 As-Salam-Alaikum-Khawwati-Nuh-Hazrat. The Basim As-Sin welcomes you to the last lecture of the course on Brand Management, MKT 624. In the hope that whatever we have learned so far about the course is going to find its expression in an effective way by way of a brand plan, I start talking about the very left in the previous lecture. You will recall I was talking about the brand analysis for the part of the planning process when the time ran out. So let us pick up the threads from there. Under the brand analysis, I was talking about products and their variants. And talk about packaging the side of the products and their variants. Let us now talk about the next step that you have to take and that is in terms of pricing. Pricing, as we all know very well by now, is based on two different models. You can opt for either a market based model or a cost based model. Depending upon your circumstances, you have to make the most optimal decision. What really is to be kept in mind is that the pricing is the cornerstone of margins that you are going to generate for the company. But then at the same time, you also have to be mindful of the value for money aspect or the proposition to your consumers. So therefore, a balance between the two is not to be maintained. And based on those considerations, you can go for either cost based or market based. Do take the competition into account and do not go for a price which is exorbitant because that will attract competition unnecessarily. So pricing in other words has got to be very effective and very practical and related to the positioning of the product. The next step that you have to take into consideration is advertising and promotions. When it comes to this area, we all know that we've got to have an integrated campaign which is part advertising, part promotions and part all other tools or a combination of a few tools that we have at our disposal. The basic idea is to create the optimal level of impact on our consumers so that we really can relate those impacts to the various stages and phases of the consumer response effect. And having said that, we have to be very sensitive to the phase the brand is passing through and design up a campaign accordingly. The next step in the brand analysis area is the channel partners. You have to look for the channel partners and go for a channel structure which is best suited under your circumstances. The basic objective is to achieve the cost efficiencies and also at the same time to make sure that your system remains customer friendly. Meaning it is very effective from the point of view of outreach and the convenience to your customers. Once you are clear about the channels then you get on to the next area which is the competitors. Now here what you really have to take into account is the potential threat which your competitive brands are going to offer. Take into consideration any possible big moves on part of your competitors that may disrupt your planning. Meaning all those moves which are not avoidable and have to be considered in terms of staging a change you must consider those. Because that way you can preempt the negative developments that might come up and if those come up you have got to be prepared with some level of contingency plans. And you may have a strategy which talks about that contingency like if it happens like the following then we should do that. So those kind of relationships between if and then that you should come up with. And the next step in the brand analysis is the control measures. You have got to take a certain of the measures if you think your brand is going off course. In order for the brand to get back on course what you are supposed to be doing is take some corrective actions. Now how do you take these corrective actions and how you are going to set the stage for correcting those things which you can have gone wrong. With the help of certain brand measures and you have got to undertake certain dynamics that are going to provide you with the right most feedback about your brand. So that you really can respond to the changes which are taking place in the market. Or in the absence of changes if something has gone wrong internally and you have got to fix the situation you should do that from that point of view as well. And coming to you know talking about the brand dynamics I think your knowledge of those measures should be pretty much fresh in your minds. Because it wasn't very long ago that it talked about so many different measures on so many different strategic aspects and angles. Make sure that you really have a strategy in place while you analyze your brand in relation to such measures. If you are a large corporation you have got to make the whole process very well structured and very highly formalized talking about the measures. If you are a small company then all the efforts are going to revolve around just about a few individuals and you can undertake this process informally. But then you have to analyze the brand situation and have to be prepared to get into such measures which provide you with the right most feedback. The last step as part of the brand analysis is new developments. We have to look at the brand from so many different angles. And one of the important angles is why is it that so many companies have brands more than one within the same category. Well it is all due to competitive pressures which are of different forms and shapes and of different intensities. But what is important is that you have got to stay alert to your competition and you have got to have the complete feedback from the mechanism of the brand's performance measurement. And it is only through these two things that you are going to bring about changes in the positioning of the brand. And hence go for the variations in terms of new offerings and new entries. You have to consider the drivers for change and of course when you are alert and you have the results of the brand's performance. You are responsive to those changes with the meaning those dominant forces that cause those changes. And you bring in the key success factors and you put everything together and just get cracking. The challenge at this juncture is that you do not introduce those variations which cannibalize your existing ones. Meaning you do not really eat into the volumes that you already have. The beauty of this concept is that you eat into the competition and not into your own self. So be careful about the segmentation and positioning and you will get all the answers toward the right approach. Now talking about variations and talking about why companies have more than one brand within the same category. Let me tell you very briefly that generally in the market you have three major categories of the brands by your company and by your competitors. First is the premium brand. Now premium brand is the high quality with the premium price. And that is the brand which must occupy the center stage in the marketplace. The second type is the flanking brand. Now this is a brand you see which flanks your premium brand if your premium brand is threatened by a competitor. You also can get the PM under certain circumstances if you think that you have to have a flanking brand. But generally you do that in order to keep competition away. Whether you do that before competition has been set in or whether you do that after competition has been set in. The decision is yours and I think it is obvious that you should opt for the proactive approach and not reactive approach. This flanker is a brand which is a little lower in price as compared to your premium brand. And this is the brand which offers a little different set of the benefits. So the level of benefits and the pricing are different. If you refer to the illustration which I drew your attention toward in relation to the sandwiches, you will know what I am talking about. And that is how you are really going to make realistic decisions about what the brand should be a flanking brand. The third category is the fighting brands. Now fighting brand is basically a fighter which fights competition and it fights competition head on. Whether when you plan to introduce that kind of a brand, of course the pricing point is on a much lower side and the benefits that you offer have got to be very basic in nature because the idea is just to fight competition at a ground which is away from the premium brand. The objective again I would say is to safeguard your position to the further premium brand because that brand is the one which must occupy the center stage. And it has to be in the center of the defined market, meaning your target market. You should be very careful right from the outset about the market situation and the defined brand accordingly. Meaning you should not be in a hurry just to create a flanking brand or just to create a fighting brand. Because you are not supposed to be stirring in a competition out of its slumber. If the competition is not really bothering you and things are pretty peaceful in the marketplace, you do not really have to create a situation where competitors start responding to you with full ferocity. That is not really prudent. The whole planning process will revolve around definition of the market and the brand because that will define the essence, identity, values and position of the brand accordingly. So this is all about the second phase of the planning process which is in itself known as the planning process. So again let me summarize. I talked about the first phase which is about corporate strategy and brands. And the second phase which is the planning process. And while talking about the planning process, I basically have talked about all those concepts and all those elements of strategy that you must consider while putting your plan together. Now with this understanding in place, I would like to take you to the final step which is the brand plan in itself. And I told you earlier it is a long-term document. It is a template which is an expression of the total effort that you have carried out so far towards your strategic considerations. And strategic considerations starting with just two elements meaning the brand essence and the brand architecture leads you into so many different concepts which you studied. Before I started talking about the brand architecture and even after I was done with the brand architecture. So this is the document which is the final, final thing and this is something about which you can say at the start, okay fine I have the complete understanding of the strategic elements and I know what are the considerations I have to undertake before proceeding with my plan. Now I am going to get down to the structured planning form of the whole thinking. And I have to come up with a document which is going to serve the basis of all the execution which will take place not only on part of the company members, meaning people within marketing and your colleagues all over but also the agencies and the research agencies and any other companies involved into the promotional activities. So this document in a very summarized way records in a very structured manner your whole planning process. And this is where I would tell you things that you must take into account in order I am going to talk about preferably but the choice is yours. Since the brand plan is your strategic framework you must understand first of all what a strategy is and what is the difference between a strategy and tactics. Now this is not to assume on my part that after having talked so much about strategies that you do not understand what a strategy is. Now this only is to bring home the point that brand plan is going to be a set of so many different strategies expressed in very few sentences and expressed in a form which is very concise and yet very comprehensive. By going through the one strategy of two to three sentences a reader must know what you are arriving at and a reader must know what could have been the background of this strategy. So with that objective in mind let me tell you that strategy is a long term document that sets a course of action for the foreseeable future. That is just about it. It is a game plan that defines the means to achieve the real objective very simple and tactics is execution. It is all about how you achieve your sales results this year or carry out your campaign this year and the year after. So the reason I really want you to make a distinction between a strategy and tactics is that you have got to be very concise and very to the point when you put down strategies as part of your strategic framework because after you are done with the brand plan let me tell you the next step which is going to be very important on your part and which I leave to your education and training and the comprehension so far is going to be all the details of the budgets. In other words if you are talking about an advertising strategy you have to have the execution side of it and you mention all the media elements that you are going to take into account in relation to the number of insertions and the costs and so on and so forth. So that is something which doesn't really call for any further teaching on my part when it comes to your imagination and your expertise on that. Now having understood the difference between the two meaning the strategy and the tactics let me also explain this distinction with the help of one example I always like to make sure that you should have examples because like to say the one example is better than 100 reasons and explanations. This is like an advertising campaign getting to a point where your consumers are getting bored and I think I did talk about this example before also. Strategy is never bored with your consumers it is the tactics. So if you think that there's got to be a little change in whatever you are communicating without having to change the essence of that communication what you should do is to bring about a technical change while remaining within the same strategic framework. So that I think should explain the distinction between the two and what I am saying is tactics will change but strategy still will remain the same. Until the point that you really have to bring about a strategic change something really has taken place in the market which has created a drastic change. You may have to change the strategy and when you change the strategy you start the process all over again. There's not going to be much difference I mean there's not going to be any difference when it comes to all that we have been discussing for the past two lectures and also in this lecture. Written strategy every business larger small consumer or industrial should have a written strategy that goes without saying because a written strategy that brings the whole marketing program into a very sharp focus. If you were to define your business and then come up with a strategy for that business and you know what a strategy is all about means to achieve your objectives and you have to talk in two to three sentences. Well I tell you it is not going to be easy and this is not to say that you cannot do it. No an average student or average person can do it but the objective is when you do that you have to look into the consistencies when you start writing the statement of that strategy. You will see how many inconsistencies would have existed if the strategy was not expressed in a very well structured form. Make no mistake that the whole strategy is concerned about your brand and therefore it cannot have parts which do not really fit into each other. They must fit like all the cogs fit into a wheel that is very important. It has to be a body which has all the organic parts. Even one small minute foreign part is going to disturb the body and it will not remain organic. After you have talked about the strategy and you have written the strategy in the form of a statement which must not be more than two to three sentences you as a second step start writing down your objectives. So in other words as part of the brand plan in a structured way you have written your strategy as statement of strategy as the starting point of the document and the second point of the document is objectives. When I was talking about the process in terms of the elements that you have to consider I did talk about objectives but I talked about objectives after having talked about so many other elements. So here as part of the well structured document objective of the business or the marketing plan or the business plan has got to be number two point after you have written the statement of strategy. You talk about the numbers and the sales figures, the revenues, the market share, the rate of growth and also the margins. I mean there is no harm talking about the financial side of it. So you also talk about the different ratios which you have studied in your basic course on accounting and finance. Do not talk about those numbers which are not achievable. See the basic objective of having your objective written down is that you must convince yourself whatever you are writing has to be achievable and has not to be something which is not based on practicalities. Your figures should show you the increase which you are going to register year after year and your figures should show you the increase in the market share which you are going to register and so on and so forth. So having talked about all this it really will accelerate your thinking about all those numbers which you should talk about and which really can make so many different people within the organization responsible for their achievement. Objectives have got to be very clear. This is what we can summarize. Objectives have got to be measurable and objectives have got to be achievable. So this is the summary of the objective part of the brand plan because objectives reflect your vision to get to the point where you are wanting to get. You know here we are and you know here we want to go. So it is the objective which is going to talk about the growth gap and all those things. Think about all the factors that we talked about earlier. So you are done with the second point of the brand plan and I will repeat. Whatever business you are in you have to start talking about your objective and you must talk in terms of different sales revenue financial numbers. Next point is the need. You have got to define the need. Although I talked about this factor I don't remember in which lecture precisely but not in the very first lecture. But here as part of the brand plan you have to talk about the need after you have put together your objectives. You must talk about your product and brand in terms of its absolute necessity. And you have to think about the question which the top management asked themselves. What is it that the market will do if the brand did not exist? Well if you have answered the question very convincingly you certainly will think to yourself well here is the need. It is very convincing and it is going to be fulfilled by introducing this brand. So you talk about the need and you talk about that in terms of again in terms of a strategy. And that strategy has to be expressed through a very concise statement comprising of not more than two to three sentences. If you cannot really state the need very clearly in those spending the sentences it means the need is not there. And if you still continue with the development of the brand the brand is going to fail. It may sound like a very emphatic statement but that is the way it is going to be. Give the need so many dimensions like how serious is it and how unfilled is it and how long is it going to stay like that if not fulfilled. And what is going to be the role of your brand in fulfilling that need. These are the things which you can dimensionalize and bring a lot of substance to the need part of your brand plan. Serious answers as a matter of fact to all these questions through which you are going to give different dimensions to the need aspect are going to tell you how consistent you are in terms of your consideration of all these strategic elements that you have put together so far. And you will be astonished to know that you will be running into a few inconsistencies. And when you reach that situation you will then start thinking about the rightmost strategies or the changes which you will bring about to your thoughts that you must have had in your mind kind of preconceived thoughts. So my point is that by having answers to all the questions you are going to really make sure that the consistencies between and among so many various strategic elements of the whole branding process are in place. And they have very logical linkages and those linkages are going to lead you to making a very useful and a very practical kind of a plan. The more clearly you state the need the greater the chances of being right onto your positioning and right onto summing up the inner core of the brand onto the point of positioning. The next point is the source of the volume. At this section outlines where the volume will come from and this obviously takes into account the size of the segment and what size you think you are going to achieve and how. You talk about your customers by two different ways. By adding new customers and by getting your existing customers to use more. And if you think that your source is the children between the ages of 6 to 15 years then that is going to be the source, the primary source of volume. And any volume that may come to the brand is going to be the secondary volume and you should talk about that also. If you're selling biscuits to the you and there's a brand which really is meant for children between 6 and 15 that is the primary volume. You project that you talk about the segment and then you also talk about those segments from where these volume will also flow into the segment you are in. So that is going to be the incremental or secondary business coming to your brand. Be very clear and absolute about the source because that brings clarity about the growth of your brand. And if you are clear about the growth of brand your total vision about all of the elements really falls into place. The next step that you have to take and talk about as part of the brand plan is target audience. Now this is going to be an extension of what I have talked about and you have to talk very qualitatively in terms of your segment or segments. Whatever you are covering one segment or more than one segment you have to talk about those in terms of who your customers are and why they buy and what they buy and where they buy and so on and so forth. This is something which is going to provide you with complete knowledge of the elements that will form the model for the customer. And this is going to be the foundation of the customer model for which we talked so comprehensively in so many different lectures. So in other words what I am telling you is that starting with the statement of strategy right down to this point of the target audience that you already have talked about all those points which will lay the foundation for the customer model that you must have in place in order for the strategies to work. And that goes without saying that the strategies which you are going to craft are going to be very much in line with the customer model. Meaning they are going to flow out of this model and this model has been based upon the essence of the brand and that essence was based on the overall vision of the corporation. So I am trying to relate everything with everything else so that you can build all those blocks and bring your thinking into a very proper perspective in terms of preparation of this plan. In other words you now have a section of the brand plan which is a beautiful reflection of the customer based brand model. Let us proceed further. You now start talking about the strategies. The first strategy you are going to talk about is the marketing strategy. And like I told you with no strategy should be more than like in a couple of lines or at the most in a three to four lines. Limit yourself. Do not get into the verbosity because clarity is going to bring about that conciseness and that is the objective here. How you talk about this statement of strategy. I would like to explain that with the help of a couple of examples and then you will know how to state a strategy. Just suppose you are going to launch a dress shirt for men and it is going to be something very specialized. Your strategy from that point of view could be, now you are stating that strategy and you say the basic thrust of the strategy is toward introduction of the best tailored dress shirt of high quality fabric comparable with any imported brand at a premium price. So what you have done is that you have talked about the quality of the product that you are wanting to launch that you have talked about the quality. You also have drawn a comparison and you are also talking about the price. And now just start thinking about all the elements that you have to put together in order to come up with the execution part of this strategy. It speaks volumes. Now let me give another example to you from the juice market. You happen to be a manufacturer of juice and you want to introduce a new product for the children and that is the product which is not for the sour. Children do not like anything which is not sweet. So from that point of view your basic marketing strategy would be you state like this. The basic marketing strategy is to introduce a juice with minimal traces of sourness at a competitive price. Here again what you are doing is you are talking about your strategy of bringing about a certain product. You are talking about the product character, its characteristics automatically come to mind and you talk about the price also. And again you see this is an example of a strategy that should lead you to so many different strategic avenues as to what is to be done here and what is to be done there. I will leave it to your imagination. I can come up with a few more examples but for the shortage of time let us move on. These are the statements of strategy which you must keep in mind and you must come up with your strategies wherever you are and whatever product you are dealing with by keeping in mind the success factors also and the linkages among all the elements that are going to provide you with all the consistencies. So in other words if you are talking of a competitive price naturally you are talking about the packaging which has to be very practical and which should not be very, very expensive. Just one example. Maintain consistencies everywhere and consistencies will come as long as you really can develop the right linkages and the right linkages are going to be a function of the cross-functional relationships. You will not like to have a strategy linked with a factor absolutely beyond your control. In other words if you think of something very creative and you think that you really do not have the resources to give that practical shape you must not talk about that because then you are living in a paradise which doesn't belong to wise people and you know what I am saying. The next strategy is about positioning. You state this strategy again in just about a couple of sentences and the statement of strategy deals with how you really wish your customers should perceive your brand. So it is all about your ability to create that perception which is very consistent with the marketing strategy. You did talk about the quality of the product and the comparisons and the pricing aspect of the product. Here you talk about what really is it which must be perceived on part of the consumers or by the consumers. So in terms of the dress shirt you can say that the dress shirt seeks to be perceived as the best crafted shirt on the local market. If you talk about this positioning I believe this will bring into a sharp focus on how many different consistent elements that you must consider. In terms of the juice that you can state the strategy like that I mean like the following. The juice seeks to be perceived by the target market as the best quality, the best priced and the least sold juice within the category. Now when you make this statement that it has to be perceived as the least sold that you've got to do something about the characteristics of the product and when you talk about the quality which has to be second to none again you have to do something about that while remaining within very reasonable pricing limits. So these statements have got to be very consistent with the overall marketing strategy and these two are going to put together the later foundation for other strategies which you might call associated sub-strategies. So in other words the main two strategies are going to be the marketing strategy and the positioning strategy. And before you started talking about these strategies you developed your customer model based on a few steps which you know by now very well. Let me explain one fact to you that these strategies that I'm going to talk about though very briefly are going to form many of the brand plans which you shall be having an opportunity to work on. In other words not all these strategies which I'm going to talk about are going to be part of every plan that you lay your hands on. And by the same token there must be some strategies which I may not be talking now which under your circumstances you would like to incorporate as part of the brand plan. The basic idea is to develop a framework which serves the purpose of a plan which can be adapted which can be improved and which can be adjusted in light of the competitive pressures and not pressures rather competitive situations from time to time. Product strategy as the most important associated sub-strategy as part of the brand plan. You have to talk about the strategically the fundamental elements of the product. So apart from the primary function of the product you must mention all the promises it is going to deliver. The set of promises then should be translated into a contract that you think is consistent with your model and the marketing definition. When you talk about the product you have to take into account the content, the package and the size and all other elements of the product. I don't really have to get into details because all other elements are automatically going to flow out of the marketing and positioning strategies if those are consistent. The next strategy is the packaging strategy. This basically is the domain of the brand's identity and imagery and the brand contract and those kinds of things. So you've got to be very consistent about the graphics and about the functional aspect of the product. Functional in the sense that if you are dealing with a product as an example which is meant for a teenage market you have to come up with a package which really fits well into a teenage female hand and that is very important. And by the same token you've got to have the graphics, the colors and the type phase, meaning the font and the size in a way that really attracts the female customers because they are your target market. Any inconsistencies here are going to cause damage to the brand. The totality of graphics and all the packaging elements have to create an impression in the mind of the customers. That is the objective here. When you pay attention to these factors you will find out many inconsistencies. I repeat, inconsistencies in many brands and why those inconsistencies exist, I leave it to your imagination. After having had this understanding I think whenever you look at a brand you're going to look very analytically and when you do that you might find certain inconsistencies in so many different brands and you will also find consistencies among so many brands and then you will find out why those brands are so powerful and so valuable. The next strategy is the pricing strategy which is all about costs, competition and the overall market. Not to forget that you also have to create an image and you must go for a price which is just about the right price based on the model which you have chosen. This strategy also in a few words and then develop consistencies with the positioning and overall marketing strategy. The next strategy is the distribution strategy. You have to decide about the points of availability for your product. Where is it that your product must sell and in light of that then you make the decision about your channels and mention that also within the space of like 2-3 or at the most 4 sentences talk about the cost effectiveness and talk about the outreach and the efficiency and so on and so forth and I'm sure you really can do that within a few sentences because when it comes to execution you are going to get into all the details and the details to the level of defining even your margins which you are going to offer to various members of the channel. So that is going to be a part which will be a reflection of not only your pricing strategy but also distribution strategy. Anyway, I was diverging for a moment from the main strategic thought. Once you have all these strategies in place you get onto the next set of strategies which are all about communication. Naming strategy. State what name should you note what. Now this is a strategy which you must talk about in terms of the meaning of the name. You must talk about the connotations the impressions or the meanings which come to the mind of the consumers when the consumer thinks of the name or when the consumer hears the name because that really is going to be the reflection of the overall positioning of the brand and that is why I said I will tend to subscribe to the view that name of the brand should be position centric and it should not be the very vague and very general although there are so many names in the market which are very general and which are very powerful but that is not to say that we must follow that practice. The next strategy is the copy strategy. This is a strategy which really relates directly with the brand managers and therefore very important for you guys. You talk about this strategy in a little more detail in comparison with other strategies the statement has to be concise but nevertheless it takes care of the four different points. Number one is that you must talk about the promise the product carries in other words the benefits the product carries number two you must talk about the support which makes the promise deliverable and number three you must talk about the emotional benefit or the emotional relationship that the product develops with your customers meaning if your product makes your customers feel very important you have to take that into account as part of the copy strategy and number four point is the last point you must talk about the tone of advertising or the character which you really want built of your brand or the points that you have to consider while talking about the copy strategy and let us now get on to the next strategy which is the media strategy this basically states how you're going to reach your customers with the message so the statement of strategy is going to the center on the message and the importance of the combination of the various tools you have at your disposal meaning the media be very careful about the diversity and the fragmentation of today's media especially in terms of the television channels also to talk about promotions and the strategy in terms of trade promotions and the consumer promotions do not lose sight of the objectives that you have set to yourselves the meaning of trial the repeat purchase of the promotions the national promotions the need for the stocking and on part of retailers all these things have got to be taken into account the next one which you should talk about is the merchandising strategy which must state the kind of shelf space or display which you must achieve in relation to your brand with this our communication and we have completed yet another part of the brand plan the final part deals with a few very important strategies and the first one is the management strategy what kind of management and organization in other words you must have in order to support the brand and I think the importance of that was talked about in detail under brand based culture and organization all you need to do is come up with a statement which sums up the whole thing within a few sentences so that that does give you a lead into what you are supposed to be looking into from that point of view another strategy that you have to look into is the resource strategy from the point of view of advertising research and the marketing research and other research models that you may undertake from time to time in particular the brand performance do not forget that you must talk about that as one of the strategies and the feedback which you get from that strategy meaning by executing that strategy is going to form the basis of your future improvements and so on and so forth what is important about all these strategies is what I can tell you as a conclusion of this lecture and the whole course is that you may have a different set of strategies but the ones I've talked about are the ones which will be included in most of the brand plans you may keep all of them and you may not keep all of them a few more or you may not add anymore the decision is yours but what is important is that decision has to be taken on the basis of the consistencies of your objectives with the strategies if you think a strategy has got to be added to the framework you must add that a few things that remain common under any sets of circumstances are that you have to have a long term objective and you have to specify a target for the long term and you have to have means for achieving the objectives and strategies that is the lesson of the whole course that I've talked about over 45 lectures in the hope that whatever I've talked about that makes sense to you people and the brand plan which is the final final expression of the total effort that we all have undertaken is going to be useful I wish you the best of luck in all the future endeavors that you may undertake Thank you very much and Allah Hafiz