Brand Marketing and Brand Personality - Essay Example

? Brand Marketing Brand Marketing Consumers are considered to be rational in consumption. In most cases, as Dhar, 2007 argues, consumers tend to go for products that fit their personality. They gauge worthiness of a product with what the product make them feel. In this regard, managers infuse their brand with a personality. This essay will draw relevant theory to determine the impact of brand marketing, which has become an issue that is continuously personalized particularly by brand managers in relation to marketing their products to the target market. Moreover, it gives analysis of personality in B2B and B2C markets (Kurtz 2012) Marketing for B2C When managers market their products to the end consumer, they focus on things that would entice the consumer as an individual unlike when marketing products to other businesses or firms. Brand identity in B2C is created through a process of repetition and imagery. Products are designed in such a way that they capture emotions of buyers in relation to their desires, status or price. Brand managers would focus on converting shoppers into buyers. B2C managers employ strategies such as coupons and displays in order to entice buyers. Since B2C campaigns are for a short period, strategies to capture customers as quickly as possible are utilised. In another dimension, the main goal of B2C marketing involves creating customer loyalty to the brand. Marketing for B2B Marketing for B2B focuses on a rather small market. Business value influences buying decision. In addition, the goal of B2B is to convert prospects into customers. B2B managers, therefore, tend to focus on relationship building through communication. Mainly, the business in B2B is between a business and other businesses. Advertising through media becomes critical in B2B marketing. Rationale for importance of infusing brand with personality in B2B and B2C markets Business - to – business (B2B) and business –to- customer (B2C) marketing is diverse. These two types of marketing have similar marketing events such as public relations, advertising, and alliances among others. Nevertheless, their execution differs in relation to brand personality (Glynn 2012). Apparently, most companies consider B2B and B2C markets as diverse ways of marketing that must be handled excessively especially in relation to brand personality. Of importance to note is that, most of the companies that practise these kinds of marketing have brand executives who operate differently where little sharing of information is required. According to Rajeev 2012, brand management might decide to have their brand value generated through the use of both B2B and B2C markets. In contrast, the use of B2B and B2C markets might at times hurt the brand, drastically reducing the impact of brand personality on the given company. In light of this, there is shared brand equality among the product brands especially when there is visible corporate brand that gives credibility to every product that the company owns (Hand and Miletsky 2009). In addition, the goal of B2C marketing is to purely change known shoppers into buyers in an aggressive but continent manner. In fact, companies that practise B2C marketing use more merchandise activities like coupons, which are meant to capture the interest of the customers immediately. For instance, companies with B2C marketing may use emails campaign in persuading customers to buy their products. This type of marketing has assisted various companies in realizing the importance of loyalty (Prabakaran 2012). On the other hand, the goal of B2B marketing is to purely convert prospects into customers although it is longer and more involving. Most of the companies that use B2B marketing must focus on the improvement of relationship building and communication. Of importance to note is that content is the most crucial in terms of marketing. With reference to brand personality, Howard 2009 argues that B2B and B2C require brand in ensuring that the markets have more sales as compared to other factors. In regard to B2C, a strong brand is mostly used in ensuring that the customer is able to buy the products or services that they require thus remaining loyal to the particular brands even when there is potentially pay of higher price in reference to the products or services that are present. Conversely, the B2B markets are mainly concerned with assisting the customer to be considered but not necessarily be considered as a choice (Kotler and Keller 2009). The impacts of the B2B and B2C is that buyers are argued to have thoughts that are rational in selecting products or services pertaining to the company. Their motivation emanates from saving money in increasing productivity and or raising profitability. On the other hand, most of the consumers are motivated by desire, style and prestige (Rowlings 2013). In essence, the consumers participate in brand loyalty by ensuring that they posses or buy status for instance Lexus without necessary being worried about the amount they are supposed to pay for sticking on a particular brand. Of importance to note is that quality brand is necessary in making first impression on the brand that are in the market (Kotler, et al 2009). Brand marketing Essentially, brand marketing is described as a kind of marketing that uses symbols, design or names to differentiate one seller’s product from the rest in the market. As such, brands are known to provide the basic points that create diversity in the competitive market. Once there is competition in the market, the possibility of rising the level of success in companies automatically increases. In this regard, therefore, it is crucial that the management of brands is handled with extreme cautiousness to facilitate personalization. Of importance to note is that, brand marketing is tailored to cater for the needs and wants of a target market through the use of market mix such as product, price, place, and promotion. Through this process, brand marketing becomes easy to personalize by the managers. All over the world, brand management plays a big role in ensuring that the marketing mix gives support to brand marketing (Chaston 1999). Similarly, Dhar, 2007 argues that everyone who is involved in brand management should ensure they work towards a common goal because brand is described as one of the mechanisms that are mostly used for achieving competitive advantage in relation to the products and services been used. Needless to mention, managers of brands are mostly mandated in the creation of brand description resulting to brand strength achievement. Basically, it is assumed that the degree of brand strength is equal to the degree of brand loyalty in terms of achievement, a situation that creates wide competitive advantages (Ferrell and Hatline 2010). Brand Personality Apparently, the issue of brand personality has continually been used by companies to market their products in the best way they know how. In real life, brands are created by humans for humans. Their main purpose is to ensure that the brand creates a bridge between the people who are in the branded entity and those that are outside the given company. Normally, it is identified as a type of communication that revolves around brand business. As such, brands are concerned with adding personality to their palette, although in real sense they act as marketing tools (McGhie 2012). Personality per say is a kind of branding that could be portrayed in companies through the use of brand to highlight people. Some of the companies that have incorporated brand personality include GM Blogs and the Bank of America. It is worth mentioning that when working with brand personality there must be transparency to ensure that the negative effects are reversely balanced in reference to individual character that may be associated with this effect (Maguire 2007). For instance, when people are used to highlight a particular brand and vice versa, there is a clear demonstration of a human side for the specific companies and the protection that is also necessarily. Never the less, brand managers should ensure that brand personality portrays the most influential and positive effect of the given company (Gilmore 2003). Numerous researches that have been done in relation to brand personality affirm that the symbolic use of symbols in branding is more common because consumers have always associated brands with human personality traits (McGreggor 2012). For instance, personality traits associated with Coca –cola identify the company with been all- American, cool and been real. Initially, the relationship between brand and human personality is mostly measured through the use of brand personality scales namely ad hoc scales and human nature theories. Apparently, these scales are used by researchers to understand the symbolic use of brands in general and the symbolic use of brands within a specific category (Gitman 2008). Consequently, like other types of branding, brand personality arguably varies in its performance depending on the culture that it is meant to differentiate. In a general sense, brand personality is one of the activities that most companies should come up with to ensure that their competitive advantage remains high (Lomax and Stokes 2008). In addition, the fact that brand personality has five pillars: sincerity, excitement competence, sophistication and rugged denotes that the whole marketing process must be practised using the highest level of professionalism. Of importance to note is that, consumers are very sensitive with brands especially if the brands do not bring forth the expected image in the market. Similarly, brand personality gives brand managers assistance in compelling interest among target audience. It further differentiates the specific brand from the rest in the market thus creating a unique brand identity where equity is present (Lamb et al. 2011). Building the brand into corporate culture One of the crucial roles that brand personality in brand marketing is that it creates room for corporate culture that is necessary in companies or organizations. In essence, most strong brands are argued to have grown from a single personality extending to new market segments. For instance, celebrity brands like Oprah have continuously manifested themselves through magazines, and television shows that are attached to the personality. Needless to mention, even when the brand seems to look for diverse markets, the representation of brand personality still exist (Kumar 2007). Empowerment of employee through brand connection It is argued that companies with integrated brand in corporate culture are highly likely to have proud and loyal employees who enjoy their work in reference to what the company offers in their brand segment. Essentially, branding denotes the companies’ expression towards mission and values further defining behavior parameters in the company (Smit 2009). For instance, Disney as a company emphasizes on the fact that it is in ‘a happiness business.’ Additionally, the company emphasizes on the culture and the impact of the work force through empowering every employee to give their contribution on creativity and judgement in the workforce. Thus, brand connections make organisation what they are in terms of branding (Shepherd 2012). Customer connection through branding It is obvious that employees in companies all over the world are mandated to represent and live out brands hence attracting customers who find the brand appealing. As such, customers continually make choices of brands that they find favourable to them in terms of value and emotional payoff (Speh and Hutt 2013). Hence, B2B and B2C marketing play a crucial role in ensuring that customer that is loyal and repeat experiences the brand connection that results from a company having deployed a successful brand culture (William 2009). Best practises for optimizing the brand culture Although branding is paramount to B2B and B2C marketers, it should not be taken as the only marketing function. It is worth mentioning that to optimize on a brand culture, the value chain of the organisation must visualize on supporting the brands. Through this, the brand cultures ought to educate the employees concerning the brand (Noel 2009). Similarly, they should focus on the quality of the entire experience of the customer, which is crucial in branding. Also, brand values should be reinforced within the company to ensure that values are alive over a long period of time (Wong 2010). Companies that have successful B2B brand culture might not be in a position to embrace the culture of B2C marketers. When this happens then the brand must be understood by both employees and the companies in relation to mission and values (Mooij 2010). As such, marketing gurus argue that for companies to have effective brand personality there must be utilization of smart branding. In relation to this, principles of branding are similar in both B2B and B2C marketing. Never the less, the personal nature pertaining to the selling and buying of a confident relationship in most companies gives an explanation on the impact of brand identity (Porter 2008). Scholars argue that more time should be utilized when carrying out innovative research and coming up with new ideas that can enable companies to have strengths that are necessary in targeting customers thus facilitating the creation and communication of distinctive corporate brand identity. According to Wood, 2003, this essay further gives analysis on the three models that are used in brand personality to establish its impact on the issue. Essentially, its conceptualisation is seen in three models namely: self expression model, relationship model and the functional benefit representation model. In self expression model, people are said to express their own self in the brands that they purchase and use for instance the use of Apple Mac book Pro. In relationship basis model, there is a difference in perspective between two people in relation to brand personality (Moorthi 2004). Similarly, the functional benefit representation model argue that brand personality can also be a route through which there is representation and cueing of functional benefits, as well as, brand benefits. In a general sense, brand personality has continuously played a crucial role in brand marketing thus providing wider markets for products and services which are further considered by customers depending with preference and the image portrayed by various companies. Bibliography; Chaston,I.,1999. 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The Marketing Plan: A Handbook. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Read More