Dr. B.

Abdul Azeem,
UNIT III – BRAND COMMUNICATION Associate Professor,
Dept. of Business Admnistration,
AITS, Rajampet, AP
BRAND IMAGE BUILDING
Changing the image is a favorite topic while discussing brands under distress.

Brand image follows identity/awareness.

Once a sufficient level of brand awareness is created, marketers can put more emphasis on crafting a brand
image.

It is a reflection of what we projected to send to the public.

Brand image is something that builds into the minds of the consumers.

Managers must be clear about what they want to send and how they want it received.
BRAND IMAGE BUILDING
Brand image is the totality of information, advertising, promotions, and other brand
manifestations that the consumer has seen and received about the brand over a period of time.

It is, in other words, his experience with the brand modified by certain perceptions, previous
beliefs, biases, social norms, and a level of forgetfulness.

Brand image is consumers’ perceptions about a brand, as reflected by the brand associations
held in consumer memory

If someone asked you what came to mind when you thought of Apple computers, The associations
that came to your mind make up your brand image for Apple.
BRAND IMAGE BUILDING
BRAND IMAGE DIMENSIONS
Image of a corporate or company: A brand is what it is because of the company that makes it.
Sometimes, brand image is influenced by the manufacturer’s name besides the brand’s own
personality.

Image of the user: Users are the association between a brand& the perceived socioeconomic &
personality characteristics of the stereotypical user of the brand.

Image of the product: The image is a result of the products performance. This in-turn depends on
is ingredients.
BRAND IMAGE BUILDING
BRAND IMAGE
VERSUS
BRAND IDENTITY
BRAND IMAGE BUILDING
The more the managers can have the market imagine their brand’s identity the way it is
intended to be imagined, the more successful they are in their effort.

Creating a positive brand image takes marketing programs that link strong, favorable,
and unique associations to the brand in memory.

Brand associations may be either brand attributes or benefits.

Brand attributes are those descriptive features that characterize a product or service.
BRAND IMAGE BUILDING
Brand benefits are the personal value and meaning that consumers attach to the product or
service attributes.

Consumers can form brand associations in a variety of ways other than marketing activities:
 from direct experience; online surfing;
 through information from other commercial or nonpartisan sources such as Consumer Reports or other media vehicles;
 from word of mouth; and
 by assumptions or inferences consumers make about the brand itself, its name, logo, or identification with a company,
country, channel of distribution, or person, place, or event.

To choose which favorable and unique associations to strongly link to the brand, marketers
carefully analyze the consumer and the competition to determine the best positioning for the
brand.
BRAND IMAGE BUILDING
Strength of Brand Associations.
 The more deeply a person thinks about product information and relates it to existing brand knowledge,
the stronger the resulting brand associations will be.
 Two factors that strengthen association to any piece of information are its personal relevance and the
consistency with which it is presented over time.

Favorability of Brand Associations.

 Marketers create favorable brand associations by convincing consumers that the brand possesses
relevant attributes and benefits that satisfy their needs and wants, such that they form positive overall
brand judgments.
 Brand associations may be situation or context-dependent and vary according to what consumers want to
achieve in that purchase or consumption decision.
BRAND IMAGE BUILDING
Uniqueness of Brand Associations.
 Marketers can make this unique difference explicit through direct comparisons with competitors, or they
may highlight it implicitly.
 Although unique associations are critical to a brand’s success, unless the brand faces no competition, it will
most likely share some associations with other brands.
BRAND LOYALTY PROGRAMMES
 A deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronize a preferred product/service consistently in
the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same-brand-set purchasing, despite
situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior.

Levels of Loyalty
 Behavioral loyalty – this level refers to buyers purchasing the brand but having no special
attachment to it.

 Attitudinal attachment – this level refers not only to a systematic purchase of the brand but
also personal attachment by the buyer.
BRAND LOYALTY PROGRAMMES
Levels
 Sense of community indicates a specific level of loyalty related to buyer’s group.

 Active engagement with the brand represents “the strongest affirmation of brand loyalty, when
customers are willing to invest time, energy, money, or other resources in the brand beyond
those expended during purchase or consumption of the brand”.

Types of Loyal Customers

 Hard core loyalty: Buying one brand all the time
 Soft core loyalty: Buying a combination of two competing brands
 Shifting loyalty: Buying preference shifting from one brand to another
 Switchers: No loyalty to any one brand based on the deal given.
BRAND LOYALTY PROGRAMMES
Advantages
BRAND LOYALTY PROGRAMMES
Purpose of Loyalty Programmes
 Identifying, maintaining, and increasing the yield from a firm’s ‘best’ customers through long-
term, interactive, value-added relationships.

 Act as defensive mechanism, to give the customer no reason for leaving the brand or the
company.

 Act as offensive mechanism, to create a personalized relationship with the client, the basis of a
more intimate and therefore more involving bond, referred as ‘Customer bonding’.
BRAND LOYALTY PROGRAMMES
Tips for Effective Loyalty Programmes
 Know your audience: Most loyalty marketers employ sophisticated databases and software to
determine which customer segment to target with a given programme.

 Change is good: Marketers must constantly update the program to attract new customers and
prevent other companies in their category from developing “me-too” programmes.

 Listen to your best customers: Suggestions and complaints from top customers deserve careful
consideration, because they can lead to improvements in the program.

 Engage people: Make customers want to join the program. Make the program easy to use and
offer immediate rewards when customers sign up.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
 Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by
an identified sponsor.

Television
 Television is a powerful advertising medium because it allows for sight, sound, and motion and reaches a
broad spectrum of consumers.

 The wide reach of TV advertising translates to low cost per exposure.

 Pros & Cons.

 It can be an effective means of vividly demonstrating product attributes and persuasively explaining their
corresponding consumer benefits.

 TV advertising can be a compelling means for dramatically portraying user and usage imagery, brand
personality, emotions, and other brand intangibles.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Television
 Pros & Cons.
 Because of the fleeting nature of the message and the potentially distracting creative elements
often found in a TV ad, consumers can overlook product-related messages and the brand itself.

 The large number of ads and nonprogramming material on television creates clutter that makes it
easy for consumers to ignore or forget ads.

 High cost of production and placement.

BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Television
 Guidelines.
 Defining the proper positioning to maximize brand equity – MESSAGE STRATEGY (what the ad
attempts to convey about the brand).

 Identifying the best creative strategy to communicate or convey the desired positioning –
CREATIVE STRATEGY (the way the ad expresses the brand claims).

 Creative strategies tend to be either largely informational, elaborating on a specific product-

related attribute or benefit, or largely transformational, portraying a specific non-product-
related benefit or image.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Television
 Guidelines.
 Certain motivational or “borrowed interest” devices can attract consumers’ attention and raise
their involvement with an ad.

 Effectiveness
 Should contribute to brand equity in some demonstrable way, for example, by enhancing
awareness, strengthening a key association or adding a new association, or eliciting a positive
consumer response.

 Six broad information-processing factors as affecting the success of advertising: consumer

targeting, the ad creative, consumer understanding, brand positioning, consumer motivation, and
ad memorability.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Television
 Effectiveness
 Advertising strategy research is often invaluable in clarifying communication objectives, target
markets, and positioning alternatives.

 To evaluate the effectiveness of message and creative strategies, copy testing is often conducted,
in which a sample of consumers is exposed to candidate ads and their reactions are gauged in
some manner.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Radio
 Pros & Cons.
 Radio is a pervasive medium.

 The main advantage to radio is flexibility—stations are highly targeted, ads are relatively
inexpensive to produce and place, and short closings allow for quick responses.

 Radio is a particularly effective medium in the morning and can effectively complement or
reinforce TV ads.

 Radio also enables companies to achieve a balance between broad and localized market
coverage.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Radio
 Pros & Cons.
 Obvious disadvantages of radio, however, are the lack of visual image and the relatively passive
nature of consumer processing that results.

 Effectiveness
 Because of its low-involvement nature and limited sensory options, advertising on radio often must be
fairly focused.

 1. Identify your brand early in the commercial.

 2. Identify it often.
 3. Promise the listener a benefit early in the commercial.
 4. Repeat it often.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Print
 Pros & Cons.
 Because they are self-paced, magazines and newspapers can provide detailed product
information.

 The static nature of the visual images in print media makes it difficult to provide dynamic
presentations or demonstrations.

 Magazines are particularly effective at building user and usage imagery and can also be
highly engaging.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Print
 Pros & Cons.
 Newspapers, however, are more timely and pervasive.

 Although advertisers have some flexibility in designing and placing newspaper ads, poor
reproduction quality and short shelf life can diminish some of the possible impact of
newspaper advertising. These are disadvantages that magazine advertising usually doesn’t
share.

 Many readers only glance at the most visible elements of a print ad, making it critical that an
ad communicate clearly, directly, and consistently in the ad illustration and headline.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Print
 Many consumers can easily overlook the brand name if it is not readily apparent.

 We can sum the creative guidelines for print ads in three simple criteria: clarity, consistency,
and branding.

Direct Response
 Direct response uses mail, telephone, Internet, and other contact tools to communicate with or
solicit a response from specific customers and prospects.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Direct Response
 Direct response uses mail, telephone, Internet, and other contact tools to communicate with or
solicit a response from specific customers and prospects.

 One increasingly popular means of direct marketing is infomercials, formally known as direct
response TV marketing.

 The steady growth of direct marketing in recent years is a function of technological advances
like the ease of setting up toll-free numbers and Web sites; changes in consumer behavior, such
as the increased demand for convenience; and the needs of marketers, who want to avoid
wasteful communications to nontarget customers or customer groups.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Direct Response
 The advantage of direct response is that it makes it easier for marketers to establish
relationships with consumers.

 Direct communications through electronic or physical newsletters, catalogs, and so forth allow
marketers to explain new developments with their brands to consumers on an ongoing basis as
well as allow consumers to provide feedback to marketers about their likes and dislikes and
specific needs and wants.

 Some direct marketers employ what they call precision marketing – combining data analytics
with strategic messages and compelling colors and designs in their communications.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Direct Response
 It is easy to measure the effects of direct marketing efforts – people either respond or they do
not. The disadvantages to direct response, however, are intrusiveness and clutter.

 Marketers need the three critical ingredients of

1. developing an up-to-date and informative list of current and potential future customers,
2. putting forth the right offer in the right manner, and
3. tracking the effectiveness of the marketing program.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Place
 Place advertising, also called out-of-home advertising, is a broadly defined category that
captures advertising outside traditional media.

 Some of the options include billboards and posters; movies, airlines, lounges, and other places;
product placement; and point-of-purchase advertising.

 Billboards and Posters. Billboards have a long history but have been transformed over the years and
now employ colorful, digitally produced graphics, backlighting, sounds, movement, and unusual – even
three-dimensional – images to attract attention.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Place
 Increasingly, advertisers are placing traditional TV and print ads in unconventional places.

 Although the same ads that appear on TV or in magazines often appear in these unconventional places,
many advertisers believe it is important to create specially designed ads for these out-of-home
exposures to better meet consumer expectations.

 Marketers combine product placements with special promotions to publicize a brand’s entertainment tie-
ins and create “branded entertainment.”

 Myriad possibilities have emerged in recent years as ways to communicate with consumers at the point of
purchase.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Place
 In-store advertising includes ads on shopping carts, cart straps, aisles, or shelves as well as promotion
options such as in-store demonstrations, live sampling, and instant coupon machines.

 The main advantage of nontraditional media is that they can reach a very precise and captive audience
in a cost-effective and increasingly engaging manner.

 Because the audience must process out-of-home ads quickly, however, the message must be simple and
direct.

 Strategically, out-of-home advertising is often more effective at enhancing awareness or reinforcing

existing brand associations than at creating new ones.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Advertising
Place
 The challenge with nontraditional media is demonstrating their reach and effectiveness through credible,
independent research.

 Danger of nontraditional media is consumer backlash against over-commercialization.

 Consumers must be favorably affected in some way to justify the marketing expenditures for
nontraditional media.

 Perhaps because of the sheer pervasiveness of advertising, however, consumers seem to be less bothered
by nontraditional media now than in the past.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Promotion
 Sales promotions are short-term incentives to encourage trial or usage of a product or service.

 Whereas advertising typically provides consumers a reason to buy, sales promotions offer consumers an
incentive to buy.

 Change the behavior of the trade so that they carry the brand and actively support it
 Change the behavior of consumers so that they buy a brand for the first time, buy more of the brand, or
buy the brand earlier or more often.

 Consumer sales promotions permit manufacturers to price discriminate by effectively charging different
prices to groups of consumers who vary in their price sensitivity.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Promotion
 Besides conveying a sense of urgency to consumers, carefully designed promotions can build brand
equity through information or actual product experience that helps to create strong, favorable, and
unique associations.

 Sales promotions can encourage the trade to maintain full stocks and actively support the manufacturer’s
merchandising efforts.

 From a consumer behavior perspective, there are a number of disadvantages of sales promotions, such
as decreased brand loyalty and increased brand switching, decreased quality perceptions, and
increased price sensitivity.

 Consumers may merely subsidize buyers who would have bought the brand anyway.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Promotion
 New consumers attracted to the brand may attribute their purchase to the promotion and not to the
merits of the brand per se and, as a result, may not repeat their purchase when the promotional offer is
withdrawn.

 With consumers, objectives may target new category users, existing category users, and/or existing
brand users. With the trade, objectives may center on distribution, support, inventories, or goodwill.

Consumer Promotions
 Consumer promotions are designed to change the choices, quantity, or timing of consumers’ product
purchases.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Promotion
Consumer Promotions
 We distinguish between customer franchise building promotions like samples, demonstrations, and
educational material, and noncustomer franchise building promotions such as price-off packs, premiums,
sweepstakes, and refund offers.

 Customer franchise building promotions can enhance the attitudes and loyalty of consumers toward a
brand – in other words, affect brand equity.

 Promotion strategy must reflect the attitudes and behavior of consumers.

BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Promotion
Trade Promotions
 Trade promotions are often financial incentives or discounts given to retailers, distributors, and other
channel members to stock and display.

 Facilitate the sale of a product through slotting allowances, point-of-purchase displays, contests and
dealer incentives, training programs, trade shows, and cooperative advertising.

 Trade promotions are typically designed either to secure shelf space and distribution for a new brand, or
to achieve more prominence on the shelf and in the store.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Online Marketing Communications
 The main advantages to marketing on the Web are the low cost and the level of detail and degree of
customization it offers.

 Online marketing communications can accomplish almost any marketing communication objective and are
especially valuable in terms of solid relationship building.

Websites
 Even though different market segments may have different levels of knowledge and interest about a
brand, a well-designed Web site can effectively communicate to consumers regardless of their personal
brand or communications history.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Online Marketing Communications
Websites
 Because consumers often go online to seek information rather than be entertained, some of the more
successful Web sites are those that can convey expertise in a consumer-relevant area.

 Brand-building is increasingly a collaborative effort between consumers and brand marketers.

 In creating online information sources for consumers at company Web sites, marketers must provide timely
and reliable information.

 Web site design is crucial, because if consumers do not have a positive experience, it may be very
difficult to entice them back in the highly competitive and cluttered online world.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Online Marketing Communications
Online Ads and Videos
 Internet advertising comes in a variety of forms – banner ads, rich media ads, and other types of ads.

 A number of potential advantages exist for Internet advertising:

 It is accountable, because software can track which ads went to which sales;
 it is nondisruptive, so it doesn’t interrupt consumers; and
 it can target consumers so that only the most promising prospects are contacted.

 Many consumers find it easy to ignore banner ads and screen them out with pop-up filters.

 The advantage of videos is the enormous potential pass-along that exists if an imaginative video strikes
a chord with consumers,
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Online Marketing Communications
Online Ads and Videos
 As a manifestation of permission marketing, e-mail ads in general – often including advanced features
such as personalized audio messages, color photos, and streaming video - have increased in popularity.

 Another alternative to banner ads that a great many marketers employ is search advertising, in which
users are presented with sponsored links relevant to their search words alongside unsponsored search
results.

Social Media
 Social media allows consumers to share text, images, audio, and video online with each other and – if
they choose – with representatives from companies.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Online Marketing Communications
Social Media
 Social media comes in many forms, but six key options are: (1) message boards and forums, (2) chat
rooms, (3) blogs, (4) Facebook, (5) Twitter, and (6) YouTube.

 It allows brands to establish a public voice and presence on the Web.

 It complements and reinforces other communication activities.
 It helps promote innovation and relevance for the brand.
 By permitting personal, independent expression, message boards, chat rooms, and blogs can create a sense of
community and foster active engagement.

 Different social media can accomplish different objectives.

BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Online Marketing Communications
Social Media
 When companies choose to engage in social media, speed of response and the proper tone is critical.

 Interactive marketing communications work well together.

 Interactive marketing communications reinforces other forms of marketing communications as well.

 Many experts maintain that a successful digitally based campaign for a brand often skillfully blends
three different forms of media: paid, owned, and earned media.
 Paid media is all the various forms of more traditional advertising media described above, including TV and print.
 Owned media are those media channels the brand controls to some extent – Websites, e-mails, social media, etc.
 Earned media are when consumers themselves communicate about the brand via social media, word-of-mouth, etc.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Online Marketing Communications
Social Media
 It is important to track all form of social media formally and informally.

 The fact is, no matter how many they are, Facebook fans and Twitter followers will not matter if they are
not engaged with the brand.

Events and Experiences

 Events and experiences range from an extravagant multimillion dollar sponsorship of a major
international event to a simple local in-store product demonstration or sampling program.

 What all these different kinds of events and experiences share is that, one way or another, the brand
engages the consumers’ senses and imagination, changing brand knowledge in the process.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Events and Experiences
 Event marketing can be defined as public sponsorship of events or activities related to sports, art,
entertainment, or social causes.

 To identify with a particular target market or lifestyle

 To increase awareness of the company or product name
 To create or reinforce consumer perceptions of key brand image associations
 To enhance corporate image dimensions
 To create experiences and evoke feelings
 To express commitment to the community or on social issues
 To entertain key clients or reward key employees
 To permit merchandising or promotional opportunities
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Events and Experiences
 The success of an event can be unpredictable and out of the sponsor’s control.
 There can be much clutter in sponsorship.
 Some consumers may resent the commercialization of events through sponsorship.

 Choosing Sponsorship Opportunities.

 The event must meet the marketing objectives and communication strategy defined for the brand.
 The event must have sufficient awareness, possess the desired image, and be capable of creating the desired effects with that
target market.
 Designing Sponsorship Programs.
 For more significant and broader impact, however, sponsors typically supplement such activities with samples, prizes,
advertising, retail promotions, publicity, and so forth.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Events and Experiences
 Measuring Sponsorship Activities.
 the supply-side method focuses on potential exposure to the brand by assessing the extent of media coverage, and
 the demand-side method focuses on reported exposure from consumers.

Mobile Marketing
 One of the fastest-growing areas in mobile ad spending is Apple’s new iAd mobile network, which allows
marketers to place interactive banner ads in iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad software applications, or apps.

 Many ads are also being developed for Google’s Android operating system.

 Smartphones present a unique opportunity for marketers because they can be in consumers’ hands at the
point of sale or consumption.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Mobile Marketing
 Geotargeting occurs when marketers take advantage of digital technology to send messages to
consumers based on their location and the activities they are engaging in.

 Opt-in advertising will be key, whereby users agree to allow advertisers to use specific, individual
information about time, location, and shopping preferences in order to send them targeted ads and
promotions.

Public Relations and Publicity

 Public relations and publicity relate to a variety of programs and are designed to promote or protect a
company’s image or its individual products.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Public Relations and Publicity
 Publicity is nonpersonal communications such as press releases, media interviews, press conferences,
feature articles, newsletters, photographs, films, and tapes.

 Public relations may also include annual reports, fund-raising and membership drives, lobbying, special
event management, and public affairs.

 Marketers now recognize that although public relations are invaluable during a marketing crisis, it also
needs to be a routine part of any marketing communications program.

 Publicity and PR often serve another important role—they get people talking.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Word-of-Mouth
 Word-of-mouth is a critical aspect of brand building as consumers share their likes, dislikes, and
experiences with brands with each other.

 The power of word-of-mouth is the credibility and relevance it often brings.

 Companies are attempting to create this consumer word-of-mouth through various techniques often called
buzz marketing.

 Established companies do not have the luxury of time, so they often attempt to catalyze the buzz
marketing effect for new product introductions.
BRAND PROMOTION METHODS
Word-of-Mouth
 Buzz marketing works well when the marketing message appears to originate with an independent
source and not with the brand.

 Some criticize buzz marketing as “a form of cultural corruption” in which marketers are actually creating
the culture at a fundamental level.

 Another potential problem with buzz marketing is that it requires a buzz-worthy product.
ROLE OF BRAND AMBASSADORS, CELEBRITIES