Questions:
1. Some marketing analysts see brands as the major enduring asset of a company, outlasting the company’s actual products. Clearly explain what this might mean and do you agree with it?
2. Clearly explain what brand equity is. Give examples of differing brand equities within a product category (you can choose the product category that you write about)?
3. For many years, Ferrari has been known as a manufacturer of expensive luxury automobiles. They are considering how to attract the very large segment of the car-buying market that purchases medium-priced vehicles. What branding strategy would you suggest to Ferrari and why?
4. Companies build and manage their brands very carefully (if they are smart). The positioning must be continually communicated to consumers. Are brands maintained by advertising or by consumer experiences? Explain. Give an example of a poorly maintained brand (explain what happened)?
Answers:
1. There are two schools of thoughts, one believes in the superiority of the product the other believe in the superiority of the brand. It is true that if a product is good enough people will purchase it, as people have gone for iPhone. The particular fact is a virtual truth, people have preferred iPhone because of a perception that iPhone is better than any other smart phones in the market. Therefore, yes, it is true that brand outlasts the product itself (Hamlin, Bishop and Mather, pp. 2).
2. The brand could help in the significant growth of the product in the market only then when the consumers could positively associate with brand and at the same time could also recognize it as well. The particular feature is being referred as the “brand equity”. An example of differing brand equity within a product category includes, Colgate, which has almost 12 categories starting from “Colgate Total”, to “Colgate Max Fresh Gel” (Lagarde, pp. 12).
3. Ferrari should adopt the strategy of brand exposing and through different social media; sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and through blogs and other social media try to reach those customers, who are using the medium priced cars in their day-to-day life (Hamlin, Bishop and Damien, pp. 10).
4. Advertising helps in communicating about the brand to the customers but most of the time it has been seen that the brand is there in the market because the consumers stick to that particular brand and also refer the brand to the other people as well. Nokia is brand that has advertise itself properly but has failed because of the consumer experience (Lagarde, pp. 15)
References
Hamlin, Robert P., David Bishop, and Damien W. Mather. "‘Marketing earthquakes’ A process of brand and market evolution by punctuated equilibrium." Marketing Theory (2015): 1470593115572668.
Lagarde, F. "Fostering Equity Through Downstream, Midstream And Upstream Social Marketing: The Case Of The Chagnon Foundation". Social Marketing Quarterly (2014): n. pag. Web.
