"Marketing Management"

Part 4: Cultivating a Strong Brand

Chapter 9: Creating Brand Equity

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This section begins the fourth part of the book - cultivating a strong brand, which is divided into three chapters, namely creating brand assets, determining brand positioning, and responding to competition. That is to say, let customers know you first, let customers know what you can do, and protect their cheese.

"How to build a brand" is the basic knowledge that marketers must understand and master. Most of the work content of Party A's marketing department is to formulate work plans and evaluate work effects around this proposition. . Even if it is a small company and does not have a dedicated brand planning position, it still integrates the brand content into event planning, copywriting, promotion and other work.

At the core of a successful brand is a great product or service coupled with careful planning, substantial long-term commitment, creative design and marketing execution. Successful brand marketers must have excellent strategic brand management capabilities, which mainly include the following four steps:

● Identify and establish brand positioning

● Plan and execute brand marketing

● Measure and explain brand performance

● Increase and maintain brand value

This chapter will discuss the last three points.

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The definition is always obscure. Simply put, it is the identification of a certain product or service to distinguish other products or services. The trademarks of our common products, slogans that make you want to buy, unique design styles, etc., all belong to the category of brand. Take people as examples, such as their names, physical features, facial features, tone of voice, dressing style, etc., so that you can recognize who they are as soon as you see them and avoid confusion.

The fundamental of branding is to create differences between products.

On the other hand, a brand is a manufacturer's guarantee of product quality, allowing consumers to demand that the manufacturer be responsible for his products. Therefore, satisfied buyers are likely to choose this product again, leading to repeat purchases and ensuring the product's competitive advantage.

Brands can simplify consumers’ decision-making process. Nowadays, there are so many types of product brands that it is overwhelming. On the contrary, consumers have less and less time to choose products. When faced with choices, , it is easier to choose a brand you are familiar with.

For businesses, a brand can provide legal protection for the features and appearance of a company's products, preventing other malicious competitors from imitating your products.

Brand equity is an important intangible asset. For example, the cost of an Apple mobile phone is only more than 1,000 yuan, but it can be sold for 5,000 to 6,000 yuan. This is the brand premium brought by the "Apple" brand. . Coca-Cola's brand valuation is more than half of the company's market capitalization, which is also the value of the brand "Coca-Cola".

Brand equity originates from consumers' understanding and reaction to the brand content; and these corresponding reactions are caused by brand knowledge.

Brand knowledge is instilled into the minds of target users through brand promotion activities again and again by marketers - therefore, the annual marketing expenses spent on products and services can be regarded as a Investment in consumer brand knowledge.

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Build brand equity by creating the right brand knowledge structure with the right consumers, a process that relies on all brand-related touch points. The driving factors of brand equity mainly include the following three aspects:

There are six criteria for selecting brand elements:

● Memorability: Although the advertisement is vulgar, the product "Melatonin" The name is indeed easier to understand and remember than "NUTRILITE".

●** Significance**: keep is the most popular fitness APP at the moment, and the name keep implies the significance of persistence for fitness.

● Likeability: The design style of Apple mobile phones and MUJI are popular. Good slogans can also arouse people's good impressions, such as "just do it", "Self-discipline makes me free".

●** Conversion power**: Can it be used to launch new products of the same type or different types? For example, the brand name "Yamaha" is used on both motorcycles and pianos. The word "Yamaha" can encompass two different types of products. The brand name "Melatonin" is obviously not suitable for use in health care products for treating arthritis.

● Adaptability: Nowadays, once a hot word appears, such as "blue thin mushroom", someone will register the word as a company. However, the influence of this kind of Internet hot word is obviously not lasting enough, and it will soon disappear. Out of date, the company name is obviously not very adaptable.

● Protective power: Whether the brand elements have legal protection. On the one hand, it does not require content owned by others. On the other hand, if you use public words, you must pay attention to protecting trademark rights.

Brands are not just established through advertising. All possible points of contact between customers, products, and companies will affect customers' understanding and reaction to the brand image. The company's marketing plan must also consider all possible touch points and manage these experiences.

When designing a brand marketing plan, three new concepts emerged, personalization - special customization; integration - multiple channels, one voice; internalization - internal employees first identify with the corporate brand concept.

"Leverage" familiar concepts in consumers' memories to connect the brand's content with them, thereby creating brand equity.

In fact, the example of "brain" mentioned above is the application of this method. Everyone is familiar with "brain", and everyone is familiar with the value of "platinum". When combined together, it gives A new meaning, simple and easy to understand.

Similar ones include:

● Geographic region - Wuchang rice, New Zealand milk powder;

● Distribution channels - XX special supply, Olympic delegation formulation Products;

● Other brands - co-produced and co-sponsored by XX;

● Image character - Kumamon

● Spokesperson - celebrity endorsement, expert Endorsements

● Sports or cultural events - Spring Festival Gala, Super Bowl

● Third-party sources, etc.

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Brand audit Measuring “what the brand was before”, tracking studies measure “what the brand is now” and whether the marketing program is achieving its stated goals.

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Effective brand management requires long-term marketing interaction. Each channel must maintain a consistent direction when conveying brand meaning, so as to strengthen brand equity. The connotation of the brand may be very simple, and the creativity may also be simple, but as long as you persist for a long time, there will be huge rewards.

When managing brand assets, we must pay attention to the balance between two directions. One is to focus on long-term goals and strengthen brand meaning activities, and the other is to focus on short-term interests and leverage the existing reserves of brand assets through Some promotions reap some financial benefits.

Every marketer will encounter this problem. Should an activity be brand-oriented or sales-oriented? One of the two activities focuses on long-term interests and the other on immediate interests. Both are required. Yes, and there must be a balance. Don't be afraid to ask for value from the market because you cherish feathers too much, and don't damage the brand meaning and brand image because of excessive promotion.

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The two key elements of branding strategy are brand extension and brand portfolio.

▉ Two major advantages of brand extension:

First, increase the acceptability of new products - reduce the cost of marketing activities. If Coca-Cola launches a new drink, indicate it If it is produced by Coca-Cola Company, it is easier for us to recognize and believe in its quality than a brand-new brand;

The second is to provide positive feedback information for the parent brand and the company-the new product can clarify the meaning of the brand , and its core brand values, or enhance consumer loyalty. For example, Xiaomi, in addition to mobile phones, has created a variety of practical and cost-effective electrical appliances, which it calls the Xiaomi Ecosystem, which in some ways strengthens its concept of "born for fever".

▉ Two major disadvantages of brand extension:

First, brand dilution.

Brand extension will cause the brand name to weaken the identification of any product. For example, Lenovo has numerous computers, and consumers need to study and filter a lot if they want to buy them. On the contrary, Apple computers only have a few models, making it easier to make decisions. . Xiaomi, as mentioned earlier, also runs the risk of brand dilution due to too many categories.

The second is the failure of product extensions, which damages the image of the parent brand. For example, Samsung's mobile phones exploded, causing damage to its brand assets and a sharp fall in its stock price. Sales of its other electrical appliances were also affected to varying degrees.

The hallmark of an optimal brand portfolio is the ability of each brand in the portfolio to maximize assets in conjunction with other brands. Simply put, for the same market, use multiple categories to maximize coverage, minimize costs, and maximize profits. It's a trade-off between these three.

In other words, maximize market coverage, minimize brand overlap, clearly differentiate each brand, attract a large enough market segment, and make marketing and production operation costs reasonable.

In a brand investment portfolio, brands can play many specific roles:

● Flanking products: They are positioned relative to competing brands. For example, JD.com was losing money when it first sold books. The price is very low, and the purpose is to attack the profit-making product book market of Dangdang Mall. Jingdong Books is a flanking product established for Dangdang.

●**Cash Cow**: NetEase has a very large product portfolio. It uses high-quality games such as World of Warcraft and Onmyoji to make money and subsidize the operation and development of other product lines. Games are NetEase’s cash cow products.

● Low-end entry-level products: such as Taobao popular models, entry-level models of certain brands, etc.

●** High-end prestige products**: For example, F1 racing cars. This kind of product costs a lot of money and is impossible to mass-produce. Why do those car companies burn money to make it? It just wants to prove its technical prowess, which will go a long way towards its brand equity.

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Next chapter:

Part 4 "Cultivating a Strong Brand"

Chapter 10 Determining Brand Positioning

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