A brand hierarchy is a means of summarizing the branding strategy by displaying the number and nature of common and distinctive brand elements across the firm’s products, revealing the explicit ordering of brand elements. By capturing the potential branding rela tionships among the different products sold by the firm, a brand hierarchy is a useful means of graphically portraying a firm’s branding strategy. Specifically, a brand hierarchy is based on the realization that a product can be branded in different ways depending on how many new and existing brand elements are used and how they are combined for any one product.… Read the rest
Marketing Management
Marketing management combines the fields of marketing and management. Marketing consists of discovering consumer needs and wants, creating the goods and services that meet those needs and wants; and pricing, promoting, and delivering those goods and services. Doing so requires attention to six major areas – markets, products, prices, places, promotion, and people. Management is getting things done through other people. Managers engage in five key activities – planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Marketing management implies the integration of these concepts.
Brand-Product Matrix
To characterize the product and branding strategy of a firm, one useful tool is the brand-product matrix, a graphical representation of all the brands and products sold by the firm. In the brand-product matrix all products offered under different brands are represented by columns. This helps marketers understand the current brand line and explore further opportunity in expanding the product line. In the brand-product matrix all current existing brand are represented in form of rows referred to as brand portfolio. The brand portfolio analysis is essential to design and develop new marketing strategies to target a given product category.
Brand-product matrix helps in showcasing different brands in any given product category.… Read the rest
Brand Licensing
Licensing is a contractual agreement whereby a company allows another firm to use its brand name, patent, trade secret or other property for a royalty or a fee. Licensing also assists companies in entering global markets with minimal risk. Essentially, a firm is ‘renting” another brand to contribute to the brand equity of its own product.
A strong brand often has associations that may be desirable in other product categories. To capitalize on this value, a firm may choose to license its name, logo or other trademark item to another company for use on their products and merchandise. Traditionally, licensing has been associated with characters such as Garfield the cat, Barney the dinosaur, and Disney’s Mickey Mouse or celebrities and designers such as Maratha Stewart, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger.… Read the rest
Building Strong Brands: Why Is It Hard?
In today’s competitive market, a brand can only achieve success if it can connect with consumers and effectively communicate its unique qualities in a way in which they create a positive impression in the minds of consumers. The brand builder who attempts to develop a strong brand is like a golfer play ing on a course with heavy roughs, deep sand traps, sharp doglegs, and vast water barriers. It is difficult to score well in such conditions. Substantial pressures and bar riers, both internal and external, can inhibit the brand builder. To be able to develop effective brand strategies, it is useful to understand these pressures and barriers.… Read the rest
Relationship Between Marketing Research and Marketing Strategy
If the company has obtained an adequate understanding of the customer base and its own competitive position in the industry, marketing managers are able to make their own key strategic decisions and develop a marketing strategy designed to maximize the revenues and profits of the firm. The selected strategy may aim for any of a variety of specific objectives, including optimizing short-term unit margins, revenue growth, market share, long-term profitability, or other goals.
To achieve the desired objectives, marketers typically identify one or more target customer segments which they intend to pursue. Customer segments are often selected as targets because they score highly on two dimensions:
- The segment is attractive to serve because it is large, growing, makes frequent purchases, is not price sensitive (i.e.
Are Market Research and Marketing Research the Same?
Market research is about understanding the broader marketplace in which we intend to compete. Marketing research, on the other hand, is about understanding what ‘package’ of marketing elements (i.e. the product, price, promotion and distribution factors) the country will need to put together in order to meet customer needs and to succeed in the marketplace. Market research is the more encompassing/broader concept of understanding the market environment in which you will be competing, while marketing research is the more specific/focused view of consumer needs and behavior.
In its role as the foundation of marketing, marketing research is arguably marketing’s most important task. … Read the rest