Brand Building Strategies - Essay Example

Brand Building Strategies: The Building Blocks Brand building strategies, also known as brand hierarchy structures, are used to group brands into families and to build relationships between a business and its brand. There are four main types of brand building strategies. One of these is a corporate branding strategy, where a corporate name is used on all products and services offered by the company. Proctor and Gamble uses the corporate branding strategy to promote its products. Products such as Crest, CoverGirl, Christina Aguilera Perfumes, Dolce & Gabbana, Bounty, Tide, and Pringles are just a selection of companies that support P&G’s brand image.

We will provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit, and value creation, allowing our people, our shareholders, and the communities in which we live and work to prosper.Secondly, the marketing of a product can be conducted through signifying the product with the name of the company. Extending the benefit of the overall brand is known as a hybrid brand.

Kotler and Pfoertsch (2010) observe that certain products of a company can be marketed simply by relating their identity to the holistic company brand. The products of a company can also be marketed by incorporating them under the company or master brand name, which is known as an umbrella brand or family brand. To this end, Phillips, Doole, and Lowe (1994) observe that firms such as Heinz, Kellogg’s, and Cadbury market their products under their company name or family name1. For example, Heinz ketchup’s and sauces: Classico, Heinz Ketchup, and Heinz Salad Cream; meals and snacks: Bagel Bites, T.G.I.

Fridays Mozzarella Sticks, and Ore-Ida Potato; infant/nutrition: Heinz Nurture Infant formulas, Plasmon Infant Food, and Wattie’s Gravy. Kellogg’s, with its 490 products, shows how one company can expand through the creation of specific product attributes, from Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treat to MorningStar Farms Meal Starters. Finally, Cadbury is known for its love of chocolate, which is varied in products such as Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Bars, Cadbury Mini Rolls Cakes, Cadbury Digestive Biscuits, Cadbury Drinking Chocolate Drinks, Cadbury Dream Sticks Ice Cream, and dessert boxes that are filled with chocolate treats.

On the other hand, a distinct brand is based on differentiation from the clutter of lookalike products that are on the market. Several measures can ensure that a brand stands out from amongst the crowd. Such things as theme, color, packaging, and policy can create a unique advantage for a brand. This is best illustrated through the delicate robin’s-egg blue box, produced by Tiffany & Co. Since 1837, Tiffany has been recognized for its finest diamonds and as America’s house of design. The signature blue is used in catalogues, ads, and of course, shopping bags, which manage to impart magic and integrity through their brand.

Crayola also has developed a market for its products through the creation of an identifiable image. To this end, Bennett (2009) observes that the Crayola brand, through the element of smell, has cast a distinct image for itself in the market2. In general, the different brand building strategies could be used in several ways, depending on the brand and intended target audience. It is up to each company to decide on a strategy on go with it. What works well for one market segment may not work so well for another.

Companies can test their brand building strategies through methods such as surveys and focus groups. This allows a company to better understanding the reputation of its brand and how it is perceived.