Reflection of Brands and Strategic Branding - Essay Example

? Lectures Review Reflective Essay Overview The notion of strategic branding has evolved over the years to be regarded by marketers as a key dimension. Consequently, a brand is defined as a ”name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition” (Slade, 2013). With this consideration, the study intends to present a reflective summary of lectures related to brands and strategic branding. Summarised Discussion Brands are differentiated based on several categories such as online products, ideas and causes, sports, arts and entertainment. Moreover, it has also been learnt from the study that brands are categorised into different categories including personal brands, cool brands, kids branding, nation brands and super brands among others. In this regard, according to brand managers, the brand is more than an entity which creates certain amount of awareness, prominence and reputation in the market. Brands play a very important role in the consumer life. Through the brands, customers can easily know about the products which they can purchase. Moreover, brands help the customers to reduce search cost along with helping them to identify the quality. Similarly, brands are very much an important factor for the organisations. It helps the companies to influence the customers and to generate the desired level of revenue. In today’s scenario, brand has emerged as the key term for any organisation. In this world, everything can be branded and branding is helpful for the company to reside in the minds of the customers. In the present scenario, from beer to vacuum cleaners everything can be branded and one of the top branded products is Coca-Cola in the current day context (Slade, 2013). Moreover, from the related study it is observed that according to American Marketing Association, brands and brand management is a tangible symbol that can differentiate from one organisation’s product to another. The main principle of brand management is to recognise strong consumer awareness about the brand. Moreover, brands are emotive to symbolize a promise and generate the uniqueness of idea. Similarly, brand is made distinctive by its positioning, relative to the competition and builds its personality through its images (Slade, 2013). It is further observed from the study that the notion of brand positioning signifies the manipulation of every element of the marketing mix to the segmented audience. In this regard, personality branding is the unique combination of functional attributes and values which helps the target audience to identify a company’s strategies. In this scenario, it has been learnt that brand image is the overall impression and the unique set of associations communicated to the public. Moreover, brand awareness refers to the consumer’s ability to recognise the brand under different conditions. Brand positioning facilitates to segment the market as per the consumers’ needs and wants. With the aid of a key focus on brand positioning and awareness, in the global arena McDonald’s, Davis Milling Co and Leo Burnett among others have evolved to be regarded as top brands in the present day context. Moreover, a few of the organisations follow certain key influences of the brand positioning and personality. Brand positioning helps these organisations to identify the competing products and attributes that define the product space. Brand positioning also helps to collect information from a sample of customers about their perception of each of the products regarding certain relevant attributes. It is also learnt that brand personality follows the five-scale-factor. These factors include sincere, exciting, competent, sophisticated and rugged. In brand personality scale, sincere signifies the brand that is down to earth, honest, wholesome and cheerful about its customers and manufacturers, for example, Kodak and Hyundai. Furthermore, the exciting scale means that the personality of the brand should be up-to-date and it should know its market position and should not be very much fair about its competitors. The brands that belong to the exciting scale should be imaginative and need to forecast about competition. These brands should also be very much spirited. From the related study about brands and strategic branding, different brands can also be segregated into two categories i.e. expensive and upper class based on sophistication factor. For example, Mercedes brand symbolize the upper class/ sophisticated people. Sophistication comes from esteem and seemingly eternal longevity. In good and bad times, these brands remain strong as a symbol of a life lived in all the right places. On the other hand, ruggedness brand personality relates with outdoorsy and tough personalities. It helps to identify the tough personality consumers. Moreover, in competence brand personality, the traits associated include reliability, success and intelligence. Even in this present economic scenario, competence brand personality still manages to play with the consumers’ mind. Moreover, it is observed that brand value is the rational body of attributes and it is a tangible benefit. Brand value is also helpful to endure the core values. With reference to the study, the core brand values and attributes mentioned in the discussed can be agreed upon. This is because brand values and attributes represent the essence of the brand. Brand attributes are a set of characteristics that identify the character, physical and personality traits of the brand. Similarly, attributes facilitate to consistently recognize the individuals. Brand attributes and brand value are approachable, friendly and sincere approaches of the market (Slade, 2013). Furthermore, with regard to the law of branding, it can be highlighted that there are 22 ‘immutable laws’ of branding which play a crucial role in branding strategies. The first law of branding i.e. ‘The Law of Expansion’ illustrates the power of a brand and its scope in the market. Moreover, the Law of Expansion helps the customers to certify the line extension which in turn can enable to increase the sales. With the use of law of expansion, milk brands create line extension, variable pricing and a host of other sophisticated marketing techniques to increase the profit (Slade, 2013). Conversely, ‘The Law of Contraction’ helps a brand to become stronger in the market along with enabling the company to offer quality products and services to the customers. A new brand must be introduced in the market with the help of the third law of branding i.e. the law of publicity. This factor of the law is very much important to brand-building process. Apart from this, the law of advertising aids the brand to create its market and customers. On the other hand, the law of word strives to entrench a word in the thought of the customer. The law of word factor helps in the branding efforts by embedding a catch word in the prospects’ mind. The law of the word is a factor that separates the branding catch line from other competitors. The sixth law i.e. the Law of Credentials is a crucial ingredient for the success of any brand and its claim to authenticity. Moreover, the Law of Quality is important to have, but brands are not built by quality alone. However, the Law of Quality is an important factor in building a brand strategy. Brand strategies are not built by quality alone. Furthermore, the Law of Category can facilitate the leading brands to promote their assortment of offerings into the market. The Law of Name is the law which can be used by the branding organisation in the long run of a business not in the short run. The Law of Extension highlights that the easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything. Apart from these laws, the other laws are also helpful to create the brand strategy in the market. The other important laws related to the branding strategy include the Law of Fellowship and the Law of Generic (Slade, 2013). From the personal laws of branding, it can be noted that according to Montoya, there are 8 laws of personal branding comprising leadership, specialisation, distinctiveness, visibility, goodwill, personality, persistence and unity. Moreover, from the related study, it can be further observed that brand experiences include the processes which help to increase the brand image in the market. Moreover, it is apparent that brand experiences are generated from brand position and brand communication. It is also learnt that personal brand communicates the factor of influence and it can tell the target market related to the customers. Brand personality and personal brand can be determined based on the factor of perception. In accordance with the notion of brand personality, it can be said that it is a part of human interaction and it is very much important factor for making a successful brand (Slade, 2013). With regard to brand problem, it can be summarised that the brand faces a tough task to get hold of weaning customers who might desire to shift to competitors’ brands. Moreover, it is even a harder task for the new branded products to create a new market. On the other hand, in relation to brand image and identity, it can be determined that through the brand image and identity consumer must know the brand and identify the brand. Brand image and identity helps the consumers to increase their trust regarding the product. It also enables to get emotionally connected with the consumers. Therefore, it can be argued that it is not always possible for organisations to truly reflect these brand mantras (Slade, 2013). In relation to goal settings and personal brand, it can be summarized that setting appropriate goals enable to create a communication process with the sender and the communicator. It can also help to know the ultimate goal of the personal branding through Personal Relationship (PR), advertising, event management, publishing, and journalism. Moreover, it can help to know certain successful brands’ goals. Brand mantra helps branding organisations to build their strategies and leverage long-term association with the customers (Slade, 2013). References Slade, D. (2013). Strategic branding. Week One, 1-14. Slade, D. (2013). Brands & brand management. Week 2, 1-13. Slade, D. (2013). The laws of branding. Week 3, 1-14. Slade, D. (2013). The (personal) laws of branding . Week 4, 1-16. Slade, D. (2013). A brand problem. Week 5, 1-3. Slade, D. (2013). Brand image & identity. Week 6, 1-12. Slade, D. (2013). Goal setting & your personal brand. Week 8, 1-13. Read More