CCMC Task 5 - "How to create a brand strategy?"

CCMC: Task 5

"How to create a brand strategy?"

Find questions to:

LO1: "What is the process of brand strategy?" (employee involvement)
LO2: "Who implements the strategy?" (internal or external)

LO3: "Why are brand architectures different?" (national examples)

1. What is the process of brand strategy?

Companies which are starting their business from the scratch should think of a brand strategy first in order to create a strong brand. A strong brand strategy helps to develop an even stronger brand in future.

Get creative:

Brands should be unique and different and stand out among the competitors.To engage with the customer, companies should be aware of what the competitors are doing, they should react and improve their brand. If it is standing out, customer will favour it over the competitor's brand.

Goes along with a lot of research.

Relate: 

Companies should get to know their customers and try to find out about their needs and wants to build up a brand which they can easily relate to.

Inspriation: 

Research and finding out, what inspires customer is important to get a long term relationship and make them passionate about the brand.

Timing and Execution:

Sticking to the marketing plan is important to have perfect timing and execution.

Presentation:

Taking time in developing a brand is important, as customers can see a higher quality related to the brand. 

 (URL: http://ureadthis.com/create-brand-strategy/)

 The brand strategy should correspond to the characteristics of the brand, product or service. 

Main guidelines from the video:

1. Engage everyone in branding efforts

2. Be clear, consistent and coherent

3. Listen to your people (employees)

4. Message should reflect reality

5. Stay focussed

6. Try to keep the brand's promise

Existent Brand/Existent Product  >>> Brand development strategy:

both are already existing in the company's portfolio. The brand and the product/service have always be developed, as customer wishes and needs and also the environment is continuously changing. 

New Brand/Existent Product >>> Rebranding:

in order to react to changes in demand, existing products have to be rebranded. Not only the name is changed but also some major features of the brand itself. The package should remain recognisable. 

New Brand/New Product >>> Brand Introduction:

creation of a new brand/product is required. It is a complex process, consisting of: 

- market research

- objective setting

- segmentation 

- positioning

- planning

- implementation

- performance measurement

- control

 

Existing Brand/New Product >>> brand Extension/Umbrella Branding

Brand Extension: if a product represents only extensions of already existing product lines

Umbrella Branding: if an innovative product is released

BRAND STRATEGY is a part of the marketing stratey, so consistency among the marketing mix instruments should be garanteed (4 Ps) as well as among the stages of strategic process (objective setting, planning implementation and control).

 Branding from the inside out

when creating new brands, companies often forget about one of their main point of the developing process: their employees.

They always should be engaged, bought-in, communicated to continuously and involved in the process of branding.

Employees, especially those, who are in direct contact with customers, have a major impact on the buying action and the customer itself. If employees are really involved in the whole process, they will be more engaged and show a higher enthusiasm when communicating with the buyers, which can result in higher employee-motivation, higher satisfaction and a higher productivity.

Besides that effect, employees can also communicate and find solutions for customer reclamations, new trends or changes in needs and wants of customers and therefore they are an important tool in recreating or developing brands or products.

Best practices supporting branding from the inside out

• Direct communication

• Marketers must work closely with HR and leadership to build carefully integrated programs that leverage a variety of channels
• Effective brand communications starts with a positive workplace—one that is filled with individuals who believe in your mission and can communicate your brand effectively
• If your employees don’t buy into your company’s brand and what you stand for, chances are they won’t support your efforts and help you grow
• Make sure your staff understands and can deliver the brand promise, especially in the service sector where the relationship between employees and customers is the product the company sells
• Communicate to educate: Every time you interact with staff you have an opportunity to reinforce your brand communications which may include your positive culture, mission and vision, respect, values, and compassionate work environment

• Depending on the size of your business, you may want to consider segmenting staff—since they are not necessarily a homogeneous group—and develop messages that speak to individual and/or functional benefits
• Beware of conflicting messages and “program du jour” syndrome; make an effort to proactively and clearly show the links between brand and other corporate initiatives especially NEW initiatives or other organizational changes (i.e. structure, management changes, etc.)
• Involve the “real experts”—the staff—in the process of translating the brand into real and relevant behaviors; the challenge in many organizations is actually figuring out what needs to change in terms or service levels and the behaviors of front-line employees who actually deliver against the brand

 http://www.how-to-branding.com/Branding-Inside-Out.html

2. Who implements the strategy?

Outsourcing is becoming more and more important nowadays. Creating a strong brand is helping in many ways e.g. to help securing new customers, growing the business franchise or improving margins. Therefore companies will not leave their futures in the hands of amateurs. There are many different reasons companies decide to outsource branding. 

Advantages:

- safes money

- safes capacity of employees

- no internal changes necessary

- safes time

- sharing of risk

- offered know-how/experience

- building up a seperate department could be cost-intensiv --> cost effectiveness

- prevents company blindness

On the other hand disadvantages of outsourcing might be:

- no focus on just one brand (several brands at the same time)

- not knowing the customers 

- risk of inconsistency

- hidden costs can occur

- choosing the wrong agency

- risk of loosing confidential information

 http://www.sacinfosystems.com/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-outsourcing-a-summarily-made-report

Mainly, companies will hire externals, if they have no ability to:

- Analyze the marketplace

- Isolating the needs and wants of perspective and existing customers

- Creating a compelling brand idea

 http://www.brand-taxi.com/branding-can-differentiate-an-outsourcing-company-to-grow-business-and-profits/

3. Why are brand architectures different?

Different brand architectures help to define the certain relationships and roles between brands so that consumers can relate to and build up a relationship to the product(s). Depending on the certain goals a company wants to reach with it's product strategy, which and how many products it wants to offer, it can choose from different branding categories, e.g. if a company aims to have a broad range, they might create a super brand with a lot of sub-brands from the same product family. 

There are a few questions, which should be considered:

• What is the optimum number of brands that you should have in your portfolio?
• What is the role, purpose, and positioning of each brand in your portfolio including your corporate (parent, umbrella, system, etc.) brand?
• What is the optimum relationship or linkage between the brands in your portfolio?
• What are the key considerations and inputs needed to guide future scenarios?
• What are the strategic and financial implications that should these decisions?
• Which defines a "driver" brand or strategic brand vs. sub-brands?

Referring to "The Brand Relationship Spectrum - the key to the brand architecture challenge" it consists of 4 different types of brands:

- House of Brands

- Endorsed Brands

- Subbrands (different to Super Brand in the above picture)

- Branded House

Companies mostly are not concentrating on one certain category of brands but they will use a mixture of all spectrum elements in their product range. The important thing in creating a good product sortiment, is to have a good mixture, where all products fit in and the whole range still remains coherent.

 

 

SOURCES:

Ranchhod, Ashok and Gurau, Calin. Marketing Strategies. A contemporary approach. Harlow, second edition, page 178 - 180

URL: http://ureadthis.com/create-brand-strategy/

URL: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/409898003557672429/

URL: http://www.how-to-branding.com/Branding-Inside-Out.html

URL: http://www.brand-taxi.com/branding-can-differentiate-an-outsourcing-company-to-grow-business-and-profits/

URL: http://www.sacinfosystems.com/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-outsourcing-a-summarily-made-report

URL: http://www.monigle.com/branding/brandarchitecture

Aaker, David A. and Joachimsthaler, Erich. The Brand Relationship Spectrum. The key to the brand architecture challenge in California Management Revue, Vol. 42, No.4 Summer 2000