...Being known or being one of many: the need for brand management for business-to-business (B2B) companies Philip Kotler Marketing Department, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA, and Waldemar Pfoertsch Pforzheim University, Pforzheim, Germany and China Europe International Business School, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China Abstract Purpose – This analysis aims to examine the need of business-to-business companies for branding and analyzes the options for success by means of the stock performance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper consists of a qualitative and quantitative pilot study and a quantitative main survey. Findings – Long-term branding strategies, brand performance and firm’s business performance are found to be positively correlated with stock increase. Current brand focus and use of guiding principles can lead to improved business performance. Research limitations/implications – The study has possible location- and industry-specific limitations. Practical implications – Managerially, the findings encourage firms to adopt a long-term branding strategy, focusing not only on brand development. Originality/value – By systematically examining relationships between branding strategy and performance of the global firms, this study adds knowledge to the field of B2B brand research. Keywords Business-to-business marketing, Brand management, Marketing strategy, International marketing Paper type Conceptual paper An executive...
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...LITERATURE REVIEW WHAT IS A BRAND? Branding is a discipline that has emerged from the consumer goods domain particularly fast moving consumer goods. Historically, brand has been inextricably linked to the product and branding is seen as the process of adding value to the product. A brand is a cluster of functional and emotional benefits that extend a unique and welcomed promise. This conceptualisation of a brand is universal and applies to various domains including FMCG, internet services and B2B. What changes in every context is the enactment of the brand. It is argued that the concept of a brand is universal, however some adjustments are required in line with the specific context applied; in this case the B2B context. Branding has myopically been viewed by business marketers as largely irrelevant to business markets. Associated mostly with emotional value, branding was believed to offer very little to what is traditionally considered a very rational process i.e. the organisational decision making process. More recent research acknowledges that despite the differences between B2C and B2B contexts both B2C and B2B brands need to engender trust and develop both cognitive and affective ties with stakeholders. THE BENEFITS OF BRANDING IN INDUSTRIAL MARKETS Branding in an industrial market must be perceived to convey benefits to various stakeholders for companies to financially invest in it. With regard to the company investing in branding a number of benefits have been identified...
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...a corporate brand and establish a personal brand identity. Immelt- General Electric ninth CEO- has to decide on the direction of General Electric within the coming years. Immelt who has officially held the position of General Electric’s CEO few days before September 11, 2001 has been faced with a lot of challenges since day one. These challenges are mainly a struggling economy, rising fuel costs and global warming. The main issue at the current time is what other extensions or modifications to General Electric’s brand strategy could be done in order to maintain its position within the global market. Class discussion can revolve around the following questions that students should consider before class: 1. Discuss the importance of B2B marketing and a strong B2B brand. How does it differ from consumer marketing? 2. Did Jeff Immelt and Beth Comstock do the right thing by dropping “We Bring Good Things to Life” for “Imagination at Work”? Why or why not? 3. Has “Imagination at Work”, “Ecomagination”, and “Healthcare Re-Imagined” changed GE’s brand? If so, how? Is it a good change or not? 4. Can Immelt transform GE’s approach of innovation (risky, unknown areas like fuel cells, solar energy, hydrogen storage, and nanotechnology) versus past strategies of improvements of current technologies? 5. What should Henson do next for GE’s brand strategy? Teaching Strategy This case can generate and support discussion on a number of topics, e.g., B2B marketing, Building...
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...Cisco Case Study Cisco Systems is a leader in its industry and a leading supplier of networking equipment. Through its history it struggled to go from a corporate name to a household known brand. Although Cisco equipment significantly contributed to the backbone of the internet and the company was very successful, the recognition on the brand was low. In the past Cisco’s marketing campaigns targeted corporations and IT decision makers but in 2003 they entered the consumer market. The acquisition of Linksys allowed Cisco to offer several home entertainment solutions along with home and small office network gear. Because they now have consumer products, the also needed a different marketing approach. In 2006 the company launched a rebranding campaign, the tagline “The Human Network” was intended to ‘humanize’ the technology company by branding them as a company that connects people through technology and not just a company that builds network equipment. This marketing strategy was highly successful, increasing revenues by 41% from 2006 to 2008. In 2008 their revenue hit $39.5 billion and was ranked the 18th largest global brand. With this said, it was a viable plan for Cisco to reach out to consumers at that time but it is well known in business that most companies fail once they step away from its core competencies. Although going from larger company routers to home routers with the acquisition on Linksys was not a far cry, Cisco fouled when they tried to go even further with...
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...if the suppliers choose not to differentiate themselves, either through their products/services, or through their brands. Equally, any market can become a branded market if the suppliers choose to differentiate themselves. But companies that sell products such as bulk chemicals, paper, and steel or milk, salt, cement, etc. tend to emphasize operations and sales over marketing, striving to unload as much inventory as possible at the prevailing market price. Viewing themselves as commodity producers, they particularly overlook the nonfunctional features of their products—delivery speeds, aftersales service, distribution, Pricing, Customer servicing, Segmentation, Positioning and Communication. What these producers lose out on is the opportunity to increase their gross margins, create consumer demand for their specific items(s), and build valuable Brand Equity by employing the branding practices made successful by consumer packaged goods enterprises. The biggest challenge facing manufacturers today is how to differentiate their commodity so that their business rises above the commodity market place to enjoy the margins and premium associated with consumer packaged goods markets. Therefore the key to the success of marketing commodities in today’s market place is an intense focus on creating true economic value for those customers who are willing to pay for it and a brand strategy based on product, delivery or service differentiation. In this...
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...Solutions 4 Branding in an Industrial Context 4 Analysis of the Current Brand 4 Essential Brand Messages to Communicate 5 Communication Media 5 Conclusion 9 Source List 10 APPENDIX 1 12 APPENDIX 2 13 APPENDIX 3 14 APPENDIX 4 16 Introduction Every company must deal with the critical issue of attracting people to purchase its product or service. The most difficult time is the beginning, when company is becoming established in the market. Firms must think of ways to spread information so it will be received by customers willing to buy the product. There are two kinds of commerce transactions, Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B). While the general idea of marketing in both stays the same, the role changes when one needs to act in the frame of B2B. Not all businesses are as easily reachable as ordinary consumer, who walks along the street and sees the advertisements, thus, the approach for reaching other businesses must be shaped differently, adding more emphases on searching inside certain industries and approaching separately. When the company becomes more recognizable with a good reputation among target businesses then getting them to consume the product or service becomes easier. They do not have to spend so much time searching for companies because businesses already have the information they need about the product/service. But it is a challenge for a new start-up B2B company to become recognizable, especially in such a competitive market...
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...Blackberry – Brand repositioning strategy. Through this short paper, I would like to further comprehend and propose Blackberry’s strategy towards repositioning in the present potential market. In 2009, Fortune magazine declared Blackberry as one of the fastest growing brands in the world, but within a period of 3-4 years, there market share dropped to 2%. As previously discussed, some main reasons were late entry into consumer/lifestyle segment without outstanding and cutting edge gadgets and services, inability to create a clear brand image in the minds of consumers resulting in loss of appeal, delayed improvisation and updating the technology of its very successful devices and finally the wrong move of diverting towards B2C instead of broadening and capturing existing B2B target segment. The competitive advantage of Blackberry in the corporate world is gone and Blackberry is not good enough to compete in a consumer market. That is why they are forced to start a worldwide repositioning strategy, since their brand image is already diluted now. Therefore, the aim of repositioning would be to establish clear objectives (long-term & short term), change consumer perception, gain market share, fulfill corporate goals, enhance and adapt core competencies, creates barriers to entry for competitors and exploit the USP of the brand. Let’s look at some key aspects below: Target Segment Once clear goals are established, Blackberry will be able to determine its strength and weaknesses...
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...Contributions of Internal Branding Practices to Corporate Brand Success Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate how internal branding practices can contribute to successful corporate brand building. The thesis is based on a case study of the successful Swedish brands Saab AB, SAS Sverige and Skanska. The results show that core values are a main building block of internal branding practices and that core values are united with cultural values with a dual purpose of adding value to customers and guiding employee behavior. Furthermore, the results point out that core values internally indicate how the vision is to be achieved and that the vision may be more useful as a management tool than internal branding tool. Subcultures appear to be present in all three cases and the results suggest that corporate brands are strengthened by internalizing a main corporate culture which allows cultural interpretations within subcultures and by assuring that subcultures co-exist in harmony. Internal communication seems to support corporate and internal branding by applying a pull-principle in communications, creating forums for personal interaction and facilitating employees’ information search and processing. In terms of human resourcecontributions to brand building, practices such as recruitment, phasing in of new employees, internalization of core values among current employees and internal brand evaluations are put forward. Moreover, two additional concepts of importance in...
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...Ingredient Branding Philip Kotler· Waldemar Pfoertsch Ingredient Branding Making the Invisible Visible Professor Philip Kotler Kellogg Graduate School of Management Northwestern University Evanston, IL 60208, USA p-kotler@kellogg.northwestern.edu Professor Waldemar Pfoertsch China Europe International Business School 699 Hongfeng Rd. Shanghai 201206, China wap@ceibs.edu e-ISBN 978-3-642-04214-0 ISBN 978-3-642-04213-3 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-04214-0 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010926489 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH, Germany Printed...
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...purpose of a brand is to increase sales by making the product or service the most visible and desired by the consumer. Branding is cannot be only considered as just a logo or a product anymore: it is becoming a promised quality and reputation, a whole service behind and includes everything about a company. Promoting the branding In the fast-paced world we know today with the internet revolution 15 years ago and more recently the social media, it is more important than ever to promote recognition of a product or service. If a company is remembered as a quality provider, then you will be encouraging repeat business. Branding is a way to promote this recognition because people tend to adhere to familiarity, being afraid of constant newness and innovations. If consumers recognize a brand that they have previously used and they remember being satisfied with it, they are more likely to choose it again. This is especially true in the overwhelming choice of advertising going on today. The buyer’s role According to Diamond and Pintel in their 8th edition of Retail Buying, the buyer’s role not only consists of simple purchasing, even though their responsibilities encompass a lot of things. They are expected to process the merchandise selection, the merchandise pricing, the product development, taking care of the merchandise departments (including store visits, phone communications, fax, e-mail, video conferences, etc.), schedule settings and the whole department management. Their expected...
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...buyers. Why choose this strategy: - Used by management of a firm focused on developing and executing strategies that helps increase revenue, improve marketing return on investment and maximize business operation efficiencies. - The value strategy helps product and professional service firms build a scalable, competitive advantage by integrating their sales, marketing strategy, operations and financial management into one revenue capture process. Example: One of the most obvious examples of strategic value is reducing competition. More recently, many of Microsoft’s company acquisitions have been viewed as Bill Gates reducing competition. The American government, and some in Europe, dragged Bill Gates into court in an attempt to reduce his monopolistic influence in the global economy. 2. Brand equity strategy Definition: Brand equity is the result of a process which leads to a creation of a unique and distinct brand identity. A brand strategy can be thought of as the translation of the business strategy for the marketplace. It defines the manner in which the offering will present itself to the marketplace, which will, in turn, influence the way in which targeted customers think of offering – creating the brand’s image. Aaker (1991) suggests that brand equity consists of brand associations (brand image), brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, and other brand assets. Successful branding also creates “brand equity” – the...
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...agency was to generate diversity and provide superior quality services. The agency is now one of the largest marketing communications networks in the world, providing services to both local and multinational brands in all regions. Ogilvy’s Mission Statement: To become the world’s best agency, O&M mission statement is as follows- “Our mission is to provide successful communications solutions at the highest world standards to enable regional businesses and brands to excel. We earn our clients’ respect through business and creative ideas developed by the best talents in the region.” Ogilvy’s Vision: “To be most valued by those who most value brands” Core Values: To support mission statement and vision, O&M follows 360 Degree Brand Stewardship. To empower the brand to its multinational clients, O&M implies local know-how with a worldwide network. This helps them to get more powerful local campaigns by fulfilling local market needs. A holistic look at communication helps O&M still reinforcing the same universal brand identity. O&M focuses on the role of 360 Degree Brand Stewards to grab customer attention, obtain promises through consistent messages that truly represent the brand's image and identity, and guiding actions, both big and small, that deliver on that brand promise. Ogilvy & Mather officially started its operations in Dhaka on the March of 2008 providing pioneer services to its clients. In these short span of time Ogilvy & Mather Bangladesh have successfully...
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...Bring the life back in the Zoo! GROUP-RED OCEAN Course: Advertising & Promotions Management(MKT 337.4) Course Coordinator:- Md Shahedur Rahman - Lecturer (NSU) Letter of Transmittal February 22, 2012 Md. Shahedur Rahman Lecturer, Business School North South University Dear Sir, In this Project of “Bringing the Life Back In The Zoo”, we have tried to implement our learning from this course. We would like to thank you for offering the opportunity to work on this topic. Despite many limitations, we have tried my best to make this analysis accurate and reliable. If you have any further enquiry concerning any additional information, we would be very pleased to clarify that. Thank you. Sincerely yours, Executive summary: This report analyzes on how to create an effective IMC plan for the Dhaka Zoo. Dhaka zoo is largest zoo in Bangladesh situated in Mirpur, Dhaka. Because of some shortcomings such as mismanagement and frequent deaths of rare animals Dhaka zoo has started to loss its appeal. As a result Dhaka zoo is losing its visitors and its revenue is decreasing frequently. By creating an IMC plan, this paper aims at identifying and analyzing the factors that will motivate visitors for visiting Dhaka Zoo. First of all, we have created a mission and vision statement and also a catchy tagline for the Dhaka zoo. Then we have set our strategic goals and objectives in which the main objective was to regain the lost glory of the Dhaka zoo...
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...revenue-focused model. Such a switch would weaken the relationships the company has with designers and customers, who drive its competitive advantage. Challenges of channel management: Supplying T-shirts to a major retailer would make Threadless T-shirts less exclusive, which would negatively affect existing customer relationships. Threadless shirts won’t maintain their “cool” image if too many are printed. Also, Threadless would face the challenges of keeping its brand image consistent in major retailer settings, making optimal pricing strategies for both its B2C and B2B channels and fulfilling big increases in orders. Plus, currently Threadless produces new items every week. Maintaining this turnover pace for a retailer would create much operational complexity. If Threadless wants to test the possibilities of working with a major retailer to further expand its awareness and thus potentially attract more designers and customers, Threadless should consider the following when choosing a partner: 1) Invite the Threadless Community to discuss the partnership. This action would reflect the importance of the Community to Threadless. 2) Does the brand equity of the candidate retailer match Threadless’ image? For example, Nordstrom’s image is different from that of Macy’s. Threadless must choose wisely. 3) To boost its brand image, it should create a way of telling the story behind the designs so as to give credit to its designers and to spread the word about its Community. 4) Revenue sharing...
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...Direct Energy -Brand Report Card Global Marketing 1: Marketing Fundamentals Veronica Cheong [Email] [Web address] Table of Contents I. Executive Summary ................................................................................................1 Brand Scorecard ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Top 3 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 1 II. Industry and Corporate Overview ......................................................................... 2 Energy Industry Overview ................................................................................................................................. 2 Direct Energy Corporate Structure ................................................................................................................... 3 Direct Energy Brand Portfolio .......................................................................................................................... 3 III. Brand Diagnosis .................................................................................................... 4 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Delivering on Customer Desires........................................................................................................... 4 Relevance .............................
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