Brand strategies

Résumé du document

You can build a business without a factory, without offices and without a staff, but you can not build a business without clients. The corollary is that clients are the only reason you are in business in the first place. And marketing is about finding and keeping people to buy and consume your products and services, and to come back regularly for more. For example, AON, an insurance company recently surveyed 2000 companies, the risk to the reputation was seen as their "single biggest business hazard". Brand images have to be nurtured. They are infinitely vulnerable to consumer tastes and attitudes which can be turned off at the slightest hint of scandal, corruption, "creative" accounting, quality problems, product recalls, unscrupulous overseas suppliers. International Brand marketing is totally concerned with people and therefore with culture and diversity. The culture of the national brand rubs off on the image of a country's products, expressed usually as "Country of Origin" (COO).

Extraits

[...] That is why it's often deemed as the heart of a competitive strategy. strong brand will look after itself.” Brand strategy is one of the most fraught areas of marketing, though clearly also one of the most important. There are many problems with definition. The key point is you can't have a strategy without a clear objective. Restating a goal is not strategy, execution is not strategy, and tactics are not strategy. A brand cannot function without a strategy and the function of brand management is to implement brand strategy. [...]

[...] In Mexico, the launch of Ace detergent low sudsing, large sizes in cardboard boxes, designed for washing machine use, while many Mexicans still washed in the river at that time! No suds, no apparent washing power, pack disintegrated. P&G again in Australasia - imported from Asia, without English version of packaging, lost share to Huggies (Kimberly-Clark). P&G one more time Pampers were too thick and bulky for Japanes market where accommodation space is limited compared to US and consequently closets and storage space. Much more expensive brand Moony diapers, took and kept market leadership market share). [...]

[...] ( French Automobile Cases: Renault grew organically and also through acquisition : Saviem, Berliet - 1925 “lozenge” introduced, symbolic of radiator grill (calandre) has held good, redesigned by Victor Vasarély in 1972, current design dates from 1992 when brand strategy evolved: - R4/5/6/7 thru to 25 (minus 24) - Becomes in early nineties a model name strategy: Espace, Clio, Twingo, Laguna, the Mégane range which included Scénic, subsequently spun off due to sales success! - The role of Renault has become “Créateur d'Automobiles”. Citroën : “Chevron” (engrenage, stripes, herringbone) - DS, AX, BX, CX, - Then Saxo, Berlingot, Xantia, Xsara Picasso. The latter is still promoted despite strategy change. [...]

[...] IKEA IN THE US Lines were standardised, little room for adaptation But Americans preferred bigger beds to Swedes, implications for sheets, pillow cases WAL-MART IN BRAZIL Iinitially stocked standard US range, golf clubs and laws mowers which held little interest for Brazilians, much later Wal-Mart adapted y acquiring 118 store Bompreço from Dutch Ahold becoming in the country. FORD - Ford in Japan, the Taurus did not fit parking spaces which are designed for model certification, therefore no certification. - In Thailand, the Ford Fiesta was intended to become the model T of Asia. Because of the threat of an import ban, the model was built locally with heavy investment in plant, increasing company costs. [...]

[...] Brand images have to be nurtured. They are infinitely vulnerable to consumer tastes and attitudes which can be turned off at the slightest hint of scandal, corruption, “creative” accounting, quality problems, product recalls, unscrupulous overseas suppliers The “branding iceberg” : Country of origin International Brand marketing is totally concerned with people and therefore with culture and diversity. The Country of Origin (or Culture of Origin) pervades the image: German robustness, Swedish reliability, French luxury, Italian beauty, design, Japanese manufacturing systems, JIT, British rainware, trenchcoats! [...]