Brand management and It's Stages

Henceforth, this report emphasis over branding as a marketing tool. Theories in respect to managing brand will also be specified in this report. This report also emphasis over portfolio management of the brand. Use of brand management hierarchy in process to effectively operate the organisation hierarchy will also be specified in this report. Various techniques associated with brand extensions and brand leverage will also summarised in this report. Techniques and methods associated with measurement of brand value will also be summarised in this report.

Components of Branding as a marketing tool

Branding is a process to create a unique identity with the use of specific symbol, themes and other associated techniques in process to create company's own unique image in the market (Bartsch and et.al., 2016).

Branding is a crucial aspect of marketing as it enables the company's management to create a unique image of company's products in the market. Importance associated with branding as a marketing tool is mentioned as follows.

Brand recognition: Branding is an important tool to improve the market presence of company's products by creating hype between the target customers. Brand recognition is among the major advantage company generate with the support (Brexendorf and Keller, 2017). With the use of specific techniques like using symbol, quote to define the company's products and services in the target market enable the company management to get recognised products and services of organisation in the target market. Apple is among the leading brand in technology sector and brand recognition significantly improved the profitability of the company by getting recognised in the market with the support of marketing campaign.

Branding improve market share: Branding is a significant tool of the companies for achieving hike in company's sales. By projecting company's products and services with the techniques of branding enable the management to get the brand featured in the market. Improved popularity of brand and company's products in the market also drives to achieve improved market share by enhancing company's sales in the target market (Cheung, Pires and Rosenberger III, 2019). Management in Apple utilise all the effective marketing channels like social media, radio, internet to project the company's products and services for the purpose of branding that has significantly supported the management to achieve higher sales figures that has potentially improved the market share of company's products in information technology sector across the globe.

Create trust: Branding is an important tool companies uses to improve the market value of company's products and services. Among the major advantages companies achieve with the branding is to enhance the trust of customer's in company's products and services. Information technology achieved the major growth in a very short period because of the technological advancement and development that has also positively improved the utility of company's operations. Branding of Information technology companies like Apple contributed major in earning the trust of customer's. Marketing campaigns run by Apple effectively project all the features and services attached with company's products like Phone. I-pad and other products that has caused to improved trust of customer's in company's products and brand. Want to get Assignment help? Talk Our Expert Now!

Components involve in successful brand strategy

Branding play an important role companies use to project company's products and services. Various components involved in successful branding strategies can be summarised in the following manner.

Target Customer: Target customer's play the significant role while framing the marketing campaign for branding of company's products and services (Dechawatanapaisal, 2018). Management in Apple, project all the significant features in company's products like camera quality of phones that effectively enable the company management to influence buying decisions of target customer's. Customer's play the major role in the product success and it also has a major impact over company's sustainability. With the use of branding strategies Apple management try to attract the target customer's towards buying company products and services.

Brand Promise: Brand promise is also a crucial component involved in company's branding strategies. With the use of branding strategies to attract the target customer company make various promises to project the features of company's products like about the sustainable and longer life, effective battery and other associated promise to improve the market sale. To convey the product feature by promising about them is an important strategy Apple use in its branding strategies.

Brand perception: To project about the perception of brand is an important tool Apple use to frame the branding strategies (Du Plessis, 2017). Perception of brand play and effective role in giving shape to branding campaign. In the brand perception management of Apple focus over conveying principle, policies of the brand to improve the customer's loyalty towards the brand.

Brand Value: Projection of brand value with the branding strategies is also an important component of branding. Brand value involve all the factors that drives the decision making process of company management. Vision and mission of the Apple behind company's operations is more like a reflection of company's brand value.

Brand Equity Model

Brand equity is a process to create a market image of company's products and services to improve the customer's trust by enhancing the brand image. For successful management of Brand Apple can use models. One model of brand management is as follows-

Keller's Customer-Based Brand Equity Model

Level 1: Brand Identity

Brand identity refers to looking at the brand in such a way in which customers differentiate one brand from others. Apple needs to identify what are the features which enables customers to differentiate products of Apple from its competitors products. This stage is very important as this supports other stages in this model. Products of Apple are high in price and very basic assumption of people which is that products which are highly priced have better quality. Identity of brand build when customers are unaware of products and values that a company provides and then company can build its identity by Ad campaign and attract customers by communicating values of the products that a company sells. This stage involves answering question of who is brand?

Level 2: Brand Meaning

Customers when become aware of brand they will want to know more about its products like its features work well? Is the product reliable? Do the product look good? Effectiveness of customer service, value for money provided by the product (Garas, Mahran and Mohamed, 2018). This is brand meaning and this is divided in two parts which is:

Brand Performance

This includes performance of brand and its products does what it says and improves its performance over time in such situation products and brands are loved and trusted by people and its customers. Apple have effectively managed to be loved and trusted by the customers.

Brand Imagery

This involves hoe does and what does a brand looks to its customers.

This stage involves giving answer to the question which is what is brand?

Level 3: Brand Response

This stage involves that once customer have brought the products does the product live up to the expectation of customers. If product managed to live up to expectation of the customers then they will love the product will tell their friends and other people about the product to buy one. In this situation customers will act as advocated of the brand. In case the product does not happen to be as per the expectation of customer in such case they will have negative judgement about the brand and they will not buy the product of that brand again and will also not recommend anyone to buy one (Graham and Mudambi, 2016). In contrast, they will criticise the brand and will become detractor which is not good for brand equity. This stage answers what are the feelings for the brand.

Level 4: Brand Resonance

Customers' when have positive feelings associated with brand and like it too much then they will not buy any other brand. Customers feels a relationship with it and a connection with other buyers. They not only have relation and connection with brand but have connection with other buyers of the brand which can be considered as brand advocate.

iPad of Apple is a perfect example of this CBBE.

Aakar's Brand Equity Model

To achieve the advantages of brand equity David Aakar has launched the Aakar's Brand Equity Model (Huggins and et.al., 2016). This model is a well diversified approach towards the brand equity as this model covers every aspect of brand equity such as brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association and other proprietary association.

Brand Loyalty: Brand loyalty is a process in which company make strategies like product development and improvement to improve the customer's loyalty in the brand. Introducing new products is also an approach companies use to enhance brands loyalty which contribute in effective management of brand. For example, Apple adds various new features in the existing products to sustain the existing customer base of the company which is loyal to brand, this way Apple can manage its brand over time. Worried for Business Assignment Writing Help? Get our experts Help Now!

Brand Awareness: Brand awareness is an effective tool used by the corporate organisations to improve the brand equity of company's products and services. Brand awareness refers to customers awareness about existence of the brand and experience that customers have about the brand. Strong brand awareness is used by companies to manage brand and its equity and companies can take advantage of this by increasing its sales. To improve the brand awareness, companies frame suitable marketing strategies to project the features and advantages of company's products and services. For example, Apple management run marketing campaign over different marketing channels like social media to aware customer's about the different features of company's products like high definition camera quality of apple phones and other associated features.

Perceived Quality: Perceived quality is also a crucial aspect of the brand equity model. To improve and sustain the brand equity in the market this model guides the companies to enhance the utility of company's products by expanding the product quality and features (Keller and Brexendorf, 2019). perceived quality needs to be strong and high which contribute in maintaining and managing brand equity. Quality enhancement in existing products and services drives the management to improve the brand equity by attracting new customer base. For example, in order to manage brand through perceived quality Apple keep increasing and enhancing quality of its products so that customer have high perceived quality about the product.

Brand Association: Brand association is also a key component used in Aakar brand equity model. Brand association is specified as linking the brand with specific factors like logo, quotes and other impact full factors that guided the customer's to memorise the brand and its products. By using this association like logo of Apple which is easily communicates its product is a very strong brand association as people who have not used products of Apple are also able to identify the product from its logo which suggest that this logo can be utilized to manage brands.

Other proprietary association: Proprietary association involve patents, trademarks of company that enable the companies to create its own image in the market. Proprietary association created a legal right of companies over such association. For example, Apple has created a logo as a part of the proprietary association. Logo of Apple enable the customers to identify the brand.

Importance of branding as a marketing tool. Branding is a crucial aspect of the corporate organisation that drives the companies to create market image, improve the market share and generate other benefits to improve the market share (Keller, 2020). Components like target customer's, brand value are involved while framing the branding strategies. Tools like brand reinforcing, brand revitalising use to draft the suitable strategies for branding. Different aspects like brand loyalty, brand awareness involved to frame the branding strategies.

Brand portfolio management

Brand portfolio refers to as a tool used to project all the brands associated with the corporate organisation. It is more specifically specifies as projection of all the products and market segments with corporate organisation.

Brand Portfolio Management is an approach of managing more than one brand in a company. In this, categories of brand are identified and they are then divided on the basis of needs which are satisfied by the brands.

Strategies associated with the brand portfolio management is segregated in two parts active and passive.

Brand Portfolio of Apple is known as one which comes under branded house in this apple operates in various industries which are

• Computer Hardware
• Computer Software
• Consumer electronics
• Cloud computing
• Digital distribution
• Fabless silicon design
• Semiconductors
• Financial technology
• Artificial intelligence

Significant factor about all this is that all the products which are operated under these industries are have one identity which is known as Apple and name of brand starts with “i” which enables customers and people to identify that the product belongs to Apple.

In this portfolio development of Apple which started with introduction of personal computer by Apple and later continued with Macintosh which is first personal computer sold without programming language. This later was added by many products which Apple brought into market and later its portfolio was filled with consumer electronics and mobile phones of Apple.

First mobile phone launched by Apple was iPhone and this was continued and portfolio was added by iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S later Apple kept adding feature and improving quality of its products and this enhanced its portfolio and this was contributed by its brand equity and its portfolio in which company included products which are operating in various other industries like computer and software all these products are known by the name of Apple.

Brand Hierarchy

Brand Hierarchy is a structure of the brand within organisation portfolio of brands. For structuring and designing brand in perfect order so that customers can identify the products easily. There are three models in which brand are structures-

Branded House Model

In this model companies are brand and services and market sectors in which companies operates are its subsets. Apple is known for using this model other brand are not formally branded. In this model primary brand of Apple includes many other brands which are Mac, iTunes, iPhone etc. Using this model is very effective when companies brand awareness and brand equity is high. In this reputation and image of the previous brand of the company helps in increasing sells and growth of its new brands. For example Apple launches a new product in market under its primary brand and this will not face much difficulty while surviving and growing in the market due to acceptance of the customers as a product of the Apple. This model have one limitation also that if any of the product of the Apple does not perform well then this will affect the image of the Apple and all its products.

House of Brand

In this model the branding id focused on the subsets of the brand. All the products being sold by company have different manes and identity. In this model many times customers do not even get to know that the products belongs to that company. In this model all the brands of a company are managed differently and does not affect each other. This model unlike Branded House does not contribute image and goodwill of one product to other product of the company and new products of the company have to grow through all the difficult phases of establishing itself in market. Advantage of this model is that bad image and reputation of other brand of a company does not affect its other brands.

Hybrid Model

This model have strength of both above mentioned model and does not have to from either of them. This have power, strength and credibility which comes from branded house and uniqueness, distinction and specialization that come from house of brand model. In this model companies expand its market share to different segments within an industry and at the same time maintain corporate brand visibility where desired and required.

Brand leverage and Brand Extension

Brand Extension

Brand extension is specifies as launching the new products by the brands in process to expand the customer because of the company (Wallina and Spry, 2016). Brand extension also involve launching a new product category to enter into a new market. In this iPhone which is a product of Apple id being included and this report discusses strategies which can be practised for extension of iPhone in domestic and international market.

Re-Positioning same product in different form

In this technique of brand extension the existing product of the company in this technique Apple needs to present its iPhone in some new form. Apple have adopted this strategy and have re-positioned its products in different forms. Upgraded version of iPhone which come with its changed name are result of this strategy.

Price Changes

This is widely used technique for brand extension and Apple is using this technique as well (Tanwar and Prasad, 2016). In this Apple charges high price when it launches any new and upgraded version of iPhone as after launch of the product its demand is high and later when demand drops price also drops so that people can buy the product with less price.

New Distributor

To extend its brand this strategy can also be used by Apple. In this Apple need to change and increase its distributor. Apple can appoint and establish alliance with new distributors specifically in areas and at places where iPhone in not operating presently. This will help Apple to increase its sales in new areas and establish itself in areas in which it does not exist.

Brand Leverage

Brand leverage is specified as using the brand name for the launch of new but related products line so the new product get easy recognition in the target market. Brand leverage is a strategical tool used for the expansion of product line of the company. Strategies which Apple can use to leverage iPhone are as follows-

Line extension: Line extension is an effective strategical tool that Apple can use to leverage iPhone in the market (Srivastava, 2018). This strategy will drive Apple to extend the existing product line to attract new customer's. In relation wit this Apple will need to add a new iPhone in its line so that customers can buy products according to their needs and desires. These iPhone can be availed by Apple with different features.

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Brand Stretching: Brand stretching is also a strategical tool for the brand leveraging. Brand stretching is about to launch a new product in an entirely different product segment. In realtion with Brand Stretching of iPhone Apple can avail new type of iPhone which are not touchscreen or are something different but are known as iPhone. This will increase its customer base and Apple will be able to work in different type of market with iPhone.

Brand stretching is also a good way to expand the target market. For example Apple also stretched the product line by launching Apple music.

Techniques to measure brand value, brand awareness, market share, consumer attitudes and purchasing intent

Preference Metrics

To measure its brand value apple can use this technique. Preference of consumer is a powerful factor in their decision for purchasing. Preference is a factor that consumer can travel more and spend more money to purchase the product they prefer (Cheung, Pires and Rosenberger, 2019). Consumer preference aspects which can be measured through focused groups, sales data and survey can include:

Brand Relevance

The extent to which customers agree that Apple provides unique and specific value that is not offered by competitors of that brand.

Accessibility

This refers to ability of Apple to provide products to its target market.

Brand Value

This refers to how much customers want to pay for products of Apple.

Look at Website Traffic

This is one of the most used technique for measuring brand awareness. Apple can use this technique to measure brand awareness. In this measuring traffic of the website can help Apple to know about its brand awareness, in this it is important that Apple is looking at right place for this. Google Analytic s can help this by tracking the number of people who typed URL of Apple into the address bar, used a bookmark of browser. Tracking and Monitoring this can give idea to Apple indication of change in its brand awareness.

Market Share

To calculate market share there are various methods which Apple can use. Methods for calculating market share are Unit versus Dollars, Apple may chose either of method in which they can either calculate their market share Unit refers to unit sold by the Apple and Dollars refers to revenue earned by Apple in market share. Other methods of market share calculation is Shipment from manufacturer versus consumer purchase. This includes calculation of total shipments from the manufacturer and what are the aggregate purchase which have been made by consumers of Apple. Through this method Apple will be able to measure its market share.

There are various independent sources from where Apple can find out total sales of the industry. These independent sources are trade groups and regulatory bodies etc.

Total Followers

Apple can measure its consumers' attitude by its followers on social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. This are very effective in measuring attitude of consumers towards Apple and its products. If the followers are high and are increasing, then attitude of the consumers if positive and adaptive towards products of the Apple. The measurement of consumer attitude can be more apt if Apple link this with social engagement of followers which refers to actions taken by consumers on these social media sites in respect with the Apple and its Social media profiles.

Tracking and categorizing Consumer Actions

Apple can track and categorise actions of consumers to measure purchasing intent of the consumers. In this context some actions taken by consumer's shoes that they are top of the funnel and some actions indicate that they are likely to purchase the products of Apple. In this regard liking a post refers that consumers like the Apple and its products, sharing the brand and following it shows desire for the brand (Sheil, Rana and Reilly, 2018). Other than this when consumers click to the pages and locate the stores this shows that they are willing to purchase the products of Apple.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that here is branding is too important to the company, because with the support effective branding it able to gain huge competitive advantage in the market. The management need to develop their current marketing strategies to increase its brand value. There are two strategies called passive and included in the brand portfolio management. With the help of these strategies the company is abler to maintain effective position in the market on the basis of brand. There are various brand extension techniques also mentioned above which help to the company for expanding their business in the domestic and international market. Currently competitors of the company are also using modern strategies for build high brand. The collaborative partnership is also a good option to the company which help it during brand expansion process. The top-level management completely need to avoid such attempts in their expansion process which impact it negatively. There are brand measurement techniques also support to the company for knowing current position of brand in the market. There are great opportunities to the company gain effective profit in the market by using its high brand image.

Read Also - Identifying Entrepreneurial Opportunities and It's Benefits

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