Compare and contrast brand strategies for at least three different markets. Potential markets include business markets, services branding, and technology markets
Compare and contrast brand strategies for at least three different markets.
Compare and contrast brand strategies for at least three different markets. Potential markets include business markets, services branding, and technology markets.
Brand Strategies in a Competitive Market
A company’s marketing plan sails on the success of its brand strategies. Most of the time businesses assume their brand to be the name of the company or the logo or image of the products sold; brands carry much more weight than that. Brands describe how the market thinks and feels about an organization. It defines how people can associate with the products of the company (Bulatovic, Škorić & Jovanović, 2016).
Therefore, establishing a strong brand is the key to success for any business; be it a profitable business or a non-profitable one. Brand strategies describe elaborate long-term plans an organization makes to communicate their brand and differentiate their brand from those of their competitors. This paper will analyze the brand strategies used in the beverage market, the technology market and the automotive market.
In the three markets identified, one of the main features which is constant in their brand strategy, especially for successful companies, is having a clear purpose. Be it beverage, technology or automotive industry, one of the common themes is that all of the successful players in those fields drive their brands, not based on profits, but on the organization’s purpose; their ultimate mission and vision.
According to Kotler (2011), having a clear purpose and aiming to accomplish that purpose gives an organization the motivation to continue developing and improving their brands regardless of the profits they make. An example of a company who have used this strategy successfully is Tesla, who has been riding on their purpose of developing sustainable electric-powered vehicles. This creates a strong brand based on that purpose.
One of the most used brand strategies especially for big organizations in the listed markets is by riding on the name recognition of the organization. This strategy normally works for well-established organizations that have built their brand name over time (Bulatovic, Škorić & Jovanović, 2016). For example, Coca Cola in the beverage industry is a renown company and can use its name to promote its diverse range of products. This is a strategy that usually cuts across all the different markets. The element of communicating the organization’s purpose normally comes in handy when building a strong brand name that can be relied on in the future.
Individual branding is another branding strategy that technology-based companies have been using successfully. Individual branding is a strategy in which a company uses identified individual products and bases its branding on those products (Kotler, 2011). Samsung Galaxy S series is an example of how the strategy can be used. This strategy is however not limited to technology companies, beverage and automobile companies also apply the same strategy.
When most of the companies in the three selected markets employ different brand strategies, one of the elements which is currently being embraced is the use of influencers. Influencers can be any person who commands a large following. By using a given brand, or even endorsing that brand, an influencer can alter how their followers regard that brand (Backaler, 2019).
This is a concept that has been used to promote different brands especially upcoming brands. In the current market space where social media use is the norm, the influencer strategy is one that has been regarded to be quite effective. Talking of social media, branding for any organization belonging to the three markets cannot ignore its impact, given its wide and extensive reach. Social media has facilitated the spread of information across the globe, which has made branding to be way easier but at the same time more crucial (Siddiqui & Singh,2016).
When a product is faulty, social media can act as the flame through which the reputation of a strong brand can be easily tarnished. A good example is the Toyota case where reports of faulty brake pads spread far and wide in a short period. This to some point affected how that specific brand was perceived.
While the branding strategies used in all the three markets may be similar, there are a few differences. For example, beverage companies like Pepsi, Heineken, Coca Cola, and the likes, given the nature of their products, have a less individual product branding approach as compared to technology-based or automotive markets.
Beverage markets, also have first-moving and less expensive products, meaning the market competition is high. The brand strategy likewise changes as a result. In such a market, the brand strategies used have to be highly flexible to adjust to any market changes (Kotler, 2011). For technology and automotive markets, the brand strategies used tend to be more focused on individual product brands that appeal to the different market niches.
References
Backaler, J. (2019). Digital influence: The rise of modern-day influencer marketing and key implications for global business leaders. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 7(1), 44-52.
Bulatovic, I., Škorić, S., & Jovanović, V. (2016). Branding a business name. Economics of agriculture, 63(4), 1323-1332.
Kotler, P. (2011). Kellogg on Branding: The Marketing Faculty of the Kellogg School of Management. John Wiley & Sons.
Siddiqui, S., & Singh, T. (2016). Social media its impact with positive and negative aspects. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research, 5(2), 71-75.
