A.

Assignment (40 marks)

This assignment is an individual basis assignment. Please submit a type-written report for the
following questions.
i.

Identify and elaborate the steps in the strategic brand management process.(5 marks)
The process of strategic brand management basically involves 4 steps:
1. Identifying and establishing brand positioning.
Brand Positioning is defined as the act of designing the company's offer and image so
that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target consumer's mind. Points of
difference: convinces consumers about the advantages and differences over the
competitors
2.Planning and Implementation of Brand Marketing Programs
Choosing Brand Elements: Different brand elements here are logos, images,
packaging, symbols, slogans, etc. Since different elements have different advantages,
marketers prefer to use different subsets and combinations of these elements.
Leveraging Secondary Associations: Brands may be linked to certain source factors
such as countries, characters, sporting or cultural events,etc. In essence, the marketer
is borrowing or leveraging some other associations for the brand to create some
associations of the brand's own and them to improve it's brand equity.
3.Measuring and Interpreting Brand Performance
Brand Audit: Is assessment of the source of equity of the brand and to suggest ways to
improve and leverage it.
4. Growing and Sustaining Brand Equity:
Managing Brand Equity over Geographic boundaries, Market segments and Cultures:
Marketers need to take into account international factors, different types of consumers
and the specific knowledge about the experience and behaviors of the new
geographies or market segments when expanding the brand overseas or into new
market segments.

ii.

Discuss the different types of brand elements with appropriate examples. (5 marks)
Brand Names URLs Logos Symbols Characters Spokespeople Slogans Jingles
Packages
Types of brand elements can be identify and differentiate via the offerings by
companies to customers and other parties.
- a brand is more than a name (or mark).
- logos and symbols (Nikes swoosh and McDonalds golden arches),
- packaging (Cokes contour bottle and Kodaks yellow and black film box),
- slogans (BMWsUltimate Driving Machine and VISAs Its Everywhere You
Want to be)
Brand elements, sometimes called brand identities, are those trademark able devices
that serve to identify and differentiate the brand. The main brand elements are brand
names, URLs, logos, symbols, characters, spokespeople, slogans, jingles, packages,
and signage.

iii.

List and explain SIX (6) general criteria for choosing brand elements with appropriate
examples.
(12marks)
Six (6) general criteria for choosing brand elements are :
1. Memorable easily recognized & easily recalled
2. Meaningful descriptive & persuasive
3. Likable fun & interesting, aesthetics, rich visual & verbal imagery
4. Transferrable within & across product categories, & across geographical
boundaries & cultures
5. Adaptable flexible & updateable
6. Protectable legally competitively

iv.

Evaluate the SIX (6) choice criteria in developing an integrated marketing

communication program.
(12 marks)
The six criteria in developing an integrated marketing communication program are as
follows :
(1) Coverage.
Coverage relates to the proportion of the audience that is reached by each
communication option employed, as well as how much overlap exists among
communication options. In other words, to what extent do different communication
options reach the designated target market and the same or different consumers
making up that market?
(2) Contribution.
Contribution relates to the inherent ability of a marketing communication to create the
desired response and communication effects from consumers in the absence of
exposure to any other communication option. In other words, contribution relates to
the main effects of a marketing communication option in terms of how it affects
consumers processing of a communication and the resulting outcomes (e.g. building
awareness, enhancing image, eliciting responses, inducing sales).
(3) Commonality.
Commonality relates to the extent to which common associations are reinforced
across communication options, that is, the extent to which information conveyed by
different communication options shares meaning.
(4) Complementarity.
Complementarity relates to the extent to which different associations and linkages are
emphasized across communication options. The ideal marketing communication
program would ensure that the communication options chosen are mutually
compensatory and reinforcing to create desired consumer knowledge structures.
(5) Versatility.
Versatility refers to the extent that a marketing communication option is robust and
effective for different groups of consumers. A marketing communication option is
deemed versatile when it achieves its desired effect regardless of consumers past
communication history, level of brand or product knowledge or processing goals and
so on.
(6) Cost.
Finally, evaluations of marketing communications on all of the preceding criteria must
be weighed against their cost to arrive at the most effective and efficient
communication program.

v.

Describe how a corporate brand is different from a product brand.

(6 marks)

Corporate branding involves marketing various products or services under the name of a
company. Product branding, on the other hand, is a marketing strategy wherein a business
promotes and markets an individual product without the company name being front and
center in the advertising campaigns or even on the product labeling. Management strategies
for choosing which avenue to pursue or a combination of the two in branding vary by
business and each approach produces results.
Product Branding
A well-known example of a major U.S. company that utilizes product branding is Procter &
Gamble with corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. They make beauty, personal care
and household products, and many of the company's popular brands each have a dedicated
website. Each product carries individualized symbols or logos and some have advertising
slogans associated with the product alone, not mentioning the corporation or the P&G brand
except in labeling.
Corporate Branding
In the Yale School of Management's magazine "Qn," John Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer of
American Express was asked how to market a corporate brand, in this case, the global
marketing of the American Express brand. Hayes explained in the interview that for his
company, the brand means basically the same thing worldwide. Although the corporation
does offer financial products such as gift cards, the major offerings of American Express are
service-oriented. According to Hayes, his company's global branding evokes a sense of trust
and an expectation of high quality among consumers, a marketing concept attached to the
corporate brand.