Brand Management, Image, and Salience - Assignment Example

? Brand Management Contents Brand Management 3 Brand Image 3 Brand Salience 4 Comparison and Contrast 5 Consistency in Brand Image 6 Relation betweenBrand Image and Brand Salience 6 Planning and Construction of Brand Image for a New Brand 7 References 10 Brand Management Brand management begins with the definition of the term “brand”. It deals with defining the brand, strategies to position the brand in the market and delivering the brand. Brand management can be defined as the art of creating and maintaining the brand. A brand image differentiates the brand from its competitors. It also provides a reflection of the business. A mixture of various marketing media is called branding. Branding tends to give an identity and captures the mind of the customers with the name of the brand. Depending on the brand value and the intended target segment, companies of all sizes are increasingly weighing their options whether to promote their marketing campaigns through the social networking sites, since there are high chances of possible dilution of the brand value as well as backlash coming from negative feedback and comments from disgruntled and unhappy consumers (Smith and Zook, 2011, p. 14). So, companies are increasingly taking a much more conscious step in their effort to promote the brands in the minds of today’s tech savvy consumers by the usage of promotion techniques such as website promotion, email marketing and mobile promotions. Brand Image The current outlook of the customers regarding a brand is called brand image. Brand image can be looked upon as the set of beliefs the target customers hold I respect of a certain brand. Brand image is constructed in the minds of the customers from all sources. Brand image has the potential to convey emotional value. The basis of an image in the mind of customers depends upon the subjective perceptions that the consumers have in respect of some brands. When a consumer decides to purchase a product, he is not purchasing only the product itself but also the brand. It is the image that drives the consumers to buy that brand. The brand communications can help to strengthen the images. There are four steps by which a certain product can create its brand image. Creating a brand image is essential to sustain in the long run. The product must be uniquely valuable and present itself in front of the customers in such a fashion that customer can have a clear idea of the benefits that the product provides. The product should communicate with the customer in such a manner that is easily understandable and easy to remember. Another important step in order to create brand image is to differentiate itself from the already existing competitors. The new brand must analyze the key selling points of the competitors. The brand will have to set a new structure of promises to the customer, which it will be able to deliver. In fact, the promises offered by the new brand may become the selling point for the brand. The marketing strategies of the brand should revolve with a central theme. The theme may consist of a single idea, and this will act as the focus in all external communications. The brand that is willing to penetrate into the market must live up to the promises made. So the first and foremost step to penetrate into the market is not to make fake promises which the brand cannot live up to. If the brand fails to fulfill the expectations, then in spite of many attempts, it will not be able to enter the market according to its desires. Brand image is created only when the brand creates and meets the expectations. Brand Salience The propensity of the brand to come into the mind of the customers in the situations of buying is regarded as brand salience. It differs from the concept of awareness. It reflects the quality as well as the quantity of the network that buyers hold in their minds. The ability of an item to stand out from its competitors and create its own identity is regarded as the concept of salience. The concept of brand salience has achieved much prominence in the brand as well as in advertising literature. The concept has been loosely associated with the single operationalization in marketing literature. The experts in the marketing arena call for brand salience to be the outcome of advertising. The role of salience is not limiting within the propensity of the brand to be considered by the buyer. It further plays its role iduring the selection process of the buyer. A lot of varieties are available to the buyer and brand salience acts when the buyer tries to select the brand of his choice from the available resources. Brand salience influences the consumers in a positive fashion in respect of the brand being selected by the consumer when more than one brand is present in the market as competitors (Lans, Peters and Wedel, 2005). When a brand is retrieved, the customer gains some sort of information regarding the brand they chose. This acts as the assurance that the brand is appropriate and is in line with the requirements of the customer. Thus, brand salience increases the probability of a certain brand getting selected. There is a sharp distinction between brand salience and brand attitude. In case of bran attitude, the focus is on the evaluation of the brand. Brand attitude provides a different explanation due to the fact that buyers tend to opt for different brands in different situations. Three key factors should be incorporated in the measurement of brand salience. The measure must contain a range of attributes which should act as the representative and can be used in the thinking process from the customers’ point of view. The measure shall focus on the thought process behind the brand and not on the process of how favorably the brand was considered (Romaniuk and Sharp, 2004, pp. 334–336). Comparison and Contrast A positive image is a toll for a brand to taste success. Only advertising lacks the capability to create positive image. The corresponding brand and the image should be promoted simultaneously through the media of advertising so as to create brand salience (Maguire, 2002, p. 1). The concept of brand salience is regarded as the alternative to brand image in the discussions that relate to effectiveness of advertising. A majority of the researchers opined that advertising contributes to changing the image of brands while a minority argued that advertising works because it serves to improve the brand salience. When salience is defined as broader concept of brand performance, it is a correlation among all the measures of performance. Considering two brands A and B, brand A has more salience compared to brand B because more people are aware of the brand and more buy it. Brand salience does not possess any image component in it (Woodside and Megehee, 2009, pp. 45–46). Consistency in Brand Image An integrated marketing campaign can be developed through delivering a strong message and promise across all the media of communications. Such actions create a strongly recommended brand image. The consumers seem to gain confidence through integrated campaigns and the brand gains the trust of consumers. If there is inconsistency in delivering the message clearly to the customers, they will take the brand lightly and in most cases they will opt out for a more reliable alternative. The customers think the tone of the advertisements to be the tone of the company and the brand. If the brand presents different pictures in different modes of communication, the customers will think the business to be inconsistent and in the worst cases think the brand to be an unreliable one (Chiaravalle and Schenck, 2006, pp. 185–187). Relation between Brand Image and Brand Salience The marketing theorists focus on the brand promise. A unique and relevant brand promise will suffice to create a healthy brand. It will justify the choice of the brand and will ignore substitutability. Large brands tend to place more emphasis on brand salience. Brand salience cannot sustain without support of the market. Creating a brand image is a primary marketing strategy. If the brand image is created in the minds of the customers, a sustaining brand salience is only a matter of time. A brand is created only on successful development of brand relationships. In brand relationships, the customer forms a differentiating image for the brand on the basis of all contacts where the customer is exposed. In order to create such successful relationships, it is important to present the messages of the brand clearly to the customers. Advertising is one mode of communication. A successful relationship will pave the way for sustaining brand salience. Planning and Construction of Brand Image for a New Brand Apparels are supposed to be one of the basic necessities of human beings because the unfavorable climatic circumstances necessitate the requirement of clothing. In addition to the fundamental purpose, apparels also act as a fashion requirement in the contemporary world. In addition, as a result of the rise in the number of apparel brands across the globe, consumers are required to seriously contemplate during the purchasing course of action. The buying process is, in general, bifurcated into three phases, i.e., ‘pre-purchase’, ‘purchase’ as well as ‘post-purchase’. With the rise of competition in the modern business world, marketing communication has become vibrant and suffused with endorsements. As a result, it has become very challenging for brands to get noticed by the consumers. It is an increasingly complex job for marketing professionals to design an endorsement drive to distinguish their brands from their peers and draw the attention of consumers. The consumers may be governed by perfectionist ideals for which he or she in the intention of purchasing clothes tends to render a very detailed outlook on the commodities. Again, the intention of the consumers to purchase clothing merchandises tends to be increasingly governed by factors such as brand and fashion consciousness of the consumers. Moreover, the consumers also tend to look for novel and creative designs while tending to go for purchases of garments in addition to the parameters of brand and fashion. Consumers of a frugal or economic nature tend to render an eye on the price of the merchandises before making any relevant purchase. Advertisements and endorsements are playing the primary role in communication process. They target a certain group of consumers and try to influence them with varieties, affordable prices and quality. In order to sustain in the market, it is required for the apparel brand to build brand image. Brand image is very strongly related to brand awareness because customers are unlikely to have any image of a brand that they are unaware of. In this highly competitive commercial environment, it has become imperative for corporate organizations to distinguish the products and services offered by them from those of their peers. As a result, brand awareness, brand image, and brand development strategies have become an integral part of the present day business organization in building its brand equity. The significance of brand image paves the way in introduction of another notion called brand equity. Brand equity has been defined as a collection of assets such as brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality by consumers and other brand components. These components are vital in the creation of a brand’s personality over time. Brand personality can be described as the collection of human attributes linked with a brand. The development of brand personality is important for the accomplishment of the brand since it contributes to setting apart a particular brand from the competitors available in the market. The famous and admired image of the celebrity along with precise product-image association amplifies the consumer interest and as a result, leads to an enhanced level of brand recall. Moreover, the use of celebrity endorsements pertaining to branded garments and the like often tend to create a lasting image of the brand in the consumer’s mind. This fact helps the consumer to recall the brand used or worn on viewing an image of the celebrity in the later stage. References Chiaravalle, B. and Schenck, B., 2006. Branding for dummies. John Wiley and Sons. Lans, R., Peters, R. and Wedel, M., 2005. Research note – competitive brand salience. Available at: http://marketsci.highwire.org/content/27/5/922.short [Accessed: 9th October, 2012]. Maguire, M., 2002. Business and economics. Grin Verlag. Romaniuk, J. and Sharp, B., 2004. Conceptualizing and measuring brand salience. Available at: http://marketingscience.info/assets/documents/62/9419.pdf [Accessed: 9th October, 2012]. Smith, P. R. and Zook, Z., 2011. Marketing communications: integrating offline and online with social media. 5th ed. Kogan Page Publishers. Woodside, A. and Megehee, C., 2009. Perspectives on cross-cultural, ethnographic, brand image, storytelling, unconscious needs, and hospitality guest research. Emerald Group Publishing. Read More