Creating a brand strategy, PBL Task 5

Open Task 5

Problem: How to create a brand strategy?

Learning objectives:

LO1         What is the process of brand strategy?

           -Employee involvement

LO2        Who implements the strategy?

     -Internal/external?

LO3·         Why are brand architectures different?

     -examples (national)

Personal Study:

LO1: What is the process of brand strategy?

Brand is more than just the product; it's selling the problem your business is solving. It's how you define your position in the market compared to your competitors. You should decide which aspect is the most important about your product or service, and make it a part of every aspect of your brand communication.

With a clear brand strategy the overall brand equity gets stronger; the way people perceive or feel your product or service and how much they're willing to invest in it. The added value allows a company to charge more for their brand than other identical companies with weaker brands. 

When creating a brand strategy, decisions like "is your product the high-cost, high-quality option, or the low-cost, high-value option?" have to be made. A brand can't be both and it can't be everything for everyone.

The brand strategy brings competitive positioning to life, and works to position the brand as a certain “something” in the mind of their customers. Being an on-trend, relevant, inspiring, purposeful, innovative and community-centric brand is what makes people pay attention and remeber the brand.The elements of a brand strategy are everything from advertising and distribution channels to visual and verbal communication.

Marketingmo

Succesful brands connect emotionally with their costumers. When a cusotmer has a connection with a brand they'll choose that brand over another brand's product with the same features. This is what brand strategies aim for. Look at Harley Davidson, for example; many would choose a Harley Davidson over a cheaper bike with the same features, for example. Nike vs. "supermarket" sportgear and Luis Vuitton vs. normal leather bag, are good examples, too. 

Glastonbury festival has such a strong brand, emotional connection and reputation that the  Glastonbury 2015 tickets were sold out in less than 30 minutes even though not a single artist to perform has been announced yet. (OConnor,The Independent, 2014)
   

Gigslutz

LO2: Who implements the strategy?

Since everyone is online today, why not using employees as a way of sharing and promoting for the brand by giving branded materials.

One company’s marketing department should be involved if there is one. CEO should also be present in providing leadership (Ex: Steve Jobs’ role in branding)

The marketing process might be slowed down if the CEO is involved.

Outsourcing the implementation of strategy:

Advantage                    Cost reduction                                                             

                                   Save time

                                   Offering know how

Disadvantage:   One brand- focused.

Inconsistency

Choosing the wrong agency

Risks of losing know how because of confidentiality matters.

Lacking know how if keeping outsourcing

Outsourcing brand development helps the company’s employees gain better know how in properly marketing.

Knowing beforehand what a company really wants helps to improve the process of outsourcing

Example:  Beda’s friend’s birthday party, where employees are used to advertise for alcohol brands (too bad it is illegal in Finland, but would have worked in the States)

LO3:  Why are brand architectures different?

Brand architecture is the strategic and logical structure for a group of brands, sub-brands and named products, a family tree so to speak. It is how an organization structures their various products, services or other entities within its portfolio and how they relate to one another. 

Mootee

When creating a brand architecture the organisation needs to decide between speciality and diversity; whether to focus on one brand for every product or several diversified brands. The advantage of using fewer brands or a singular brand is marketing efficiency in brand building and customer communication.

VanAuken (2014) defined four reasons why an organisation should (or should not) choose several different brands over a single brand. Firstly, if there any channel conflict issues, if key customers who resell to the end consumer want to offer something different from competitors. Second, if similar goods are sold at different price points; separate brands, or sub-brands, create more distance between the offerings. Next, if set of products are on different scales, one upscale/prerium and other standard/value products. Lastly, if one of the brads appeals to a very different market segment than the other.