Managing brands overtime

+
Subject:
BRAND BUILDING
Faculty Name:
Vishal Desai
Lesson # 9
MANAGING BRANDS OVER TIME
Batch
(BMM class of 2015)
Year (TY)
India’s premier M-school
Deviprasad Goenka Management College of Media Studies (dgmcms.org.in)

+ INTRODUCTION:
 One of the most important issues facing brand managers is how to
revitalize a brand & keep it relevant and up to date with current trends
 Honest and rigorous dedication is required to build strong brands
 The brand needs to attract new customers years after years, so that
volumes and revenues can be generated
 At the same time, the brand experience, which include brand promise,
brand delivery, communication, etc, also needs to be consistent, so
that it does not alienate the existing customers
 For example:
• Cadbury – has been able to reposition itself and has successfully
attracted new customers and at the same time been able to retain the
existing customers

+ BRAND CHALLENGES:
 The brand has to consistently deliver in an environment that is
dynamic be it consumers, competitors, or political and legal
environment
 There can be a number of challenges that have to be managed on the
path to success for a strong brand
 Some of them include the following:

+  Quality aspect:
• The quality is the prime satisfier of the need and want of the
consumer
• Organizations, therefore, not only have to design a quality product but
also need to deliver consistent quality over period of time
 Changing consumer trends:
• The world is getting hypercompetitive and consumer trends as well as
consumer purchase behavior, changing consumption patterns,
evolution of the taste and preference of the people are evolving
• Brand managers need to grow and sustain their brand long term so
that the coming generation adopts the brand with the same alacrity
as the previous generation did

+ Introducing technologically advanced products:
• Brands need to evolve to keep pace with advances in technology
• Adoption of technology helps the brand create a buzz and stay young
and relevant for consumers overtime
• For example:
Whirlpool – the brand value has declined due to its ‘technological
obsolescence’
 Growing number of private labels, or the retailers own labels:
• Retailers stand to gain by launching their own private labels as they
get a gross margin of 60-70 percent on private labels compared to the
30 percent from manufacturer brand

+ • Retailers advertise established brands to attract footfalls to their stores
and then sell store brands to price sensitive customers
 Brands becoming generic:
• There are instances of dominant brands in product category that were
so widely used that they became generic for that product category
• For example:
Xerox – the brand name is generally used to mean photocopying
• Organizations need to be very careful when their brand becomes a
market leader
• They constantly need to protect, nurture and communicate the
differences of their brands from the other competing brands to avoid
falling into this trap

+  Lack of effective and consistent communication:
• A brand has to communicate with its target audience to attract new
customers, as inability to attract new customers hastens the decline of
the brand
• A brand that advertises itself and creates top-of-the-mind brand recall
denotes that it is a key player in the market
 Keeping the brand young:
• One of the challenges for brand managers is to keep the brand young
over a period of time
• Consumers need to feel that the brand belongs to them and is not a
‘brand of yore’
• They should feel excited about using the brand and consider it as
their own rather than as their father’s or grandfather’s brand .
Eg: HMT watches

+ REINFORCING BRANDS:
 Brand that are successful in a product category invite competition
 The brand, therefore, needs to reiterate, remind, and reinforce itself to
the customers, so that they are constantly reminded about the brand
benefits, the need it satisfies and how it is superior than other brands
in the same category
 The intention is that the brand should be able to retain the desirable
brand image or reposition itself as a desirable brand in the minds of
consumers
 Such a brand will be relevant and current for the consumers and they
will want to purchase it and be associated with it
 Ways to reinforce brands are as follows:-

+ Advertising
• Helps maintain the noice in the market.
• It has unique ability to simplifying brand worth through broadcast and
narrowcast, online & offline, on pack and off pack advertising message.
• Come out with unique advertising campaigns
• For example:
Vodafone – came up with ZooZoo campaign with a series of 30 ads to
promote their offers & value added services.
 Exhibitions:
• Exhibition is also a vital platform through which a brand can be reinforced
• Through exhibition your brand is demonstrated and tested as buyers and
shoppers come in contact with your brand as and when showcased

+  Events and Sponsorships:
• Events and sponsorship is another viable medium used in
strengthening your brand
• Virtually all brand’s targeted audience can be reached via event
sponsorship
• The obvious areas of sponsorship are sports, arts & culture, music and
entrainment, education, community festivals and broadcast, etc
• For example:
DLF IPL, Pepsi IPL , Airtel F1Grand Prix
 Visual Merchandising:
• This is another platform for brand reinforcement

+ • In store display, window display,store design are vital communication
tools that can guide customers, buyers and prospect towards making
purchases
 Promotions:
• Promotional activities for brands are also a viable technique in
reinforcing brands
• Rewarding customers, providing additional incentive encourage them
to maintain bond with brands
For example:
Lays – called for flavor ideas from consumers in their new campaign
‘Give us your delicious flavor’ where the winning flavor was entitled to
bag a prize of Rs 50 lakh and 1 percent sales commission
Merchandise like cups, T-shirts, bags,etc can be given free with the
product

+ BRAND REVITALIZING:
• There are various examples of the brands that were once performing
well but could not maintain the same performance over a period of
time and faded from consumer’s memory.
• For example:
Forhan’s - a non-foaming fluoride toothpaste brand which was
positioned as the “toothpaste created by dentist”, but could not
face competition by Colgate
Halo shampoo by Colgate-Palmolive
Keo Karpin hair oil
 Brand revitalization involves changes in one or more of the following:
- product content or ingredients, packaging, styling, logo, punch line,
etc.
Eg: New Alto 800, New Wagon R

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Why should you need Brand Revitalization?
 Adjust to changes in the market place in order to remain competitive
and relevant.
 Clarify your leadership position and business direction.
 Respond to new or increasing competitive threats.
 Unify separate company cultures after merger or acquisition
 Refresh your brand to keep in step with the current tastes and trends.

+  The “10-80-10” rule of focus is useful here.
• Acknowledge your heritage (10%)
• Address the needs of today (80%)
• Look forward to the future (10%)
 This gives continuity, ensures relevance, and shows that you are
thinking ahead.
 Before a mature brand can be redeveloped, it needs to be thoroughly
understood. Peel back the layers:
• What is it about the brand that gives it its identity?
• At the core, what gives the brand its value?
• What is the central idea?

+  That central, pure idea of your brand – the core of value creation –
will become the centerpiece of its revitalization.
 A new brand has no established core, no heritage, no track record to
leverage.
 By keeping the vital core intact, you retain the essence of the mature
brand even as you revitalize it.
 Staying focused on that valuable core idea is the single most
important thing you can do.
 Three types of revitalising are:-
a) Re-branding
b) Re-positioning
c) While entering new markets

+ Rebranding
• Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol,
design, or combination thereof is created for an established brand with
the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of
consumers, investors and competitors.
• Often, this involves radical changes to a brand’s logo, name, image,
marketing strategy and advertising themes.
• Such changes typically aim to distance the brand from negative
connotations of the previous branding, or to move the brand up-market.
• Popular consumer electronics company LG rebranded twice, from the
original legacy name of Lak-Hui Chemical Industrial Corporation to
Lucky Goldstar, and in 1995 to their current brand name of LG with the
tagline “Life’s Good”.

+  Repositioning:
• Repositioning is the act of redefining the placement of a company and
/ or product in the minds of consumers.
• Why are brands repositioned?
• There are a variety of reasons why a brand might be repositioned. The
most common reason is a reaction to change. That change could be:
• Consumer driven: Such as changing tastes or preferences.
• Competitor driven: Such as new brand launch from a competitor
that makes your position obsolete or inferior.
• Environmentally driven: Such as economic fluctuation, political
changes, or the green movement.

+ • Internally driven: Such as change in corporate strategic direction or
acquisition of new technology, science, or other asset that gives your
brand a competitive advantage and valuable differentiator.
• For example:
TATA Nano is a classic case of poor brand positioning. It was
meant to convert two wheeler (Scooter, motorcycle) owning
families to own a small car for their complete family but their car
was positioned as the “world’s cheapest car” or rather wrongly
positioned as a “poor man’s car”. Though later the brand
repositioned itself as the ‘key to happiness’ and now positioned as
a car for youth.

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For instance, Dettol toilet soap was positioned as beauty soap
initially. This was not in line with its core values. Dettol the parent
brand (anti-septic liquid) was known for its ability to heal cuts
and gashes. The extension’s ‘beauty’ positioning was not in tune
with the parent’s “germ-kill” positioning.
The soap, therefore, had to be repositioned as “germ-kill” soap
(bath for grimy occasions) and it fared extremely well after
repositioning. Here, the soap had to be repositioned for image
mismatch.

+  Entering new markets:
• While entering new territories with existing products one must keep
in mind that while the brand must keep to its core identity, it must
adjust to the country / region it enters.
• For example: Pizza Hut is an American chain of restaurants
which has been successful in India due to its adaptation to the
local palate by offering tandoori pizza and making its menu
‘Indianized’.

+ CONSISTENCY PLAN:
 Brand consistency is critical to maintaining the strength and
favorability of brand associations.
 Consistency does not mean that marketers should avoid making any
change in the marketing programs.
 Old Spice introduced its men’s range of soaps and shaving lotions in
1938 and is still going strong. With its strong brand
personality(independent, outdoor lifestyle, free spirited, rugged, and
masculine) and its visual image of the sailing ship and their jingle, a
catchy whistle, Old Spice has consistently maintained their brand
communication of helping guys improve their smells with deodorant,
antiperspirant and fragrances.

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Benefits of Consistency:
 Although change is sometimes appropriate and even necessary, the
goal should be to create an effective identity which will last and not
become obsolete and / or tired.
 Though a brand can be revitalized or rebranded the core identity of
the brand should not change

+ 1)Ownership of a position:
• A consistent identity can lead to the virtual ownership of a position.
• Competitors are preempted and must therefore pick another route,
often one that is inherently less effective.
• An effort by a competitor to usurp Maggi’s position on the ‘2 minute
noodles’ dimension, for example, would not be appreciated.
• Similarly, Axe owns the masculine position for deodorants and Thums
Up owns a very strong dimension of adventure drink .
• It would be difficult for competitor to be credible if they attached
themselves to similar positions.

+ 2) Ownership of Identity Symbol:
• Brand identity consistency overtime provides an opportunity to own
an effective identity symbol, which might be a visual image, slogan,
jingle, metaphor, or spokesperson. Such a symbol makes the brand’s
identity easier to understand, to remember and to link with the brand.
• The Airtel Tune by A. R. Rahman (conveys a sense of relevance,
stature and quality), McDonald’s Ronald McDonald (communicates
an image of family fun), Akshay Kumar for Thums Up displays the
energy, action and high spirited image.
• The ‘swoosh’ in Nike Swoosh represents an image of athleticism,
competition and victory.

+ • A competitor attempting to use a similar scene would likely only
reinforce the McDonald or a Nike Swoosh identity. Thus, when an
identity symbol is strong, competitors must go another route.
• While young brands need to entertain or do something outrageous in
order to attract attention and become associated with a position,
successful mature brands often need only to refresh existing
associations. Ronald McDonald for example, can be shown playing
PS 4 video games or wearing an updated outfit.

+  Cost Efficiencies:
• A consistent brand strategy supported by a strong identity symbol can
produce an enormous cost advantage in implementing communication
programs.
 For example,
• In the case of Nike with one solid brush stroke, viewers of the
swoosh know what it means. Nike, the swoosh has become just
that – a signature. With or without the word Nike underneath it,
the general population will see the swoosh and associate it with
Nike. The aerodynamic nature of the logo has contributed to the
marketing and business success of the brand as it has imbibed a
simple brand symbol with meaning. This makes the brand more
memorable, and use of the brand symbol more effective.

+ • However, the success of the swoosh as a visually rhetorical
element takes a different angle. “Just Do It” is the tagline
associated with the Nike logo. This tag-line is habitually
positioned alongside Nike’s logo, whether it is in print or
television advertisement. Together, the logo and tag-line feature
the significance of Nike’s brand goals and ideals- athleticism and
victory. The logo design, symbol, along with the tag-line, has
evolved into a motto and the way of life for a whole generation.

+ CONSISTENCY OVERTIME – WHY IS IT DIFFICULT?
1) Mindset of Managers:
a) Problem Solver/ Action Orientation:
• Those in charge of brands – from assistant brand managers to execute vice
presidents – are generally bright, creative people within a culture that
emphasizes finding & solving problems and detecting & responding to trends
in the market.
• And there are always problems and new trends to address.
• Market share, even for the best brands in the best of times, will face dips and
competitive pressures.
• New trends in distribution, customer motivations and innumerable other areas
are continually emerging.
• An aggressive, capable manager often believes he or she should be able to
improve the situation and that usually means changing one of the drivers of
brand equity.

+ • The temptation is to dig in, diagnose the problem or trend, and take
action – even when the “action” course may actually end up hurting
the brand.
b) High Aspirations:
• There is always an aspiration to improve the performance of the
brand.
• Managers are generally expected to do better, especially in terms of
sales and profits.
• If the brand is to improve on prior performance, an obvious
implication is that something must be done differently.
• Changing the identity is one option.

+ c) Owned by Predecessor Identity :
• There are situations when the brand created and owned by a brand
manager/company is transferred to a new manger / company.
Especially if the brand has had a reasonably long run.
• The new brand manager will have no pride of ownership and little
involvement in the identity
• The pressure to change can be resisted only by people who are
committed to the brand vision.

+ 2) Strategic Misconceptions:
a) The new identity is ineffective:
 Sometimes it takes time for an identity to wear in. Customers need to
get used to the concept, and the execution needs to be refined.
 Brand identities and their execution can also require some setting in.
For example, people’s reaction to Airtel’s new logo was not very
positive.
 According to a research, more than 50% of people disliked the image
change which was evident from the comments on social media
platforms and through poll by research companies.

+  The negative comments show that the logo is “non appealing”, it
misses the old connect; and design is copied version of logos of other
companies like Vodafone, Videocon, Uninor, etc.
 A decision on the effectiveness of Airtel’s new logo might have been
premature.
 Hence if Airtel had accepted short term consumer research it would
have changed its logo once again thus creating inconsistency in brand
identity.

+ b) New Paradigm requires a New Identity/Execution:
• Managers, by instinct and training, are always examining the market
for trends.
• A major challenge is to determine which of the trends represent a
fundamental shift in the market or are just a fad.
• Eg: Sweetened carbonated beverages (such as vanilla coke) are
examples of fad products that failed to live up to their promise.
• But they and the “forces” that drove their short-lived success have
faded.

+ c) A Superior Identity can be found:
• Managers evaluating whether to change brand identity sometimes
overlook the fact that much more is known about the existing strategy
and execution than about any proposed alternative.
• The alternatives are not necessarily better, and may not increase
market share and profitability figures.

+ d) Customers are Bored with a Tired or Stodgy Identity:
• Often it is those managing a brand, not the customers who are bored with an
identity or execution.
• Many managers are likely to see more repetition of their brand’s advertising
than any target group.
• In fact, by the time a consumer first sees a new campaign; those who work
with the brand have probably seen it a hundred of times.
• If boredom is being claimed as a reason for changing strategy, the brand
management team should do the research necessary to see if customers really
are the ones who are bored.
• It is important to distinguish between the wearing out of a position or identity
and wearing out of a particular execution.
• An execution can be changed without changing the position or identity. Eg:
Vicco can change its extended identity without changing its core identity.

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