"Strategic Brand Management": Brand Marketing Literacy

Kevin Lane Keller's "Strategic Brand Management" is a must-read textbook for marketing majors in world-renowned business schools, and is also a must-read for chief marketing officers or chief brand officers of multinational companies.

This article focuses on summarizing the first 6 chapters, sorting out brand-related concepts and marketing plan cases. The chapters after Chapter 6 are more focused on brand asset management. Those who are interested can read further.

Part 1 Overview

What is a brand? In short, a tool to differentiate products from different manufacturers. A strong brand can simplify customer decision-making, reduce risks and shape expectations.

The five levels of meaning of the product:

1. Core benefit level: the basic needs that consumers meet through products

2. General product level: the basic appearance of the product< /p>

3 Expected product layer: The product attributes that buyers expect to obtain when purchasing

4 Extended product layer: The attributes that differentiate the product from competitors

5 Potential product layer : Various extension transformations that the product will eventually undergo

Such as:

In many markets, competition mainly occurs at the extended product layer, because most companies can provide satisfaction at the expected product layer products. Professor Ted Levitt of Harvard University pointed out: "The new competition lies not in which company's factories produce, but in the product packaging format, services, advertising, customer advice, financing, distribution arrangements, and warehousing they can provide. , and other elements that the public values. ”

A brand is much broader than a product. A marketing observer expressed it this way:

A brand is the sum of consumers' perceptions and emotions about product attributes, including the connotation of the brand name and brand-related company associations.

Brands can create competitive advantages by relying on product performance, such as Gillette and Merck, or they can create advantages through methods unrelated to products, such as Coca-Cola and Chanel No. 5 perfume. There are also brands that create relevant and attractive images for their products by understanding the various motivations and requirements of consumers. Often, these intangible image associations are the only way to differentiate between brands within a product category.

Case 1 Coca-Cola’s Brand Lessons

Coca-Cola faced the challenge of Pepsi-Cola and lost in the random taste test. Coca-Cola decided to change the formula of Coca-Cola. In tests, the vast majority of customers preferred the new formula. Coca-Cola promoted it with confidence, but was condemned by a large number of consumers. Eventually, the old recipe called "Coca-Cola Classic" was revived on the market.

Coca-Cola’s mistake was that it failed to consider the emotional appeal of its customers. Customers don't just think of Coca-Cola as a drink; its appeal lies more in American culture, nostalgia, and tradition than in its raw ingredients.

For many companies, the most valuable assets are not tangible assets, but intangible assets, such as management, marketing, finance, operations, and most importantly, the brand itself.

The Role of Brands

Brands and Consumers

Pulitzer Prize winner and author Daniel Boorstein asserts: For many people, the role of brands The role played is that of past brotherhoods, religions, and service institutions. They help people know themselves and communicate this self-knowledge to others.

Products can be divided into three categories based on relevant attributes or benefits:

Search products: such as grocery store products, which can be judged by visual observation

Experience products: For example, car tires can only be evaluated after trial and use of the product

Trust products: such as insurance, consumers rarely know its specific attributes, so the brand becomes an important signal for judgment

< p> Brands can reduce the risk of purchasing decisions. Buying only famous brands is an important risk response method

Brands and companies

1. Identification function: making it easier to handle products or trace companies

2 Legal rights and interests: Intellectual property rights are protected by law

3 Differentiating other products: ensuring competitive advantage

Branding is to create differences

B2B branding

Identify customers' purchasing decision criteria and ensure that the basic value proposition is relevant to all members of the decision-making unit and relevant to the decision-making process.

There are many people involved when making purchasing decisions, and it is important to ensure that the brand promise aligns with their needs and concerns.

Branding of high-tech companies

Brand strategy needs to consider the characteristics of the CEO

The order of the marketing mix is ??usually: industry analyst relations, corporate *** Relationships, trade shows, seminars, direct mail, and advertising (less important)

Case 2? Southwest Airlines (service industry branding)

Southwest Airlines requires candidates to have a sense of humor , encouraging pilots and service staff to entertain passengers with jokes and a lighthearted style

One of the great measures to make customers happy is: customers who board the plane first can enjoy the experience first, and the seat number is the boarding sequence number

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Case 3? Wal-Mart's brand road (retail industry)

Wal-Mart's low prices have always been a key weapon to please customers, and its slogan is "low prices every day." Its friendly service is another way to attract customers. Shopping assistants are located throughout the store to answer questions at any time. When customers were asked what they thought of Wal-Mart, more customers thought it was "trust" rather than "low prices."

Unique elements of an online brand are crucial: convenience, price, variety. At the same time, you need to perform well in other areas, such as customer service, credibility, personality, etc.

For example, Google's homepage only provides search information and does not provide other services. There are no advertisements and complex search algorithms, so it is regarded as providing fast and reliable services.

Case 4? Create the Amazon brand

Jeffrey Bezos’s belief is to build “the world’s largest bookstore”, which was demonstrated one year after Amazon opened accomplish. In addition, Bezos strives to make Amazon "the world's most customer-centric company," with suggestions and reviews regularly emailed to customers after they submit their favorite authors and content. When registered customers log in to the website, personalized web pages will flash in front of them.

Brand positioning: The action of designing a company's promise or image so that it can occupy a unique and valuable position in the minds of target customers. Core brand associations, greatest similarities, differences and brand essence are the heart and soul of the brand.

Identify and establish brand positioning and value

Customer-based brand equity: Differentiated responses to marketing activities resulting from customer brand knowledge. (Subjective image, favoritism or exclusion). Brands exist in the minds of customers.

Brand image: Customers’ perception of the brand. Reflected as the association of the brand in the customer's memory.

Brand recognition: consists of brand recognition and brand recall. Recognition refers to being able to recognize the brand, and recall refers to finding the brand in memory. Recognition is important when consumers are making purchasing decisions at the point of sale, and recall is crucial when away from the point of sale.

Ways to build brand awareness: Repeat presentations to increase familiarity (recognition), and create effective associations (recall) between the brand and category or other cues.

The desirability of a brand association depends on: the relevance, uniqueness and credibility of the brand association.

Four steps to create a strong brand: identifiable brand recognition, stable and complete brand meaning, positive brand response, and close brand relationship.

(Can be summarized as: awareness, understanding, feeling, behavior)

Five dimensions of brand personality:

Sincerity (simple, honest, healthy, happy )

Passion (brave, imaginative)

Ability (reliable, wise, successful)

Sophistication (high-end, charming)

< p> Rugged (outgoing, tough)

All aspects of marketing will affect brand personality, but advertising has the greatest impact. Once a personality is formed, it is difficult for consumers to accept inconsistent information.

There are six main types of brand feelings: warmth (Hallmark), fun (Disney), excitement (MTV), security (Allstate Insurance), social recognition (Mercedes-Benz), and self-esteem ( Tide)

Brand slogan:

Behavioral loyalty: repeat purchases to attitude attachment

Sense of community belonging: recognition of the brand community to Active intervention, such as Apple encouraging users to establish user groups, Harley-Davidson's membership system and regional clubs, and Jeep enthusiasts clubs.

Case 5 Jones Soda beverage is customer-oriented

Hold a voting event through the company website to collect opinions, and insist on putting the opinions of customers into practice (Xibei Youmian Village). Fans of the brand are encouraged to provide personal photos for bottle labels, which are posted on the website and customers can place orders for personally labeled products. The two entertainment vehicles are on the road nine months a year, visiting places such as skating parks and middle schools, attracting a large number of potential customers aged 12-24.

CRM customer relationship marketing comprehensively utilizes all customer contact points in the company - e-mail, response center, retail mall and marketing center to achieve communication with customers. Building customer relationships requires more than just mining customer data to earn more profits. Companies must consider customers and adopt appropriate human touch.

The most powerful brands enable their customers to be full of attachment and enthusiasm for the brand, becoming evangelists for the brand and sharing it with others.

Chapter 3? Brand positioning

Brand positioning is the core issue of marketing strategy. Determining brand positioning requires determining reference institutions: target customers, main competitors, similarities between the brand and competing products, and differences between the brand and competing products.

Guiding principles of brand positioning: 1. Definition and communication of competitive reference frame 2. Select and build the most points of similarity and difference

Law of attraction: relevance, uniqueness, availability Credibility

Brand Repositioning:

Case 6? Positioning of Politicians

1988 Election

George Bush VS Michael ·Dukakis

George Bush: A moderate Republican and vice president for eight years, his campaign strategy is to make voters think that he is an experienced presidential candidate who combines sympathy with power.

Michael Dukakis: Democratic Party, Governor of Massachusetts, the strategy is to create a liberal "left" that emphasizes the risk of change.

The government and party's strategy is to create points of difference on traditional government and party issues such as defense, economics (and taxation) and crime, and on traditional government and party issues such as the environment, education, abortion rights, etc. Create common ground on Democratic Party issues to offset the differences between their opponents.

1992 Election

George Bush VS Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton: Focusing on Economic Issues to Create Points of Difference

GEORGE BUSH: By failing to reach absolute common ground on this issue, and by focusing on other issues such as family values, avoiding the Democratic Party’s points of difference, it failed to create its own salient points of difference. Missed the president.

Case 7? VISA and American Express

The difference between VISA lies in convenience, while American Express lies in the distinguished status of the user. Both have begun to try to establish common ground. For example, VISA launched gold cards and platinum cards to enhance brand prestige, with the advertising slogan "satisfying you everywhere"; American Express has increased its usage points by adding "icing on the cake" and "making life more exciting". ”, “World of Service” and other activities offset VISA’s advantages in this field. In 2006, VISA launched the "Life Needs VISA" advertising campaign.

Core Brand Associations: A set of abstract associations of attributes and benefits that summarize the 5-10 most important aspects or dimensions of the brand. In terms of how to create points of difference and maximum similarities, core brand associations can be said to be the basis of brand positioning.

Brand essence: an expression of the core spirit of the brand. It must express what the brand is and what it is not. Both Nike and Disney use emotional rhetoric + descriptive rhetoric + brand functions to summarize the essence of the brand.

Nike: Credible-Sports-Performance.

Nike avoids using the Nike brand on products that are inconsistent with the essence of the brand (such as casual shoes).

Disney: Fun-Family-Entertainment.

Disney’s brand asset management rejects all cooperation that is not related to the essence of the brand.

Brand essence needs to be considered: communication, simplicity (three words are ideal), inspiration (meaning to the individual, and connecting with employees as much as possible, inspiring consumers and employees)

Internal brand management: It is crucial for organizational members to have a timely and in-depth understanding of the brand, especially for service-oriented enterprises.

Sometimes, it’s not just about motivating internal employees but also attracting external customers.

Brand exploration: Understand consumers’ thoughts and feelings about brands and corresponding categories, and then identify the sources of brand equity.

Preparation work: 1. View company files 2. Interview internal employees

Part 3? Brand marketing activities: planning and execution

Chapter 4? Select brand elements Create brand assets

Brand elements, also called brand features, refer to distinctive trademark designs, mainly including: brand name, URL, logo, symbol, image representative, slogan, jingle, packaging and symbol.

The first three are offensive strategies, and the last three are defensive strategies

Chapter 5 Designing Marketing Plans to Create Brand Assets

Experiential Marketing

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The red-billed rubber duck beside the bathtub of Hong Kong's Conrad Hotel, the scent of Las Vegas entertainment venues, and the Westin Hotel... are all unique experiential marketing

One-to-one marketing

Select customers, talk to them, and customize your products. The Ritz-Carlton records customers' preferences and provides the same service next time. But be aware that customers don't always like repeating their behavior.

Permission marketing

Provide expectations for potential consumers, introduce interested potential consumers, retain and motivate more licenses, and convert profits. For example, only send product catalogs to members.

When an Amazon customer buys a book, Amazon will send an email to the customer with other book lists by the author of the book or books purchased by other customers who purchased the book. All it takes is a click of the mouse. Get more information. And send regular emails notifying you of new products, recommendations and special promotions, all customized based on customers' past purchases, preferences and expectations.

Relationship Marketing

The cost of acquiring new customers is 5 times the cost of retaining current customers. Reduce customer churn rate by 5% and increase profits by 25%-85%

Mass customization: customized products

Post-marketing: human user manual, service and contact

Loyalty program (reward program): American Airlines’ pioneering flight accumulation program, American Express card member reward program (points redemption for consumption amount), money saving club (membership discount)

If you If you control the factory, you control the product quality. If you control the distribution channels, you control the brand image.

Chapter 6? Integrated marketing communications to create brand assets