Definition from Investopedia:

• Brand loyalty is a result of consumer behavior and is affected by a person’s preferences.
• Loyal customers will consistently purchase products from their preferred brands, regardless of convenience or price.
• This is based on perception where the consumer will continue to repurchase the product as it is perceived to be superior to its competitors.
• Examples of brand loyalty
  • Coke vs Pepsi
  • Apple Mac vs Windows PCs
  • MacDonalds vs Burger King
  • iPhone vs Android/Samsung
• Interestingly, brand loyalty is not specific to a company but rather to it’s product, for example, a consumer may find Nike football (soccer) boots the best but Adidas sports shoes as preferred cross trainers.
• Developing brand loyalty: Coca- cola, “Happiness in a bottle” and “Share a Coke”, is one of the globally recognised brands around.
  • Went from selling 9 bottles to billions in a year.
  • Here are an article on the  7 strategies that made it such a recognisable brand and another from InterBrand

How brands appeal to different market segments

• Suitable strategies for market research are important in gaining appropriate information for redesigning products.
• When designing a brand it is important to identify the needs and wants of the market segment the product is aiming towards.
• A product may require a different brand identity depending on the market segment they are targeting.
• On occasion, products will be rebranded for different segments based on:
  • geographic location – international or local – urban or rural
  • age – teens, tweens, elderly, etc
  • gender
  • culture – National or sub culture
  • McDonalds Market segmentation and Marketing Mix 
    • Mcdonalds has meals based on the future of the market.
    • What are some examples?

• There are many brands that appeal to different market segments.
  • Lets look at the family car market segment.
  • Which brand is targeting which market segment

 

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Activity:

Discuss the following points

• Which one would you choose?
• What kind of market segment are the brands targeting?
• Why is one brand targeting that particular market?
• Which one is the best?
• Is there another market segment you can think of?

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 Contribution of packaging to brand identity.

• Packaging contributes  to brand identity. It helps companies to communicate their brand so that is highly recognisable.
• Being highly recognisable allows for products to be easily seen and the point if sale. such as supermarkets which are inundated with soda options like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
• Good and unique packaging design will help promote this.
• Companies will employ teams that design the packaging usually in conjunction with the branding department.
• Sometimes the packaging may be outsourced to specialist packaging designers.

Trademark and Registered design

 

A brand is very important to business as it forms a product’s identity.  Starbucks Brand Infringement

• They become extremely valuable such as 61% of Cola Colas’ worth is its brand (mentioned in the earlier youtube video).
• A brand is important to a product. and can promote sales.
  • If a customer is loyal to a brand then they are likely to continue to purchase other products from that Brand. Apple, is a good example where many Mac laptop owners are likely to have bought an iPhone or iPad.
  • As a result a brand image (e.g. the ‘Nike Swoosh’) becomes a commodity in itself which then  becomes  intellectual property, i.e. it needs protecting.
  • Trademark and registered design (see explanation below) infringements are wide spread with often the smallest or subtle changes to the trademark or restored design.
  • Infringements of trademarks and registered designs is quite commonplace for a wide range of products and some designers use their creativity to attempt to subtly disguise the infringement.

Registered Design:

• An intellectual property mark that protects a product’s appearance.
• This refers to the features of the product’s shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation which is new and distinctive.
• Coca Cola is an example where the Font and shape of the bottle are protected.

Trademark

• “A trademark is a word, symbol, or phrase, used to identify aparticular manufacturer or seller’s products and distinguish them from the products of another. 15 U.S.C. � 1127. For example, the trademark “Nike,” along with the Nike “swoosh,” identify the shoes made by Nike and distinguish them from shoes made by other companies (e.g. Reebok or Adidas)”. From Harvard University Law

Trademarks and Registered Design  are applied in terms of branding. Trademarks and Registered Designs not only help to protect a products image but but can be used product diversification. A Nike has a range of sports apparel (not just shoes) so a protected trademark can be used on shirts, pants, socks etc. You will see these symbols attached to a product branding features. Have a close look at coca cola or nike.

Publicity on brand image

• There are many implications for a company of positive and negative publicity on brand image.
• Article on Brand Image
• A big challenge for designers is to maintain or improve the brand image while creating an innovative new product—this is sometimes achieved through the corporate strategy of diversification.
• In other words, to mitigate negative publicity on  brand in one market segment which is enjoying  positive publicity in another market segment.

Positive publicity obviously doesn’t hurt. Apple has had its fair share of publicity both negative and positive. The Positive publicity of it being an innovator, iWatch amongst other products,  (Boston Globe article) allows it home forgiveness when negative publicity hits such as the iPhone 6 bending issues, dubbed BendGate (TechTimes article).

Negative publicity can diminish positive consumer perceptions of a brand. McDonalds brand image suffered for a while due environmental impact and healthy food issues.  It has made big efforts to turn this around and maintain brand loyalty, this Prezi on McDonalds Brand will illustrate this. Other companies include Exxon and BP oil spills, Ford motors (exploding tyres), Toyota and more.

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Activity:

• Find a company that has had negative or positive publicity on its brand.
• Write a sentence outlining how it affected the brand
• Post it on the Padlet

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Effects of product branding

• Successful branding will promote how customers feel about a product or brand
• Based on previous positive experience customers will buy well-known brands
• Branding can promote the company
• Branding and generate sales – perhaps of other products or product family
• Examples of positive and negative effects of product branding on different market segments. – Health?? Spending money?? could these be effects?

Evaluating Global impact of branding

• Look at examples of products affected by branding on a global scale.
  • Coca-Cola and Nike have become world leaders and have achieved market dominance and global recognition through branding
• Brands need to be more socially and culturally aware now that they have gone global.
  • Swimwear companies marketing and selling their products in Italy may not be appropriate for Middle Eastern countries.
  • Language differences cause many problems for marketers in designing advertising campaigns and product labels.
  • Colors can have different meanings in different cultures which needs to considered to make sure the local consumers are not offended or pushed away from the product.
  • Cultures have a unique set of customs and taboos.
• Boundless of global branding and marketing – good coverage of topics.
• Forbes List of most recognisable and wealthy global brands

Market research on a global scale may be a time-consuming and expensive exercise, which is a major problem for innovative new companies, especially those reliant upon the internet for selling their product(s).

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International Mindedness

A globally recognized and appealing brand allows organizations and companies to engage with global markets. This raises ethical issues with some products.