Corporate Image and Brand Management.

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overview- One of the most critical ingredients in the successful development of

an integrated marketing communications plan is effective management of an organization’s image.

- A firm’s image is based on the feelings consumers and businesses have toward an organization and its individual brands.

- All marketing communications affect consumers perception of a firm.

- Advertising managers and other marketing experts are expected to create messages that:

- 1- sell products in the short term.- 2- build a firm’s image over time.- Moreover, advertising creatives must think about both goals as they

design advertisement and promotional campaigns.

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overview• Understanding the firms image and knowledge about the strengths of

its individual brands are important for marketing teams to be able to build solid connections with customers and business customers.

• In addition to the good understanding of firm’s and brand’s image, a good IMC program should combines an assessment of consumer and business buyer behavior in order to prepare a consistent message designe.

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Corporate Image- effective marketing communication starts with a clearly defined

corporate image. - That image summarizes what a company stands for and the position

the company has established. - The goal of image management is to create a specific impression in

the minds of clients and customers.- The overall image of a company is determined by the combined views

of all publics.- In case of insurance companies, helpfulness, safety, and security are

common and favorable elements of strong image. Look at State farm example on page 26.

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Corporate image advertisement by

State Farm

Any busy intersection will see its share of accident. But at some intersection car crashes are so common. They are almost routine. State Farm insurance has identified ten of the most crash-prone intersections in the entire nation, and we are offering grants totaling 1.2 million to help make improvements at each and every one, it’s all part of our commitment as the world’s largest auto insurance to help make drivers and their families as safe as they can be.……..ect.

2 Components of a corporate Image

-Perception is a primary component of corporate image. How customers and consumer perceive a company’s goods and services, will determine to a great extent its overall image.

-Look at the study conducted by Edelman Asia Pacific regarding the components of corporate image on page 26.

- Every firm’s image consist of a unique set of components. Look at the and third paragraph which discuss the corporate image of some automobile manufacturers on page 26.

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Tangible Elements Intangible Elements

1. Goods and services sold2. Retail outlets where sold3. Factories where produced4. Advertising, promotions, and other

forms of communications5. Corporate name and logo6. Packages and labels7. Employees

1. Corporate, personnel, and environmental policies2. Ideals and beliefs of corporate personnel3. Culture of country and location of the company4. Media reports ( negative publicity)

F I G U R E 2 . 1Components of a Corporate Image

2 The role of a corporate imageConsumer perspective

from a consumer’s perspective, corporate image serves several useful functions:

1- providing assurance regarding purchase decisions of familiar products in unfamiliar settings.

2- giving assurance about the purchase when the buyer has little or no previous experience with the good or service.

3- reducing search time in purchase decision.

4- providing psychological reinforcement and social acceptance of purchases. ( social acceptance is derived from knowing that many other individual also have purchased form the same firm. So the choice will be more accepted by others)

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Top Corporate Global Brands

Rank Company Brand Value Country of Ownership(billions)

1 Coca-Cola $68.7 United States 2 IBM $60.2 United States 3 Microsoft $56.6 United States 4 General Electric $47.7 United States 5 Nokia $34.8 Finland 6 McDonald’s $32.2 United States 7 Google $31.9 United States 8 Toyota $31.1 Japan 9 Intel $30.6 United States 10 Disney $28.4 United States

Source: Adapted from “Best 100 Global Brands,” BusinessWeek, September 28, 2009, pp. 50.

The Top 10 Arab Brand

1. Al Jazeera (Qatar)2. Emirates Group (UAE)3. Al-Marai (Saudi Arabia)4. Al Arabiya (Saudi Arabia)5. Afia (Saudi Arabia6. Americana (Kuwait)7. Burj Al Arab (UAE)8. Fine (Jordan)9. Jarir Bookstore (Saudi Arabia)10. Emaar (UAE)

• http://www.forbes.com/2006/10/17/top-arab-brands-biz_cz_fas_1018toparabbrands.html

The role of a corporate image business-to business perspective.

• It reduces the buyer perceived risk.

• Reduces a business customers search time.

• Psychological reinforcement and social acceptance.

• A company purchasing officer or a company buying center who make quality purchases might receive praise from his leaders.

• Brand image is especially valuable to a company expending internationally.

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The role of a corporate imagecompany perspective. 2

• from the viewpoint of the firm itself, a highly reputable image generates many benefits:

1- extension of positive consumer feelings to new products. long-term customers are willing to give something new a try.

2- the ability to charge a higher price or fee.3- consumer loyalty leading to more frequent purchases.loyal customers purchase more products. They are less likely to make substitution purchases when

other companies offer discounts or other enticements.

4- positive word of mouth endorsements.most customers have more faith in personal references than in any form of advertising or promotion.

( free promotion).

5- higher level of channel power: positive customer attitudes create corporate equity, which provide greater channel power.

6- The ability to attract quality employees: recruiting and selection costs are reduced, less employee turnover.

7- More favorable ratings by financial observers and analysts: this is especially helpful when a company seeks to raise capital…., the government and legislators tend to act in a more supportive manner toward reputable organizations….

Promoting the desired image

• to promote the desired image, the marketing team should first try to understand the nature of the company’s current image.

• Future communication should be tailored to promote the right image.

• A strong image can be combined with an opportunity discovered in the external environment.

• Promotion and marketing teams should study how others see the company to make a decision regarding how to correct any misperceptions or build on the image that customers currently hold.

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• during this process, marketers should remember four things: 1- the image being projected accurately portrays the firms and

coincides with the goods and services offered. 2- reinforcing or rejuvenating a current image that is consistent with the

view of consumers is easier to accomplish than changing a well-established image.

3- it is difficult to change the image people hold about given company. In some cases, modifying the current image or trying to create an entirely new image is not possible.

4- any negative or bad press can quickly destroy an image that took years to build.

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Creating the Right Image• Sends clear message about the unique nature of an

organization and its products.

• Portrays what the firm sells. Look at BMW Motorcycles advertisement on page 31.

• creating the right image is often more challenging for a small business. Oftentimes no specific image exist.

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Rejuvenating an Image• Sells new products• Attracts new customers• Retains current customers• Key – remain consistent with a previous image

while at the same time building to incorporate new elements to expand the firm’s target audience.

• It Takes time and effort.

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Changing an Image• It is extremely difficult to change the image people have

about a company.• Look at the textbook on page 31 to know when it is

necessary to change a company image. • Company managers must carefully consider what they

wish to change, why they wish to make a change, and how they intend to accomplish the task.

• Begins internally – then moves outward : changing an image may require changes regarding the internal company personnel, products, regulations, philosophy…ect.

AT and T

• Many Customers associated AT and T with old fashioned landline.

• The company acquired Successful cell phone services and networking company.

• They incorporated Cingular’s orange color in its branding scheme.

• The company launched a national advertising campaign featuring mobile professionals and young people from all over the world using AT and T wireless products.

• finally, the company partnered with Apple to launch the iPhone.

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Corporate Name• a corporate name is the overall banner under which all other operations

occur. • Corporate names can be divided into four categories baced on their actual,

implied, or visionary meaning:• 1- overt names ( says what the company does). examples : BMW

Motorcycles, Southwest Airlines.• 2- Implied names (contain recognizable words or word parts that imply

what the company is about). examples: IBM, FedEx (Federal Express).• 3- conceptual or visionary names. Examples: Google, toys land.• Conceptual names evokes a vision and it captures the essence of what a

company offers. • 4- iconoclastic names: does not reflect the company’s goods or services,

but instead something that is unique, different, and memorable. Examples: Monster.com, and fathead.com ( in Jordan we have “the thief’s supermarket” and “the cancer smoke shop “

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• Overt and implied names are easier to market. They make it easier for consumers to recall the good or service.

• Conceptual and iconoclastic require a greater marketing effort to ensure that consumers connect the corporate name with its product and services.

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Corporate Logos• A corporate logo is a symbol used to identify a company and its brands,

helping to convey the overall corporate image.• It important to have a logo that is compatible with the corporation’s

name. • It helps in remembering specific brands and company advertisements.• Logos are specially important for in-store shopping. Why? • Look at figure 2.4 page 33.• Successful logos elicit shared meaning across consumers. This process is

known as stimulus codability. • Stimulus codability : items that easily evoke consensually held meanings

within a culture or subcultures• Recognition comes from familiarity rather than stimulus codability.

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Corporate Logos 2-Companies that have logos with a low degree of codability must spend more money on advertising.

-A successful company's logo, in addition to the previous requirements, should evoke positive feelings in customers minds.

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• Black – seriousness, distinctiveness, boldness, power, sophistication, and tradition

• Blue – authority, dignity, security, faithfulness, heritage, corporate stability, and trust

• Brown/gold – history, utility, earthiness, richness, tradition, and conservative

• Gray/silver – somberness, authority, practicality, corporate mentality, and trust

• Green – tranquility, health, freshness, stability, and appetite

• Orange – fun, cheerfulness, warmth, exuberance, health, and youth

What colors should you use in your logo?

Source: Adapted from “Jared McCarthy, “Logos: What Makes Them Work (Part 1of 2),” (www.marketingprofs.com/5/mccarthy4.asp), February 22, 2005.

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• Pink – femininity, innocence, softness, health, and youth

• Purple – sophistication, spirituality, wealth, royalty, youth, and mystery

• Red – aggressiveness, passion, strength, vitality, fear, speed, and appetite

• White/silver – purity, truthfulness, faith, contemporary, refined, and wealth

• Yellow – youth, positive feelings, sunshine, cowardice, refinement, caution, and appetite

What colors should you use in your logo?

Source: Adapted from “Jared McCarthy, “Logos: What Makes Them Work (Part 1of 2),” (www.marketingprofs.com/5/mccarthy4.asp), February 22, 2005.

Branding

• Many of the benefits of strong corporate image also apply to brands.• What is the difference between a brand image and a corporate

image ? • Effective brand names gives assurance of quality for customers and

reduces search time. Also, it allows the company to charge higher prices.

• A primary features of brands is that it contains something that is salient to customers. this attribute comes from several sources:

• A- the brand has benefits consumers consider important and of higher quality than other brands.

• B- another may come from the view the brand is a good value.• C- the belief that the brand is superior to other brands because of its

image.

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Developing a strong brand name• Developing a strong brand begins with discovering why consumers

buy a brand and why they rebuy the brand.• Questions to be asked:• 1- what are the brand’s most compelling benefits? • 2- what emotions are elicited by the brand either during or after the

purchase?• 3- what one word best describe the brand?• 4- what is important to consumers in the purchase of the brand?

Establishing brand prestige.

• Two important processes help establish stronger brand prestige:

• 1- first, the brand name must be prominently promoted through repetitious ads.

• 2- the brand name should be associated with the product’s most prominent characteristics.

• look at the examples on page 35.

• some brands are called family brand, in which a company offers a series or group of product under one brand name.

• The advantage of a family brand is that consumers transfer the image associated with the brand name to any new products added to current mix of products.

• What is the goal of branding ? , how can we achieve this goal. • Step one: Market research must identify the “one thing” the brand

can stand for , this thing should be recognizable and salient to consumers.

• Step two: marketers should to prolong the brand’s success. this can be done by finding one unique selling point and staying with it.

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Brand Equity

• Brand parity is one major problem that many companies encountered.

• Brand parity occurs when there are few distinctions between competing brands in mature markets.

• Brand equity is a major force that can help in fighting the problem of brand parity.

• What is brand equity? • It is a set of characteristics that are unique to a brand. In essence,

brand equity is the perception that a good or service with a given brand name is different and better.

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Brand Equity• the marketing and financial value associated with a brand’s strength

in a market.• There are four major element underlie brand equity : bran name

awareness, brand loyalty, perceived brand quality, and brand associations.

• 1- brand name awareness: • Brand name awareness leads to brand familiarity which in turn

results in a level of comfort with the brand.• Familiar brands are more likely to be chosen than unfamiliar brands.• 2- brand loyalty: • It reduces a brand’s vulnerability to competitors’ actions• It helps in keeping existing customers and avoid spending an

enormous amounts of resources gaining new ones.

Brand Equity• loyal customers provide brand visibility and reassurance to potential

new customers. • 3- perceived brand quality: • Customers associate a particular brand with certain level of overall

quality.• A brand name may be used as a substitute for judgment of quality.

Sometimes they rely on the brand name as quality indicator.• 4- brand associations:• Marketers may work to connect a particular lifestyle or, in some

instances, a certain personality type with a specific brand.• Brand associations are sometimes facilitated by using trade

characters.• Placing these trade characters on adverts and packages helps

consumers link the ads and packages to the brands.

Ronald McDonald

- Benefits of brand equity : • First, it allows company to charge a higher prices• Second, greater market share.• Third, a source for channel power.

- Benefits of brand equity in B-to-B:- It also allow the company to charge higher prices.- It also influences selection in the buying decision making process.- Brand equity opens the doors of foreign markets.

* Look at figure 2.6 on page 36.

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Steps to building brand equity• 1-The first step to building brand equity is having a distinctive brand

and deciding what unique selling proposition should be promoted. unique selling proposition (USP): is An approach to developing the

advertising message that concentrates on the uniquely differentiating characteristic of the product that is both important to the customer and a unique strength of the advertised products when compared to competing products.

• 2- engage in continuous innovation: Part of this analysis involves the need to continually innovate. many

products compete in mature markets. So, companies that do not innovate and move forwards quickly fall behind.

-there is a good example on page 36.

Steps to building brand equity

• 3- Move fast:

• in today’s society, customers want innovation and new products and they want them fast.

To build and maintain your brand equity your brand should introduce new and innovative products on a periodic basis.

4- integrate new and old media. consumers are bombarded with advertising messages from a

multitude of sources. So, marketers must try to integrate all messages while looking for nontraditional methods of communication.

Newer alternative advertising methods can help strengthen a brand name.

Steps to building brand equity

• 5- focus on domination:• Brand equity involves domination . Domination is a strongly held view

that the brand is number one in its category. • Domination can take place in a geographic region or in a smaller

product category or market niche. • To dominate the brand must be viewed number one in some way. • Market Niche: is a small but profitable segment of a market suitable

for focused attention by a marketer. Market niches do not exist by themselves, but are created by identifying needs or wants that are not being addressed by competitors, and by offering products that satisfy them

Measuring Brand Equity.• Trying to determine whether brand equity exist is difficult.• Brand metrics, which is measuring returns on branding investments,

is one of possible ways to measure brand equity.• Attitudinal measures associated with branding can be used to track

awareness, recall, and recognition. • Alixpartners developed a method for measuring a brand’s strength

based on its popularity, its level of trust, and its level of distrust. • According to the firm, the best brands in the future will be those that

have a high level of awareness, are trusted by consumers, and have low levels of distrust, resulting in higher brand power.

• DSN Retailing used a different method for measuring brand equity, by asking consumers to identify their most preferred brand in a particular product category.

Brand extensions and flanker brands• Brand extension strategy is a common approach a firm can use to

enter a new market. • Brand extension: is the use of an established brand name on goods or

services. The extension might or might not be related to the core brand.

• Flanker brand is an alternative to brand extension program. Flanker brand is the development of a new brand by a company in a good or service category in which it currently has a product offering.

• brand flanker are usually used when: • 1- a company marketing team may introduce flanker brands to appeal

to target markets in which the main brand was not reaching customers.

• 2- company leaders think that offering the product under the current brand name might adversely affect the overall marketing program.

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CO-Branding.

• CO – Branding: is the offering of two or more brands in a single market offer.

• Co-branding takes three different forms: Ingredient branding, cooperative branding, and complementary branding .

• 1- ingredient branding: is the placement of one brand within another brand, such as Intel microprocessors in HP PCs and Laptops.

• 2- cooperative branding: is the joint venture of two or more brands into a new good or service.

• 3- Complementary branding: is the marketing of two brands together to encourage co-consumption or co-purchase.

• Co-branding succeeds when it builds the brand equity of both brands.

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CO-Branding

• Co-branding is not without a risk:• 1- if the relationships fails to do well in the marketplace, normally

both brands suffer. To reduce the risk of failure,co-branding should be undertaken only with well-known brands.

• 2- co-branding of goods and services that are highly compatible generally will be less risky.

• Co-branding also provides access to distribution channels that may be difficult to obtain either because of lack of size or dominance by major brands.

Private Brands• Private Brands ( also known as private labels and store brands) are

proprietary brands marketed by an organization and normally distributed exclusively within the organization’s outlet.

• To many individual, private brands carry connotation of a lower price and inferior quality.

• The primary audiences for private brands were price sensitive individuals and low-income families. This is no longer true.

• retailers now are investing marketing dollars to develop their private brands, which now account for approximately 15 % of all retail sales and 19% of foods items sold.

• Savvy retailers recognize the value of private brands and how they can be used to differentiate the store from competing retailers and from national brands.

• How did manufacturers respond to the inroads made by private brands?

Packaging • Retailers’ employees are either stockers or cashiers. Most of them

know nothing about the products that are on the shelves.• Studies revealed that only 31% of purchases are planned prior to

reaching a store. • A package design must stand out. It must tell consumers what is

inside and why the brand should be purchased.• Look at figure 2.14 to know the primary purposes of packaging. • Nowadays, packages and labels are increasingly viewed as a key part

of a company’s integrated marketing communications program. • Most retail purchase decision are made based on familiarity with a

brand or product at a retail store. • A unique package increases the chances product will be purchased,

sometimes as an impulse buy.

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Labels 2

Labels

- Labels on packages serve several functions:• First, they must meet legal requirements. This includes identifying the

product contained in the package and any other specific information about, such as nutritional information on foods .

• Second, the label represents another marketing opportunity. Many times the only distinguishing feature of a product is the label.

• The company logo and brand name must appear prominently.• Labels also may contain special offers and other tie-ins.• Third, labels often carry terms designed to build consumer interest

and confidence in making the purchase. • For example, “gourmet”, “natural”, “premium”. These terms make the

product seem like a better buy.

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Positioning • Positioning is the process of creating a perception in the customers’

minds regarding the nature of a company and its products relative to competitors.

• Positioning is created by variables such as quality of products, prices charged, methods of distribution, packaging, image, and other factors.

• A product positioning is based on two elements:• First, the product’s standing relative to the competition and,• Second, how the product is perceived by consumers. • Marketing communication must either reinforce what consumers

already believe about a product and its brand name or shift consumer views toward a more desirable position.

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Perceptual MapFor Pain Relievers

Positioning• Positioning is vital for companies such as Procter and Gamble and any

other company that has many brands and many product versions in each brand to prevent cannibalism.

• Effective positioning can be achieved in seven different ways:• 1- attribute, is a product trait or characteristic that sets it apart from

other products.• 2- competitors, this is done by contrasting the company’s product

against others.• 3-use or application, involves creating a memorable set of uses for a

product.• 4- businesses on the extremes of price range often use the price-

quality relationship.• 5- A product user, here, the brand or product is distinguished by

specifying who might use it.

• 6- product class, sometimes firms seek to position themselves in a particular product class.

• 7- identifying a product with cultural symbol, this maybe difficult. however, if done successfully it can become a strong competitive advantage for a firm.

• Note: the best method is to use one of these approaches consistently.• A brand position is never completely fixed it can be changed. Look at

Gillette example on page 47.

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International implications

• Firms can either use an adaptation strategy or a standardization strategy in promotional programs.

• With standardization the same brand name and product are sold I all countries.

• With adaptation, the brand and or the actual product may be different in each country or region. This makes the product appear as a local brand.

• Using a standardized global brand reduces costs.• Purchasing a standardized global brand can be viewed as a better

choice than buying a local brand. Global brand might have a higher perceived quality.

• In addition, the consumers self-concept of being cosmopolitan, sophisticated, and modern can be enhanced when buying a global brand. Despite all of the advantages of global brands, some efforts to standardize brand names have met with resistance.

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• Global brands enjoy the most success In high involvement products.• Local brands have performed the best in low involvement everday

products.