Creating And Sustaining Brand Equity Long Term - Case Study Example

Creating And Sustaining Brand Equity Long Term Demographic trends have a huge effect on brand development and sustainability. Discuss ways, giving specific examples, how companies market differently to different consumer groups. The fluctuation – the increases and decreases – in the demands of a particular product is generally a consequence of broad changes in a society. These changes takes many forms; they may be economic or technological; they may be related to the fabric values that define society; a result of an introduced information; and so forth. For this paper, a critical variable in terms of these changes will be explored: demographic trends. Specifically, this paper will answer how demography significantly affects brand development and their sustainability. An illustration how demographic trends influences brand development and sustainability is provided by the case of Procter & Gamble’s introduction of the disposable diapers, Pampers, in the 1960s: More than three million babies were born in the United States every year, and all of them needed diapers for the first two to three years of their lives. Given the baby boom that began just after World War II ended, P&G knew that the number of childbearing-age women in the United States would continue to soar well into the future. (Dyer, Dalzell and Olegario 2004, p. 130) And so, Pampers was launched – a development from the previous diapers available in the market, which – per research done by P&G - was particularly disliked by mothers because they didn’t fit well, they leaked and there was a tendency for the paper to crumble. (p. 130) Recent statistics, points to the fact that Americans are spending less time in the shopping malls. (Kalakota and Whinston 1997, p. 219) The reasons behind this vary but that they form a pattern that demonstrate how the purchasing behavior is beginning to change throughout the world with the emergence of time-strapped and career-oriented consumers. Understanding the dynamics of these demographic changes is crucial for brand development and brand loyalty. Today, the lifestyle and demographic trends have taken consumers away from the conventional retailers of the past. Of course, store-based retailing is still strong, consumers appear to have less and less time for the process of buying from stores. There is the rudiment of getting into the car, driving miles to stores, searching for products and subjecting oneself to endless queues. This could be explained by the fact that today there is more pressure from companies for employees to work for longer hours or perform more work as they make do with fewer employees. And so people found themselves shopping from catalogs, shopping channels, and, recently, online. The demographic trends, wrote Ronald Drozdenko and Perry Drake (2002), that contribute to the movement of shoppers away from store retailers include: higher percentage of women in the workforce; higher percentage of family members working; more child-rearing activities that require parents’ time; increasing access to the internet at home; increase in ethnic population; and, less brand loyalty. (p. 9) Specifically, online retailing is interesting because it eliminates constraints of time and geography. Obviously, in response to this trend, marketers and brand managers would create or adjust brands so as to cater to this shift in the market’s trend. Dorzdenko and Drake stressed that competition will also increase, driving more consumers from retailers and that more direct marketing sales are expected to increase at a rate that is higher that sales in general. (p. 10) As corporate branding allows organizations to communicate one message as to what it is and how it wishes to be represented, brand development and efforts to secure brand loyalty must take the previously mentioned variables into account in order for their products to be competitive and profitable. This will be done by making more types of products available from nonstore source, focusing brand presence in the Internet, mail, TC, etc. The impact of demographic trends can be observed in a variety of markets and that it is a pivotal element for the assessment of marketing communications on primary demand. An example was cited by Barton Weitz and Robin Wensley (2006): During… 1971-1982, there was an explosion of demand in the soft drink category. This huge increase in demand was also accompanied by large increases in expenditures on marketing communications by soft drink marketers. Such increases in marketing communications expenditures was a response to the increased demand that was created as a large segment of the population moved into the years of high soft drink consumption. (p. 286) Trends and the Ability to Surprise Another important perspective in how demographic trends are used in brand management is in regard to the ability of a brand to surprise the consumer. This was emphasized by Jean-Noël Kapferer who stressed that the brands that ultimately last are those that are able to surprise their customers, avoid repetition by dwelling too much in the past and promote change. According to Kapferer, demographic trends culled from market studies provide a good understanding of today’s customers; or at least, of the expectations they express. (p. 272) In tandem with technological, social and cultural future of our societies, the demographic information illustrate for marketers what the future would look like, more specifically, what the consumer would need, want and desire. Because of this new products are created and existing products are adjusted. The case of Evian underscores this dimension. Initially, the product was the water for babies, then of the Alps, then the water of balance, later the water of balanced strength, and now a source of youth. These changes in positioning, explained Kapferer occurred over a long time period: and that they demonstrate the evolution of the consumer’s attitude towards water, the maturation of the market and the evolution of competitive position. (p. 272) Here, one sees how lifestyle trend affects marketing – the functions of the water in the marketing efforts were not fixed because they are dependent on demographic factors that are linked to gender, lifestyle, urbanization, industrialization, rediscovering nature, discovering pollution, new representations of health, body and food hygiene. Different Approaches for Different Groups Marketers because of demography market a specific product differently to different groups. The influence of demography could be illustrated by how products are marketed to the female population. Women represent a little almost half of the British population. (Jackson, p. 27) Previously, products were marketed to women with the assumption that they are either housewives or females who are looking for husbands. Products that cater to them mainly consisted of those that would assist them in their endeavors: Betty Crocker made life easier if you were struggling to do the laundry, feed the children, and put a decent dinner on the table when the husband comes home; other products targeted women who were either trying to stay youthful or trying to be attractive in order to get a husband. (Walden and Thoms 2007, p. p. 321) Although observers think that women form a homogenous group, demographic trends would tell us that they are not. Through demography, one would find that women represent various groups – by age, lifestyle, experiences, educational attainment, and ethnic, racial, religious, political, economic and cultural backgrounds. Thus, within this block a variety of needs and wants must be satisfied specifically. This is the reason why a product that caters to women is marketed differently according to the group classification. A cosmetic company, hence, that offers few generalized array of product lines risks having its competitors take specific markets by offering more specialized products or different marketing campaigns for a single product targeting different groups. The issue of globalization is also in line with this dimension in brand management. As companies have expanded their products reach, brand packaging and advertising required variations, by country and culture. Now, companies have established tighter guidelines on what can be done with regard to a brand around the world, with the goal of protecting and enhancing the value of the brand in the locale where it is being sold. For example, McDonalds in the Philippines offer pasta in its menu, an offering not found in McDonalds USA or that in India McDonalds do not offer beef or pork in its burgers. So the dynamics are complicated and the demographic trends are more prominent in its influence. Conclusion The current dramatic changes in the modern social and economic structures because of factors such as technology, globalization, equality, and so forth have brought about radical shifts in demographic trends. As a result, marketing products became more complex, diverse and specialized. With this in mind, marketers now avoid making sweeping generalizations in their brand management strategies. Finally, demographic trends allow marketers and brand managers to predict how and what our future might look like, what the consumer would need, want and desire. And in combination with cultural trends, it informs us what values we might hold highest in the future and how we will define ourselves, and our highest aspirations in the future. The organization that understands the importance of making understanding the demographic trends and appropriately integrating them in its corporate strategies will be able to exert a tremendous amount of advantage from among its competitors. References Drozdenko, Ronald and Drake, Perry. 2002. Optimal database marketing: strategy, development, and data mining. SAGE. Dyer, Davis, Dalzell, Frederick and Olegario, Rowena. 2004. Rising tide: lessons from 165 years of brand building at Procter & Gamble. Harvard Business Press. Kalakota, Ravi and Whinston, Andrew. 1997. Electronic commerce: a manager's guide. Addison-Wesley. Kapierer, Jean-Noel. 2008. The new strategic brand management: creating and sustaining brand equity long term. Kogan Page Publishers. Walden, M.L. and Thoms, Peg. 2007. Battleground: Business. Greenwood Publishing Group. Weitz, Barton and Wensley, Robin. 2006. Handbook of Marketing. SAGE. Read More