Discussion question week 4 - Essay Example

A brand is the illustration, coherent, expressive, and cultural representation linked with a product or business. The fact that an individual is able to remember the name of the brand and have an affirmative association with it making the product selection easier and enhances the satisfaction and value derived from the product or services. The emotional relationship with brands makes it powerful. A brand is not just a slogan, ad campaign, or logo. This paper looks at the feature of branding, assessing the errors made in the process of branding using a workable example of a company that has experienced that, and discussing the differences of domestic and global marketing strategies (Adamson et al, 2007).

A brand is a figure of the features that makes a product exceptional. Every business has its brand. Various businesses attempt, but several fail at building a winning brand. When a company notices that its sales are flagging, it blames it on the brand. The shift of focus has moved from the product-blame to the brand-blame, thus relating to the manner the buyer’s conduct transforms (Ries et al. 2002). Branding is a more effective method of selling products; thus entirely fine products can be unsuccessful because of poor branding.

Branding increases the returns but also intensifies the risks. The emotional ties developed by customers and brands ought not to be broken as messing with them results in irreparable damage. A brand acquires strength though the market constantly remains subtle. Coca-Cola ranks top of the list as the most identified brand with a sale of almost 1 billion drinks each day. However, when Coca-Cola stopped the distribution of the original Coca-Cola drink, it replaced it with the New Coke drink to match up the competition posed by Pepsi-Cola.

New Coke hardly made any sales as the consumers rebelled against it (Gobe, 2010). Coca-Cola learnt the hard way that marketing is more than the product. It had simply focused on the taste factor when it was strategizing to build on its product, in the process missing its major brand property, which is originality. Coca-Cola had been the only product in the market ever since its foundation, with the brand name becoming product’s name as well/ Coca-Cola majorly capitalized on its original status in the various promotional campaigns (Cross Cultural Blunders).

The launch of New Coke was a contradiction to the marketing efforts by Coca-Cola. It was very misguided confining the brand’s importance to a question of taste. The representation was more important as it is also with the several big brands. The return of the initial Coca-Cola drink saw it return to the top spot (Chernatov et al, 2003). There was complete loyalty on the unique Coca-Cola drink. The concentration on the brand’s perception is very important. Cloning the rivals should not occur.

In creating brand allegiance, firms also build on emotional connection that regularly has minimal act on the quality’s product. Doing the correct market research ought to be a necessity, lesson learnt from the New Coke experience. The Coca-Cola was not scared rescinding on the New Coke project and reverting to the original Coca-Cola (Gobe, 2010).2 It is simpler for businesses to promote their services and products worldwide because of the contemporary communication and technological progresses.

A global marketing strategy assumes all the end users in all geographic locations are similar. This strategy works best for a standardized product such as Coca-Cola, which has no requirement for product diversification. A multi-domestic promotion plan on the hand imagines customers in diverse countries change hugely from each other (Ross, 2010). Products therefore, have to be suited for each market founded on the needs and wants of the end users. This method is ideal for highly differentiated products such candy, laundry detergent, or any other product dictated by the local preferences (The Social Media Revolution).

ReferencesAdamson, A. P. & Sorrell, M. (2007). Brand simple: How the best brands keep it simple and succeed. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Chernatony, L. & McDonald, M. (2003). Creating powerful brand. Oxford: Butterworth- Heinemann. Gobe, M. (2010). Emotional branding: The new paradigm for connecting brands to people. New York, NY: Allworth Press. Ries, A. & Ries, L. (2002). The 22 immutable laws of branding. New York, NY: HarperBusiness. Ross. M. (2010). How to create an irresistible brand on any budget.

Bedford: Nortlightspress.com Wheeler, A. (2009). Designing brand identity: An essential guide for the whole branding team. New Jersey: WileyCross Cultural Blunders - YouTube. (n.d.). YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . Accessed April 24, 2012, at The Social Media Revolution 2012 - YouTube. (n.d.). YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . Accessed April 24, 2012, at