brand report

1

2

3

Complicating matters is that, depending on the particular industry or category, some observers believe up to 70 percent (or even more) of marketing expenditures may be devoted to programs and activities that improve brand equity but cannot be linked to short-term incremental profits.

4

5

Brand audit • Consumer-focused exercise to assess the health of the brand, uncover its

sources of brand equity, and suggest ways to improve and leverage its equity. • Useful background for managers as they set up their marketing plans and can

have profound implications on brands’ strategic direction and resulting performance.

6

Marketing audit • Internal, company-focused exercise to make sure marketing operations are

efficient and effective.

7

The brand inventory is a valuable first step for several reasons. First, it helps to suggest 0what consumers’ current perceptions may be based on. Consumer associations are typically rooted in the intended meaning of the brand elements attached to them—but not always. The brand inventory provides useful information for interpreting follow-up research. it can supply some useful analysis too and initial insights into how brand equity may be better managed.

8

The outcome of the brand inventory—both online and offline—should be an accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date profile of how all the products and services are branded in terms of which brand elements are employed and how, and the nature of the supporting marketing program. Marketers should also profile competitive brands in as much detail as possible to determine points-of-parity and points-of-difference.

9

Brand exploratory • Steps for brand exploratory:

• Study prior research • Interview internal personnel • Conduct additional research

Preliminary activities • A number of prior research studies may exist and be relevant • It is useful to interview internal personnel to gain an understanding of their

beliefs about consumer perceptions for the brand and competitive brands • Additional research is often required to better understand how customers shop

for and use different brands and what they think and feel about them

10

Ideally, qualitative research conducted as part of the brand exploratory should vary in direction and depth as well as in technique. The challenge is to provide accurate interpretation—going beyond what consumers explicitly state to determine what they implicitly mean.

11

12

One useful outcome of qualitative research is a mental map. A mental map accurately portrays in detail all salient brand associations and responses for a particular target market. One of the simplest means to get consumers to create a mental map is to ask them for their top-of-mind brand associations.

It is sometimes useful to group brand associations into related categories with descriptive labels. Core brand associations are those abstract associations (attributes and benefits) that characterize the 5 to 10 most important aspects or dimensions of a brand.

13

A digital marketing review offers the following benefits: • It can highlight whether a brand’s digital efforts are received in online channels,

relative to competitors. • It can help unlock important customer-level insights as well as industry trends,

which is made possible due to in-depth analysis of online conversations surrounding a brand. This can be useful in developing a better picture of brand image and brand personality, as it pertains to digital channels.

• It can provide useful input to brand strategy development and, by providing rich customer insights, the crafting or refinement of the brand positioning.

• It can act as a health check of a brand’s digital marketing and social media strategy, and allow brand managers to introduce course correction measures, if the online strategy is seen as inconsistent with the brand’s overall strategy.

14

15

16

John Roberts, one of Australia’s top marketing academics, sees the challenge in achieving the ideal positioning for a brand as being able to achieve congruence among four key considerations: 1. What customers currently believe about the brand (and find credible) 2. What customers will value in the brand 3. What the firm is currently saying about the brand, and 4. Where the firm would like to take the brand?

Because each of the four considerations may suggest or reflect different approaches to positioning, finding a positioning that balances the four considerations as much as possible is key.

17

Tracking studies play an important role by providing consistent baseline information to facilitate day-to-day decision-making. A good tracking system can help marketers better understand a host of important considerations such as category dynamics, consumer behavior, competitive vulnerabilities and opportunities, and marketing effectiveness and efficiency.

18

19

20

21

Questions such as the following can be addressed using marketing analytics: • What is the likely impact of a 15 percent increase in our social media

expenditure next year? • What is the return-on-investment of influencer marketing programs? Why is

the ROI of one campaign higher than another? • What is the relative impact of offline versus online marketing expenditures on

sales revenue growth in the past three years? What will happen if we shift the budget to spend more money in online than offline channels next year?

22

Brand tracking studies, as well as brand audits, can provide a huge reservoir of information about how best to build and measure brand equity. To get the most value from these research efforts, firms need proper internal structures and procedures to capitalize on the usefulness of the brand equity concept and the information they collect about it. Although a brand equity measurement system does not ensure that managers will always make good decisions about the brand, it should increase the likelihood they do and, if nothing else, decrease the likelihood of bad decisions.

Brand equity management system • Set of organizational processes designed to:

• Improve the understanding of brand equity. • Use of the brand equity concept within a firm.

23

The charter should define and clarify points-of-parity, points-of-difference, and the brand mantra. • Explain how brand equity is measured in terms of the tracking study and the

resulting brand equity report (described shortly). • Suggest how marketers should manage brands with some general strategic

guidelines, stressing clarity, consistency, and innovation in marketing thinking over time.

• Outline how to devise marketing programs along specific tactical guidelines, satisfying differentiation, relevance, integration, value, and excellence criteria. Guidelines for specific brand management tasks such as ad campaign evaluation and brand name selection may also be offered.

• Specify the proper treatment of the brand in terms of trademark usage, design considerations, packaging, and communications. As these types of instructions can be long and detailed, it is often better to create a separate brand or corporate identity style manual or guide to address these more mechanical considerations

• Although parts of the brand charter may not change from year to year, the firm should nevertheless update it on an annual basis to provide decision makers with a current brand profile and to identify new opportunities and potential risks for the brand. As marketers introduce new products, change brand programs, and conduct other marketing initiatives, they should reflect these adequately in the brand charter. Many of the in-depth insights that emerge from brand audits also belong in the charter.

24

25

Brands need constant, consistent nurturing to grow. Weak brands often suffer from a lack of discipline, commitment, and investment in brand building. In this section, we consider internal issues of assigning responsibilities and duties for properly managing brand equity, as well as external issues related to the proper roles of marketing partners.

26

Overseeing brand equity • To provide central coordination, the firm should:

• Establish a position responsible for overseeing the implementation of the brand charter and brand equity reports.

• Ensure that product and marketing actions across divisions and geographic boundaries reflect their spirit as closely as possible.

• Maximize the long-term equity of the brand.

Organizational design and structures • Firms may attempt to redesign their marketing organizations to better reflect

the challenges faced by their brands. • To meet the challenges of changing job requirements and duties, traditional

marketing departments may be replaced by business groups, multidisciplinary teams, and so on.

• New organizational structure aims to improve internal coordination and efficiencies as well as external focus on retailers and consumers.

Managing marketing partners • Performance of a brand is also dependent on the actions taken by outside

suppliers and marketing partners. • Global trend indicates that firms are increasingly consolidating their marketing

partnerships and reducing the number of their outside suppliers. • Number of outside suppliers any firm will hire in any one area depends on:

• Cost efficiencies

27

• Organizational leverage • Creative diversification affect

27