Marketing Management Debates

(Glossary:) Definition: Brand Extension – when a successful brand has introduced a new product in the same broad market.

Brand extension is a technique in order to create a good brand image and increase the sales.

Due to the globalization of the economy, there has been great competition in the business sector. The basic human desire to challenge new limits and capture as much market as it is possible has given a new dimension to the concept of marketing - brand positioning. To position a brand requires making choices; whereas having a position means people will prefer a brand over another. A brand can be positioned in several ways: offering a specific benefit, targeting a specific segment, price or distribution. Despite the fact that positioning is considered by both academics and practitioners to be one of the key elements of modern marketing management, it is surprising to uncover general paucity of consumers/customers derived studies regarding

The company has recently decided to expand its product line to include a product that is a deviation from our traditional offerings. The expansion presents two potential outcomes. Outcome one has a potential for profit, incremental growth, and additional market share for the company. Outcome two has a potential for financial loss, reputation or brand damage and reduced market share.

However, this strategy also has some disadvantages that may hurt the company’s development: The first is the fierce competition between these brands. And it is important to note that using this strategy means facing higher risks. Cost control is another big problem. Obviously, the more brands there are to manage, the higher the costs. For this reason, many prudent companies prefer brand extension over multi-brand management.

As the brand name of Nike continue to soar, other companies in the industry; learning from the success Nike has experienced, start focusing more on brand development to keep up with the increasing levels of competition. These companies resort to brand maintenance, which has become the main target in this industry due to product differentiation made by Nike. Nike, being market-advantaged, produces an extensive range of products, through which it gains a balanced level of profits. This has influenced rival companies to initiate a new range of products in their businesses too. Previously these companies had high risks of failing in business, if their single products did not appeal to the market. Due to the impact of Nike’s business strategy, the other companies are also enlarging their product range,

6. Following trends of marketing: - Innovative, differentiated brands, however, can offer potent advantages. Not only can they offer the consumer real benefits and thus give the consumer a reason to change, they can also serve to outmode existing brands (Murphy, 1988).

Positioning of Product/ Brand Positioning strategies of the brand help the consumers to shape their preferences towards the brand. It is necessary to understand the target customers and their psychology to developing right type of positioning strategies for the brand. Right type of positioning strategies at right time help the companies to build right image in the mind of customers. The right type of positioning strategies help the companies to build a distinct and competitive image in the minds of the customers (Sair, 2014).

Brand extensions afford many companies the ability to introduce new products backed by a brands affluence, quality, or popularity. This greatly reduces launch costs, as new brand launches can reach astronomical costs. Ultimately, once a strong customer loyalty is established with one particular brand, consumers tend to purchase these new products as well (Kotler & Keller, 2016, pg. 325).

An important tool in marketing, to a successful product, is its company brand name. Today the impact on branding a product has greatly increased the interest of the researchers and the academics. A brand name of a product arouses emotion, memories and a close relationship with the customer. On the other hand, global branding has a greater impact on the customers throughout the world. When it comes to globalization, the growing and expanding of a business solely depends on the brand of the product.

1. Think about the basis of competition: competitive positioning may be based on (a) attributes or benefit, (b) use or application, (c) product or brand user, (d) product or service class, (e) competitors, and (f) price and quality. 2. Write its positioning statement

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business structure. Your brand is meant to increase the competiveness against your company. “your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates

• Continue to follow the family branding line extension strategy in order to introduce new products such as skin care, soaps, mouthwashes, lotions, and antacids in order to gain increased market exposure and economies of scale. Recent launches of products such as chewing gum with baking soda are testing this strategy.

A well-positioned company will give themselves a competitive edge over other companies in the market they are in and ultimately raise the company’s overall profit. If a company does not execute this strategy correctly then the company may lose their economical edge on their competitors. This is a very important concept when entering a new market and could determine if your company will succeed in said market. When a company is brainstorming ways on how they want to be seen in the public’s eyes there are many determinates to be considered. When they are deciding on how they have to think about the company as a whole and what values the company stands for. The characteristics the company should look for when determining the positioning strategy is that they have to decide on what type of product they are going to sell and establish a consistency within the products they sell. Secondly the company has to consider the pricing of their products, this is very important because it defines what type of consumers you want to buy your product. Finally you have to analyze you company as a whole. What do you want your company to be seen as in the public’s eye, you have to ask yourselves what our company is doing differently than other competing company. By examining Nordstrom, an upscale fashion retailer, we can conclude that Nordstrom has effectively positioned themselves in the market they are established in.

positioning concepts has been used by the company to obtain such a market mix that Smith’s