 Assalamu alaikum khawatina hazrat, welcome to lecture number 3, brand management MKT624. We finished our discussion in the last lecture on the definition of the brand management process and we discussed things like it is turning of a product into a brand, you give the brand name, meaning and then you need management support in order to sustain the brand and if the brand has management support meaning requisite management support it starts turning into a profitable entity and the profits give company the value and value translates into the brand equity. These are the important elements or the component of the brand management definition which we discussed last time and just to recap for the sake of consistency into lecture number 3 meaning the present lecture I would like to say a few words and all these components all over again. When I say turning the product into brand what it means is that you give meaning to the product, you give meaning to the product by creating some differentiated features and you like to communicate about those differentiated features to your target market. Once you start doing that and if the target market is in a mood meaning if they do acknowledge and recognize the differentiated features it means your product has made the mark it is well positioned into the minds of the target market and therefore you have been successful in giving the product meaning and product has turned into a brand. Once the product has turned into a brand the next step is to give it management support. When I talk about management support what I mean is when you introduce a brand or try to sustain a brand which exists on the market you have to make sure or the companies have to make sure that all the opposing and conflicting views about brand and brand management are resolved although the 100% consensus it may not be reached but the objective is to bring different perspectives together, match those perspectives and reach the best possible decision. Once you have succeeded in getting the management support you are on your way to managing the brand well and when you do that you make the brand profitable. That's the basic objective. When the brand is profitable it brings value to the company and the value can be translated into financial terms which eventually leads to brand equity and that's what the whole game of brand management is all about. Having said that it becomes very essential and very obvious that managing the brand right is the basic objective of brand managers. To be able to do that we have to understand brands and all their complexities and in all their shades and forms. All brands regardless of the categories whether they fall into consumer products, consumables or durables or the fall into industrial goods they all have certain fundamentals which are all common to all the brands in all categories. What are those fundamentals? Let us talk about those one by one. Basically there are four fundamentals. Brands have dimensions to them. Brands have certain characteristics and the set of characteristics are pretty much common among all the brands like I said earlier and then brands have certain layers meaning when you introduce brands or manage brands it may not be just one brand. It could be a combination of different brands. It could be a family or it could be a mix of brands. If the company is dealing with just one product line you are dealing with just one family of brands. If company is dealing in more than one product line which means that you are dealing with product mix then you have two families of brands and as brand managers you have to discern the situation correctly how should you go about the process as far as the naming of the brands is concerned, as far as putting those brands into different lines is concerned. This is an important fundamental which is common to all brands and we should be talking about all these layers and brand extensions like the say in later lectures but like I pointed out earlier that we are talking about the building blocks which are absolutely essential for us to understand how the process is going to build up through the stages. Number four fundamental of brands is brand owners commitment. Brand owners or top management it is one of the same thing. People who own the brand have got to stay committed to the brands they are fostering, they are developing and growing. Let's talk about these four dementals to the one by one. First of all brand dimensions. There are three models at the heart of brand dimensions and they are brand identity, brand image and communication. Very very important in the sense that we should be talking about all these all along the course and until the time we really have a very clear understanding of these three models we cannot really appreciate what is going to come later. Brand identity is what the manufacturers or the brand managers or the companies for that matter transmit to the marketplace and what they transmit to the marketplace for brands personality in the form of name the logo colors the typeface and all of the manifestations which are there for the consumers to see. The idea and the objective is to protect the brand identity in a way that it is taken at the receiving end in the way the company is projecting or the company is wanting the target market to perceive. So identity of the brand is something which takes place at the company's end and it is transmitted for the purpose of it being received at the other end which is the marketplace. What is of absolute importance is that brand identity has to be created right and brand identity is created right only if brand managers understand the brand very accurately. What does that mean? What it means is that the moment the brand architecture starts meaning at the conception stage the brand managers have got to be very clear about the need which the brand fulfills. Remember this thing that it is all about fulfillment of need or needs that brands are all about and this forms the basis of all the activities within the area of brand management. So if the brand architecture is right if the product is conceived right it is named right the chances are the identity which is given to it by the creators of the product is right and if that is right it will be taken right at the reception end. The second model of brand dimensions is the brand image. Brand image is again something which we shall be talking about as a denominator to so many variables within the area of brand management. Image after having talked about brand identity it becomes quite clear I think that image is something which takes place at the receiving end meaning it is formed by the marketplace meaning the target market. You have tried to project the brand identity in the right most way it is now up to the marketplace to draw their perceptions and draw their images and again it goes without saying if identity is communicated right the image which is going to come up in the minds of the consumers is going to be right. So image which is being formed at the other end is a very very important byproduct of the identity in which we have created. Image is not something which is developed overnight it is not something in which is created abruptly it is something which the target market has been taking and receiving for a long period of time and the medium which conveys that which carries that is what we call communication. Communication is the third model which is at the heart of brand dimensions but before jumping on to communications let us talk a little more about the brand image. The reason I was talking about a brand image not coming into shape overnight rather taking a long time is that it is an effort this takes brand managers and marketers years and years to develop. People do not register things overnight whatever you want to convey has got to be hammered in again and again again so that people do not forget that so that people remember that. So in other words it is a lot of experiences a lot of observations that people have been generating in their minds and then absorbing those through a psychological process which is very natural. There will be certain things which will be remembered and there will be certain things which will be forgotten. It is a process of filtration like in everyday life there is not everything that we can remember. There are certain things which we retain and there are certain things which we cannot retain and those are automatically naturally rejected. So image also by the same token is the same thing it is kind of a set of experiences or is some total of experiences which consumers have been accumulating in their minds over a long time on the basis of the perceptions they've been having on the basis of the biases they've been having meaning likes and dislikes on the basis of certain beliefs and norms and their social values that they've been having. So in other words this accumulation of experiences keep on modifying itself because of the changing perceptions or the kind of perceptions and even values and beliefs which keeps changing with the passage of time. So it is something which is modified by a set of perceptions, beliefs, social norms and a host of other variables which affect that and do not forget that the element of forgetfulness is one of the elements or one of the components which really affects the image process because as we go through this accumulation or the heaps of information that we have in our minds we also forget and because of the forgetfulness messages do get distorted so the image that you have in your mind is the net net result of all the experiences modified by the variables which I've talked about. So therefore it is not easy to say let us try to change the image if the brand is in distress that is why I've tried to talk about the image factor in a little detail and I shall be talking about this thing a lot more in detail in one of the later lectures because this is going to form the very basic of the brand management philosophy. So coming back to changing the image whenever laymen or people in the company who are not really conversant with the technical marketing aspects do talk about changing the image the answer is it cannot be changed overnight because you know images the sum total of experiences and experiences you know keep getting modified because of the variables are enumerated we have to analyze our own experiences or one's own experiences when one starts thinking in terms of changing the brand image and therefore it becomes kind of an analysis a collective analysis of all the experiences of the total target market when you are out there to change the image the question is how do you do that you do that with the help of market research market research is the where the answer lies those of you who already have done a course in market research are going to appreciate this concept much better than those who have not done it let me for the benefit of all of you state the definition in very simple terms of market research I will not be stating the definition in exact technical terminology because that's not the intention here the objective is to tell you what the research is all about research basically deals with collection and analysis of data so that you can analyze it and then tabulate it with a hypothesis in place because it tells you with what is it that you are going to analyze so that you can arrive at the right most conclusion and when you arrive at the right most conclusion you are in a much better shape you are much better armed with effects and figures to make a better decision if a change is needed in the brand we were talking about bringing about a change in the image and today they started talking about the collective experiences and the need for getting out and analysis of the collective experiences and then using market research as a tool and then reaching the conclusion that changing the image is not all that easy you know it takes quite a bit before you can even decide which direction you have to follow and if you have to follow a new direction it means it is an evolution or it is kind of fixing a problem you are changing a lot of things in order to bring about enthusiasm and in order to bring about sanity into the approach of going to follow for the new course so brand image therefore is not something which can be changed very speedily or you know as speedily as to change a color it takes a lot what does it take that you require in order to get the change the image the changes may be required in the area of technology the changes may be required in the area of you know product design the changes may be required in the area of distribution or in the area of logistics why let me talk about these could the one by one though very briefly technology because you may not be keeping pace with the market and whether you might follow your technology getting kind of get outdated if not outdated then maybe you know it is just at park the web with that of competitors and therefore you feel a need to revitalize it in order to maintain your point of differentiation because brand management is all about the differentiation if you cannot prove that to the point of difference people are not going to acknowledge your product as a differentiated product and therefore the whole exercise of brand management becomes self-defeating product design but it may be the technology is right and there's nothing wrong with it but still you have to bring about some kind of a change in the product design it is not very contemporary for example whether you might like to change its colors you might like to change the typeface and when you're doing that because you are changing the personality a little bit and if you're doing that you have to do that very carefully so that there are no distortions because when you convey that changed personality of the brand the change could be in the area of distribution for example maybe you have to expand your distribution the coverage is not in the 100% like they say there always is room at the top even if you think your distribution is okay maybe you still have to bring about further improvements because you want to outpace competition you may like to have more distributors or maybe you you may like to have distribution more intensive by having the same number of distributors when I say intensive what I mean is the areas which are being covered by the distributors or the areas under distribution could have to be made more intense in terms of their combing in terms of making the product available and so on and so forth a change or an improvement that may also be needed in the area of logistics for example the distribution is right the product design is right and the technology is fine but you need to bring about certain changes in logistics because you are not really carrying your goods to the marketplace with the frequency the the market requires this is a moot point and this is a point to see where the company management and the trade members meaning distributors and retailers do have you know conflicting views because they always talk with each other from their vantage point the trade members like to have the the goods you know as frequently as possible so that the involvement of money or the cash flows is at the minimal level and the companies like to deliver to the marketplace with as less frequency as possible of course not compromising the basic principles of distribution and of course not compromising the availability of their product not at the cost of their relationship with the members of the trade and not to see at the cost of their own brand but my point is that this is one of those areas which you might invite with your primary and fundamental attention in terms of bringing about a change and hence improvement after having talked about identity and image and a full of hope that we have developed a clear understanding regarding what identity is and what images we know that brings us to model three which is communication I'm not understanding develop curly hair key identity company and pay created and image you have for market and pay create hotel or identity you create key jati hai who is three key jati hai in the right most way taak a uska image hai jo brand management follow project karna chara hain usi kese wo image create ho aur jo consumers hain wo usi taip ka image jo hain apne zihin mein wo create kar hain aur agar wo usra ke image create kar lete hain it obviously means I mean it goes without saying that brand management has succeeded in creating an identity where which is just about the right most is wakdham jo tisle model ki baat kar rahe hain wo hain communication ta communication wo medium hain jiske zariye brand identity company and se market end ki tarf communicate ki jaati hain. Ye wo medium hain jo us communication ko leke chalta hain so therefore it becomes very important and communication as you all know may take many forms it could be in advertising it could be promotions it could be you know just the brand itself sitting on the retail shelves the communication takes place in the verbal way and communication takes place in the nonverbal way verbal communication is all about advertising and also promotions and nonverbal is you know given you see the product and it looks into your eyes it still talks and you develop certain images you develop certain perceptions and on the basis of those you make certain decisions. The whole concept of identity and then communication and then image although we talked about identity first and then the market end image second and now we're going to talk about communication or rather we are talking about communication as number three but this is something you know which is in between and we have to have an understanding so that we can complete the model. Iski zada akshi understanding kis tari ke se ho sakti hain khas tar se ish roshni mein jisme main hain pehle hain akshi baat cheet ki ye ek accumulation of experiences hain jo aapke zihin mein hain aur wo je experiences hain, onko baah saray aise variables hain aise mohar rakaat hain jo aasarandaaz hain hain peh, yisme aapki likes hain dislikes hain biases hain perceptions hain social values hain norms hain kai tar tari ke aise hain jo uspe aasarandaaz hain fir kuch hain aise elements hain jo aap bool bhi jaat hain jo aap bool jaat hain to ek uska ek net jo tasfeer ye ek majmua aapke saamne hain hain hain, wo ek image hain hain aur wo hain jo uske zihin mein hota hain aur aapko uske saath communicate karna hain aur karate jaana hain you have to communicate to see if not all the time say very frequently so that those distortions or whatever you see is the net result in the mind of the consumers it stays there and it stays there you see in its strongest possible form the way you want and not only that rather you can further reinforce that you can further strengthen that so that is the part of the smart communication plays now let us take a look at a graphical presentation for a better understanding aap ye dek rahe hain ke sender sender is the company or the brand managers which we see at the left most end and that is what we call in the brand identity the second step which I already have explained is brand signals through transmission and this is you know the what is what is communication this transmission is going right to the marketplace where the brand images being created and it is being created in the minds of the receivers who are the receivers the receivers are the consumers and who are the consumers don't forget that consumers are the people who form your target market it is very important it is not meant for everybody and anybody if you can create more consumers through everybody and anybody there is no harm in that but when I talk about receivers it essentially means people who form your target audience or the target market another factor which I didn't really talk about in my previous discussion with you is the competitive factor you can see at this graphical presentation the red box underneath which talks about competition it is the competition which is creating a lot of noise and the competitive noise or the market noise are the terminologies which you will be hitting a lot through the marketing courses and this is we call it noise because it disturbs us it disturbs the transmission which is taking place between the sender and the receiver as you can see at the slide you are conveying your identity you are wanting to create a certain projection intended for a certain image in the minds of the consumers and don't forget competitors also have the same objective I mean they are also the market they are also players on the same playing ground so they have to play their part when they do that they create what we call distortions because their transmission intersects ours and when that happens the net result is the distortions which I talked about earlier how do you fix those distortions you fix those distortions by talking or by communicating in the right most manner with your target market and talking rightly or talking accurately means that you have to talk in a very clear in a very explicit and succinct manner about the differentiated features relating your product that's what brand management is all about and when you do that what is happening is that you're talking about just about the right most aspects or the features and attributes or benefits of the product with the right most people and when you have ensured that the chances are you are lessening the distortions and the chances are your target market is going to retain most of what you have said this implies that communication has got to be right and the answer lies in communicating the right most things with your target market communication will be right only if you understand your brand right and you will understand your brand right only if you understand the brand architecture like I talked earlier starts with the conception stage and if the brand is conceived right the chances are the communication will also be right what is spent by conception and what is spent by if the brand is created right this boils down to identifying the right most need which exists in the marketplace if you are in a position to identify the right need which needs to be addressed and which needs to be fulfilled only then you can come up with the right brand and if you have the right brand based on the right need fulfillment you will be moving ahead with all the things which are in their right most perspective a marketing guru stated ask yourself one question what would have market done if our brand did not exist if the answer is they would have run into some problem then you have identified the need rightly the brand has got to be created with the speed of lightning if the answer is well the market will not suffer then you should not go ahead with creating your brand so that is why I said the identifying of the need is very essential it is very primary and fundamental in nature and then fulfillment through different stages follows the most important element of communication to say it again is talking not only the right things but also with the right market segment one of the marketing gurus stated on the factor of communication communication is something it is an interactive dialogue as a matter of fact and the market during the pre-selling the selling the post-selling the consuming and the post-consuming stages if we dissect the statement we can develop a better understanding relating significance of communication it takes place even before you know selling has taken place you go to supermarket for example and you take a look at the products all the brands they all look into your eyes and you develop certain pictures in your mind you develop certain images and those images and pictures I am not talking about the image in the technical terms which I talked about earlier I am talking you see as a plain English word when you develop to see those images in your mind you can enforce what you already have in your mind in technical terms the brand image so it has been a result the purchase that has taken place has been the result of communication which has taken place before selling could take place communication takes place when you are buying it actually buying it and it takes place when you have bought it and that communication is in the form of advertising that communication is in the form of promotions advertising and promotions takes so many different forms and shapes which you know the intention here is not to go into those details communication also takes place during the consumption process when you are consuming a product you again develop certain pictures the images you already have and you tell yourself yes I have taken the right most decision this is the brand which really is worth its salt and it really suits me and it also projects my own image in my own eyes and it also projects my image in the eyes of those I socialize with if it is a brand which is a consumer durable for example a car for example or a motorbike for example or a wrist watch for example so communication takes place even after the selling has taken place even after you see that you have consumed a product if we are talking about a consumer consumable and communication keeps taking place at all stages meaning after you have consumed it after you have used it and it is an ongoing process that is why companies do communicate with consumers from time to time and there is a talk within the companies hey listen now is the time to start talking with the market again let us launch another campaign let us get the kickoff another promotional campaign so the reason people talk about this iterative process which takes place in iteration because you need to talk with the market at intervals with a certain frequency otherwise market tends to forget awareness goes at a lower level your presence is not felt somebody else is creating a lot of noise what we talked about earlier and not only that noise will create distortions it will take over whatever we have been saying and maybe it can dislodge us in the minds of the consumers and weaken our position so in other words while talking about communication another important thing which has come to the surface through this discussion is that we have to look into those aspects of communication in addition to the frequency I was talking about we have to look at those aspects of communication which create the most effective impressions on the minds of the consumers and we also have to be aware I would say the painfully aware of those factors which create the negative impressions as good brand managers we have to differentiate between what creates good impressions and what creates negative impressions if we really can differentiate between the factors responsible for the two sets of impressions of a job is done and we can easily recognize that accurate and good communication can be hardly overemphasized and correct communication goes long way in creating and establishing the right brand identity and brand image and brand identity and the image being at the heart of the brand management has to be taken in the true light and have to be created in the right most way just to take you back to your previous course on marketing which is the fundamentals of marketing let me tell you the objectives of communication no doubt we are clear about the importance of communication when it takes place between the sender and the receiver what is it to see that the sender sends and what is it that the receiver should receive we have talked about that no question but let me talk about the objectives which are at the heart of communication so that we can be clear what is it we should be talking about under one given set of circumstances number one objective of communication is to create awareness you are selling a brand it is a good brand in all respects it has good features very good benefits to offer can create a lot of value for the company and give a lot of value to the consumer but people are not really aware of its existence or the presence in the market it does happen it is not an exaggeration it does happen sometimes do not know that a good brand exists in the marketplace so the first objective of communication is to create that awareness unless that awareness exists there is no second step which leads consumers to bind that product so the second objective of communication after you have created awareness is to impart knowledge a possibility that your target market is aware of the existence of your brand but they are not very knowledgeable about the benefits of that brand so it is a job of the brand managers that they impart knowledge through communication what is it that the product does I will give you an example of pharmaceuticals the product is launched the effort is underway to impart knowledge to those who really matter I mean not the real buyers but the influencers people who are behind decision making process meaning doctors we shall talk about who the buyers are and who are the influencers what is the role played by the influencers in the decision making process relating to purchasing but for the time being the objective of communication is to impart knowledge about the product which is available on the market but people do not know about that after having fulfilled that objective the third one is to create preference for your brand when people are aware of the product and they are knowledgeable they should go to the market and buy it so the objective of communication here is to create that preference with the help of talking about the product features and the extra benefits are the differentiated features which it offers to the target market so that way you have done your job and that job falls within the domain of right most communication the fourth objective of communication is to ensure that purchase takes place of course we cannot control the market or we cannot order people into buying but we really can create conditions which are conducive for consumers to go and buy and this objective is the combination or it is the net result rather of all the three objectives which I talked about earlier and therefore hinges upon the successive achievement of the earlier three objectives in order to be helpful for the product and in order to trigger the final purchasing mechanism and understanding of the three models that is brand identity, brand image, and brand communication we are all set to start talking about the brand fundamentals fundamental number one is brand dimensions in order to talk about all these fundamentals I will start with a graphical presentation with the help of which I can better explain to you first of all we have functions what are the functions what it means is what the brand is what it does to consumers and what is it meant for and what are the features what is the need it satisfies so a clarity about functions of the brand which you are introducing or which you are working on in order to maintain and sustain is one of the aspects of brand dimensions number two is differentiation we are moving counterclockwise and differentiation as the terminology suggests is all about different features we are living in an age where competition is not between good products and bad products competition is between excellent products most of the products that are available on the market are really excellent so when you compare products one brand versus another it becomes difficult for one company to surpass the other I mean it is all right in saying that we have to have differentiated features but in order to create those differentiated features it takes quite a lot of effort so this aspect of brand dimensions deals with the area of differentiation in order to excel in an age where all products like I said earlier excellent we still have to create differentiation because we have to find room somehow the other otherwise we just cannot go ahead with our objectives of brand management and follow the right direction third aspect of brand dimensions is the source company the source company takes a lot of importance in the sense that past history reputation of the company its present practices, its relationships with members of the trade and its relationships with customers and consumers especially if it is a service selling company restaurants for example all these factors are very important and consumers do care about all these factors when a brand carries the name of a company but good reputation quite a lot of marketing is taken care of then and there because people think to themselves that this company has the reputation of creating introducing and sustaining good products chances are this product or this brand also is going to be good it plays a very significant role the fourth aspect of brand dimensions is brand personality and that is all about brand identity and brand image and after having talked about the models earlier I don't see any further need for explanation as to what those models are so having develop an understanding of these four aspects with the help of the slide that you have just looked at we can easily understand and appreciate the first fundamental of the brand management which is brand dimensions what is very important about dimensions is in addition to the aspects that I have talked about in addition to the aspect that I have shown you with the help of the slide consistency among all those aspects they have got to be consistent in order to create a brand which really appeals to the target market if there is no consistency between the four aspects the brand is not going to be very coherent it is not going to be very meaningful and the communication is going to be lopsided when communication is lopsided it automatically means it is not very accurate and that is what you see that I talked about earlier communication has got to be accurate to the target market so that they can conjure up the best possible image of your brand and you know you would be compromising the brand identity or in other words your consumers will not have the right image in their minds if there is something wrong within the four aspects of dimensions if they are lopsided if they are not very coherent if they are not very cogent if they are not very compatible with each other so compatibility is another name which we can give to these four aspects which have got to be compatible and consistent the more consistent they are the stronger the brand identity is that is the basic rule and any weak dimension will render the brand effort lopsided today's lecture and the next lecture are going to be about brand fundamentals today we have talked about just one fundamental which is brand dimensions in the next lecture I am going to talk about the remaining three fundamentals which I pointed out earlier when I started off this lecture and to wrap up my discussion about the basics that we have to know before we start undertaking all topics of brand management one by one in other words what I am saying is that I am still in the process of explaining to you the basic, the building blocks are the basic understanding of all those macros which you have to know before we go over the phase of details because when we talk about positioning for example I will be talking about brand image and brand identity and if you don't know what image is and how it is created and what is the role of communication between creating brand identity and brand image you cannot really understand and appreciate the whole concept in its entirety the phase of I would say the first phase of the building blocks will come to an end in the next lecture which is going to be lecture number 4 and to recap whatever we have discussed so far let me state three basic models which are a prerequisite before we start understanding the brand fundamentals the brand identity, the brand image the brand communication we understand the importance of all of these in their respective shapes and forms and we have understood how they come into play when they are made use of in an integrated and coherent way we understand the objective which you want to fulfill by bringing these models into play and we understand how that fits into the overall the brand management process the definition of which not the whole process the definition of which we discussed in the last lecture and recap in the beginning of this lecture and block by block and concept by concept I am very confident that we are going to develop a very clear understanding