Showing papers in "Journal of Brand Management in 1993"

Developing brands across borders

Abstract: This paper identifies the creation of international brands as the key task for companies in the 1990s. The development of these brands is discussed under three headings: judging how ‘internationalisable’ a marketplace is; optimising corporate stance and organisation; techniques for developing international brands.

Own label and branded goods in fmcg markets: An assessment of the facts, the trends and the future

Abstract: At first sight, the development of own label within the UK appears extremely simple. The own label share of the grocery trade has grown by 50 per cent in the last decade. A detailed market research examination produces a complex and variegated picture, which all those connected with the grocery trade need to understand in order to determine their future strategies. Research demonstrates that own label sales vary greatly by: retailer; product group; price; demographics; level of ITV viewing. The situation is further complicated because these factors are not independent. It is possible by the use of various advanced statistical techniques to distinguish the impacts of the various factors which affect own label sales. A fruitful line if investigation is the ability if different manufacturers and retailers to charge significantly different amounts for their brands within the same product fields. This paper refutes the simple belief that the only key to success is a reliance on low-priced own label products.

Brand development: How design can add value

Abstract: The current economic climate has forced businesses to exploit the potential of their existing brands. The relevance of design in this process is particularly evident in the areas of brand extension, new brand development and international marketing because design recognises the power of a brand's visual equities. This paper considers how design addresses these issues.

Are branding and marketing synonymous

Abstract: The 1990s have seen some loss of confidence both in brands and marketing. Manufacturers' brands have been challenged by those of retailers and, more seriously, by consumer sophistication and renewed interest in value-for-money. Marketing has fragmented into many separate disciplines to some of which branding may seem irrelevant. Branding and marketing are originally separate concepts, marketing being the broader. Yet from the perspective of what marketers have to do, they are the same. Both require continuity and the building of relationships between brand, consumer, customer and other influencing participants outside the distribution channel. The state of those relationships defines brand equity. Both branding and marketing are the practice of developing relationships to achieve short-term objectives, usually profit, while simultaneously accumulating brand equity which carries forward to the next cycle. Two simple models are provided.

Brand awareness and acceptance: A seven-set classification for managers

Abstract: A new model with implications for brand management is proposed for classifying brands in terms of awareness and acceptance, improving upon the earlier Narayana-Markin model (N-M model). The N–M model distinguishes six sets into which brands can be categorised in terms of buyer awareness and acceptance: total set, awareness set, unawareness set, evoked set, inert set, and inept set. These brand-set distinctions have formed a useful guide for brand strategy but subsequent theory and research suggest that the N–M model should be replaced by an updated and improved version. The new model adds the recognition set, and replaces the ambiguous concept if evoked set by two separate sets, the recall set and the acceptance set. The new seven-set model begins with the total set, and then branches into the unawareness set, recognition set, and recall set (identifying types if awareness); the latter two awareness sets then lead to the acceptance set, neutral set, and rejection set (denoting degrees if acceptance). The new model appears to be more strategically useful for brand management.

The challenge of European branding: Facing inter-country differences

Abstract: As globalisation becomes all the rage, is the European brand already a reality or in the process of becoming one? In this paper the author sets out the principal results of a pan-European survey conducted among the directors of the main brands present in the majority of European countries. It reveals their relative sensitivity to various intercountry differences, distinguishing four types of attitude, each of which globalises certain aspects of the marketing mix, and adapts others according to market particularities. The results are therefore rich in nuances.

Brand reengineering — why and how?

Abstract: A few years ago when business commentators, including The Economist, were christening the 1980s as the ‘Decade of the brand’, the authors were concerned to point out the strategic risks of ‘overbranding’, that is, the corporate ownership of too many fragmented brands. This paper reviews their learning curve in the interim period: from the systematic diagnosis of ‘branding megatrends’ which provide companies with early waring signals of potential risks to their branding processes, to ‘brand reengineering’ which is the change management process that is necessary when old branding processes are putting a company at competitive disadvantage. In common with other areas of Business Process Reengineering, brand reengineering ‘breaks the china’ across an organisation's departmental functions. Change of this magnitude is never painless and should be led by a company's chief executive officer (CEO). But this solution is preferable to the death of the brand, which now appears to be a vogue prediction of many business commentator.

Quality and the brand management of medicines

Abstract: In this paper, the proposition is made that branding of medicines will become vitally important. As the pressures on National Health Service (NHS) spending grow, there will be less opportunity for market expansion, and greater emphasis will be placed on the comparative performance of medicines measured by economic criteria. Early, effective branding will improve the rate at which a new product will be adopted, and may prove to be a crucial consideration in the 1990s.

Communicating kinship: Beware mistaken identity in brand extensions

Abstract: The authors’ experience in tracking over a hundred different markets in Australia alone, and within those, observing the attempted communication of numerous brand extensions has revealed a key recurring problem — the inability of the brand extension to be lifted out of, and clearly differentiated from, the context of existing items already carrying that brand name. In essence, it amounts to a failure to explicitly communicate the relationship of the new variant to ‘the old’ or pre-existing variants. The authors demonstrate the extent of the problem using several case histories, and suggest a solution.

Harnessing the power of market-leading brands: Part 1

Abstract: This two part paper deals with the power of market-leading brands and how to harness that power. The first part of the paper is an overview synthesizing many concepts that influence the power of market-leading brands. This part examines factors both positively and negatively affecting the long-term sustainablity of such brands. The second part of the paper which will appear in issue 1/4 of the Journal, will present the detergent industry as a case study, and show how companies are exploiting their market-leading brands.