Readings in Services Assignment on BrandsBySiddhanth Nair

Brands

Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand (David

Ogilvy). Well-managed brands live on, only bad brand managers die (George Bull). A brand is either a

name, symbol, design or combination of things that help us to identify goods and services of one or more

sellers and helping to differentiate from competition. Branding started way back in the medieval period

where craftworkers use to carve a unique symbol on their products and creation, trademarking their prod-

ucts. Even artists from back in time have branded their art but the brands of today play a greater role of

enhancing consumers lives. A brand helps firms to build relations with consumers and promises cus-

tomers of unique products and services. A brand adds value to a firm and build up a positive image and

goodwill of the firm and its product and helps consumer remember the products. A brand has been

termed as the heart and soul of a firm as all activities should be involved in building the brand.

Service brands have some distinct characteristics which include in-tangibility, inseparability of consumption and production, perishabil-ity and heterogeneity. McDonald’s is the best example for making their presence felt in the minds of the consumer and display a dis-tinct corporate identity. Customer involvement should be consid-ered an opportunity rather than a problem, as customer needs are met more effectively. Such employees should be recruited who are able to align themselves with the brand values. The problem of per-ishability only exist in financial services.

Branding principles are common for both products and services at the conceptual level but differ at the operational level as the brand portrays company’s values and beliefs and the people are responsi-ble for the brand image in a service brand.

Function of brands

A brand gives a company and its products a distinct image which helps to differentiate from the competi-tion. Brands help in defining the benefits that the target market gets. Brand helps to focus on marketing activities and all supporting activities, which work to reflect the brand. Brand promotes a clear message of the credibility and relevancy of a company. Brands can help to connect with consumers on an emo-

tional level. Loyalty of customers increases when a brand is develop. All products of a brand can be inte-grated as are part of a same brand extension. Eg. Apple. Brands promotes consistency in product quality and helps consumers skim over other brands towards known brands. A brand can help to communicate benefits a form wishes to give its customers and provide legal protection of their products. Brands are very valuable for firms also they simplify inventory handling and organizing. Brand involves lot of work and is considered as a valuable asset by the firm and high price is paid to buy some of the good brands as the product and processes can be copied but the minds of the consumers is very hard to alter.

Both goods and services offer various benefits. The benefits for ser-vices are received in a very different way created through its unique experience. Service industries fail to deliver due to lack of consistency and failing to follow the branding principles unlike the product based brands. The concept of branding is similar for both goods and services. Some branding consultants regard services as a part of an organization which is already involved in products, ser-vices act as a differentiation factor between competitors.

Brand Name and Logo

Selecting an appropriate name for your brand is very important as it does more than giving you an iden-tity. An effective name should be able to help set your identity, it should be descriptive about your prod-uct or service and not something random. A name should be able to portray of not only what you do but how you do it. E.g. Quick Spa’s. It should also be different from your competition and excite the interest of the customers but should not be offensive or intimidating.

Brand’s logo should portray values of the business as it helps customers to recognize your brand. Logo should convey the message your brand wants to convey. Logo should be professional in nature. Logo should depict growth and should be able to be used for many years to come. Logo should be tested in the market before launching them. Effective logo will help you create a distinct image and improve your brands strategy and position.

Brand Value

Brand value is very much like an onion. It has layers and a core. The core is the user who will stick with you until the very end (Edwin Artzt). When the brand has developed, it showed be reviewed and rein-forced into the minds of consumer by continuing to generate value from the brand. This can be done if the product quality is maintained by the firms by having efficient manufacturing processes. Proper pack-aging of products is essential to make the product presentable and handy. Efficient and skilled staff is re-quired in a firm to increase the brands value. The whole outlook of the firm should be of standard, even the stationery is important and can help add value to the brand if everything has logo or name of com-pany on it and is of presentable quality. People in touch with customers and suppliers should be well dressed, have proper etiquette and communication skills to increase the image of the company. Brand value can also be increased by marketing activities like promotions, advertisements, displays, etc. The best brands have a message communicated through everything in link with the brand. Branding in also very important when it comes to business customers, they are less influences emotionally and more inter-ested in your product quality and standards. Healthy and long lasting relations should be maintained by displaying brand attributes like innovation, consistency and standardization. Business customer also looks for reliability and service back up, customization should also be offered by good brands.

The value delivery system in a service brand is very visible in con-trast to product branding, there is customer participation and qual-ity is variable. To reduce variability service brands should focus on replacing human activities with technology as carried out by Mc-Donald’s who use blueprints to find out jobs where technology can take over humans. But this can demotivate staff so they should con-centrate on non-routine problems and leave the routine problems to

machines. When specific roles and brand values are understood by staff it will reduce their stress and increase trust and commitment.

Brand equity

A brand that captures the mind gains behavior but a brand that captures the heart gains commitment (Scott Talgo). Brand equity is the additional commercial value added to its products and services. This can be seen by consumers attitude towards the brand, profits and market share captured by the firm. Brand equity can also be consumer based in which it depends on the knowledge consumers have of the brand and their response to the knowledge, marketing is also effected depending on the responses of the con-sumers and their attitude towards the brand. Brand equity therefore consists of brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations and other brand assets like competitive advantage. If consumers are brand loyal it is very beneficial for the brand as there are reduced marketing costs and gain trade leverage. If the consumers are aware about the brand they start liking it and can respond by buying these products. There are some models which explain brand equity, lets see the Brand Resonance Model. This model involves a series of steps like a pyramid from down to the top. It begins with Brand Salience, that is how often the brand is remembered during buying decisions. Then comes Brand Perfor-mance and Imagery, that is how effective is the product or service to satisfy the needs of the consumers and how successful is the brand in meeting the psychological and social needs of the consumer. This is followed by Brand Judgements and Feelings, this involves the consumers personal experiences, opinions and the consumers emotional responses related to the brand. Finally comes Brand Resonance, which is the relation that is achieved after the series of steps between the consumer and the brand, consumers become loyal and brand bonding is intense. Example can be Coke and Apple.

Brand equity is not created on its own it has to be build by choosing the right brand elements like logo, slogans, names, which attracts the customers towards the brand and creates resonance. Therefore these elements need hold some meaning and should be adaptable to all products under the brand, they are also be memorable and likable for the brand to attract customers. Elements should also be protectable and hard to imitate for the competition. All supporting activities, marketing and the product also build brand equity, the right strategic choices are very important to develop brand equity. Brand associations also help in building brand equity, it should be linked with the right people, place and thing, this creates a par-ticular image about the brand and can be promoted or advertised through this linkages.

Service brands

The model for brands have always focused on goods but neglected services, they have attempted to rep-resent both but the marketing principles for both are different. Services are said to be intangible, insepa-rable and perishable in nature. The service sector is very dominant in the western countries. Studies have been carried out recently developing new marketing ideas for service brands. According to Service brand-ing model by Berry (2000), service brand equity includes brand awareness and meaning. Brand aware-ness includes all of company communications like advertising, name and logo of company, facilities for service and customer contact through PR and general word of mouth. Brand meaning is related to the ex-perience the customers have with the company, as a service company is more people oriented and not based on machines, the factors affecting brand awareness also affect meaning.

Even though service brands may be good communication and position but it is the people who are the most important in the service sector. Employees and staff should be well trained and skilled. Reliable and punctual employees is very necessary for service companies. People should have good communication and response to any situation faced. People in the service sector should also be able to assure its cus-tomers and be empathic. Personal appearance is very important as they become the company’s repre-sentatives to the customers.

It is a challenge for managers to make the intangible components more visible and unique and to provide a more consistent service. Financial services are more intangible so the customers must be re-assured of the benefits in comparison to a tangible service like air-lines where the experiences can be use to differentiate the brand.

All developed economies are focused on service industries and ac-count for a major part of their GDP, yet only few service brands have been successful. Models are there for brand managers to de-velop product brands but not service brands.

Service branding needs to focus more on its internal issues than product brands. To deliver a brand promise requires the customer expectation and service delivery to match, this is possible through internal communications and staff working according to brand val-ues and customer involvement in the process. The gap between services and brand promise can be lessened by reducing four gaps. Gap 1, consumer understanding. Gap 2, leadership and standards. Gap 3, service delivery. Gap 4, match between promise and perfor-mance. Reducing these gaps can lead to an efficient service brand-ing strategy.

Product brands have short term relationships with their customers but service brands have long relations. Brands are said to be di-vided into four medias by Wolff Olins; product, environment, behav-ior and communication. Product and services differentiation lies in nature and dominance of media used.

ConclusionBranding beyond Marketing

Branding is not limited to marketing, you have to follow the thing you preach also. If your brand says it supports the environment it should hamper the environment itself. Wal-Mart believes in customer service and people but they give unfair wages to its employees, so it does not follow what it preaches. Brands and organization should be integrated and work on similar values and beliefs. Actions of the organization should help in building the brand and not harming it. Therefore guidelines must be set to ensure consis-tency, that is the package of the brand. Following these guidelines and setting a culture that helps the or-ganization to be consistent and no problems will occur then. Moreover a brand should also keep cultural differences in mind as in this age of communication and globalization. A brand to gain international reach has to keep the culture issues in mind, so that relations are not affected. There are language and seman-tic differences in cultures which can confusion and many other reason for differences in cultures but a brand had to be such that it can cross borders easily without any complications. Brand is beyond market-ing as stated before it depends on people behind and in front of the brand. Following these will improve and strengthen your equity and position of your brand.

Implications and conclusion

We should move beyond the product-services dichotomy to develop service brands, consultants have capitalized on the knowledge they have of service industries to develop and maintain service brands. Product and service brands are same conceptually but differ on the execution part. External adaptation is similar for both the sectors but internal view is required for service brands. The internal view in-cludes recruiting such staff who align with the brand promise and giving them training to deliver results to the customer.

Future of Branding

Organizations in the world of today have to face the immense competition and globalization, the firm has to manage the brand effectively and remove all barriers in its development to benefit from this intangible asset. Consumer desires value when it buys brands, so brands should work to deliver value as giving sale on brands is not enough to attract customers as they want value for the money spent by them. Unique-ness has been given prime importance due to immense competition, differentiation will result in sales and profits for the firm. Brand promise has to be genuine as consumers have become more knowledgeable and aware about the products in the market, so only such a brand will grow which delivers what is promised to the consumer as their expectation has risen a lot, and consumer involvement is also very im-portant also in brand building. Consumers are up to date with all the innovations being carried out and want more of it everyday to make their life easier. So such brands will survive who understand and capi-talize on such unmet desires of the consumers.

Old tricks of using emotions to attract customers to brands do not work anymore as consumers cannot be taken for granted and fooled easily. Using the financial downturn to their benefits some brands tried to emotionally connect with the consumers but were not successful. Endorsers of brands also should be logi-cal and sincere, like Tiger Woods and Accenture. With online trading being the way to go these days, brands can attract customers quite quickly in a short span of time, so reputed brands have to continue delivering value or the new brands can catch up easily. Feedbacks of customers is also very important these days as customer has to be taken care of, for the word to be spread widely about the brands through consumers. To create effective brand engagement firms have to give up their outdated modes to engage customers. Firms need to accept certain methods to engage brands to customers, this can be done through Television and Online, that is the Platform method of engaging or Context method which in-volves programming and web paging. Effective message is very important to engage customers and can be projected though advertisements and promotions. Using the Event and Experience method also helps engage customers.

Being easy is a benefit for your brand research shows, so keep it real and simple is the way to go. The reason behind it is cognitive fluency which means to face ease in understanding a situation. So a brand should for an easy and simple name, tag line, fonts, logo and advertisement to say a few. As it becomes easier for the consumer to interpret and understand and brands should try to create a distinct visual and audio identity to help consumer retain information for a longer time. The basic thing is to make marketing transparent.

Social Media advertising is catching up fast these days, all firm are using this platform to reach cus-tomers. Sites like facebook, twitter, myspace and youtube have become very popular to promote brands. These sites have to be monitored regularly to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Even mobile and smart phones have become an avenue to promote brands and connect with consumers, moreover social media and phones can be linked so using this media is very effective in reaching people.

Brands should aim to build their brand’s equity but some problems are either created by competitors or there may be some internal hiccups. If competition is tough, customer loyalty can be a big problem for the brand, as there is competition is not only the products but also in aspects of marketing. So research should be carried out to stay ahead of the competition. Production problems can lead to prices of prod-ucts being very high this can lead to consumer switching over to other products. If the brand fails to de-liver value to customer as promised, then brand equity will fall. Positive networking and partnerships should be made which benefits your organization, effective distribution channels should be created. Awareness of the product is very important, so important steps are to be taken to reach the customers through many media available today. So if these problems are effectively managed then the brand equity if the firm will surely rise and the firm will develop and grow successfully and marketers get one step closer towards building a strong brand.

These trends have to be accepted by firms if they have to succeed in the future, so if a brand wants to last it should be responsive to the changes taking effect today. Future of brands is very bright. “A product is something made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by the customer. A product can be copied by a competitor; a brand is unique. A product can be quickly outdated; a successful brand is time-less.”(Stephen King)

References

1. Aaker, D. (1996), Building Strong Brands, Free Press, New York, NY.2. Aaker, D.A. (1991). Managing brand equity: Capitalizing on the value of a

brand name. New York: the free press.3. Aaker, D.A., Joachimsthaler, E. (1997). Building brands without mass me-

dia. Harvard business review, 75(1), 39-50.4. Aaker, D. and Shansby, J. (1982), “Positioning your product'', Business

Horizons, Vol. 25, May-June, pp. 56-62. Adrian Payne, Kaj Storbacka, Pennie Frow, Simon Knox (2008). Co-creating brands: Diagnosing and designing the relationship experience. Journal of busi-ness research, 379-389.

Agarwal, M.K. and Rao, V.R. (1996), “An empirical comparison of consumer- based measures of brand equity'”, Marketing Letters, Vol. 7, July, pp. 237-47.

Alba, J.W. and Hutchinson, J.W. (1987), “Dimensions of consumer expertise'”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 13, March, pp. 411-53.

Balaji C.Krishnan, Michael D. Hartline (2001). Brand Equity: Is it more important in services?

Berry, L.L. (2000), “Cultivating service brand equity'”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 28, Winter, pp. 128-37.

Bittar, C. (2003), “Brand builders: Old Spice does new tricks”, Brandweek, June 2, p.17.

Camp, L. (1996), ``Latest thinking on the optimisation of brand use in finan-cial'', Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 241-7.

Farquhar, P.H. (1989), ``Managing brand equity'', Marketing Research, Vol. 1, September, 24-33.

Holt, D. (2004), How Brands Become Icons, Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA.

James Bell. Brand Management oft the next millennium. Lippincott publications.

Keller, K.L. (1993), “Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity'”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 57, January, pp. 1-22.

Kotler, P. (1991), Marketing Management, 7th ed., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Engle-wood Cliffs, NJ.

Leslie De Chernatony, Susan Segal-horn (2001). The criteria for successful ser-vices brands, European journal of marketing, 1095-1118.

Mark J.Kay (2005). Strong brands and corporate brands. European Journal of Marketing, Vol 40 No. 7/8, pp. 742-760 Sinclair, S. and Steward, K. (1988), “Effectiveness of branding a commodity product”, Industr ial Marketing Management, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 23-33.

Smith, W.A. (1999). Branding and brand envy. Social Marketing Quaterly, 5(4), 40.

Webster, F. and Keller, K. (2004), “A roadmap for branding in industrial mar-kets”, Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 11, May, pp. 388-402.