Brand Management - Diversity
The humans have frequent needs as well as occasional needs in the life. They are varied in number of ways such as day-to-day living needs, social needs, health and medication needs, contemporary lifestyle needs, to name a few. According to this need-based market segmentation, the brands are diversified in different sectors such as personal care, home care, commodities, entertainment, healthcare, pharmaceutical, luxuries, and services.
Basic Approaches of Branding
There are two basic approaches of brands according to ownership −
| Manufacturer’s Brands |
Private / Store Brands |
| They are created and owned by the producers. |
They are created and developed by retailers, distributors, or wholesalers. |
| Manufacturer promotes its own brand extensively. |
The retailer does not promote one single brand extensively. He can put the products of different brands on the shelves. |
| Their budgets of research and development, ads, sales promotion, distribution channels depth etc. are huge. Hence, there can be less profit margin. |
There is very less budget allocated for ads. Similarly, research and development, distribution channels depth are lower. Hence, these brands can have higher profit margins. |
| They are more advanced and work innovatively on manufacturing technology. |
There is no manufacturing technology involved, hence they can be less innovative. |
| They do not communicate with the consumers directly. |
They work very closely with consumers, hence they have a better idea on what consumers demand. |
The brands can be further categorized depending on the human needs or the context as given −
Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Brands
The FMCG items such as grocery, toiletries, easy-to-cook foods, are essential for our daily lives. They are called fast moving because they are the quickest to get sold from the supermarket shelves. They are also called Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands. They are inexpensive and tangible products which can be produced in advance and can be stored to be consumed later.
The brand managers need to handle these brands tactfully to generate more revenue as there is fierce competition in the FMCG market. If a product does not meet the consumer’s expectations, there is always other brand ready to take the advantage.
Examples of FMCG − Unilever’s Dove Bodycare, Colgate Palmolive’s oral care, Godrej, Dabur, Burges Olive Oil, etc.
Commodities
They are the products or services which consumers buy depending upon their price. There is no quantitative differentiation for commodities across the market. Milk, sugar, oil, grains and cereals, metals, wool and rubber, and natural gas, are all commodities.
Since it is not easy to pursue the consumers to pay more price for the parallel product he can get at a lesser price, the sellers need to put in a lot of effort on color, logo, brand character, and packaging to differentiate the product so it makes a significant impact on the consumers’ mind. Also, the seller needs to keep on adding value to the product.
Examples of commodities − TATA Salt, General Mill’s Pillsbury whole wheat flour, etc.
Luxury Brands
They are not essential but highly desired out of one’s own perception and self-worth. The desirability is based on the consumer’s demand of high quality, fine craftsmanship, exclusivity, precision, and beauty. Also, peer recognition, appreciation, and approval of high status are the underlying needs which promote luxury brands. High-end automobiles, jewelry, cosmetics, accessories, properties, and perfumes come under luxury brands.
These brands are divided into three categories −
Prestige Brands − Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, Swarovski, etc. represent high craftsmanship and lavishness. They are regarded as the mark of high social status.
Premium Brands − They are mass luxury brands. For example, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.
Fashion Brands − They bring fashion products such as apparels and accessories under “hot trends” and target mass consumers. They bring products according to the seasons.
Most luxury companies are small to medium sized enterprises. Presence of luxury brands must be maintained all over the world to reinforce the brand image in the consumer’s mind. They are available in flagship stores.
Business to Business (B2B) Brands
Under these brands, a business makes a commercial transaction with another business. Such transactions occur when one business provides resources to another business for manufacturing some product, and when one business supplies or rents out the products to another business.
B2B companies must pursue global branding as they have less number of customers than B2C companies and more number of transactions with other businesses.
For example, restaurants buy cooking energy, raw materials, crockery, furniture, lights, etc. from different businesses. Retailers buy a product from original manufacturer for reselling it. McDonalds, Pizza Hut, IBM, GE, Microsoft, and Oracle are B2B brands to name a few.
Pharmaceutical Brands
These brands cover the products which are commonly known as drugs or medicines used to diagnose, treat, and prevent a disease. There are more than 70,000 registered brands of drugs.
Pharmaceutical brands are different than consumer brands in various prominent ways. Unlike consumer products, where requirement can be generated through creative advertising and other promotional means, a pharmaceutical company cannot create a need that is not there.
Any new pharmaceutical product cannot create demand without underlying medical need. In addition, the product features of prescription drugs cannot be changed to meet consumer needs or preferences without clinical development outcomes and receiving approval from the regulatory authorities.
Examples of pharmaceutical brands − Simila Expert Care nutrition for infants from Abbott Laboratories, USA and Dr Reddy’s Nise™.
Service Brands
The service sector has spurred the economic growth of many countries. Services are produced and consumed in real time. The output of a service brand is intangible, such as experience of the consumer.
In service branding, the speed of processing the consumer’s request, punctuality in delivery, quality, and degree of attending special needs, and responsiveness are the factors the service provider caters for. Because of its intangible nature and dependency on dynamic nature of humans who provide it, branding of service is difficult.
The domestic and industrial appliances, automobiles, etc. are sold with the promise of quality servicing. The quality and cost claimed by the services belonging to the same industry can vary to a great extent. Service brands are categorized into the following types −
Classic Service Brands − They include banks, beauty salons, consultation services, car rentals, and airline services.
Pure Service Brands − They include association memberships.
Professional Service Brands − They include advisors, consultants, travel agents, estate agents, etc.
Retail Service Brands − They include restaurants, fashion stores, supermarkets, etc.
Examples of service brands − Ford, Airtel, Axis Bank, Air India, Café Coffee Day by Coffee Day Global Ltd., Lifestyle fashion retailing by Landmark, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, etc.
E-Brands
These brands portray their entire image, such as the company’s value, competency, vision, motives, missions, products/services etc. through web to the online consumer. EBrands work to create a direct relationship between the brand owner and the customer via Internet. Due to their wide reachability, it is easy for the e-brands to survive among competitors and gain reputation among consumers.
The consumers are loyal to the sellers whose online commercial transaction schemes are familiar, tested, and established. When the e-Brands provide features such as facility to compare various products, listing products within a specified cost or feature segment, easy and reliable payment modes, then the e-Brands can make place in their consumers’ minds.
Examples of e-Brand − Flipkart, Amazon, etc.
Country Brands
Countries, like companies, apply branding to help themselves market for investment, tourism, and exports. The ‘Country of Origin’ is commonly referenced by the term ‘Made in…’ which depicts an association with the product’s place of origin, which works as effectively as product quality.
Consumers are aware of the origin of the product and ethics used behind creating that product. Some associations of countries and products are France = fashion, wine, and cheese, Italy = design, India = spices, Denmark = chocolate, Germany = automotive, Japan = electronics, etc.
Today, the brands apart from being associated with their countries also need to show their strong connection with the country such as having a manufacturing setup in the country, influx of designs emerging from the talent present in the country, or having a part of production process set up in that country. For the simple reason, the consumers are more likely to buy the product or service if they are authentic. The brand managers need to emphasize on such points while branding.
The Country Brand Index (CBI) measures and ranks the countries on the strength and power of their nation’s brand.
Examples of brand messaging by some countries − “Botswana Our pride, your destination.”, “Canada – Keep exploring”.
