Concept of Product Concept of Product and Brand and Brand

ManagementManagement

Concept of Product Concept of Product and Brand and Brand

ManagementManagement

By MaxwellBy Maxwell

To how many brands did you get expose today

• Think of getting up• Going to the toilet• Getting into the car/bus• On your way listening to radio• On your way on the roadsides• So we live in a world of brands…• …..

Babies may be born with brands on them as they get exposed to

thousands of brand names when they are in the mothers womb???

• So how does the modern day new born would look like ?

• Just exagerate,,, You will see the baby like this…..

• The name brand comes from the word brander which means “to burn”. As still seen in our country in the olden days cattle owners burned the skin of animals to identify them with their own specific mark. So the core concept of branding is still the same and it serves to identify and differentiate from others of your product

• Kotamuda PACHCHAYAK ?

• AMA defines a brand as “Name, term, sign or symbol or design or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiate from those of competitors.”

Do not look at me you start talking….

Brands and Products• What is the difference of Products and Brands• A product could be defined as anything that

could be offered to satisfy a need or want of a consumer.

• It could be a physical good, a service, person, place, idea, etc. `

• There are many similar products that serve the same purpose. eg. The are so many pens

• When these products are attached with brands they become different. Eg. Parker, Waterman, Scheffer, Atlus, Hero, Bic

• Therefore a brand is a product that adds other dimensions that differentiate from other products designed to satisfy the same need.

• These dimensions may be – Rational and tangible ( quality, performance,

size, colour etc)– Irrational, emotional or intangible

( perception, personality, image, some association )

Product management or Brand Management

• If products do not carry brand names we are talking about “Product Management” But almost all the products now carry a brand and therefore we are talking about

“ Brand management”

Do not look at me you start talking….

What would we study under brand management

• We would study the brand from its inception to the end.

• We will discuss important decisions that would be taken throughout the Life Cycle of a brand

• How to create strong brands, major ways to build customer based brand equity, manage them strategically, how to reinforce, revitalise and retire brands would be discussed .

Different strategeis have been used by companies to brand their products.

• Company name is always used with the brand; Siddhlepa, Damro, Arpico, Singer, LG, Hewlet Packard, General Electric

• No company name is used: individual brand names are given: lux, signal, surf excel, astra, fair and lovely, Hico, debutante, rexona of Uni Lever

• Tide, pampers, Pantene of Proctor and Gamble• Band names based on people: Jinadsage

Thalaguli, Peire Cardine, Estee lauder, Calvin Cline, Geogio Armani, “Neville Warnakulasuriya ““ Maxwel Ranasinghe” ???

• Brand names based on place: Champaign, British Airways,

• Animals, birds: Dove soap, Robin blue, Kiwi polish, Jaguar cars,

• Brand names with inherent product meanings: Multibond, Suntec, Tropicana, flora,Dialog, mobitel, celltell

• Coined words: SONY, AJAX, • Brand with names of Gods- Nike, Sprite,

Atlus,

• Top 10 Brands in year 2008

Do not look at me you start talking….

Brand and Trade Marks

• There are so many ways that brands could be formed and used. However, according to the Intellectual Property Code of Sri Lanka there are many restrictions to registration of brands as Trade marks. If one needs to obtain exclusive right for the usage of a brand that brand has to be registered under the IPC.

• There are two different sections applies to the brand name registrability. ( objective grounds and third party rights)

Product Concept• The product has five levels according to

Kotler: eg. Hotel room• Core product ( accomodation )• Generic product ( a comfortable room with

bed, attached bathroom, chairs, wardrobe with mirror)

• The expected product ( clean room with clean bed and linen, A/c or a fan, a clean bathroom with good flow of water, a bell to call, telephone, TV, room service on call)

• The augmented product( remote controlled A/C and TV, silently operated A/C, mini fridge, a hair dryer, set of toiletries, travel Guide, writing pad, hot and cold water dispenser, laundry service on call)

• Potential product( Complimentary fruit basket, free ticket to the Disco or spar, computer with internet connection, cable TV, Mini coffee maker, bottle of wine on the house, computer with internet connection, SIM Card and a phone, free foot massage, dedicated room service, many other facilities)

• It could be observed from the market place that most of the products do not make a big difference upto the expected level. The difference is seen basically at the augmented level where marketers play a big role to show that their product differs from others.

• Harvard’s Ted Levitts points out that “ the new competition is not between what companies produce at factory level but between what they add to their product in the form of packaging, branding, advertising, delivery, after sales, guarantees that people value.”

• In my opinion a wider meaning of the brand could be described as a product that the marketers have attached various attributes more of emotional than logical. Further in this process marketers have made simple product concept into a complex one to make it much different from others in front of the eyes and minds of consumers. E.g. Expresso Coffee, Levis jeens, Coca Cola, Benz,

• Creating a successful brand is the job of the whole organisation. Marketers may define what it should be but every one in the company has to nurture it and develop. That is the challenge.

• Almost all the top class brands come from top class companies. So a top class company and a top class brand are two sides of the same coin.

• Discuss some local and foreign brands and their companies.

Can anything be branded?

• Automobiles, computers, pens, furniture, food, water, people, organisations, News papers, magazines. Radio and TV programs, DJs and presenters, lecturers, sermons, healing services, Bana preaching, religions, medicines, places, services, airlines, retail shops, internet services, e mails, sports clubs, massage clinics, sports persons, singers, musicians, movies, politicians, fish vendors, vegetable vendors

Branding in actionBasic branding guidelines• Easy to pronounce• Memorable• Protectable• Adaptable• Differentiates • Derivative

Do not look at me you start talking….

Importance of branding• Consumers

– Identification of the product– Risk reducer– Search cost reducer– Assurance of expected quality– Association, bond with the maker– Symbolic device to project self image.

• Manufacturers– Distinguish its products from others– Legally protecting the product– Ability to portray the product differently

and promote it– Creating a competitive advantage– Make an association with the consumers– Creating a transferable Asset

Brand leadership changes

• Over time due to variouse factors in the market place brand leadership changes

• Peter Golder a US Professor has studies this subject in detail in comparing two periods 1923 and 1997 taking similar product categories

• He found only 23% of the category leaders in 1923 were in top list 1997

• He also found that 28% of the category leaders in 1923 has failed in 1997

• He found none of the clothing category leaders in 1923 were in 1997 top list

• Similarly with changing world leadership in the top 10 position in all brands also changes . Eg. Long standing Top leadership of Coca Cola has been replaced now by web browser Google.

• Compare and contrast top lists of few years and find the difference.

Brand equity• Simply the brand equity is the” value placed

by customers on a particular brand”. However, it is more of subjective and intangible values given by the customers rather than its objectively perceived value.

• Brand names are not just trade marks for customers but “trust marks” or rather a “love marks” when it is concerned with brand equity. It is a wider concept for the consumer.

• Strategic Brand management Process plays a vital role in developing Brand Equity

Strategic Brand Management Process

• Identify & establish brand positions• Planning & implementing brand marketing

programs• Measuring & interpreting brand performance• Growing & sustaining brand equity

Brand Management Challenges

• More knowledgeable customers• More complex brand extensions• Maturing markets• Increased competition• Ability to copy any feature• Difficulty in differentiation

• Growth of private labels• Very strongly guarded brands• Fragmented media – so many channels,

swapping behavior• Eroding effectiveness of the traditional media• Emerging new communication options• Increasing cost of promotions• Decreased promo budgets• Increasing cost New Product Development• Short term expectation of equity holders

What to expect

Ohama Yang……