Question

• What international brands do you consider the strongest? What specifically about those brands makes them the strongest?
• What strategy needs to be incorporated to build a strong brand?
• What is the value of brands in building competitive advantage?

Answer 1

Microsoft, Google, Under Armour, Coca Cola, Lego, Apple, Starbucks are few of the strongest brands to be reckoned with. In the Global economy, they have been able to create a strong brand value for themselves. They have tapped the advances in the technology to offer quality products to their customers. These brands vouch for quality and establish strong connect through their interaction with the customers in the market. Due to globalization they invest considerably in the international markets, thereby giving them a wider base of customers worldwide. It is the brand identity, customer satisfaction and a definite marketing plan in place that helps them reach out to the customers in an efficient way. The Public can recall these brands over and over again owing to their marketing efforts and also wish to stay connected with them. Hence this makes those brands the strongest.

In terms of strategy, Awareness about the brand is the essential element of Brand response and therefore it helps producing the same. It is an indirect way of reaching out to the customers with the help of intermediaries involved in the channel such as the retailer who stocks our product, who can make the customers aware of our brand without making it necessary for us to directly approach them. It could either help the Brand to promote its wide range of products within the brand or to simply concentrate upon one particular product of the brand. Without any contact details mentioned in the advertisement, the aim would be still to emphasize upon the brand superiority thus making it desirable for the consumers to avail it. Apart from awareness, other strategies associated with the brands are enhancement in the product features in terms of durability and reliability or serviceability elements and its service effectiveness and efficiency, along with the overall designing of the brand and the pricing policy.

The value of the brands is based on the Brand Judgment in a competitive market that can vouch for its survival. Brand judgment is a subjective matter based on how the customers perceive the brand and accordingly decide upon the same. Judgments get formed on the basis of various performance-related factors associated with the brand along with image that the brand has successfully created on the minds of the customers. Accordingly, Brand judgment is made with regards to the superiority of the brand as compared to the other brands available in the market, Quality perception and its creditability before considering such a brand.

Further, brand creditability is an also factor to determine the value of the brands. The consumers evaluate for brand creditability based upon prior assumptions that associate with the brand so advertised in the market in terms of how the brand honestly depicts its picture and its perceived quality features; the capability know-how of the brand in terms of its actual performance and the brand’s ability to meet the expectations of the consumers with respect to the brand in order to ensure long-term motivation to the customers. Accordingly, three dimensions are framed such as the strength of the brand as to how strongly consumers can identify with it; the favorability in the sense that to what extent can the brand deliver its performance to the customers such that the customers favor this particular brand to the others and the uniqueness associated with the brand that makes is distinctive from the others.

In addition, Brand consideration also helps in the enhancement of the brand value. Brand consideration primarily depends upon the degree to which the customers can relate themselves with the brand. There are certain perceptions that the customers may perceive about the brand in terms of its quality and performance and once the brand successfully meets these expectations of the customers that the latter proceeds in considering to buy the brand’s products. Hence brand consideration also forms the foundation stone for brand equity and therefore helps in improving the brand value.