Branding and Its Importance to Marketing - Assignment Example

Phase 3 Discussion Board Introduction Marketing is a fundamental management role concerned with the determination, sustenance and satisfaction of customer demands. By satisfying this, the marketing department in any organization sustains the profitability of the organization. The meeting with Michelle over the lunch break will therefore seek to answer fundamental questions that will help determine the future operations of the company. Marketing executives sit to analyze various issues that influence the position of a product or service and in so doing determines the profitability of the same. The situation becomes more challenging when it involves the introduction of a new product in an already existing marketing with various previously existing competition. This will require the consideration of particular product features in order to introduce a product strategically thereby winning a substantial marketing share (Parente, 2005). Among the issues to discuss in the lunch meeting will include the marketing mix, a tool used by marketers to evaluate the profitability of the product or service. Promotion is an essential element in the marketing mix. It refers to the increase of product awareness among a target market thereby increasing the chances of the product purchase. The basic tool used by marketers in promoting a product is its name. In this case, the product has no name thereby requiring the marketers to determine an effective name that will help acquire a substantial market for the product. The name must have a sense of originality and exhibit the features of the product. Several other brands have operated in the market before, an original name must is not a simulation of the name of the other products. Such may result in legal tussles with the owners of the already existing products. The name must have an ease of pronunciation and have an attribute that links the products to the target market. Products that target children should have a rhythmic name that the children can pronounce and commemorate easily. The originality in the name will help distinguish the product from the rest and earn the product recognition from the mention of the name. After the determination of an appropriate name, branding becomes the second most important marketing role. Branding offers the marketers with a platform to advertise the product cheaply without incurring additional media costs. Branding refers to the labels that the marketers place on the packaging material on any product. A product looks pale and boring without a branded label on the packaging material, which may include a plastic foil or container (Homburg, Sabine & Harley, 2009). Branding as a graphical tool involves the placement of various graphical elements on the packaging material. This will include specific colors, images and brand positioning statements that increase the reputation of the product among a target market. Effective branding of a product will place the product as unique and original two fundamental marketing feature that any product demands. The branding process employs specific corporate colors that exhibit the uniqueness of the product. Coupled with the wide delivery of the products in a target market, the packaging and branding will help market the product further within the target market. As discussed earlier, promotion is a fundamental element of the marketing mix that requires the consideration of various factors to help position and portray the uniqueness of the product within a target market. Equally required in the branding process is a slogan also known as a brand positioning tool. Every product, service or company has a slogan, which helps position the same strategically within the target market. The short sentence represents the specific features of the product or service often answering fundamental questions that a target client may ask about the product. As stated, the slogan must be short, unique and equally memorable. The construction of the statement requires the consideration of the features of either the product or service often considering the various questions that any customer may ask about the product or service. The brief statement should therefore try to provide a general answer to the questions as briefly as possible. Additionally, the slogan places the product as a unique brand in the market. Coupled with the corporate colors, the slogan helps make the product both unique and strikingly memorable. However, just as with the product itself the slogan requires effective marketing alongside the marketing of the product. As the marketers increase the product awareness, they must also carry the slogan alongside the product a requirement that explains the numerous replication of the slogan in the many media the marketing team will use to promote the product. Key among such is the branding on the packaging material (Pickton & Broderick, 2005). The slogan should run alongside other media elements used in the graphical presentation of the product placed on the packaging material. This implies that the product and the slogan are identical and inseparable, where a customer sees the slogan; he must easily link the slogan with the product. The originality of the slogan makes it unique and distinct from the several other slogans in the market. The product attributes are equally important in positioning the uniqueness of the product. The attributes must be equally unique in order to position the product differently in the market. The attributes help the product compete against the other products in the market since they introduce the product as unique and therefore target a different segment of the market. The attributes may include possible health benefits that the product possesses and any secondary advantage over the other products in the market. The attributes of the products may also include the benefits of the products. However, the two are different and therefore requires different considerations. The benefits may include the convenience the new product promises and the efficiency of use. In addressing these, the marketing team must strive to incorporate the same in the slogan a feature that makes the short sentence challenging to construct since it requires uniqueness but must communicate as effectively as possible. In retrospect, marketing involves the determination of new markets and the satisfaction of the current demand from the already existing market. A new product lacks an already existing market; the marketing of a new product therefore requires heightened promotion in order to increase the product awareness in the market a feature that requires the consideration of various promotional tools and strategies. The marketing team must therefore have specific objectives and time lines within which to complete the various promotional tasks. The key objective for such teams is to earn the product a determined volume of awareness in the target market. This requires the team to use particular media to carry out the promotions and campaigns and evaluate their activities after a particular period thereby determining the results and successes of their campaigns. References Homburg, C. Sabine, K. & Harley, K. (2009). Marketing Management - A Contemporary Perspective (1st edition). John Wiley & Sons. New Jersey, U.S. Parente, D. (2005). Advertising Campaign Strategy: A Guide to Marketing Communication Plans. South-Western College Publications. Boston, U.S. Pickton, D. & Broderick, A. (2005). Integrated Marketing Communications. (2nd Edition). London: FT Pearson. Read More