Branding Analysis - Raymond - Essay Example

We wake up in the morning and brush our teeth with Close-Up tooth paste, then take a bath with Dove and Pantene shampoo. After all this, let us say we wear a Levi's Jeans and a Reebok tee shirt. Then comes the turn of the morning breakfast for which we have a porridge made of Bagrry's White Oats and then say we have a cup of hot Nescafe caf. These are the brands which have become part of our daily life. In fact it is difficult to imagine our lives without them in today's world. But after going through this little introduction, it is important to know what actually this 'BRAND' means. A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of all these elements that companies use to convey the identity of its goods and services to customers and differentiate them from the competitors' goods and services (ICMR). The concept & significance of Brand Consumers identify a brand's distinctive capabilities based on their perceptions that have themselves been created by the marketers over a period of time. A genuine brand is "the internalized sum of all the impressions received by the customers and consumers resulting in a distinctive position in their mind's eye based on perceived emotional and functional benefits" (Knapp). A brand, in general, conveys certain aspects like attributes, benefits, values, culture, personality and user each one of which are discussed below. Attributes: Attributes are things that usually speak about the product. A brand usually conveys attributes of the product in order to inform existing customers and at the same time attract new potential customers. For example, the attributes of Raymond's suits are stylish, fashionable and modern and stitched of high quality premium clothing. Benefits: In order for a brand to be successful in the market, it is necessary that the product attributes eventually transform into both emotional and functional benefits of the same. If the same example of Raymond's suits which was mentioned above is considered attributes like style and fashion will transform into emotional benefits and the quality of clothing will transform into functional benefits. The later one is referred to as functional benefit because the consumer may not have to spend frequently on buying clothes. Values: Most of the brands associate some value with themselves. For example, the baseline of the brand Raymond - 'The Complete Man,' communicates a value proposition that the clothing makes a man complete and perfect. Culture: Brands also represent a certain culture. Even this aspect can be better explained with the same example of Raymond that we've been discussing all through. Raymond projects a culture of family bonding like father and son, husband and wife along with Indianness like respect for elders etc, in its advertisements. Personality: Brands communicate personality status. Raymond suggests that it is a brand for a man who cares for his family, society, and himself. User: Brands clearly state their user segments. Raymond is targeted at upper middle class and upper class customers. Brand Personality Brand personality is of immense importance to a firm. This is evident from the fact that most companies spend a lot of time, money and energy in brand building along with the brand's personality. It would be difficult for a company to imagine existence without the brand name and brand personality. For example, if a customer is asked to select one of two chocolates kept in front of him/her, one with the Cadbury's brand name on it visible and the other, also a Cadbury's but with the brand name hidden, the customer, in all probability selects the one with the Cadbury's name visible on it. This shows the importance of the brand name. Companies have to understand that brands and their personality mean a lot and are at the heart of any business activity. Hence, it is necessary that a firm has to exercise full control over its brands. It is often felt that most of the companies have a constrained perception about their brands. They tend to feel that a brand is just a log or symbol of an organization. Companies need to have an all round perception of their brands and their personalities and also need to understand that brands are much more than logos or symbols. Brand and its personality is a combination of the company's marketing, promotional, distribution and service efforts with a suitable differentiation of the brand from its competitors. Based on the fact that brands also carry some kind of personality in same way as humans do, the best way to describe brand personality would be to explain it in terms of human characteristics (Asia Market Research). Brand Personality can be defined as the immediate "take-away" or response that people have to a brand (Larson). Also, the fact is that whenever a customer sees senses or touches a product, the first involuntary thought that he gets about the product is nothing but brand personality. Most of the advertising specialists and branding consultants' advice that all the activities of a company that are related to advertisements along with the tagline company should ensure that the message they communicate to the customers by way of all these activities should focus on their brand personality. A first impression means a lot when a first-time customer walks into a place of business (NFIB). The appearance and atmosphere of the store, the quality of the products that are displayed at the store as well as the attitude of the service staff can all make that crucial difference as to whether that customer will choose to do subsequent business at that particular store. In order to make that first impression the best one, the essential element is the personality of the store brand. Brand personality is an often overlooked, but crucially important component to develop when creating brand image. When a customer is making a purchase, they are not only looking for a solid product, but also a solid connection with that product. Whenever a brand is being described, it should be done as if it is a person. To be specific, a best description of a brand would be by the use of human adjectives. This way a brand can be given a personality and hence the brand would come alive. The brand's personality should be communicated very clearly to the customers. In order to this, it is necessary that the store owner uses a catchy slogan or even a memorable personality and highlight unique products. Even commercial advertisements would be of help is this situation. The store owner, in his advertisements or slogans, should try and advertise particular company guarantees which are unique. Just as customers will rely on a trustworthy friend, they will have faith in a product that exudes that same personality. Customer Perception of Brand Personality Perceived quality can be defined as the customer's perception of the overall quality or superiority of a product or service with respect to its intended purpose, relative to alternatives. Perceived quality is, first, a perception by customers (Study Mraketing). In the same way as they perceive the quality of the product, customers also do perceive the personality of the brand. Even this can be defined as the first impression that the customers create in their minds about the personality of the brand. To be specific, the perception of the customer about the personality can be defined as the chosen character that best communicates the brand proposition. It is not the personality of the customers, it is the personality that is most likely to draw their attention, interest them, and encourage them to take action and buy the brand. Value has been recognized as "the fundamental basis for all marketing activity" (Halbrook). Value has also been stated as "a cognitive-based construct which captures any benefit-sacrifice discrepancy in much the same way disconfirmation does for variations between expectations and perceived performance" (Spreng). Therefore, it is the outcome of a cognitive assessment procedure. Moreover, it is an affective evaluative reaction (Oliver). Customer perceived value in commerce marketplace was defined as "the trade-off between the multiple benefits and sacrifices of a supplier's offering, as perceived by key decision-makers in the customer's organization, and taking into consideration the available alternative suppliers' offerings in a specific use situation" (Ulaga). That is, there existed three elements in this definition: "(1) the multiple components of value, (2) the subjectivity of value perceptions and (3) the importance of competition" (Ulaga). The relevant reference of a brand personality from the customers' perspective can be obtained by carrying out a customer research. Especially, direct interaction with the customers would be of great help. Customer research can be done traditionally, which is often quantitative, meaning that it can be analyzed and reported statistically with minimal margins of error. Examples are mail or phone surveys. But consumer research can be done very effectively through discussions with customers and prospects. At our agency, we rely very heavily on talking to the customer, in their environment, in addition to traditional research. Consumers evaluate brands through human personality traits, whether you've imputed traits to the brand or they've done so because you haven't. Of course, this is largely an unconscious evaluation (Ageless Marketing). The well-judged brand personality design needs to be planned and communicated within the organization and all related partners have to secure the sustainable brand personalities which are considered, in this study, one of the most precious 3 success factors for the fast moving consumer products industry (Maria). Dimensions of Brand Personality As stated in the initial parts of this essay, the best way to determine the personality of a brand is to rely on the metaphor. "If the brand would be a person, what would he/she be like" If we were to determine the personality of human beings then we would definitely list out the personality traits to describe about the person. The following are the personality traits which are represented in five different dimensions (Peimer). 1. Openness to experience 2. Conscientiousness 3. Extraversion 4. Agreeableness 5. Neuroticism The above has been adapted for brands by Jennifer Aaker, who proposes the following five personality dimensions into which all brand personality traits can be clustered: 1. Sincerity 2. Excitement 3. Competence 4. Sophistication 5. Ruggedness Despite various kinds of beliefs and individual perceptions about the brand personality, it can be very firmly stated that brand personality is a practical tool which helps strategist to gain insights into the relationship between the consumer and the brand. When a brand is personified, a richer description and perhaps a couple of insights also can be discovered. Let us look at a DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance) profile done from a customer perspective on two famous soap brands namely Lux and Dove. The interesting fact that can be noticed from the above graphs is that the customer perceives Lux having a high 'I' and Dove a low 'I'. So, no matter how much advertising Lux did, the customer would not be swayed though the customer already saw Lux as very influential. Dove has a much higher 'S' and 'C', which means that the customer probably sees the quality of the product as 'Steady' (unwavering) and 'Compliant' (no short cuts - high purity). So, it could be argued that, if Lux could convince the customer of the added value in their (slightly) positive 'C' by, for example, including the purest glycerol found in nature, there might be a window for purchase. Brand Personality - Corporate Brands What a company is and how it presents itself to the consumer are defined by its corporate brand personality (Keller). Corporate brand personality is a form of brand personality specific to a corporate brand. Though the concept of brand is the same for both product brands and corporate brands, there is yet some difference between these. What a company is and how it presents itself to the consumer are defined by its corporate brand personality. Corporate brand personality is a form of brand personality specific to a corporate brand. Procter & Gamble is an example of a corporate brand that has a more broadly defined and differently composed set of associations than those associations of the product brands it owns (e.g. Tide, Pringles, Mr. Clean, Pantene, Iams, etc.). Tesco's Way of managing its Brand Personality Tesco does brand marketing in order to maintain the personality of its brand. Brand marketing is about whipping up excitement about Tesco - strengthening its brand image and telling its customers about the store's promotions, deals and services in the most appealing way. The high profile advertising is just one of the ways through which the Tesco supermarket store maintains its strong Brand personality (Tesco). Sainsbury's Way of managing its Brand Personality Sainsbury's Supermarket has undergone a brand reinvigoration, launching 'Try something new today'. Sainsbury's Bank is in a plan to adopt and integrate the new Sainsbury's brand image across all of the store's platforms, including online. The micro site, called 'Money made simple', is designed to build a point of difference about the Sainsbury store and its other subsidiaries (Facts News). 'Money made simple' gives customers a reason to come back to the site, for both new information and to re-use information that they have found useful. The micro site will also help build the Sainsbury's Bank brand online, making the website more interactive, helpful and interesting whilst promoting the Bank. Brand Personality - Challenges & Benefits Challenges: There are yet certain challenges in creating and developing this Brand Personality. Brand personalities enable the customers to express an ideal of themselves, an ideal self as well as specific dimension of themselves, which allows valuable insights into their brand attitude, preference, and loyalty. Benefits: Brand personality has got its own advantages as discussed below. Brand Personality helps in - Identification of the brand attitude and personality dimension of the brand. Understanding of how the brand goes about developing personality and which dimensions arouse preference and differentiation as well as trust and loyalty in a symbolic sense. Focusing of brand messages on critical drivers that reflect the brand's personality and distinguish it from competitors. Analysis of the fit between the use of celebrities and the brand's personality to differentiate between right and wrong. Management of the brand's international personality and monitoring of valuable cross-cultural personality traits (Brand Science Institute). Conclusion Branding is something which means creating a personality of the brand. It's about making a brand human. Customers normally buy branded goods, because they expect some tangible and intangible benefits in a branded product along with the product attributes that make a product desirable. A brand which exceeds these minimum expectations of the customer makes a powerful brand. For instance, consider McDonald's fast food chain which has hundreds of outlets across the globe. It ensures that each of its outlets adapts itself to the local conditions and offers products of the highest quality at the most affordable price. This is the method which the store adopts to maintain its personality and because of which the store is one of the most sought after brands in the world. Brand personality is an important aspect to which companies need to give more attention if they want to stand the prevailing competition and hence gain more profits. References 1. Ageless Marketing. The criticality of Brand Personality. 20 5 2004. 19 12 2007 . 2. Asia Market Research. Asia Market Research Dot com. 18 December 2007 . 3. Brand Science Institute. Branding Analysis. 12 5 2002. 18 12 2007 . 4. Blas berg, John. And Viswanath, Vijay. "Making cool Brands Hot." Harvard Business Review, June 2003, Vol 81, Issue 6 5. Dr. Verity, Julie. "Maximizing the Marketing Potential of Sponsorship for Global Brands." European Business Journal, 2002, 4th Quarter, Issue 4 6. Facts News. "Sainsbury's Brand Image." Facts News (2007): 10-11. 7. Halbrook. Brand personality. NEw Delhi: Prentice-Hall, 1994. 8. Gupta, Shombit Sen. 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