Effective Brand Management

The key to creative and effective branding of any program, product, service or institution is finding the right positioning--to drive the advertising and other marketing tools. It doesn't have to be complicated or weird. In fact, if it's good and effective, it's simple and will follow this "Rule of consumers"--"You are what you appear to be." This position, or 'brand' is really an identity (not in your mind but in your audience's)--a way people can sort through all the confusing information and summarize what they think about something.

The benefits of measuring brand value touch on almost every aspect of the business, from strategy and management to finances, marketing, and even the legal department. Brand value is a factor when analyzing returns on marketing drives, brand portfolio, or brand performance, even management performance. Brand value is key when evaluating a company for the purposes of M&A or in the event of ownership disputes, licensing lawsuits, partnership conflicts, and licensing agreements.

The product and its characteristics are fundamental to creating high brand equity. Comparisons cannot be drawn between products and services provided in a saturated market to those in "blue oceans," which can grow much more and for which the consumer will pay much greater premiums. Therefore, brand equity is not only a function of the brand itself, but is also influenced by market characteristics such as regulation, entry barriers, and steadiness of demand.

Corporate brand by any measure is very important to contemporary organisations. Corporate brand has become a valuable asset for a company, which some times have value beyond the book value.

Ingredient Brands are those product components that not only add functional value, their logo on a main branded product or service adds to its own brand power to retain customer loyalty, evoke customer preference, and support premium price points. An ingredient brand not only adds value to a host brand's equity, in mature markets it can also create or enhance differentiation.

The Brand Plan is a strategic master Brand Plan that will contain specific internal and external strategies and tactics, all with the goal of turning your brand into a work of art. It's a brandmaster action Brand Plan that encompasses:
Brand objectives
Brand positioning, the promise of the brand
Brand strategy & tactics

The same holds true for that other killer app of the Net -- email. When everybody has email and anybody can send you email, how do you decide whose messages you're going to read and respond to first -- and whose you're going to send to the trash unread? The answer: personal branding. The name of the email sender is every bit as important a brand -- is a brand -- as the name of the Web site you visit. It's a promise of the value you'll receive for the time you spend reading the message.

Every company has a brand (how people think of them) whether they created it through design or accident. By creating your brand through design, you shape the way you wish your company to be viewed by customers and potential customers. This will remove some of the uncertainty concerning what others will expect from you and say about you. The power of a brand can't be over-estimated. The Golden Arches are known worldwide.

Branding involves not just the product name, advertisements, or the use of a logo, but the core assumptions and beliefs that are conjured up when one thinks of the brand. The best brands were those who could generate a certain psychological feeling about the product. Thus, the "brand essence" moved away from a focus on the product and toward a psychological association of the brand with a certain identity.

Cultural branding is probably the most American of all branding strategies in that it uses cultural icons and "brand religion" to establish and sustain a brand myth with which individual consumers can passionately identify. The focus is not so much on the product or service as it is on the relationship between the cultural icon and the product and the brand myth that the consumer buys into. The most successful brand myths address acute contradictions in society that touch people at a very deep level.

Brand differentiation and brand relevance are both important on their individual merits. However, a strong brand identity is only formed when an organization blends its differentiation with relevance. McKinsey & Company defines brand differentiation as "...the ability for a brand to stand apart from its competitors. A brand should be as unique as possible. Brand health is built and maintained by offering a set of differentiating promises to consumers and delivering those promises to leverage value.

Brands are valuable simply because they cause customers to be inclined to purchase your product rather than someone else's. In a way, a brand is shorthand for the things the customer can expect from your product. In products that hold little meaning for the customer, this might be worth less, but in markets where the customer invests his or her ego in the purchase of a particular brand, that meaning can be priceless. Let's look at some examples to see where branding may or may not be important.

The brand measurements can be classified in three categories: Brand perception, Brand performance, and Brand financial value. Each category consists of several KPIs, which contribute to the total brand value.

As a result of the brand evaluation using Balanced Scorecard or KPI, the company can determine the current value of the brand equity compared to its short-term and long-term objectives.



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