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Branding According to Philip Kotler brand is define as a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors (1997: 443). The American Marketing Association which it is essentially a sellers promise to consistently deliver a specific set of features, benefit & services to the buyers and the best brand convey a warranty of quality. (Philip K. , 1980) A brand can convey up to six levels of meaning. Namely, attribute, benefit, value, culture, personality and user. A brand first brings to mind certain attributes. Thus, the word Informatics, which is an Information Technology education center gives the impression of information through technology and their main programme is Information Technology (IT) related. A brand is more than a set of attributes, consumers are not buying attributes; they are buying benefits.
Attributes need to be translated into functional and / or emotional benefits. Philip Kotler (1980: 444). The brand also says something about the producers values. Thus, Informatics has built its reputation through information technology programmes. Therefore, graduates who graduated from Informatics will have a better job opportunity as they graduated from a reputable institution. The brand may represent a certain culture.
The brand can also project a certain personality. If the brand were a person, an animal, or an object, what would come to mind? Informatics may represent an IT expert (person), a reigning lion (animal), or an austere palace (object). The brand suggests the kind of consumer who buys or uses the product or service. (Philip K. , 1994) Much earlier advertising and marketing (in the literal sense) were thus done on a personal basis, with the name of a particular individual as important as that of his product or service. The modern development of this can be seen in the name of the private shopkeeper over his shop, and some of the best-known chain store names have originated as that over a single establishment. [In the earliest days shops, as distinct from individuals, were quick to devise a good method of selling their wares. This was the use of pictures.
In Rome, for example, a butchers shop would display a sign depicting a row of hams, a shoemaker one of a boot, a diary a crude sketch of a cow. ] (John M. Murphy, 1992) The need to select a brand name that could be as effective internationally as nationally was a factor that was appreciated early on by companies. It is interesting to examine the ways in which some of the most famous names originated and to see to what extent they have actually become effective in the many different languages of the world. Two well-known brand names that were created within a year or two of each other (both in the United States) are Coca-Cola and Kodak. The first of these is a meaningful name, while the other has no meaning. The name Coca-Cola is based on two of the products original constituents extracts from coca leaves and from the cola nut.
Sales of the drink grew so rapidly that its name was soon popularly shortened to Coke. The product is today unique in having two equally well-known brand names; one chiefly used for the international market (Coca-Cola) and the other one mainly adopted by English-speaking consumers (Coke). Both names are, however, of identical legal status in most countries. Even so, the fact that there are now many types of cola drink on the market constantly prompts the company to remind the public of the interconnection between the two names. Hence the clever slogan of the mid- 1980 s Coca-Cola is Coke, Coke is Coca-Cola. (Hart S. , J.
Murphy, 1998) Brand equity refers to the value inherent in a well-known brand name. (Leon 1994. pp. 230) It only exists if income streams over and above the average for the sector or segment result from putting a particular brand name on a product or service. Regardless of the measures selected, it is essential that managers track their brand equity on regular basis. Managers are continually striving to fine-tune their strategies over the brands life cycle. To effectively measure brand equity, managers need to appreciate that brand equity is a dynamic concept and thus it needs tracking.
The dynamic nature of brand equity can be appreciated from a particularly helpful evolutionary model developed by Gordon and his colleagues (1994), shown in Fig. 1. 1. of Appendix A. When a new brand is developed, it initially exists only through its physical characteristics. For the brand to be born, two decisions must be taken: a brand name and a positioning strategy must be agreed.
The former is critical because it contributes to the brand identity and can also communicate information about the product performance or ease of use. Brand names, on the other hand, started to develop little more than a century ago and many of them have been in existence for a much shorter time than that. Meanwhile, the creation of new brand names continues, and although methods of devising and selecting them that are infinitely more sophisticated today that at any previous time. For example, the brand name Netscape Navigator clearly states the function of the product, a guide to visitors to the Internet, and underlines its characteristics of user-friendliness and reliability. Positioning is critical because it determines the brands desired competitive set and it is against these, if consumers perceptions also concur with managers, that relative brand strength will ultimately be measured. At this stage, bipolar maps of the functional attributes of competing brands are very useful to appreciate similarity / dissimilarity .
When the brand is launched, managers have to look at three objectives: the attainment of brand awareness; the development of favorable associations; and the involvement of consumers (Philip K. 1980: 444) so that they will want to try the new brand and purchase it. To achieve these goals, managers need to skillfully blend the elements of the marketing mix. Public are repeatedly exposed to the brand, they become more familiar with it. Their degree of brand awareness depends on their ability to recall any promotional messages and the brands availability. At this point, institutions need to focus on efficient communication and gaining distribution. Once public become familiar with the brand in their consideration set.
For example - Informatics, the name itself give an impression of information technology, thus, from the name we are aware of it providing information technology related courses. The long-term success of a brand, however, is influenced by consumers perception of its value, which are often based on functional and psychological attributes. There is a greater likelihood of success when marketers create some unique performance characteristic, which appeal to be sufficiently large number of consumers. Consumers judgments of the brands quality are based on both objective measures, such as past experiences and associated cues, for example the packaging and color. George E. Belch (1995.
p. 39) also noted that Traditionally, packaging provide functional benefits such as economy, protection & storage. Past experiences can have a substantial impact on consumers perceptions of quality. Price is an indicator of the relative risk consumers perceives when they choose one brand over brand. However, consumers are generally faced with a reasonably wide choice of brands at different price levels.
Their choice is influenced by their evaluation of the price difference justifies the risk incurred by their evaluation of whether the price difference justifies the risk incurred in switching from their regular brand to a new one. Eventually the new brand becomes part of the consumers brand repertoire. Brand loyalty is a measure of a consumers attachment to a specific brand and is a function of several factors such as the perceived quality of the brand, its perceived value, its image, the trust placed in the brand, and the commitment the consumer feels towards it. Committed consumers guarantee future income streams as well as facilitating brand extensions by transferring any positive associations to new brands. In recent competitive business environments, consumers have been exposed to a proliferation of brand choice alternatives.
Fisher (1985) states Marketers battling to keep competitors from grabbing off customers complain that there just doesnt seem to be as much as brand loyalty around as there used to be. This compliant means that it is not easy to obtain and maintain consumers product, since there are many forces driving consumers to be unload (e. g. , competitions, consumers thirst for variety, etc). In order for managers to cope with forces of disloyalty among consumers, they need to have an accurate method to measure and predict brand loyalty. However, it has seemed impossible to obtain an objective and general measurement of brand loyalty, because brand loyalty has been differently defined and operational ized by a number of scholars.
The diverse definition and operational ization of brand loyalty has been in part due to the various aspects of brand loyalty (e. g. behavioral and attitudinal brand loyalty). Cognitive aspects of brand loyalty make it possible to predict what purchase behavior would be followed by a certain cognitive response. For example, a bad attitude toward a certain brand would result in switching behavior...
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Research essay sample on Product Or Service Coca Cola
