“Brand is Power”-by Marketing Manager
Introduction
"Your brand is what people talk about you when you are not in the room”- Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon
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The meaning of brand varies from one person to another. In the simplest words, the brand is the title given to a service or product in order to provide it an identity. Some people define it as the set of associations that the consumers make with the organisation, service, product, and individual. The point to note here is that the bonds are intentional and can be strengthened and expand through marketing and business tactics. Another aspect of the business is brand equity which is equally important for the company i.e., Brand equity. It is the value of the brand perceived by the customers over other goods and services. The importance of brand equity is that it helps in determining other business aspects, such as the profitability of the company. Du Preez and Bendixen, (2015) highlights that if a company has a positive value of the brand, then it can charge more amount for its goods and services and consumers will pay for the generic products. On the other hand, a negative brand equity value can force the customers to purchase generic products from the competition. Every business must consider certain factors, such as brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand association, and perceived quality. If any organisation is aiming at increasing the brand equity value, then it is critical for it to increase the customer loyalty and quality of the goods and services it is offering (Ertimurand Coskuner-Balli, 2015).
Talking about the importance of marketing team in establishing and enhancing brand equity, the team is responsible for the wholesome success of the brand and products associated with it. The marketing team carries out numerous market research in order to determine the performance of the brand. They determine the consumers' demand and specific needs after researching on the focus group. Once this is done, they reach out to the customers in a more specific way. Through this, they can track the brand equity of the company in a particular market segment (Richards, 2015). Another responsibility of the marketing team is to formulate financial metrics as a part of the market research. This way the team can figure out the success or failure of the brand or a product. Moreover, the team proposes measures to increase sales. They collect the data, such as market share, cost of retaining customers, growth rate, revenue, etc.
Erdemand Swait (2016) gave four steps to build the brand. The first and foremost is defining how the product should be perceived. In other words, these steps are all about making commitments with the consumers. The next steps are organising the business and developing the services and products as per the demands of the consumers and the commitments made by the company. It is suggested to the organisations to influence the products and business in accordance with the winning formula of the company. The next step is communicating the promise made to the consumers and the last stage is about consistency in the product delivery and quality.
Main Body
Having brand equity is one aspect of business and strengthening it is other. Talking about the high brand equity of Amazon in the global market, it is the best example every organisation should learn from. The most important assets for Amazon that help in strengthening brand equity are a brand image, underlying association, quality service, customer loyalty, and awareness. Based on its brand equity assets, Amazon is planning its competitive strategy and its future policies and revenue. There are three tactics contributing to the powerful brand equity of Amazon. These comprise email marketing, consumers' rating and reviews, and consumer loyalty. With its super refined email strategy, the company is becoming a big daddy in the online retailing market. Amazon is succeeding with its highly personalised recommendation emails for new products as per the search history, age, gender, and location of the client. This has successfully worked in favour of the company and increased the brand image of the company. Ultimately, this has grown up the revenue of the company along with the market share in the e-retailing field.
The next strategy is consumer rating and reviews that have turned out to be a major strategy for increasing the consumer base and satisfaction as well. With its review systems, the company has increased its revenue by 20%. Most of the customers are making use of the review and rating system prior to purchase any product. The idea is to make the customer updated with the information about other user's experience and quality of the product he/she is going to purchase. Talking about Amazon's strategies to overcome a brand crisis, the organisation is well-prepared with the crisis management plan. The plan is based on the brand image and customer's loyalty. Another strategy is to keep the customer updated with the information about the crisis faced by the company. For that purpose, Amazon is making use of various social media channels to inform its customers about the crisis. This would bring confidence among the consumers as they are being valued. Communities need to be regularly updated.
Conclusion
Till now, the brand, brand equity, and a thorough discussion on the strategies to strengthen the brand equity had been done. From the overall discussion, it could be understood that companies should work on making the brand and product a success. To end this discussion on a high note, it is important to comprehend that branding is the backbone of every organisation dealing in the selling of goods and services. It helps in creating customer preference for a product. In addition to this, it improves market share and annual revenue. In the majority of the cases, it assists the companies to sustain in crisis. Branding strengthens the position in the market and increases the profitability of the company. The importance of brand equity is that it helps in determining other business aspects, such as the profitability of the company.
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