Book Overview

Branding is a major issue in product strategy. On the one hand, developing a branded product requires a great deal of long term investment spending, especially for advertising, promotion and packaging. It would be easier for manufacturers to make the product for others to brand. That was the course taken by Taiwanese manufacturers, who make a great amount of the world′s clothing, consumer electronics and computers but not under Taiwanese brand names. In developing a marketing strategy for individual products, the seller has to confront the branding decision. “Buildings age, Machines wear out, people die. But what live on are the Brands.” Stephen Cook On the other hand, these manufacturers eventually learn that the power lies manufacturing sources with cheaper in Malaysia and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Japanese and South Korean companies did not make this mistake. They spent liberally to build up brand names for their products, brand names such as Sony, Toyota, Gold star, Samsung, and so on. Even when these companies can no longer afford to manufacture their homeland, the brand names continues to command consumer loyalty. A powerful brand name is said to have consumer franchise. This is evidenced when a sufficient number of consumers demand that brand and refuse a substitute, even if the price is somewhat lower, Mercedes has it; Chevy does not Maytag has it; General Electric does not IBM has it; Radio Shack does not companies that develop a brand with a strong consumer franchise are somewhat insulated from competitor′s promotional strategies. Companies such as Procter and Gamble, Caterpillar, IBM, and Sony have achieved impressive company brand strength. This is measured by the proportion of product/ marketers where the company is the brand leader or co–order. Thus P&G′s impressive marketing reputation resets on the fact that it is the leader in such a high proportion of its served product/marketers. Before going further, we should become familiar with the language of branding. Brand: A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or service of one services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. Brand Name: that part of a brand which can be vocalized � the utterable. Examples are Avon, Chevrolet, Disneyland, American Express and UICA. Brand Mark: that part of a brand that is given legal protection because it is capable of exclusive appropriation. A trade mark protects the seller′s exclusive rights to use the brand name and or brand mark. Copyright: the exclusive legal right to reproduce publishes and sells the matter and form of a literary, musical or artistic work.