ACKNOWLEGDEMENT

This is the only place to record the inestimable debt to all those who helped me
throughout the completion of my project. The making of this project has been one of the
most significant challenges. Without the support, advice and guidance of the following
people this project would not have been completed. I owe to them my greatest deepest
gratitude.

At the outset I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Officiating Principal

and Assistant Professor of Indian Institute of Legal Studies, Mr. Sanjay Bhattacharjee for
his supervision, advice and guidance throughout the completion of my project work.

I would like to thank the library staff for having helped me out with the voluminous
material needed for this work. I would also like to thank my classmates and seniors for
their kind help and support.

Finally I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to my beloved
parents and family members for their moral and financial support for the completion of
my research work.

Abhishek Singh

Roll no. 102/BBA/LLB/14004

Semester V

B.B.A. LL.B.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sl. No. PARTICULARS Page No.

1. Abstract 3

2. Introduction 4

3. Limitation of the Paper 6

4. Concept of Brand 7

5. Elements of a Brand 10

6. A Short History of Brands 16

7. Why did Brands Emerge? 18

8. Brand Management: A Holistic v. Traditional Approach 20

9. Brand Communication 23

10. Brand Failure 25

11. The Branding Process 27

12. Creating a Brand Strategy 28

13. Conclusion 34

14. Bibliography 36

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 ABSTRACT

The topic will be to examine the process of branding in a real business scenario. The
paper will examine brands and branding, their history, how they are created and
managed, what is their importance and what value do they create for customers. The
paper will examine brands on a theoretical basis. The paper will discuss the theory of
creating a brand strategy for a company as a tool for managing a brand and developing it.
It will create a uniform knowledge of what the brand stands for and how it will be
communicated to the general public and serve as a framework for strategic decision-
making for the company management and employees.

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 INTRODUCTION

Brands are in stores, in advertisements, television commercials and with the internet, they
are everywhere we look, while browsing through the vast networks of our interests.
Brands are extremely fascinating. Most companies recognize brands but fail to see the
true essence behind the brand or the reason for their purchasing behavior. Many
companies see branding as a process that involves only tangible aspects such as the visual
appearance of a company.

However, the definition of what a brand is and how they are managed has changed in part
because the economic environment has changed to emphasizing more immaterial aspects
of business. The emergence of this immaterial economy has made brand management a
concrete tool for business development and gaining strategic competitive advantage for
companies. Most brand studies and theories are directly related to managing the brands of
large corporations or organizations. However, the importance of brands as a competitive
weapon should be realized by both small and medium sized companies (SMEs). The
PAPER will focus on breaking down the process of branding and developing a brand
strategy for a small company, using modern resources available in online media and
offline communication as well.

Everyone is driven by brands and the values, emotions, promises and quality hidden
within the brand. Brands are so much more than just a name, which has been recognized
by many corporate leaders, who have adapted complex and fundamental brand
management strategies to drive their companies and their brands towards success. The
process of brand management has grown in importance and the way brands are managed
has changed. It is not only a role of the marketing department but of the top management
of the company. Brand management is also a process that involves every part, bit and
employee of the company to capture the true essence of the brand.

Brand management is a widely recognized process and important factor for large
corporations, but are they as important for SMEs? Often smaller companies only focus

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on their core business, the part that generates revenue. They often forget or disregard
their brand and managing the brand. Many SME managers do not see the true value of
brands and the clear influence of them to consumer behavior, which results in their
operations and growth being stagnant and reactive instead of growing and proactive.

SMEs should begin to recognize the value of their brand and truly start to manage them,
in order to differentiate from their competitors and strive, even in a recession. This is
especially important in an economic downturn, when consumer spending behavior is
decreasing and their propensity to save has gone up. The companies that get the business
of consumers in a recession are companies that consumers think are different, better and
most suitable to their needs.

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 LIMITATION OF THE PAPER

It is important to restrict the subject to regarding a certain approach to brands and

branding. This paper will discuss these issues from the company perspective. It will
regard the process of branding as being company initiated and holistic. The brand will be
considered the result of branding. By viewing the brand from the company perspective,
the paper will discuss how and why a company should invest time, effort and money into
developing the brand and how it can create value for the company. Branding will be
viewed as an organization-centric process. A different approach to branding would be
from the customer perspective where the discussion would circulate around how
customers see brands, how they are built in their minds and how are they thought of in
this respect. The paper will consider how brands can be shaped into forming an emotional
connection with the customer.

The paper will consider marketing and branding to be interrelated and not mutually
exclusive. This means that some parts of branding and forming a brand strategy will
involve marketing.

Branding will be considered as a larger concept that includes many of the different
corporate functions, plans and methods. This view of brand management does not
consider more traditional methods and theories to be mutually exclusive. For example
marketing is an important part of branding, even though it is not the only building block
of the process. Brand management will be viewed as a process that begins from within
the organization.

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 CONCEPT OF BRAND

The word brand derives from the practice of branding. Farmers and cowboys alike used a
steaming hot branding iron to burn the initials of the owner on livestock. This enabled
farmers to recognize their own cattle and buyers to distinguish the cattle of certain
farmers from other, possibly inferior ones.

Many sources have their own description for the word brand and that definition has
changed over the course of time quite dramatically at least in the view of some modern
experts on brands and brand management. The American Marketing Association (AMA)
states that brands are a name, sign, symbol, design or a combination of them that are
intended to identify products or services of one seller and to differentiate them from those
of another seller. This definition includes many traditional elements of brands such as the
factors related to visual identity and clear external elements associated to companies and
brands.

The previously mentioned definition of a brand has been the principle concept behind
how corporate leaders, stakeholders and employees understand the brand. The concept
has been in the general understanding of people for nearly a century. However, the
concept requires refining and development into more modern standards and definitions.
The American Marketing Associations definition is still valid, but many adjustments need
to be made to it in order for it to become feasible for a company operating in todays
economy. The evolution of brand thinking is evident in the old definition of a brand that
can be found in The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1934), defines brands
as particular kinds of goods, as an indelible mark and stamp.

A different approach and definition is provided in Radikaali Brndi, by Nando Malmelin

and Jukka Hakala. They state that a brand is no longer comprised by just these elements
mentioned by the AMA. By their definition brands are not only tangible representations
of a product, service or company, but hold within them many intangible elements that are
more difficult to measure. According to the new, more holistic definition of a brand, they

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are no longer a marketing-driven and advertising driven concept, but a more
comprehensive concept that incorporates everything a company does. A clear evolution
can be seen in the theory of brands from the previously mentioned definitions. In the
1930s the brand was considered a particular trademark or logo. It was a tangible
representation of the product and whom it belonged to. The 1980s definition of The
Oxford American Dictionary states a more commercial view with defining a brand as
goods of a particular make.

Brands are somewhat obscure by definition. Some suggest that the term incorporates
everything a company does and stands for and some take apart the concept into smaller,
easier to measure, sub-categories. These sub-categories are related to the company,
company leadership, employees and all identifiable attributes of the company. Even
though there are many different approaches and views on what brands are, it has been
stated that the concept is highly dynamic and prone to change by nature. A brand is not
only something that incorporates the product, name, or logo. It is a concept that drives the
whole organization and thought processes associated with it. It combines communication
and action.

A brand is a combination of corporate behavior and values, the technical functionality

and quality of products and the intangible promise the company instills in their products
for customers. It is a combination of tangible and intangible attributes and seeks to create
a positive connection with the customer in order to create incentive for customers to use
the products of the company in the now and in the future.

An effective brand is a tool for the company to communicate with their environment. A
properly managed brand also provides investors with a sense of future profit-making
ability and increases the financial value of the company. Brands can also be associated
with a single company, product or organization. To illustrate this one can think of Procter
and Gamble, which is a famous corporate brand. The P&G brand has a lot of meaning in
the corporate world and among employee candidates. However, they offer a wide range
of consumer brands, which are related to their products. Regardless of whether the brand

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is consumer, corporate or both, they incorporate the same elements and the same theory
applies to them. The process just becomes much more analytical, difficult and expensive.

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 ELEMENTS OF A BRAND

A brand consists of several elements of a company. These are discussed here under:

1. Corporate Culture: According to the holistic approach to brand management,

the brand is the central building block of everything that an organization does. It
is the guideline for all corporate behavior, whether it is external or internal. As
part of the internal aspect of an organizations personality, they have a specific
corporate culture. This corporate culture represents accepted norms, rules and
behavioral models associated with being in that company. For example Google is
considered a pioneer of online technological development. The company portrays
an image as a driver of innovation, which can be seen in the pictures and
employee backgrounds they provide as well as from articles they publish on what
life is like working in Google. The company headquarters is also referred to as the
Google Campus or the Google plex. Campuses are usually connected with
universities and can be seen as open places where knowledge thrives with a
youthful eagerness or even idealistic way of life. Google considers its employees
the most important asset and clearly depicts this on their website. The website
provides insight into the working conditions of Google, where employees are
given opportunities to enjoy the time they spend at Google and help them to keep
their ideas fresh through sports, reading, playing games. Google clearly
incorporates work and play in their work ethic and drives an innovative
atmosphere through this youthful approach. A negative aspect of this strategy is
that many hopeful employees may see Google as an employer that emphasizes
personal hobbies and having fun more than being productive. The opportunities
provide to employees can also have a negative influence on the amount of time
they put into projects and how they focus on their occupation. The information
about Googles corporate culture is published on their corporate website.

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 2. Employees: Employees of a company or organization are usually one of the
first contact surfaces to the customer or user. A customer looking to purchase a
car will march into a licensed dealership and talk to a salesperson about buying a
car. The behavior of this employee will act as an extension of the car companys
service and reputation. In a way, the salesperson will become an ambassador of
the brand, at least in this situation. The customer will listen to what the
salesperson says about the vehicle, how he behaves, how the customer is treated
and what kind of general projection of knowledge and service the salesperson
portrays in his behavior. In many service industries the emphasis of employee
behavior to portray brand values and act as brand ambassadors is even higher. In
advertising, the client will be in contact with a representative of the advertising
agency, whose most important role is to make the potential customer to feel like
their needs are being understood and his objectives will be fulfilled. The agency
representative should be the ultimate manifestation of the brand. A living,
breathing and talking embodiment of all brand attributes, values and brand image.
Therefore it is imperative for organizations to realize the importance of their
employees role in creating and managing a brand. The role is ever more
important as corporations seek to become more transparent and create competitive
edge by emphasizing trust between the organization and its stakeholders.
Employee training is a key tool in managing this element of brand management.
Training to fulfill customer needs and to fulfill the ultimate brand promise will
result in customers experiencing the realization of the promise that a brand makes.
This will work in conjunction with all other elements that make brands what they
are. None of them act efficiently on their own and require top to bottom
understanding from the management.

3. Communications: Modern brand management and branding are often defined

as integrating all functions of the company to develop a way to effectively
communicate the brand to the target audience. As described by Malmelin and
Hakala in Radikaali Brndi, brand management for modern companies is about

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 integrating marketing and communications in a way that all aspects of the
company are in line with the brand. Brands communicate with stakeholders and
the target audience on many different levels. The communication may sometimes
be intrinsic and non-verbal, which means that it may be formed by e.g. the
imagery and visual elements associated with the brand. Brand communication
will be discussed more in detail in a following chapter of the thesis. At this point
it is important to note that brands communicate all the time at every point of
contact with the target market, whether the company realizes this or not. Because
of the communicative nature of brands, it is highly important to realize this in
order to provide an accurate communication of the brand promise and brand
experience.

4. Leadership: Company leadership and management form a large part of brand

management through their actions. Modern brand management is no longer just a
marketing-oriented action or phenomenon, it is a strategy and mindset adopted by
the whole organization, from top management to the lowest level intern. Brands
and Branding argued that the CEO of an organization is the person who should be
considered most responsible for the brand and making decisions inline with the
brand. CEOs are in that sense brand managers. This new notion comes from the
alteration of brand management theory with the emergence of holistic brand
management. Leadership portrays significant views to stakeholders such as
investors: the belief that the leadership of the organization has the proper
capabilities to steer a company towards future profits and growth is driven by the
perceived level of competence and know how. This is added with their leadership
actions in their current position, and the resulting outcome will portray some type
of experience the stakeholders will have of them. What type of image and feeling
do they portray as leaders and how well this correlates with the brand and the
brand promise. These are important issues for managers when seeking new
employees and especially when they are hiring new senior management.
Sometimes a brand can become an embodiment of a person, most likely the

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 founding person of that company who first brought it into a successful light.
Apple has had this happening to them and the effects of it could be seen in the
share prices decreasing when news and speculation arose of CEO and founder
Steve Jobs poor health. To sum up it can be said that companies need to become
aware how are they being portrayed by their employees and leadership and what
type of management style and decisions would best portray the brand externally to
the stakeholders and target market.

5. Reputation: A companys reputation may be negative or positive, all

depending on whether or not branding has achieved the established objectives.
Reputation resembles a brand but should not be confused with it. The reputation is
not a synonym for a brand but it is an outcome of fulfillment or non-fulfillment of
the brand promise and resulting in a certain brand experience. This brand
experience is then communicated with other customers, which can increase the
brands value or work against it. Reputation means that there is discussion on the
performance of a company, whether in a negative or positive form. Proper brand
management understands the importance of the reputation and will use this as a
tool for brand performance evaluation. Strategic reputation management has also
become a new model for brand savvy professionals. Strategic reputation
management has similarities and correlations with effective brand
communications, using mediums that connect with the target audience on a
personal level. However strategic reputation management is a much more broad
management tool than just communicating. As mentioned earlier strategic
reputation management is an excellent way to evaluate, develop and monitor
perceived brand performance and experiences by customers.

6. Image and Visual identity: A very important element of a brand is of course

one of the most traditional elements of marketing and creating a certain image for
the company. The design and visual elements used by companies can be used to
portray certain values and traits through the psychology of color. Different colors

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 have alternate meanings for people and the use of these is a common method of
communication in a more subliminal way. Subliminal communication is the dark
art of communicating with the target audience in a way that their consciousness
will not notice it, but their brand will, resulting in a form of emotional connection
that people do not notice. As a matter of fact, some may argue that this is the
objective of all marketing, to influence consumer behavior in a subliminal way.
The company image may be built by the use of colors and images. However, they
cannot be used as synonyms for a brand. They are essential tools for creating a
certain type of brand and should be discussed in detail in a brand strategy, but
they are not all there is. As mentioned earlier it is merely one of the elements that
the brand comprises of. An image and visual identity are often used
interchangeably, but I consider them to be different from each other. A visual
identity is something a company seeks in the their imagery, logos, websites et
cetera and an image has more to do with the actual experiences of the viewers and
target audience. These are both highly important aspects of brand management
and should be developed as a part of the brand. One of the key tools for creating
and developing the visual identity is the style guide, which combines different
styles, fonts, logos, usage of logo and colors.

7. Products: Past definitions of brands where centered on the product and product
positioning. The view was rooted in the idea that brands were all about marketing
and advertising. This former view of brands is alive and kicking in some
companies, especially when observing actions of SMEs. However, brands are no
longer solely about the product. They are a matter of all aspects related to it.
Products and positioning do play an extremely important role, though. A brand
promise will contain different levels of benefit that the brand promises to the user
or customer through the product or service. For example they will offer functional
benefits and technical qualities. This can easily be seen e.g. in the advertisements
of different shampoo brands and how they portray the functional benefits of their
shampoo. This is also a positioning statement for the brand and will be used to
communicate to a segmented audience. A good example is Head and Shoulders
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 shampoo, which is primarily targeted to men who have issues with dandruff and
dryness of the scalp. In short, product positioning is a significant element of a
brand but is no longer the most important element along with advertising. Even an
excellent product will not succeed if all the other elements are not inline with the
brand and its promise to the customers. Product positioning is still a key element
in the branding process, not regarding the fact that it is related to marketing.
Marketing is a key element of branding as well.

8. Social Responsibility: These general factors define what brands are, or what
brands are comprised of. The composition is very important to understand as it
also provides a frame of reference for the thesis and approach to the subject.
Brands are an eternal source of debate as experts argue about what they comprise
of and how to define the smaller attributes and details of them. In order to
construct a working brand strategy for a company, the identification of these
factors is imperative also to provide a fundamental understanding for company
management as to how their decisions and business tactics will influence the
brand.

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 A SHORT HISTORY OF BRANDS

Brands have a long history. They are not something that was created in the process of
industrialization or the emergence of the capitalist market economy. They are rooted
much deeper in history than that.

Through their studies, historians have identified the first brands in ancient history, in
Rome. A popular occupation and means of gathering wealth in ancient Rome was to
manufacture clay pots and sell them in markets. Of course, as clay pots were fairly simple
to make the supply was extremely high. The clay pots of different craftsmen differed also
in quality. The craftsmen sought an answer to this, which led to carving their initials on
the pots or other objects that they made. People began to notice and recognize the pottery
of different craftsmen and started to seek out particular ones, made by a certain
craftsman.

It is there, in ancient Rome, where brands and the practice of differentiating a product
from others on the market emerged. The first signs of brand loyalty were also in this time,
where people sought out the clay pots made by a particular craftsman. Why did they want
to buy those particular craftsmens pots? Because they recognized the initials, or the
brand, and immediately knew that they were of better quality.

The essence of brands is clearly visible in the practice by ancient Romans. A brand is
something people recognize and immediately associate certain values to. Even though
brands are much more complex and the process of brand management has evolved highly
in the last century, it is clearly rooted in the early potteries of Rome.

Because brands were identified in ancient Rome, it does not mean that brand
management has been similar for centuries. Brands have become a recognizable
competitive tool for companies only in the quite recent future. The official starting point
of companies actually investing into their intangible assets, such as their brand began in
the 1870's, when laws on trade marking were changed, so that companies could legally
protect their brands. If laws could not protect the immaterial rights of companies, they
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could be easily exploited, stolen or sabotaged by others. Only by having real ownership
of the immaterial rights, patents and trademarks, it can be considered a sound protocol to
actually invest in them.

Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Nokia and Google although different in their fields of business,
have something significant in common. They are all among the worlds most recognized
brands. They all managed to reach high positions on the list of the worlds best brands in a
study conducted by Inter Brand. What do they really have in common? One aspect of the
traditional view of branding is company age. Strong brands are commonly old
companies, which have established the position through time. This premise holds true for
many of the companies on the top brands list but what about companies such as Google?
This illustrates a new phenomenon that has been brought by the increasing number of
high technology and constant information flow. Society has moved into a more online era
where information is readily accessible by anyone and is shared between everyone. Good
news travels fast, even though bad news spreads even faster.

The word brand has become such a phenomenon that there exist a plethora of different,
often misleading, definitions for it. Some people recognize brands as the name of a
certain product or trademark, others say that brands have to do with the company behind
the products; others define brands as the big picture and the idea or premise that defines
the legitimacy of the company. In actuality brands are all the above as already discussed
in the first chapter where the term brand was described.

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 WHY DID BRANDS EMERGE?

They first emerged as a means of differentiating one product from the other, because of
the inherent differences in the quality of the products of different makers and craftsmen.
The purpose of brands has remained quite the same, even today. They exist so that
consumers immediately know what they are going to buy. They represent much more
than just the name of a company or product.

It is argued in the book Brands and Branding by Clifton, Simmons, Et al. that brands
have enabled the capitalist market economy through making consumer choices and
loyalty possible. They have had a significant role in creating wealth, which enables
further spending and economic growth for both individuals and corporations. They
suggest the capitalist world is driven by brands and that they are also important in
technological, medical and humanitarian development. As said, not only profit-seeking
corporations can have brands, also humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross and
Unicef have a clear brand, which helps in spreading the message of their work in
developing countries or in areas of catastrophe or war.

It is clear that consumer loyalty is made possible by brands. If all products, for example
on the shelves of stores, were generic goods, consumers would not know how to
differentiate them from each other. They would not be able to stay loyal to certain
products. Companies making excellent quality products would not have a way to create
customer loyalty and increase their repeat sales. Companies would remain nameless and
faceless and no true customer relationships would be formed. Many argue that
dominating multinational corporations and brands are to blame for the unequal
distribution of wealth and many of the problems that lie behind globalization. However,
Brands and Branding argues that brands have increased the motivation to become socially
responsible and to become advocates of sustainable development, helping the
development of working conditions in third world countries and helping to feed countries
that lack the resources to do so themselves.

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For example Nike had quite a scandal for supposedly using child labor to manufacture
their products in third world countries. Even though this was their past, Nike has gone
forward to being one of the main advocates for developing working conditions in
factories located in third world countries to instill more western and approved working
ethics into them. As many countries lack the official legislation or capability to supervise
such things, global brands have intervened to keep their own processes and operations in
close control with their tight quality and ethical standards. Today, global brands are at the
forefront of developing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the pioneers are
highly involved in corporate social leadership, though which direct action can be taken
towards reaching a more proactive method of maintaining and encouraging others for
more ethical operations, though out their markets.

As a conclusion, brands emerged to address the need for products and companies to have
a recognizable identity. An identity that instills all the values, quality, functional and
emotional benefits and aspirations into the products name. This is what brand
management is about. Matching consumer expectations with the total experience of
dealing with the company and product in question. Creating a promise and delivering on
that promise is the key to brand success.

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 BRAND MANAGEMENT: A HOLISTIC v. TRADITIONAL APPROACH

Manufacturing or industrial companies have tried to achieve cost leadership through

minimizing costs in their processes; others have strived to gain the business of a certain
segment and using a focus strategy. However, out of the strategies for creating
competitive edge, the most customer-oriented is the differentiation strategy. Michael
Porter describes this as one of the main generic strategies for gaining competitive
advantage in Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. It
involves differentiating the company's products or services from the existing ones
through added value, generated by e.g. implementing processes that are aligned with
sustainable development, or creating customer loyalty through differentiating the
existence of the company as something different. Other generic strategies are cost-
leadership and the focus strategy. Holistic branding brings an organization-centric
approach to branding, where the brand is built by every day communication and activity.
This is highly different from the common or traditional approach, where branding
involves the tangible and visible elements of a company or product.

It is commonly thought that creating value for customers and portraying a specific image
of the company is the sole responsibility of the marketing function. However, today
consumers are highly aware of what they buy and which company they support. Brands
have received much critique over the years because some say that brands portray an
untruthful picture of a product or company, they are misplaced from their true context
and that they increase the amount of consumer materialism and non-useful spending. One
of the main advocates of the negative sides of brands is the author Naomi Klein, who
wrote the book No Logo. Traditional views on branding do not involve the whole
company as such. In this view branding is the responsibility of the marketing department,
a way to increase sales for the company through the pre-selling the product with ideas
and mindsets.

This premise still holds true but needs to be extended into incorporating the whole
organization. A working example of this is the failed launch of the new Ford Edsel that

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attempted to achieve greatness with large hype and consumer interest. Even though
consumer interest was significant, the model could not live up to the hopes and dreams
provided by marketing.

Overpromising and under-delivering is still a problem for companies that have not waken
up to realize the importance of a holistic brand management process. The holistic
approach is only another term in the sea of terms for a modern definition of brand
management and understanding of brands. This is clearly the future and small
organizations should follow suit with multinational corporations in their brand thinking.

A brand should be the embodiment of everything a company represents and stands for.
This notion is also supported by the integration between marketing and communication.
It is a recognized fact in brand management that one of the main tools that organizations
and companies use is communication. Communication is and should not be the
responsibility of one department or any single function of the company. Communication
is a process that uses the brand as its guiding principle and is involved in every part and
form of the company.

According to the holistic view on brand management, the brand is the backbone, central
guiding idea and the DNA of the company. Every detail of the company has to be
inline with the brand in order to deliver maximum value to the customer. The holistic
view has changed the way brands are managed, not by a single part of the company to
portray something that may or may not be true, but to portray something that the whole
company lives and breathes. A holistic view requires companies to understand that to
reach their goal of creating and maintaining a successful brand every function of the
organization must take part in the process. The ultimate embodiment of the brand is the
central governing figure, the CEO and all the employees of the company.

In the past, brands were always related to the marketing department. The only method of
branding came through advertising. This created a view that brands do not have any
return or it was extremely difficult to measure. The traditional view on branding would
also consider it a heavy cost for a company, resulting in undermining its importance.
Even though times have changed, this same mentality still exists in more traditional

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companies where the management may not be as enlightened on developments in this
sector. Many companies still fail to realize the point and importance of the brand.

Through the employees of a company, customers have personal contact with the brand.
Brand alignment should be a crucial factor for selecting employees for the company as
well as organizing training for learning the best practices on how to provide service and
communicate with customers that best portrays and delivers the brand experience.
Employee selection should consider the personality of the company and match that with
the candidates to find people who fit into the company profile both in their skill set and
general personality.

Internal processes, communication and marketing have a crucial effect on the external
brand experience, how customers think the company performs and how well they live up
to their promises. In short, for companies to create and maintain a successful brand their
total brand process must be inline with internal processes.

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 BRAND COMMUICATION

The holistic view of branding has highlighted communication as an integral part of the
brand management process. Everything a company does as a part of managing its own
brand or one of its branded products involves communication.

Brands communicate with a wide variety of audiences. Advertising is one method of

communicating the brand to the target audience, with the objective of increasing sales
and enable consumers to become more of the brand and what it represents. Even though
many companies seek to increase its sales through their advertising, it has been argued
that the main purpose of advertising is not to increase their sales by itself, but to increase
the overall sale-ability of the brand. This simply means that the purpose of advertising
and advertisements is to communicate with their target audience in a way that forms a
positive connection with them and acts as a sales driver.

Companies that are managing brands or have recognized the importance of brands also
realize that consumers will be inclined to purchase products of a certain brand or from a
certain branded company that they have positive feelings for and feel connected to in an
emotional and fundamental way. As stated in Radikaali Brndi by Malmelin and Hakala,
communication is often misunderstood as a dialogue between a company and the media
and stakeholders. It is more integrated than ever. Companies communicate both internally
and externally, they manage their networks and relationships with stakeholders and
investors communicate with their environment in a way that most suitably portrays
everything the brand stands for. All communication should be driven by the brand and
how it should be managed. Therefore one of the key tools in brand management is
developing and using modern, integrated marketing communications in a way that most
suitably communicates the brands promise, values and fundamental philosophy to all
affiliates.

It is a well-known fact that communication forms the majority of branding. However, it

should not be considered as a short-term sales driver or a tool for increasing short-term

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profitability. If companies were to cut their investments in communicating their brand,\
their short-term profitability would most likely increase. This is due to the reason that
successful communication has a good long-term return-on-investment (ROI).

Communication is an excellent tool for creating long-term brand equity. As previously

mentioned, the purpose is not to increase short-term profitability but to create achieve a
position in the minds of the consumers that will live on, even through adverse and
volatile economic conditions. Increased brand equity creates a buffer for companies,
through the psychological incentive that it creates for its customers to support the brand.
Long-term equity will also form a barrier or buffer for dealing with a number of other
negative factors such as bad publicity.

Major audiences for brands' communications are shareholders and potential investors. A
company's share price is determined by the market. The market consists of people;
consumers, investors and shareholders. This market will rely on the same fundamental
principles to drive their share purchases as general consumers. Investors will require a
strong belief in the brands profit generating ability, their products, morals and principles
and leadership.

An excellent example of a brand that has excelled even in an adverse economy is Apple.
Apple has such a strong brand that their share price has increased significantly. The
customers of Apple have developed such a connection with the brand that they consider it
to reflect a part of their personality. The brand has become an extension of its consumers
and vice versa, through effective branding by excellent communication in all aspects of
the corporation.

Communication is everywhere in a company, from the corporations CEO to every single

employee of the company. Every employee or affiliate of the company is a representation
of the brand and what it stands for. Every point of contact to the target audience is a
highly important as it all reflects the brand, thus making communication a large part of
the holistic brand management process.

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 BRAND FAILURE

Brands can inhibit the performance of companies if they are not properly managed. For
example, one mistake a new company can make is to undermine the importance of the
brand and dismiss establishing a brand. Matt Haig points out in his book Brand Failures:
The truth about the 100 biggest branding mistakes of all time that brands usually fail
because they break the established bond between the brand and its customers. What the
company fails to realize is that if it is not of managing the brand, the brand will manifest
itself in the minds of the consumers, stakeholders and general public. A brand will be
created but it will not necessarily be the type that the company would like to be seen as.
Failure to act in a proactive way when dealing with branding will result in a negative
impact on the company. Holistic branding has increased the pitfalls of branding because
of the increase of the brands importance. A common error is to combine brand myths
with reality. These myths include notions that a good product will be sufficient for
success, a good brand will build itself or that a brand does not need any managing.

Companies may also try to rebrand themselves as something different. This holds risk
and not all who tries succeed. Brand failure can also relate to the traditional view on
branding in the modern business environment. In the traditional way of thinking,
branding has been a concern of the marketing department and advertising agencies. A
valuable brand can be a great asset to a company, but they also hold many traps. One
example of a branding failure is Coca-Colas New Coke in 1985. The company tried to
alter the formula of their successful beverage, but experienced significant losses because
consumers had such a nostalgic feeling to the taste of Coca-Cola. This is the result of
insufficient understanding on consumer trends and why the brand is successful.

Branding can be harmful if the company is being branded on the wrong basis. This
includes branding on price, level of service or quality. If a company is branded on price,
the basis of customers choosing that company over another is very superficial. They are
only interested in the price that you offer and will be happy to pick another company next

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time. Quality and service levels are not something that a brand promise should be built
upon, after all, they do not build a sustainable competitive advantage. In the traditional
approach to branding, companies treat the brand as a visible and tangible element. It is
considered a stamp to the exterior of the company. This view does not prevail in holistic
branding, where the brand derives from within the organization. Therefore companies
may encounter problems with their brand if they consider it as only an aesthetic element.

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 THE BRANDING PROCESS

Branding is about shaping the customers experience with the brand. Every company has
a brand and their customers have a certain brand experience that they have formed by
doing business with the company. This premise is true for companies both doing business
with individual consumers and companies. A successful brand and strong brand position
also makes it possible to keep the products premium priced, as consumers have such a
strong connection with the companys products that they will purchase them regardless of
that fact. An excellent example of a strong corporate brand and individual product brands
is Apple. Their electronics are highly successful and continue to make record sales, even
during a recession. The iPod has become a synonym for the mp3 player, even though
they are priced high. Apple computers such as the iMac and Mac Book are also in the
same category, with slightly less of an advantage over competitors computers. These
computers are priced at double the rate of the competitors equivalents and still manage
to sustain excellent sales.

Branding is all about communicating brand values and attributes to the target audience.
This means that the company doing the branding must have a working knowledge of the
fundamentals of the process and how to go about it. They must realize all the different
elements that brands comprise of and how they communicate the brand. Proper
knowledge on the target audience should also be known.

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 CREATING A BRAND STRATEGY

A brand strategy is a strategic decision-making tool that should not be confused with a
marketing strategy. A marketing strategy defines how the products and services will be
sold to the target market. The brand strategy will involve the marketing strategy but will
also go beyond that. As marketing is about communicating with customers and the
market, the brand strategy focuses on what type of brand image and personality will be
communicated, to which audiences and how will they be communicated with. The brand
strategy will be used to define how the company will improve their internal
communication as well.

Step 1: Building the Brand Strategy around Core Values

When the brand strategy is being created it is important to remember that the proposition
of it is very compelling, unique and attractive. The promise and proposition of a brand
strategy is not only important to understand by company management, but the
proposition should be reinforced and repeated throughout the whole organization and it
should be repeated often enough that everyone in the company fully comprehend what
the fundamental driving idea behind a brand is. The core values of the company are the
backbone of the brand, which is logical, seeing as these define basic corporate behavior.
The brand can only be built when the core values have been clearly identified in detail.
This is the first step of creating a brand strategy identifying the core values of the
company.

Step 2: Research in the Brand Strategy

Thorough research will give the company important and much needed information on its
target market, their market environment, industry and own strengths and weaknesses. At
the very least, the company should do a thorough SWOT where they explore the internal
strengths and weaknesses of the company as well as the external opportunities and threats
posed by the industry, developments, trends and market conditions. A thorough

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competitor analysis is important in identifying how the proposition and brand of the
company will differ from the competition and what strategies will be used to set it apart
from them.

The company should use research to define and identify the habits and values of their
target market. This will help to see patterns in shopping behavior and seek out ways to
create an emotional connection with them. This fact also holds true for advertising
agencies as their clientele are other companies or organizations and have certain criteria
for choosing an agency to cooperate with in planning marketing communication. Through
this research the company should obtain realistic and usable information on their
customers and the competition.

At this stage a company should be able to list points of difference and points of parity for
their brand. Points of difference are simple reasons for one company being different from
the others in a positive way. They are the reasons why customers choose one company
over another. The difference between the two is subtle but clear. The first being that
points of difference is a one-sided analysis on how a company is different from others
and points of parity analyzes how they outperform their competition in these areas and
what kind of reasons customers value in their purchase decisions. These will be important
tools for a company when they move on to the next step.

The information gained from the research will also give insight as to what media should
be used for communicating with the target market and stakeholders in order to achieve
the best results. In short, the second step of forming a brand strategy is to conduct
thorough research by which the company will seek to identify factors that may pose
challenges or be opportunities for it. The more information on the target market, the
better the brand can be positioned for this particular market.

Mistakes in research are highlighted in the history of bad branding. A prime example of
how Coca-Cola failed at understanding the profound nature of the consumers connection
to their product, whose altering created large public uproar. Relative to marketing,
research is an integral part of how the product should be positioned. This has a clear

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relation to the brand promise, as the positioning of the product will be directly related to
it.

Step 3: Forming the Brand Promise

The brand promise is what form of benefit, emotional or functional, does the brand offer
to its customers. The promise forms the bulk of the brand experience, as a company
cannot promise something, which they cannot deliver. This was discussed earlier on in
the chapter and it was mentioned that one of the biggest mistakes a company can make
with their brand is to overpromise and under deliver.

The promise holds within it both the tangible and the intangible attributes of the brand. A
successful brand strategy will lead to a success in the customers brand experience, which
is also a result of a well-defined and relevant brand promise. There are a significant
amount of examples of companies that clearly promise something to their customers,
both functionally and emotionally. The brand promise should be evident and consistent in
all marketing communication that the company has with its stakeholders. Consistency is
key in all branding activities.

The slogan is the short and most evident embodiment of the promise, combining all
values and attributes in it. In terms of brand positioning, the slogan and brand promise are
key tools. Brand symbols play an important role in how consumers recognize the brand.
The tagline or slogan is important but is accompanied by a number of other symbols as
well. The logo, specific music, colors or symbols all have specific meaning. Think of the
Nike swoosh logo or the Nokia tune. Through them the brand can reach a concrete
position in the minds of the customer and create the emotional connection that all brand
management considers its prime objective. One general and main characteristic of the
brand promise is that it should feel extremely compelling to the target audience and strike
at the nerve. In short the third step of the brand strategy is to form a brand promise that
will fit in with the company's brand, its target market and be dynamic and adaptable to
change.

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Positioning the brand is an integral part of the brand strategy along with developing a
working brand promise. Professionals conducting such research and brand managers
involved with these elements should always remain objective and realistic in the
promises, positions and research. A common human error is to see the brand in an overly
positive and unrealistic light, making objective analysis difficult. It also results in bad
decisions and can ultimately be harmful to the brand and profitability of the company.

It cannot be emphasized enough that a brand should be highly consistent. The values and
experiences for a successful brand should remain the same irrespective of the
organizational level or business partner or customer. Also the understanding of the brand
by all of its stakeholders, employees and of course the target market. Strategic reputation
management is an important tool and skill for managers when dealing with established
brands and developing them. Reputation is a byproduct of a brand strategy and can be
considered a result of branding, whether the reputation is positive or not. Many have said
that a company cannot fully control their brand, they can only attempt to steer it into the
right direction, try to be proactive and engaging and deal with issues and problems as and
before they emerge.

Shaping and improving the customers brand experience is one of the main objectives of a
successful brand strategy, because one of the basic reasons for a brand strategy is to
devise a plan on how to differentiate from the generic competition and how to create such
a positive emotional and mental connection with the customers that they will continue to
choose your company over the others' time and time again. One of the key factors that
was also slightly mentioned in the previous paragraph, is the consistency of the
proposition and the promise that the brand makes. A consistent brand will not cause
brand failure or confusion and will increase the attachment of stakeholders to it.
Consistency in communication is also important that all employees of the company fully
understand and realize the same fundamental principles and philosophy of the brand,
what they promise to the customer in order to make it possible to actually deliver on that
promise.

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Many companies have failed in their branding process because they had flaws in their
brand strategy. They did not frequently deliver consistent communication internally,
within the organization or to the external stakeholders. This can cause the company to
deliver a mixed message, an obscure promise that may manifest itself in very different
ways for customers and can be potentially very harmful, which results in brand failure.

Step 4: Realization of the brand promise

The fourth step of creating a brand strategy is to put the concepts and plans into practice.
A logical step is to form a means of communicating this brand promise to the
stakeholders and the target market. This involves integrating the marketing strategy with
the brand strategy and aligning them with each other. The marketing mix has an
important role in the brand strategy as the marketing mix identifies aspects of external
marketing and points of emphasis. The brand strategy then will try to seek out the best
ways to actually communicate through them to achieve maximum results.

Developing the media mix as part of the branding process is a step that should not be
forgotten. The media mix can involve elements associated with traditional marketing and
media such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines. In addition to these
traditional medias there are tremendous amounts of opportunities to communicate
through online mediums, whether they involve social media, search engines, blogs,
forums, online ads or the companies own website. Regardless of the composition of the
marketing and media mix, the marketing communication content should always be
aligned with the brands promise. Consistency creates strength in branding.
Communication also applies to all other aspects of the subject perhaps in a more indirect
and intrinsic form.

Step 5: Brand Audit

The fifth step is to measure how the brand is being perceived. A brand audit is a common
method for finding information on how customers perceive the brand. The following
graphical representation will provide insight into how a brand audit is useful and what it
tries to achieve.

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Customers, partners, employees and other employees should all be surveyed on how they
see the brand. In detail this would mean how they understand the brand promise and how
what is their experience on the brand delivering this promise. It is also important to
measure how the target audience sees itself connected with the brand. Do they have a
strong emotional connection to the brand or are they using your services for some other,
more tangible reasons. Surveys such as these are important to conduct once in a while in
order to keep developing and actually managing the brand.

Step 6: Brand Evaluation

Step six involves analyzing results against the brand and seeing out ways to develop it.
Brand management is about constant movement, communication and finding ways to
affect how stakeholders see the company. Proactivity is key and using research to
develop is integral in the quest for brand perfection. Continuous development should be
an ongoing process for brands, it is not a simple implementation process where the
company does the work once, after which they enjoy the successful results. This can lead
to a reactive stance to the brand, which in part will lead it on a path of destruction.

If a company becomes strategically reactive, they lose competitive edge and ability to
adapt to industry changes, volatility in the economic climate and anticipating and
forecasting technological or ethnographical trends. As time moves on, it is imperative for
companies to review their brand strategy often enough to keep all decisions aligned with
their brand and to make sure that their corporate communication is portraying the right
brand image, delivering the correct brand promise to the customer.

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 CONCLUSION

At this point we may conclude that brand perceptions and values is an important aspect
that a company needs to take care off. Brand confusion will result in the inability to
communicate a consistent brand to the companys target audience. For this reason a
company should implement this more accurate brand strategy.

The company must hold a clear position in the matter of the importance of brand that
would indicate clear reasons for the customer to purchase from that company instead of a
competitor. This is based on information published on the website and prevailing views
of employees.

The main goal of the brand strategy is to provide tool that make communicating a brand
image possible. In implementing the new brand strategy the priorities need to be kept in
mind at all times. The first priority is to understand the brand, its position and its values.
Related to this priority is to communicate and create a uniform perception on the brand
internally, throughout the entire company. A company must reinforce its brand image in
order to effectively communicate it externally.

The second priority is to communicate the brand effectively to the target audience
through viable media and marketing methods. The communication of the brand is also
done by every point of contact between company and its customers. Throughout the
future, a company will be required to review the brand strategy and adjust it if needed.
Doing this is a priority as keeping up a consistent brand image will most likely achieve
success and will help establish a connection with the customers. Constant development of
communication methods and brand implementation is a key.

By implementing this brand strategy and following its directions, a company will be able
to decrease the prevailing brand confusion within the company. Decreasing this will
reinforce the brand internally and will provide that basis for accurate communication and
make the realization of the brand image possible. However, a company needs to perform

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regular brand audits, both internally and externally, in order to keep track of brand
performance, which can lead to developing and fine-tuning the brand as a competitive
advantage. The brand needs to become a daily discussion for every employee, which will
be imperative in development and delivering the brand across its audiences.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Web-Based Resources:
www.interbrand.com
www.brandchannel.com
www.google.com/corporate/culture
www.rope.fi-Mainostoimistopalveluidenkyttopastus
http://www.mtl.fi/easydata/customers/mtl/files/TR/mainosala_muutos.pdf
www.marketingpower.com - The American Marketing Association (AMA)
www.adcode.fi
http://www.brandidentityguru.com
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/marketing/marketing-guides/classic-
branding-mistakes.shtml-5-ClassicBrandingMistakes
http://www.prophet.com/downloads/articles/pitfalls_b2b_dm.pdf - The B2B
Marketer - The 6 Biggest Pitfalls in B-to-B Branding, Dan Morrison

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