I need a discussion for wk 7 Marketing in a Global Environment

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JWI 518: Marketing in a Global Environment Week 7 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. JWI 518 – Lecture Notes (1204) Page 1 of 7

The Power of Branding What It Means Marketing professionals and brand managers spend a great deal on social media and related online marketing activities. In the age of online messaging and social media, branding campaigns face different challenges than in the past. In the digital age, brand messages must be immediately appealing, since online consumers do not constitute a captive audience. They can stop reading or viewing the brand message at any time, if it is not sufficiently engaging. But man does not live by digital alone, so it is important not to forget traditional branding and brand equity tactics as well. These concepts are explored and explained in this lecture. Companies use human attributes to create a strong, personalized connection with consumers through personable and appealing branding. To design the most effective branding elements for their target audience, marketers use the tool of personas. This design tool helps them to create marketing plans that will engage consumers, remain consistent across platforms and channels, and create a sense of connection and loyalty to the brand. Personas include the characteristics of a few ideal consumers, based on the marketing team’s research into their product’s target audiences. In digital advertising for the brand, the use of human attributes is especially powerful, since it maintains a sense of connection in the potentially isolating online environment. Why It Matters

• Customers are willing to pay more for products and services from brands they trust

• Brand equity enables a company to increase its market share and its valuation in the market

• Personas help marketers create engaging messages that target specific audiences

“Brands need to demonstrate human attributes that can attract customers and build human-to-human connections.”

Kotler, Kartajaya & Setiawan

JWI 518: Marketing in a Global Environment Week 7 Lecture Notes

Branding Elements and Brand Equity Traditional Branding Elements Typically, the differences between most brands are not substantive and are often challenging to communicate. Attempting to show and communicate these differences in key areas such as quality and customer service, firms resort to other forms of communication, such as using a symbol or logo to represent the brand’s central element of brand equity – that is, the key differentiating characteristic of the brand. The symbol or logo by itself creates awareness, associations, and liking or feelings, which in turn can affect loyalty and perceived quality. It is easier to learn visual images (symbols) than words (names). Symbols should help gain brand awareness. Therefore, a symbol or logo that creates awareness communicates associations, like quality or strength, for example. Keller (2020) demonstrates that brands and consumers are inextricably linked. So much so, that brands exist for consumers, and consumers generally value brands. Brand Equity According to the American Marketing Association, “A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service, as distinct from those of other sellers.”1 According to David Aaker, brand equity consists of five elements: brand loyalty; name awareness; perceived quality; brand associations in addition to perceived quality; and other proprietary brand assets – patents, trademarks, channels, etc. Aaker states that these marketing elements combine to generate brand equity traits of liking, perceived quality, and loyalty. He argues that brand equity creates value for both the customer and the firm.2 Customers’ positive interaction with a brand can enhance their satisfaction by their increased perceived value and brand associations resulting from the positive user experience. Brand equity can add value for the firm by enabling less marketing expenditure in order to gain the same campaign results, simply because of the value and trust placed on their brand in the marketplace. This has the effect of generating marginal cash flows for the firm. Product

1 American Marketing Association. 2020. AMA Dictionary 2 David Aaker. 1991. Managing Brand Equity

JWI 518: Marketing in a Global Environment Week 7 Lecture Notes

promotional programs are usually more effective with familiar and trusted brands because consumers are less skeptical of the brand quality. The other four brand equity dimensions can enhance brand loyalty. The perceived quality, the associations, and the well-known name can provide reasons to buy and can affect user satisfaction while reassuring and reducing the incentive to try other competing products. Enhanced brand loyalty is vital in buying time to respond when competitors innovate and obtain product advantages. This is especially important when like-minded digital communities no longer favor or recommend the brand to their community members. If the firm acts quickly, this loss of advocates can be addressed and corrected without sustained damage to the brand. It is interesting to note that brand loyalty is both one of the dimensions of brand equity and is affected by brand equity. The potential influence on loyalty from other dimensions is significant enough that it is explicitly listed as one of the ways that brand equity provides value to the firm. According to Aaker, brand equity will usually allow higher margins by permitting both premium pricing and reduced reliance upon promotions. It can provide a platform for growth via brand extensions, though leveraging in the product distribution channels, and finally provide a competitive advantage that often presents a real barrier to competitors.

Branding with Human Attributes As marketing campaigns become increasingly digitized, opportunities for human connection and interaction in the real world during brand discovery are reduced. Customers generally feel a need for human connection and understanding, but this factor can easily be overlooked when the contact between marketer and prospective customer takes place online. Lacking a solid connection, digital consumers may come to feel wary of online brands and marketing. The solution that marketers have found to this problem is to instill human characteristics right into the brand itself. They design their brand messaging, especially for online ads and email campaigns, to use appealing, striking, or humorous human traits that will engage consumers. By giving the brand attractive human attributes, consumers can feel as if they have a human-to- human connection with the brand, similar to the way they connect with a friend or community member. This perception of rapport reduces the level of alienation felt by online consumers, so that they can see the attractive features of the brand.

JWI 518: Marketing in a Global Environment Week 7 Lecture Notes

Key Attributes According to Kotler et al., there are six key attributes that marketers should seek to include in their human-centric branding. The six key attributes for human-centric branding are described below, with some examples to illustrate how these attributes work in action.

Physicality For a brand, physical attraction is expressed in items that identify the brand, such as logos, images and taglines. Physicality can also be expressed through product design, as in the case of Apple, with its stylish and user-friendly devices.

Intellectuality Brands express this attribute through smart ideas and innovation. For example, Airbnb and Uber both built their brand with services that connect customers and service providers in ways that did not previously exist. Their disruptive innovations demonstrate intellectuality.

Sociability These brands excel at developing interesting connections and conversations with their customers. They share interesting content or post witty comments and jokes on social media. They are exceptionally responsive to customer inquiries or issues.

Emotionality These brands connect through emotional messages or humorous ads. Cosmetic brands may appeal to the senses and the desire to feel attractive and confident. By contrast, the insurance brand, Geico, adopts a humorous approach to branding, with its cute gecko character, featured in a wide range of ads and memes.

Personability These brands portray themselves as personalities with strength of character and a positive or convivial point of view. For example, companies selling Bordeaux wine tend to stress its powerful character and its suitability for any celebratory occasion.

Morality Brands with morality put a major focus on ethical company behavior, sustainability, or giving back to the community. As an example, a credit union might present itself as an alternative to regular banks that is not profit driven, cares about local communities, and offers a trustworthy, safe and affordable place for customers to save and borrow money.

JWI 518: Marketing in a Global Environment Week 7 Lecture Notes

Personas in Marketing After the research phase has identified a target audience for the brand, marketers will create personas that represent typical target customers for their products or services. These personas are then used in the process of designing appealing human-centric marketing messages. See below for sample personas of prospective customers for two different organic products.

Garden of Life Organic Protein Carl White – lives in New York, NY – age 31 College-educated $80,000 annual salary

• Makes purchases from companies that align with his pro-social values • Has a desire for a healthy lifestyle • Interested in quick ready-made protein drinks or organic protein powders • Willing to pay a premium for products from socially responsible companies • Seeks products that are organic and naturally derived

Eminence Organic Skin Care Monica Holcomb – lives in Charlotte, NC – age 45 Holds an MBA degree $72,000 annual salary

• A hardworking manager, with a busy family life • Fits in running and gym time • Interested in an easy skincare regimen • Attracted to products that last all day and are moisturizing • Open to paying a little more for good quality products

Cause Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility

One way companies define their brand is through the causes they support. Cause Marketing is the collaboration between a for-profit and a non-profit that seeks to better society through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The concept of CSR represents the company's responsibility to give back to society, in economic, social or environmental ways. It affects all the initiatives and operations of the business. In marketing, brands can implement cause tactics within their marketing activities to support the company’s CSR goals.

JWI 518: Marketing in a Global Environment Week 7 Lecture Notes

Proctor & Gamble (P&G) created a cause marketing plan to support the recovery of injured birds through a partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. During the BP oil spill in 2010, P&G donated thousands of bottles of Dawn to the Wildlife Service rescue effort. The agency used a solution containing P&G’s Dawn liquid because “it removes oil from the feathers, is non-toxic, and does not leave a residue.” P&G included a coupon code on the bottles and, for each code that was activated, $1 was donated to the cause of wildlife protection. The donations totaled $500,000. In total, P&G donated more than 50,000 bottles of Dawn to help “rescue and relief of 75,000 animals harmed by oil spills”, according to the Wildlife Service. This initiative is aligned with P&G’s mission of CSR in the area of environmental sustainability. As P&G fulfills its CSR goals, it can simultaneously improve its brand in the eyes of the consumer. Studies have shown that consumers support brands that take social responsibility; they view it as evidence of shared values. To demonstrate this effect, consider the way you would perceive and respond to product labels that display the logos shown below.

Source: https://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/cruelty-free-101/cruelty-free-bunny-logo/

JWI 518: Marketing in a Global Environment Week 7 Lecture Notes

Looking Ahead In this lecture, we learned how companies use human attributes in their branding to create a strong, personalized connection with digital consumers. Brand loyalty and equity are created in the eyes of the consumer. Brands can no longer assume consumers will remain loyal. Brands have to develop plans for engagement, consistency and remember the visual impression. Consumers need to perceive the brand the same way across all touchpoints. Personas include the characteristics of the ideal consumer while considering that different consumers have different needs. In the age of digital, brands must remain relevant and purposeful as they develop their content strategies. In the next lecture, we explore the concept of omnichannel marketing. This is an approach which aims to create a consistent brand experience across the multiple channels and devices used by digital consumers. It has been developed in response to the challenges of multichannel marketing, where consumers use both digital and traditional methods for product review and purchasing. In this environment, marketers need a way to achieve a consistent brand message across numerous channels, as well as being ready to make sales at any time and via any platform that the customer may choose.