Some Branding Strategies

Some Branding Strategies

Branding Strategy Leveraging the power of the brand name to cover the market more effectively – Brand associations Why do we do it? – Phenomenally expensive to create and promote a new brand name (at least 100 – 150 million dollars) – Too many brands out there – Increase productivity of current marketing programs

Case 1 Your brand has a respectable market share but you want it to grow. What do you do? – Address segment needs more precisely How can you use the equity of the brand name to address segment needs even better? – Sub-branding / umbrella branding

Sub-branding Creating new brands which are part of the parent brand family – expressed as suffixes of the parent brand. e.g Nike Air Jordan is a sub-brand of Nike which is the parent brand. Air Trigo, Air Mohawk are sub-brands of Nike Air. Apple I-Pod, I-Pod Mini, I-Pod Shuffle and now the I-Pod Nano

Umbrella branding When you have many sub-brands, each linked to a common brand, then the common brand is known as the umbrella brand E.g. Ford Taurus, Ford Explorer, Ford Focus, Ford Ranger, Ford Five Hundred, Ford Freestyle, Ford Expedition, Ford Thunderbird, etc.

Case 2 Your brand has a respectable market share and you want to protect it from growing competition. What do you do? – Address that section of the market which does not buy your product How can you attract customers who do not buy into your brand’s equity? – Flanker branding

Flanker Brand Different brand name – same product – Purpose: Pre-empt competition, cover the market more completely (protect your flanks) – Problem: some cannibalization is expected. E.g. Thums Up and Coca Cola in India General Mills – Robin Hood and Gold Medal brand flour Tide and Cheer from P&G

Case 3 Your brand is strong in your current market. The market is saturated and you are looking to diversify. What do you do? – Identify another product and give it the same brand name If the new product is in the same product line – Line Extension If the new product is from a completely different product line – Brand Extension

Brand Extension Same brand name, new product line e.g. Reebok shoes and Reebok water. Nike shoes and Nike casuals. Chevy cars and Chevy men’s cologne. Hooters restaurants and Hooters airline The concept of congruence determines the success of a brand extension strategy. E.g. Johnson’s baby powder and Johnson’s baby oil – high congruence. But imagine Lysol toilet bowl cleaner and Lysol toothpaste!!!

Line Extension Same brand name, different product in the same product line. – E.g. Ivory soap and Ivory shampoo; IBM PCs and IBM laptops – Line extensions are safer strategies than brand extensions since congruence is always higher.

Case 4 Your brand is sold in the B2B market as a component of another product. You want the brand to get consumer recognition and equity. What do you do? – Tell consumers about your brand’s presence in the final product Ingredient branding: Branding an ingredient of the main brand, which is often manufactured by a different company. E.g. Intel Inside is an ingredient brand on IBM, Dell, Compaq, etc. computers; Breyers Chocolate Ice Cream with Hershey’s pieces / M & Ms; Breyers icecream with Splenda

Case 5 You have a strong brand but want to penetrate the market even better. What do you do? Complementary Branding OR Co-branding – when two or more mutually reinforcing brands get together to jointly promote themselves (one is not an ingredient of another). E.g. co-branded credit cards like Chase MasterCard, OR Harley Davidson and Ford Explorer.

Product-Market Matrix Product NEW Market Development Brand extension Line extension Diversification Brand extension Market Penetration OLD Sub-branding Flanker brands Co-branding OLD Product Development Co-branding Ingredient branding NEW Market

Product Line-Brand Matrix NEW Flanker Brand Diversification Line Extension Brand Extension Brand Name EXISTING EXISTING Product Line NEW