BRANDING

By
Jyothi K.R
Nadia Farook
Jayasree S
Surya K.V
S2 MBA
Insitute of Management in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram
E-mail: jyothisha@sify.com
 

BRANDING

Brand signifies reputation and symbolic meaning attached to a brand. Branding is an integral part of the overall marketing strategy. For the consumers a brand name is a means of identification of products as well as means of differentiation of the branded products from its rivals.

DEFINITION:

American Marketing Association "a brand is a name, term symbol or design or a combination of them which is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors"

Significance of Branding:

1. It enables national advertisement of a specific product and it is presold through advertising

2. It enables the firm assured control over the market. When brand are successfully and effectively promoted the very existence of the middlemen depends up on a continued supply of each brand.

3. It also reduces price flexibility

4. If a firm has one or more lines of branded goods it can add a new item to its list easily and the new item can enjoy all the advantages of branding immediately.

Reasons for Branding:

Branding is the most powerful of sales promotion they are as follows

1. Ever increasing competition

2. Importance of packaging as a distinct marketing function

3. Need for advertising and publicity

4. Development of consumer brand consciousness as brand image in their mind.

Relevance of Branding:

The strategic importance of branding is that it enables the firm to position or differentiate their offerings from the competitors. It means putting the product it the predetermined orbit. The importance of branding are:

1. A brand enables the firm to segment the market and focus the requirements of the specific group of customers

2. It provides enduring value to the firm

3. It tries to protect the innovation

5. A brand doesn't fade from the memories soon

6. Even if the product die the brand will sustain

Special consideration in Branding of a commodity:

The major issues involved in the branding of any commodity are

i. Offering sufficient value to the customer to induce a change from a commodity to a branded option

ii. Role and degree of consumer involvement in buying decision

iii. Segmenting the market, selecting a target segment and positioning of the product to match with the target segment characteristic

iv. Communicating the positioning to the target customers expectation

v. Appropriate price -quality position offering sufficient turnover and long term growth

vi. Setting and controlling distribution

vii. Selecting suitable packaging

viii. Channelising marketing investment for brand building.

Brand building is a conscious customer satisfaction orientation process. Branding involves cost apart from additional cost involved in labeling, advertising legal protection and a risk that if the brand should prove unsatisfactory to the user the companies image would suffer and it may even affect market for other products of the company.
 

Jyothi K.R, Nadia Farook, Jayasree S, Surya K.V
S2 MBA
Insitute of Management in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram
E-mail: jyothisha@sify.com
 

Source : E-mail June 3, 2005