceiving and evaluating what they perceive form. Brand image is the pivotal point of the consumer-based approach (chapter 6, this book).
    - - Achieving a high degree of loyalty is an important goal in the branding process. Loyal consumers are valuable consumers because it is much more expensive to recruit new customers than nursing and keeping existing ones. Brands are important vehicles when building consumer loyalty as they provide recognizable fix points in the shopping experience
    - - Consumers display a tendency to endow brands with human-like personalities. Working strategically with brand personalities has been a widespread practice for many years. The Big Five of human personality psychology and Jungian archetype are frameworks often implied to deepen the symbolic exchange between brands and consumers. Brand personality is part of most identity systems in the traditional brand management books.
    - - A brand portfolio is the range of brands a company has in the market. How the brand portfolio is managed relates to strategic issues of brand architecture, market segmentation and product versus corporate branding
    - - The idea of brand positioning is based on the assumption that consumers have limited mind space for commercial messages and that the most successful brands hence are the ones able to position themselves in the minds of consumers by adapting the most congruent and consistent commercial message.
    - - The relationship metaphor has been added to the general vocabulary of brand management after having been associated with business-to-business marketing for a number of years. Consumers can perceive certain brands as viable relationship partners and achieving that position can be an important goal in the brand management process. Brand relation (like brand personality) is also part of the traditional brand identity models. Understanding brand relationships implies a deeper understanding of brand loyalty as the brand relation provides an understanding of how and why the brand is consumed, where brand loyalty answers if the brand is being consumed
    - - A brand sometimes ages and declines in strength because as time goes by it loses its relevance and attractiveness for consumers. There can be different reasons for that ageing or decline in brand relevance, e.g. the brand may not have adapted to changes in the environment or to changes in consumer preferences Sometimes the situation occurs where the brand simply ages along with the ageing of its core consumers. The solution for an ageing brand or a brand in decline can be revitalization The key for brand management when revitalizing a brand is always to start the process by identifying or reviving an existing brand vision and finding new and innovative ways of making that brand vision relevant once again for existing or new consumers
    - - The majority of brand management books feature generic ‘one size fits all’ guidelines for building a brand strategy. It is our conviction that the every brand is unique and requires its own unique recipe for success. The aim of a brand strategy is to enhance the internal and external opportunities of the brand. The brand strategy must be strategic, visionary and proactive rather than tactical and reactive. Each brand must find its own holy grail to success – in the shape of a unique and relevant brand identity and brand vision, which are the first elements that must be in place when developing a brand strategy. potential of the brand. Brand managers must have long-term rather than a short term. focus. If the performance of the brand is based on quarterly sales figures, chances are that the brand strategy will end up being much more tactical than strategic, without enough visionary thinking to drive the growth and the strength of the brand in the future. A prerequisite for making the brand strategy work is that it is closely linked to the business strategy. This means that the brand and the brand strategy should not be perceived as something other than or as an addition to business strategy developed at late stages in a product launch for example. In an ideal world, business and brand strategy should be developed simultaneously and support business and brand strategy should be developed simultaneously and support the brand from competitors. Once the brand vision has been established, a customized range of elements that comprise the brand strategy should be prioritized and developed. The brand strategy will typically consist of a customized range of elements from the seven brand approaches. Each of the seven brand approaches has certain strengths and weaknesses, which is why a customized combination of elements from the relevant approaches that matches the specific challenges and opportunities the brand faces will provide a foundation for the right brand strategy.
    - - It is assumed that all brands have a core that should stay the same over the course of time (see the section about brand essence). When a brand is extended into new product categories, or joins co-branding ventures, its identity is stretched. The trick is to stretch it enough to be able to go in new directions, but never to stretch it to such an extent that the essence is diluted.
    - - Co-branding occurs when two or more brands are combined in a joint product or Co-branding occurs when two or more brands are combined in a joint product or
    - - When the corporation is branded instead of the individual products, a corporate brand is the case. In most literature on corporate branding it is assumed that the energy and inspiration of the brand stem from within the organization and that a branding strategy, in order to be successful, requires the engagement of the whole corporation. Read more in chapter 5 (this book) about the identity approacH
    - - Employee branding is defined as ‘the process by which employees internalize the desired brand image and are motivated to project the image to customers and otherorganizational constituents’ (Miles and Mangold 2004 p. 68). It is a notion resembling the ‘living the brand’ concept a lot; turn to chapter 5 (this book) about the identity approach
    - - The term ‘employer branding’ relates to strategies for communicating about a company as an attractive employer to both current and potential employees. It is a hot management topic at the moment with a corresponding number of books and articles. Employer branding will not be elaborated on in this book; relevant literature to turn to is Barrow and Mosley (2005) emphasizing the interrelationship between HR, communication and top management, and Lievens and Highhouse (2003) about the emotive and tangible benefits for both potential and actual employees.
    - - Employees are important bearers of the brand, especially when it comes to service brands. ‘Living the brand’ is an end-goal in the process of engaging employees in the branding process. Making employees live the brand mean that employees incorporate and live brand values and thereby deliver the brand promise fully to consumers. The concept is briefly reviewed in the identity approach, chapter 5 of this book, other recommended readings are Ind (2001) and Karmark (2005).
    - - A product brand is a brand linked to the product and not to the corporation and describes a situation where each individual product has its own brand. Choosing to brand the corporation or the product is a question of brand architecture. Marketing a product brand holds several advantages, such as the liberty to market to different segments, the ability to close unsuccessful brands without harming the mother corporation, etc. Product branding is compared to corporate branding in figure 5.2 in this book.
    - - Service brands are brands that sell services instead of products. This means that the brand is experienced in the process of consuming the service and that the employee delivering the service becomes a central communicator of the brand. Service brands can benefit from all the same insights as product brands, but as the service encounter requires dedicated employees and human interaction, service brand managers might benefit more from the identity approach and the relational approach (Vallaster and de Chernatony 2005, de Chernatony and Drury 2004).
    - - The term covers mechanisms where consumers help or in some cases take over the marketing of the brand. A marketer who applies a certain amount of ‘coolness’ to the brand often initiates viral branding, the coolness starts a process where consumers spread the brand like a virus. Having consumers support the marketing process, and by their autonomy giving the brand a higher level of authenticity, can be beneficial for the marketer. Still, viral branding implies a risk of a contrary marketing effort, where the brand is ‘hijacked’ and taken in unintended directions through autonomous meaning-making among consumers. Even though a brand community is a narrower concept than viral branding, the mechanisms behind the two concepts are comparable; they are described in the community approachchapter 9. Another suggested read is Brand Hijack: Marketing without Marketing
        by Wipperfürth (2005).