Branding Management - Essay Example

Branding Management [Name of Writer] [Name of Institution] Course Title Date of Submission Brand and Reputation Ettenson and Knowles (2008, 20) asserts “a strong brand does not necessarily equate with a strong reputation”. From this interpretation, it is clear that it is not necessarily true that a company with a strong brand will equate to having a strong reputation. A company’s reputation is from the stakeholder’s perception, which indicates corporate reputation and performance enjoying close relations from a social performance context. In this paper, we are going to engage in knowing how identity and reputation relate by illustrating the existing theory linking the two components. It is evident also, that the managerial position in decision making processes is affected by brand and reputation of company’s product and services. Employees and other stakeholders play a vital role in enhancing corporate branding and reputation of companies. A brand is a service or product that is made distinct through its position in the market. It is a term, name, symbol, or design that can identify the goods and services of one company as being distinct from others (Wood 664). A company has got to have strong brands in order to ensure that the market share is maintained. This is because of the competitive environment and domain that is constantly changing. This promotes market target and influences other market segments to buy the product hence, increases productivity of the organization. Reputation concerns the respect accorded to a company (Aqueveque and Ravasi 120). It is the way the company is perceived as being an employer and a member of the community, which is responsible and is valued. Relationships that build value and trust encourages enhancement of organizational value. Stakeholders of the company believe that reputation makes a company unique from others. Reputation provides the company with the considerations that they have set. It does not give it the chance to be chosen over other competitors. In accordance to Aaker’s model, brand identity provides a brand with strategic direction, meaning and purpose. As such, brand identity is the key driver associated to brand equity. Aaker describes brand identity as, “...a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers from the organization members. Brand identity, should help establish a relationship between the brand, and the customer by generating a value proposition, involving functional, emotional, or self-expressive benefits" (Aaker, 1996:68). It is situated on the side of the sender and attributes to the way consumers perceive the brand, which eventually leads to its success. In short, identity of brands declares the background, principles, ambitions and purpose. Therefore, managers manage brands in order to achieve consistency and vitality. At all times, brands need to deliver signs coherent with products, which are realistic. Brand image and identity need to be differentiated because they contribute success of the company. Brand image (changes easily) is a tactical asset where, brand identity (long-term brand value) aims at fulfilling a strategic role in assets. Many corporations have transformed since the shift form tangibles to intangibles occurred. The main job of a brand manager is to create and also enhance awareness of brands. Brand awareness is carried out through the use of media, messages, and also packaging and pricing. These elements should be properly managed so that a high degree of awareness is created (Pitta and Katsanis 53). Creative activities can help infuse the image of a brand in the minds of consumers. Brand awareness depends on the ease at which the customer recall the brand. Brand awareness generates a thoughtful set and is enough for creating of sales. An important element in brand awareness is the creation of information in the minds of consumers. Antecedents of reputation are what can be done in order for good reputation to be developed. Consequences of reputation are those values that are brought about by reputation. A company should clearly understand the antecedents as well as consequences of reputation (Money and Hillenbrand 2). This is vital so that they can be able to build intangible assets and also create value. Corporate reputation is regarded as market asset since it immensely determines the success of a corporation. Reputation is an asset as well as a concept that is held in the minds of its stakeholders. Reputation as a concept encompasses attitudes, perceptions and also beliefs of consumers and stakeholders. Managers have a social responsibility of ensuring that reputation and corporate brand governance surpasses that of its competitors in order to satisfy and produce high quality products and services. Brand loyalty is where a consumer buys the same product repeatedly. This is despite the inherent fact that, there are, other several, products in the market. Branding is the process of adding meaning to a service or product. This increases the value and benefits relating to product or service to its consumers. Brand theory deals with the way brands are able to conquer the perception of consumers. It is concerned with the quality and associations that are evoked by brands. Consumers depend much on brand management techniques in order to buy the product. Therefore, resources need to be set aside in order to facilitate the production and design of attractive brands. This increases competition in the business environment, which spills over to economic development of the country. A leading sportswear company like puma has offered high quality products to its customers thus, enhancing their confidence on the company. However, by neglecting the corporate brand, damages its reputation, which is influenced by quality of the product, service and ethical standards. Therefore, quality of the product and service attains a positive relationship directly with corporate reputation of the Company. The value of a certain brand depends on ethical standards, which needs to be developed by standards of practiced marketing and that of shareholders (102). This will enable the organization maintain a healthy relationship in business. Since the last decade, branding has become the focal concern for managers given that it is an intangible resource of apprehension observed by many firms globally. Branding is defined as a process that creates a relationship between products of a company and customer’s percept of the emotion with the aim of segregation generation among rivalry and loyalty building amid consumers (Shamoon and Tehseen 435). Existing relationship between the brand and society is strengthened when societal aspects are made powerful and authentic. Consequently, this increases Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and enhances advantageous relations between both the buyers and sellers of goods and services. The spectrum involving brand relations relates to the role driver played by brands, which reflects on the customer’s purchase decision and experience use. Puma’s brand is established in the global market, with power and opportunities in developing products that are new and innovative. This has helped many athletes in meeting their aspirations and desires because they give customers, products of top quality. The relationship existing between brand and reputation for Puma products is visible through gained prominence by athletes. Strategies of brand and reputation applied by organization like the sports world mainly depend on the nature of the firm. For example, Puma’s driver of strategy application is performance of sport wear. They applied varied brand strategies including sub-brands, which is under a Masterbrand. Referrals and integrated communications created a relationship between brand identity and reputation a demand of the product and thus, enabled world class athletes to trust on the product and use it during their events. Majority of the athletes used these products in Olympic Games (track and field events) and various soccer players. Eventually, they excelled and prompted the choice of using promotion opportunities and marketing of first-class products by Rudolph. Consequently, Puma decided to align their brand with athletes (world class achievers) like Hines James. Employment of this strategy enhanced market segment by reinforcing extensive history on technical excellence of the product. In other words, the reputation of Puma is the fact that many athletes wear their track shoes and end-up winning. The corporate brand therefore, is linked to the encrypted words that give focus to athletics. The joy spread in athletes’ hearts after winning gives them satisfaction and trust the product. For many years now, Puma contributes substantially to sports world by delivering high-tech footwear. From the above description, it is evident that a brand is owned by the Company; while reputation is owned by shareholders. Puma’s organizational brand is self defined in that, the perception of the organization and how different it is from other competitors like adidas. Organization reputation therefore, is the vote of shareholders (employees, communities, investors, analysts and media) of whether or not that attributes of the brand and behavior resound. Organizations of both developed and developing countries have seen the importance of maintaining and building corporate brands and reputations that are sturdy. This aims at reducing competition, promotes differentiation between companies having the same products and confronts societal legitimacy needs. Reputation is pragmatic in the sense that, it gives focus on immediate customers of the company because they have a significant influence on the branded product or service. This means, corporate brands are vital components of reputation therefore, a relationship exists. In this field of brand and reputation management, dominance is visible in market dominance. This is because, a consensus emerges for reputations and brands since they are built from the inside-out. Brands and reputations drive business to attainment of success as stipulated in the resource-based strategy view. They help organizations in looking to engaging employees’ hearts and minds and behavioral traits. In order to achieve success, corporate brands acknowledge emotional labor by depending on service employees, creativity and knowledge innovation by workers in a firm. Performance measures include brand value, which can as well replace the term competitive benefit. Brand value is beneficial over other measures since it helps address the health of the brand and that of the market. The value of corporate brands in companies gives emphasis to the identity of people and their alignment with brand behavior. As such, value of brands assesses financial and a standard of ethics, which impacts positively to the society as it inserts ethical values in the society. Another example is the P & G’s brand, which applies strategies of house brands in the hair category. Strong bands are created by emphasizing on the emotions of customers with regard to the product brand by looking at the selection of customers, their satisfaction and loyalty towards the product. Company managers should create and maintain and effective emotional balance between consumers branding experiences, which leads to differentiation of brands, sales increase, promotion and loyalty of customers to the product (Morrison and Crane 411). The implication of such strategies on the brand and reputation relates to levels of customer satisfaction and sales volume ratios. Ethical standards of theoretical strategies applied to product awareness give companies a better understanding and knowledge of meeting the needs and preferences of their customers. Another implication involves the need for managers to assess the core product equity. Brand associations should also be assessed in order to know the extent of its possible success. Brand extension can be suitable if the brand associations of the core product are positive and relevant (Pitta and Katsanis 63). If the overall image of the core product is negative, then resources should be directed towards the buying and building of individual brand identity. When a company does not have sufficient funds to build a new brand image, they can license or acquire a brand as it can also achieve the same effects. If the methods are unlikely to meet the desired effect, then the company can devote its resources to build a new brand. Vertical extensions require certain principles that will guide on what not to do and what to do. Another implication is that it can be beneficial if the brand image is tarnished and the core brand equity is reduced. Managers should play judges and weigh whether equity erosion is adequate or not. If it then the decision should come from the management themselves. If it is not, then the company should avoid wasting their resources. Also, managerial implication is the fact that they should try as much as possible to avoid poor implementation (Pitta and Katsanis 63). Managerial understanding of the value of products is increased through the knowledge of consumer based brand equity. Mistakes and risks can be avoided through a thorough comprehension of associations as well as consumer evaluations. When a brand increases its significance, then the building of brands has to be taken as a particularly beneficial activity. Brands are increasingly taking center stage in businesses and hence they need to be managed. The management and leaders of an organization should understand reputation and brand management. They should be able to define their brand attributes and ensure that everyone is committed to them. They should understand that brand and reputation are related and can never exist on their own (Elliot 2008). Their concentration should be on behavior rather than on communications. Reputation and brand leadership enables organizations to align its objectives and actions at all levels of the organization (Wood 666). The alignment provides a framework for both governance and corporate strategy. The management should also change the ways in which they manage brands since they are much like other assets. Brand managers are involved in the development of brand description. This means that brand loyalty and brand strength is achieved to some degree. When brand strength that is achieved is high, the competitive advantage that will be achieved is significant. The outcome of a brand and the competitive advantage can be measured using a number of ways. The performance measures implemented in the management of a brand are particularly important (Wood 668). This is so because they can influence the strategies and objectives that are chosen by the managers of a company. Executive members of a prominent company need to bear in mind the reputation of their firm by applying a corporate brand linked to objectives and goals of the company. For many corporations, reputation and branding rely on talents and their management strategies. The talent management approach has been applied to many organizations in reaching companies value and human uniqueness on capital. The architectural model has been applied by HR managers in trying to incorporate the different potentials available for employees in the company with regard to reputation building on innovation strategies, differentiation and entrepreneurship. As a result, companies should encourage the use of ethical processes of decision-making for ideal marketing programmes. This is achieved through providence of commitment to ethical analysis using moral philosophy. The Internet is also another tool used in promotion of goods and services by many companies. This is evident with the emergence of technological advances when dealing and interacting with both potential and existing consumers of a company. However, it is vital for people not to confuse reputation and branding because they are two distinct components contributing to increased sales and market niche. It is evident that reputation and branding play a significant role in enhancing sales promotion techniques by looking at the number of loyal customers and trust build on the product. Marketers need to emphasize on the importance of having strong brands to increase sales volume for their companies as it spills down to improvement of living standards for all employees of a company. In conclusion, corporate brands and reputation of different companies depend on the managers decision making process on the concepts and strategies applied during promotion and marketing of the product. According to Ettenson and Knowles assertions, from the above research and analysis, it is true to say that it is guarantee that a strong brand contributes to high levels of reputation. However, ethical measures, good quality service and product contribute greatly to success of corporate brands and reputation. The managers play a vital role in promoting the brand and ensuring that trust is achieved since it contributes to experience and satisfaction of customers. Works Cited Aaker, David and Erich, Joachimsthaler. “The Brand Relationship Spectrum: THE KEY TO THE BRAND ARCHITECTURE CHALLENGE”. California Management Review 42 (4) 8-23, 2000. Print. Aaker, David. “Leveraging the corporate brand”. California Management Review 46 (3) 6-18, 2004. Print. Brown et al. “Identity, Intended Image, Construed Image and Reputation: An interdisciplinary framework and suggested terminology”. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 34 (2) 99-106, 2006. Print. Elliot S. Brand & Reputation: A Leadership Perspective. Reputation Conference, Henley Business School, John Madejski Centre for Reputation, 2008. Print. Ettenson, R and Knowles, J. “Don’t confuse reputation with brand”. 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