This is an article that one of our recent alums (Amritanshu Pandey) wrote last year. hope you enjoy it
When presented with the more tangible‘ elements of sales and distribution management, the realm of branding strategy can often seem vague and misty. After all, how does one strategically‘ decide whether the logo‘s color should be green or red? What strategic models go into deciding whether to be a hip‘ and trendy‘ brand or a ‗sturdy‘ and ‗reliable‘ brand? Given that a brand is essentially the sum total of perceptions and attitudes towards a name, can there ever be a strategic approach to brand management? These are some of the questions that we are likely to face as we grow in our marketing education. The sales related experiences of the summer further seem to reinforce that barring sales all marketing is essentially a gut-feel‘ matter. We couldn‘t be further from the truth, for if strategic brand management was as flaccid as it seemed, then the value of the Coca Cola brand ($70 million) would not have been half its entire stock market value ($136 million1).
Why does branding strategy seem so vague? Increasingly the marketing paradigm is shifting towards the view that understanding consumers is the key to building great brands. In her ten steps to building a brand DNA, Carol Chapman2 observes the first step to be identifying
the perception that consumers hold about one‘s brand. Therein lies the problem. Our educational growth so far, and indeed professional conditioning, has more or less turned us away from the psychological and sociological towards the rational and empirical. This would be very fine if our subjects were the ‗rationally behaving‘ units of any economics model. The problem is that our subjects are real world consumers, and they cannot be counted on to be rational‘- consumers buy products with their minds, but they buy brands with
their hearts. The implication here is that strategic brand management involves a very penetrative understanding of both psychology and sociology, with all their precursor influences. The reason why the rational manager shouldn‘t worry however that branding strategy is still works on the same principles as any other strategy. This can be put into 3 steps:
Identify all the influencing variables
Determine which variables are pertinent in the decision making process
Take the Decision!
Let us take the case of conceptualizing a new logo for a brand- an exercise in brand revitalization. To make our job easier, let us assume that the logo has been created and we merely need to decide its final colors. What is the strategy? How can we strategically determine the optimum color combination? We take step one identify all the influencing variables. In this case the variables could range from local perceptions of color to the color schemes of competitors. Either way our goal is the same- to determine which color combination would best appeal to the consumers. It may seem like this is a matter of creativity and aesthetics, but it rarely is. Imagine selling agarbattis to Banarasi pundits in dark green packaging- in their minds it forms an instant association with another religion, and they will turn away from it. Imagine selling a children‘s toy brand with a logo that‘s color scheme is brown and black. These may seem like intuitive and common sense examples after
all everyone knows that to sell to children one must use bright and attractive colors. If you knew this too, then you‘re already on your way to understanding strategic brand management. In the above example our consumers were children, and the understanding is common that bright colors lure children. But what if our consumers are middle aged housewives? What if the target group is bald men in rural India? Then, understanding and knowing the consumers isn‘t so natural- but equally pertinent. Every individual‘s mental make-up is the sum of all nodes and associations that have formed in his/ her brain since the process of learning began- this explains why books on consumer behavior seem more like books on behavioral psychology. The chief element of branding strategy is to uncover these associations. In the larger context it is these associations that form the bulk of our influencing variables. All associations a consumer may have in his/ her mind can significantly influence the selection and purchase behavior. For example, if a consumer associate‘s pink with feminity or even a lack of masculinity, then it‘s probably a bad idea to sell him a brand with pink themes. He is very unlikely to form a relationship with such a brand. The implication here is that branding decisions are rarely whimsical and arbitrary- there is an underlying understanding of the target group
behind them. Step two is to determine the pertinent influencing variables. There may be some associations in the consumer‘s mind which are irrelevant to our brand, but there would be some that are highly critical. The brand manager‘s job is to separate these two and identify the critical associations. For example for a target group comprising largely of adventure sports enthusiasts, the associations formed towards personas and endorsers might not be as critical as their associations towards quality and reliability. In this case one need not
concentrate on choosing the right brand ambassador but on conveying to satisfaction the brand identity of being quality driven and reliable. Here again the key is in understanding the consumer. The implication is that
branding strategy is a rational process based on the identification and manipulation of emotional elements. But the last and final step is equally important- take a decision. There is no right and wrong in branding strategy, that luxury is available to us only in hindsight. But there is a veritable list of dos and don‘ts that act as guiding
principles in the formulation of a branding strategy. Once you‘ve understood your consumer- understood what motivates him and how, how he learns and from where, what is his attitude and how can it be changed (if need be), and what are his perceptions then you‘ve crossed over most of the vague and misty parts of branding strategy. The process of data gathering and assimilation is over and the stage for taking a decision is set. In choosing your logo color, ask yourself what color ignites what associations in my target group? If I choose red, does that evoke an aggressive or negative emotion or is it suitably attractive? If my color is blue,
will that put off the female consumers or is its association far too subtle for that? When determining the brand
identity you must go through the same series of questions, but the prime directive remains the same- filter every decision through the prism that is your consumer. For every decision variable, ask yourself what associations would it form in your target group‘s mind? How does your target group look at itself? Is its self-perception based on dynamism or more on stability and Constance? Remember that consumers are attracted
towards brands that reflect their own aspirations. To have your brand mirror them you must clearly identify those aspirations. Once that is done however, take your decision and stick with it. Sometimes the most thought-out strategies will fail before swiftly put together marketing mixes, but you can be sure that you‘ve learnt more about your consumer than the competitor- and are thus better prepared for round two. To conclude, strategic brand management is a process of understanding the psychological and sociological undercurrents in one‘s consumer base. The remaining is simply a process of implementation. This aspect of strategy can seem vague and misty because it borrows its learnings from disciplines based not on ‗rational assumption‘ but on ‗emotional assessment.‘ But once a process is put in place the steps can be as tangible as
those for any other aspect of strategic decision making.
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