Brand Audit for the Big Issue - Essay Example

?Brand audit Introduction: The Big Issue “The Big Issue” (TBI) is one of the most renowned entertainment magazines of United Kingdom (UK). It was launched in the year 1991 by Gordon Roddick and John Birdin in response to the increased number of homeless people in UK (Big Issue, 2013d). The startup capital of $50000 was provided to the magazine by “The Body Shop”. The launch of the magazine TBI was actually inspired by Street News, a leading newspaper in the United States of America (USA) sold by the homeless people. The main objective behind the launch of the TBI was to provide employment opportunity of the homeless people of UK. The TBI magazine is sold by the vendors who are homeless in UK (Big Issue, 2013d). Brand Audit A brand audit is conducted to examine the current strategic position of the company, identify the areas which are of additional value and suggest recommendations to improve the brand image of the company. A brand audit is conducted periodically by the management of the company to assess the market position of the company and that of its competitors. The study will conduct a brand audit of the TBI magazine to understand its current market position and suggest ways to strengthen its brand image further. Brand Score Card Firstly, The Brand Score Card would be conducted to measure the performance of TBI. The four major dimensions of the scorecard would be functional performance, convenience of access of the products, brand personality and pricing of the product (Pfoertsch and Kotler, 2006). Functional Performance TBI is the only street entertainment magazine in UK; it provides employment opportunities, financial assistance and housing facilities to the homeless people of UK. Apart from being a magazine seller, TBI also acts a charitable organization accepting donations from individual for providing facilities for the homeless people. Currently, the TBI magazine provides employment opportunities to more than 2000 homeless people of UK. Convenience and Ease of Accessibility Being a street entertainment magazine, TBI is available easily from the street vendors of UK. The donations to the charitable organization can be made through their offices, SMS and official website. Brand personality Brand personality will include elements like the name, logo, brand ambassador, packaging and promotional activities (Jelsema, 2012). TBI is solely dependent on charitable donations made by individuals, other charitable organizations, corporations, government etc. Since, the operations of TBI are solely based on the donations the company does not have the opportunity to expand its activities further. Being a social organization TBI does not lay special emphasis on the logo, brand ambassador, packaging and promotional activities. The organization is supported extensively by various other charitable organizations, government etc for funding purposes. For example GISDA has decided to collaborate with TBI to help the homeless people especially aged between 16 to 25 years old (Big Issue, 2013a). Pricing Value Component The magazine is bought at a price of 75 pence by the vendors and sold for ?1.50 making a profit of 50 percent per issue. It is one of the least expensive entertainment magazines of UK (O2, 2010). The minimum value of donating money to TBI is ?10 which is deducted through SMS facility of the donor. Quantitative &Qualitative Brand Elements Profitability TBI is a social enterprise which aims at providing monetary and non monetary benefits to the homeless people of UK and the main objective of the organization is not to yield profits. The organization runs most of its operation through donations. As per the annual report of TBI in the year 2012 the organization received voluntary donations and statutory grants of ?1273475 (Big Issue, 2013b). The organization incurred an expenditure of ?112008; the received donation was spent providing financial, housing, legal and health benefits to the homeless people (Big Issue, 2013b). A certain proportion of the money is spent on the up gradation of the official websites to attract potential donors. The total income of TBI in the year 2012 was ?1273964, a 20 percent increase in income from the year 2011 (Big Issue, 2013b). Brand Image TBI is the only entertainment magazine sold by social enterprise in UK. It is one of the most read and coveted brands of UK. TBI caters to the needs of more than 10000 homeless people. As per a report conducted by McKinsey & Co TBI was declared as the most popular and trusted social organizations of UK (O2, 2010). The organization has helped 63 percent of the homeless people of UK to attain their personal goals. With the help of donations the sales of the magazine had expanded into more than nine countries. Colleges in Southampton invited the homeless people registered under TBI to attend cookery workshops to boost their confidence and Crane TV a leading video magazine have decided to make unique posters for TBI for free (Big Issue, 2013c). Competitive Positions In spite of being one of the leading entertainment magazines of UK it faces intense competition from magazines like Hearst and IPC. These companies are profit oriented and have expanded into more than 15 countries (Press Gazette, 2011). These magazines spend a considerable amount of money on the research and packaging of the product to attract potential customers. These magazines are bought by customers because of their quality in the content and not for donation purposes. Recommendations TBI can follow the customer based brand equity (CBBE) proposed by Kevin Keller (Luukko, 2011). The theory lays emphasis on how a brand image of the company should be built, measured and efficiently managed by the management of the company (Luukko, 2011).The model suggests that the activities of the company should be customer oriented and understand the needs from the customer’s perspective (Luukko, 2011).The content of the TBI magazine should be as per the taste and preference of the customers. This will help in enhancing the brand equity and brand image of the magazine. TBI should realize that customer based brand equity occurs only when the customer has familiarity with the brand. The UK government offers various forms of financial and non financial assistance to the social enterprises of UK. Since, TBI is one of the most coveted and trusted social organizations of UK the availability of funds from the UK government would be easy. To enhance the quality of the content of the magazine the staff should allocate a certain proportion of their budget for the development of the magazine. Measurement of Recommendations Revaluation of brand strategy should be done periodically to assess the organization’s current marketing position. Since, TBI is a social enterprise rebranding would not be possible for the organization. However, the management of the company can focus on conducting a strategic audit of the company periodically at multiple levels (Pfoertsch and Kotler, 2006). This would help the management of the company to develop cost effective marketing programs which would enhance the brand equity and image of the company. A simple cost effective marketing program would help in maximizing the long term brand term equity of TBI and also enable them to take timely corrective actions (Pfoertsch and Kotler, 2006). Questionnaire distributed along with the magazine would help the management of the company to understand the perspective and needs of the customers. This strategy would not only help in understanding the customer perception but also help in effective brand positioning of the magazine. Since, TBI is an entertainment magazine the company should focus on collaborating with a UK based TV or movie celebrity to promote the brand aggressively for free of cost. References Big Issue. (2013a). GISDA- A big issue cymru big list subscriber. Retrieved from http://www.bigissue.com/features/2375/gisda-big-issue-cymru-big-list-subscriber. Big Issue. (2013b). Financial statements. Retrieved from Read More