1. Branding challenges and opportunities
Brands build their strength by providing customers consistently superior product and service
experiences. A strong brand is a promise or bond with customers. In return for their loyalty,
customers expect the firm to satisfy their needs better than any other competitors.
Brands will always be important given their fundamental purpose – to identify and differentiate
products and services. Good brand makes people’s lives a little easier and better. People are loyal to
brands that satisfy their expectations and deliver on its brand promise. The predictably good
performance of a strong brand is something that consumer will always value.
The challenges to brands
1) The shift from strategy to tactics: - With the increasing pressure to generate ever-improving
profitability, it is often considered a luxury for managers to develop long-term strategic plans. This is
further exacerbated by short-term goal setting, which is frequently designed primarily for the
convenience of the financial community.
2) The shift from advertising to promotions: - As a consequence of the increasing pressure on brand
manager to achieve short-term goals, there is a temptation to cut back on advertising support, since
it is viewed as a long-term brand-building investment, in favour of promotions which generate much
quicker short-term results.
3) On-Line shopping: - The Internet is facilitating on-line shopping. On-line shopping is different from
traditional mail order because:
• Brands are available all the time and from all over the world;
• Information and interactions are in real time;

2. • Consumers can choose between brands which meet their criteria, as a result of selecting
information which is in a much more convenient format for them, rather than the standard
catalogue format.
This poses threats to brands, some components of added value, agent or the retail outlet which
originally added value by matching consumers with suppliers, may be eliminated.
4) Opportunities from technology: - Brand marketers are now able to take advantage of technology
to again a competitive advantage through time. Technology is already reducing the lead time needed
to respond rapidly to changing customers need and minimizing any delays in the supply chain.
5) More sophisticated buyers: - In business-to-business marketing, there is already an emphasis on
bringing together individuals from different departments to evaluate suppliers’ new brands. As inter
departmental barriers break down even more, sellers are going to face increasingly sophisticated
buyers who are served by better information system enabling them to pay off brand suppliers
against each other.
6) The growth of corporate branding:- With media inhabiting individual brand advertising, many
firms are putting more emphasis on corporate branding, unifying their portfolio of brands through
clearer linkages with the corporation, which clarifies the those all the line brands adhere to. Through
corporate identity program functional aspects of individual brands in the firm’s portfolio can be
augmented, enabling the consumer to select brands through assessment of the values of competing
firms. Firms developed powerful corporate identity programmes by recognizing the need first to
identify their internal corporate values, from which flow employee attitudes and specific types of
staff behavior secondly, to devise integrated communication programmes for different external
audiences
Branding is a process that is used by the businesses to utilize marketing strategies to enhance their product or
service image so that it is more readily recollected by the customer. Branding helps the product or service to
make a favorable impact on the target customer while the branding concepts help in outlining the guidelines that
should be followed during the branding process.
Branding of any product and service should follow some constants that help in establishing a brand in the long
run. The internet branding strategies should have the following constants in your branding formula:
Branding should be simple
The most popular brands in the world have very simple, easy to remember logos. The reason behind this concept
is, we tend to remember and associate ourselves with simple things and choose to ignore or forget complex
ideas.
Branding should be different
Your brand should have individuality, should be different. The brand should stand out from other similar product

3. or service; otherwise the whole idea of branding is lost. Only an individualistic brand makes a mark on the psyche
of the target customer and he remembers it when he makes a buying decision. This is why most of the MNCs
take strict action on trademark violations.
Branding should be safe
Play safe and do your research if you are catering to international audience. If you are using symbols in your logo
make sure they do not offend the target market in any way or you can chances of shutting your shop before
making any sales. Therefore keep the regional and cultural sensibilities in mind during the branding process.
The three most important branding concepts that are the basis of all branding processes are brand promise,
brand attributes and brand personality.
A brand promise is a promise or commitment the company makes to its customers. The promise should be
clearly stated and tells about the most important benefit of the product or customer.
Brand attributes are the features that describe the customer�s experience like quality, innovation or customer
service. The attributes help the company to deliver the brand promise. Brand personality is the characteristic the
customer experiences when they experience the brand. Thus the essence of the brand is a symbiosis of all three.
Branding is assembling of various marketing mix medium into a whole so as to give you an
identity. It is nothing but capturing your customers mind with your brand name. It gives an
image of an experienced, huge and reliable business.
It is all about capturing the niche market for your product / service and about creating a
confidence in the current and prospective customers’ minds that you are the unique solution
to their problem.
The aim of branding is to convey brand message vividly, create customer loyalty, persuade
the buyer for the product, and establish an emotional connectivity with the customers.
Branding forms customer perceptions about the product. It should raise customer
expectations about the product. The primary aim of branding is to create differentiation.
Strong brands reduce customers’ perceived monetary, social and safety risks in buying
goods/services. The customers can better imagine the intangible goods with the help of brand
name. Strong brand organizations have a high market share. The brand should be given good
support so that it can sustain itself in long run. It is essential to manage all brands and build
brand equity over a period of time. Here comes importance and usefulness of brand
management. Brand management helps in building a corporate image. A brand manager has
to oversee overall brand performance. A successful brand can only be created if the brand
management system is competent.
Following are the important concepts of brand management:
Definition of Brand
Brand Name
Brand Attributes
Brand Positioning
Brand Identity
Sources of Brand Identity

4. Brand Image
Brand Identity vs Brand Image
Brand Personality
Brand Awareness
Brand Loyalty
Brand Association
Building a Brand
Brand Equity
Brand Equity & Customer Equity
Brand Extension
Co-branding
Brand Equity is the value and strength of the Brand that decides its worth. It can also be
defined as the differential impact of brand knowledge on consumers response to the Brand
Marketing. Brand Equity exists as a function of consumer choice in the market place.
The concept of Brand Equity comes into existence when consumer makes a choice of a
product or a service. It occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand and holds
some favourable positive strong and distinctive brand associations in the memory.
Brand Equity can be determined by measuring:
Returns to the Share-Holders.
Evaluating the Brand Image for various parameters that are considered
significant.
Evaluating the Brand’s earning potential in long run.
By evaluating the increased volume of sales created by the brand compared to
other brands in the same class.
The price premium charged by the brand over non-branded products.
From the prices of the shares that an organization commands in the market
(specifically if the brand name is identical to the corporate name or the consumers
can easily co-relate the performance of all the individual brands of the
organization with the organizational financial performance.
OR, An amalgamation of all the above methods.
Factors contributing to Brand Equity
1. Brand Awareness
2. Brand Associations
3. Brand Loyalty

5. 4. Perceived Quality: refers to the customer’s perception about the total quality of
the brand. While evaluating quality the customer takes into account the brands
performance on factors that are significant to him and makes a relative analysis
about the brand’s quality by evaluating the competitors brands also. Thus quality is
a perceptual factor and the consumer analysis about quality varies. Higher
perceived quality might be used for brand positioning. Perceived quality affect the
pricing decisions of the organizations. Superior quality products can be charged a
price premium. Perceived quality gives the customers a reason to buy the product.
It also captures the channel member’s interest. For instance - American Express.
5. Other Proprietary Brand Assets: Patents, Trademarks and Channel Inter-
relations are proprietary assets. These assets prevent competitors attack on the
organization. They also help in maintaining customer loyalty as well as
organization’s competitive advantage.