Brand strategy should be carried out around the competitive strength of enterprises. Enterprises should choose appropriate brand strategy according to their own situation, the characteristics of the industry, the development of the market and the characteristics of products. Below we will analyze several typical brand strategy decisions: single brand strategy, main/deputy brand strategy, multi-brand strategy, product line expansion strategy, brand extension strategy, new brand strategy and cooperative brand strategy. Single brand, also known as unified brand, refers to the situation that all products produced by an enterprise use one brand at the same time. In this way, a kind of strongest brand structure synergy is formed among different products of enterprises, so that brand assets can be fully enjoyed in a complete sense.
The advantages of a single brand strategy are self-evident. Merchants can concentrate on shaping a brand image, and make a successful brand come with several products, so that each product can enjoy the advantages of the brand. For example, the well-known "Haier" is the representative of a single brand strategy. In 27, Haier brand ranked first in the brand value of home appliance enterprises in China for six consecutive years with a brand value of 78.6 billion yuan, which was 112.8 billion higher than the second place. Haier Group began to promote its own brand strategy in 1984, from product brand to enterprise brand to social brand, and has now successfully established a well-known image of "Haier". Haier's products have developed from a single refrigerator in 1984 to a product group with more than 15,1 specifications in 96 categories, including white appliances, black appliances and beige appliances, and ten products have been exported to more than 1 countries and regions in the world, all using a single "Haier" brand. Not only that, Haier is also used as a corporate name and domain name, achieving a "trinity". As consumers, we can extend Haier's concept of "sincerity forever" to any commodity under its name. A successful Haier brand makes tens of thousands of products of Haier become brand-name products, and the advantages of a single brand strategy are fully demonstrated.
another advantage of a single brand is the low cost of brand promotion, which not only refers to the cost of marketing and advertising, but also includes the cost of brand management and the clarity of consumers' cognition. A single brand can better reflect the will of enterprises, easily form the core elements of market competition, and avoid confusion among consumers.
of course, as a single brand strategy, there are certain risks. It has the advantage of "one glory * * * glory" and also has the danger of "one loss will be lost". If there is a problem with a certain commodity under a certain brand name, other commodities attached to the brand will inevitably be implicated, and the whole product system may face a major disaster. As a single brand, it lacks differentiation, and the difference is small, so it is often impossible to distinguish the unique characteristics of different products, which is not conducive to the development of different types of products by merchants, and it is not convenient for consumers to make targeted choices. Therefore, "sub-brands" often appear in a single brand.
the single brand strategy is suitable for the following situations: the products are closely related; The quality level of products is roughly the same: the target customer groups of products are roughly the same. The main/sub-brand strategy, also known as the mother-child brand strategy, refers to taking a unified successful brand as the main brand, covering all the products of the enterprise, and at the same time giving different products attractive names as sub-brands. Sub-brands can be distinguished from various angles such as function, taste, specification and grade to highlight the individual image of the products.
the relationship between the main brand and the sub-brand can be either verbal communication or visual design. For example, the product brands of Sanjiu Pharmaceutical are all based on "999", and different products are branded with various sub-brands: Sanjiu Weitai, 999 Ganmaoling, 999 dermatitis flat, 999 Pavlin and 999 Lufthansa Band-Aids. Another example is Haier's refrigerator series. Although Haier uses the same trademark on all its products, in order to distinguish each other's characteristics, only refrigerators are divided into "pilot series" with frequency conversion and door opening; Frequency conversion refrigerators "Prince Charming Series" and "Color Crystal Series": computer refrigerators "Digital Prince Series" and "Space Prince Series"; Mechanical refrigerators "super energy-saving series" and "golden commander series" and so on.
for the main brand, its main function is to reassure consumers that these products will bring the promised advantages, because behind this brand is a successful enterprise. When a product is brand new, the main brand strategy is more meaningful. Because of this guarantee, consumers will feel that they have some connection with this product and are no longer unfamiliar. However, while providing this guarantee, the main brand will also be in danger of being hurt by the sub-brand products.
the focus of the main/sub-brand strategy is the main brand, and the sub-brand should be in a subordinate position, in order to express the advantages and personality of the sub-brand vividly, and at the same time make up for the shortcomings that the single brand is too simple and not vivid. The use of sub-brands is usually colloquial and popular, with a sense of the times and impact, but its application is narrow. The design between the main and deputy brands should pay attention to harmony and coordination. For example, Changhong Double Happiness and Changhong Red Sun are all red series, so there should be no similar names of white ×××. The so-called multi-brand strategy means that enterprises produce the same product and use two or more brands. An enterprise using multiple brands, of course, has the function of not only distinguishing other commodity producers, but also distinguishing its own different commodities. Multi-brand strategy creates an independent growth space for each brand. At present, China telecom operators adopt multi-brand strategy for their more and more product lines.
The representative who adopts multi-brand strategy is Procter & Gamble. P&G's principle is: If there is still room in a certain kind of market, it is best that those "other brands" are also P&G products. Therefore, P&G's multi-brand strategy makes it have a very high market share in various industries. For example, in the American market, P&G has eight brands of washing powder, six brands of soap, four brands of shampoo and three brands of toothpaste, and the characteristics of each brand are different. Taking shampoo as an example, we are familiar with "Rejoice", which is characterized by softness: "Pan Ting", which attracts the public with comprehensive nutrition; Head & Shoulders has a good anti-dandruff effect: Sassoon emphasizes luster. Different consumers can choose freely on the shelf of shampoo, but they are not separated from Procter & Gamble's products.
Multi-brand strategy can be designed from different angles: (1) different product performance, such as Haier's child prodigy series and Networld series; (2) different target customers, such as Wuliangye, which launched Liuyanghe, Jingjiu and Jinliufu products according to different targets; (3) different product quality, such as Master Kong and Fumanduo instant noodles produced by Guangzhou Dingyi Food Company; (4) From the perspective of promotion, for example, the Jiayue series computers launched by Lenovo home computers for winter vacation promotion.
The advantages of adopting multi-brand decision-making by enterprises are as follows: (1) products can be divided according to the difference of function or price, which is beneficial for enterprises to occupy more market share and face more demanding consumers; (2) the seemingly competitive relationship between them, but in fact it is very likely to strengthen the overall competitive strength and increase the overall market share. (3) Multi-brands can spread risks, and if a commodity has problems, it can avoid hurting other commodities.
Although multi-brand strategy has many advantages, it also has many limitations.
(1) With the introduction of new brands, its net market contribution rate will show a marginal decreasing trend. For an enterprise, with the increase of brands, the contribution rate of new brands to the marginal market of enterprises will also decrease. On the one hand, due to the limited internal resources of enterprises, supporting a new brand sometimes needs to reduce the budget of the original brand; on the other hand, enterprises will not achieve the ideal effect because of the resistance of competitors in the market, and competitors will launch similar competitive brands for the new brand of enterprises, or increase the marketing efforts of existing brands. In addition, another important reason is that with the increase of brands in the same product line, brands will inevitably erode each other's market. Especially when the product differentiation is small, or the positioning difference of different brands on the same product line is not significant, this phenomenon of mutual encroachment between brands is particularly significant. For example, when China Unicom launched CDMA service, a considerable number of customers switched from Unicom's own GSM customers.
(2) Brand promotion costs are high. The implementation of multi-brand strategy by enterprises means that limited resources cannot be allocated to a few brands with strong profitability, and each brand needs a long-term and huge publicity budget. Therefore, whether product development and promotion expenses can be recovered from the sales of new brands is a problem that must be considered before implementing multi-brand strategy. Cooperative brand strategy (also known as dual brand) is that two or more brands unite on a product. Every brand expects another brand to strengthen the overall image or purchase intention.
there are many forms of cooperative brands.
(1) It is a cooperative brand of intermediate products. For example, the advertisement of Volvo Car Company says that it uses Michelin tires.
(2) It is a cooperative brand of the same enterprise. For example, a mobile phone of Motorola Company uses the brand "Motorola Palm Treasure", which is also a registered trademark of the company.
(3) It is a joint venture brand. For example, the mobile phone customized by China Mobile for M-Zone customers will use the brand of the mobile phone manufacturer and the brand logo of China Mobile M-Zone at the same time.
Brand Extensions refer to the application of an existing brand name to a new category of products, that is, the brand extension strategy is a strategy of applying an existing successful brand to a new product or a revised product. Brand extension strategy is not just borrowing the superficial brand name, but the strategic use of the whole brand assets. With the intensification of market competition, it is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate similar products among manufacturers, so brands have become an important bargaining chip in the competition among manufacturers. Therefore, using new brands or extending old brands has become a brand decision that enterprises must face when launching new products. Brand extension is an effective way to realize the transfer and development of brand intangible assets. Brand is also constrained by its life cycle, which includes introduction period, growth period, maturity period and decline period. On the one hand, brand extension realizes the transfer of brand assets on new products, on the other hand, it extends the brand life with the image of new products, thus becoming a realistic choice for enterprises.
brand extension strategy has the following advantages.
(1) It can speed up the positioning of new products and ensure the quick and accurate investment decision of new products.
(2) It helps to reduce the market risk of new products. Brand extension strategy, so that new products have been branded as soon as they come out, and even obtained well-known brands, can greatly shorten the process of being recognized, recognized, accepted and trusted by consumers, effectively prevent the market risks of new products, and effectively reduce the cost of market introduction of new products.
(3) brand extension helps to strengthen brand effect and increase the economic value of brand, an intangible asset.
(4) Brand extension can enhance the image of core brands and improve the investment benefit of the overall brand portfolio.
brand extension strategy has the following disadvantages.
(1) may damage the original brand image. When a certain product brand becomes a strong brand, it has a special image positioning in the minds of consumers, and even becomes synonymous with this kind of product. After the extension of this powerful brand, due to the existence of recency effect (that is, the recent impression has a profound effect on people's cognition), it is possible to consolidate or weaken the image of the powerful brand. If improper brand extension is used, the image represented by the original strong brand will be weakened.
(2) contrary to consumer psychology. The process of a brand's success is the process of consumers' psychological orientation to the specific functions, quality and other characteristics of the brand created by enterprises. When an enterprise extends a strong brand to a product that is incompatible or irrelevant to the original market, it goes against the psychological orientation of consumers.
(3) It is easy to form a seesaw phenomenon. When a name represents two or more different products, it will inevitably lead to consumers' fuzzy cognition of the products. When the extended brand products are in an absolute advantage in the market competition, consumers will shift the psychological orientation of the original strong brand to the extended brand products. In this way, the advantages of the original strong brand are invisibly weakened, and the phenomenon of "seesaw" in which the original strong brand products and extended brand products trade off.
(4) dilute the brand characteristics. When a brand is successful in the market, it has a special image orientation in the minds of consumers. If an enterprise uses the same brand to launch products with great differences in function and quality, which makes consumers dizzy, the brand characteristics will be diluted.