BRAND STRATEGY – Captivating Definitions With 8 Detailed Examples

Brand strategy is advertising, content, sharing, slogan, logo studies to increase the value of the brand in the eyes of the audience and increase the perception of trust and quality.

Brand Strategy is long-term plans that describe, promote and promote the brand. These strategies are determined according to customer needs and perception, competitors’ strategies and the evolution of digital life.

Brand strategy; to construct what the brand can offer to its target audience according to its long-term position in the market, its identity and the communication it will make; In other words, it can be defined as creating the brand’s language.

Brands can exist as long as they can consistently and clearly convey their strategies to the market. Brand strategy must be adopted by all departments of the company and must coincide with marketing, advertising and promotional activities.

Globalization and widespread use of the internet have taken trade beyond borders. Social media, e-commerce sites, mobile devices and the global supply chain have opened local brands to the world market. Every day, thousands of new brands and thousands of new companies are blinking at markets where competition does not limit.

As the number of companies selling similar products and similar services increases, it becomes even more important to introduce the brand to the market with a strategy. Brand strategies become the most important assets that enable products and companies to differentiate and increase customer preference.

What is Brand

A brand is any sign that allows a business’s goods or services to be distinguished from others and can be published by print. Words, figures, letters, numbers, color combinations, including personal names, or combinations of all these signs are signs that can be branded.

Originally, the word brand is derived from the old word “Norse” meaning “to burn” or “to burn” (brandr).  It was first used in animal farms. Farm owners were stigmatizing the animals with a burning act to leave a lasting imprint of their own. It was called brandr

The American Marketing Association brand; It defines the name, symbol, term, sign, pattern or a combination of these that are used to define the products or services of a seller or a group of vendors and to distinguish them from their competitors.

It defines the brand as a name, symbol, design, or a combination of these, which defines the product of a particular organization to create a sustainable, differentiated advantage.

Besides, the brand means securing the future of a company, its products and services by using emotional values ​​as well as rational values, by establishing loyalties.

A brand is a name, symbol, phrase, sign, design or a combination of all these; Its purpose is to define the product or service of a vendor or vendor group and differentiate it from its competitors.

The brand is also the collection of features that make a product presentation unique. Companies can imitate another product but cannot copy the brand. In a sense, the brand is the unique symbol of the product. What adds personality to the brand is the mood and emotion it creates in users.

Brand Name

Whatever it takes, if a brand is to be created, it is necessary to have a well-thought-out name that fits both the product/service and its character, that is pleasing to the target audience’s ear, and that evokes the product.

The brand name to be chosen must be consistent with the positioning of the brand. The reason why the brand name is so important in branding decisions can be explained with an example as follows:

Pictures of two beautiful women are shown to a group of men. Then it is asked which lady is more beautiful. The answers are equally distributed to both ladies. Later, the researcher writes the lady’s name as Elizabeth under the first photo and Gertrude under the second photo. When asked the same question, this time, 80 per cent of the subjects choose Elizabeth as more beautiful.

As seen in the example, the name is a concept that provides privilege and difference. A well-chosen brand name adds value to the product and differentiates it from its competitors. Businesses can use various names when naming their goods or service brands:

• The name of a person (Honda, Calvin Klein),

• A place name (American Airlines, Kentucky Fried Chicken),

• A attribute (Safeway stores, Duracell batteries),

• A lifestyle (Weight Watchers, Healthy Choice),

• An artificial name (without any meaning) (Exxon, Kodak)

• An animal name (Mustang cars, Dove soaps),

• Name of an object (Shell petrol, Apple computers)

Brand Image

The image of a brand is not formed by chance. Brand image is the result of a brand strategy created by targeting a specific audience. The brand’s message to the target audience causes them to experience certain emotions when interacting with the brand. For example, when it comes to Starbucks, everyone thinks of the mermaid logo on a green background and being able to sit comfortably in its stores for a long time. For most people, Starbucks is comfort, and people feel good where they are comfortable.

Brand image is what consumers think, impressions, and opinions about your brand, and as a result, how they feel about your brand. In other words, how consumers perceive and interpret the brand’s identity.

Brand image is directly related to personal experiences. Imagine a customer having a bad experience with your products, services or a company representative. Although there is no problem or dissatisfaction with your brand directly, your brand image deteriorates in the eyes of this consumer due to the bad experience he has experienced.

Personal experiences can spread at an unprecedented pace through social media, and a few unhappy customers can affect hundreds of people with the multiplier effect. For this reason, it is vital to work to increase customer satisfaction and, if possible, take quick action by taking into account all comments and complaints to protect the image of your brand.

• Elements that determine the image of the brand;
• Image created by ads and social shares
• The content of the website and its message to the audience
• Campaigns, sweepstakes, offers
• Communication with the target audience
• The perception and opinion of the target audience about the brand
• Competition with competitors

Brand Positioning

A positioning strategy is generally expressed in the form of practices aimed at defining a product and its most important component, brands, by consumers and gaining a specific place in the mind of the consumer compared to competitors.

Positioning strategies are critical in brand management. Because one element that defines and differentiates a brand is the way, the brand is perceived in the mind of the consumer, which is continuously supported by communication efforts. Brand position can be defined as an essential part of brand identity and brand value, which can communicate with target consumers and show that it offers more advantages over other competing brands.

What are Branding Strategies

Brand strategy is the formal plan used by the business to create a specific image of itself in the minds of its current and potential customers. This is very important to the business when the company develops and executes a successful brand strategy.

The point to be considered in the brand strategy is to clearly state why consumers prefer this brand. Therefore, a brand strategy; It should not be considered as the summary of marketing mix plans.

1. Integrative Product Line Name Strategy:

The logic of this strategy is that all products of the company bear the same name as the company. In other words, the company name and company brand are unique and the same. The main purpose of this strategy is to make the products benefit from the recognition of the company name and the products to benefit from the company image. Sony, Mercedes, Bosch companies implement this strategy. Even though the products of these companies have different model names or different code numbers, they all have the same brand. This strategy facilitates new product launches. Since the company and its products are named with a single brand, advertising and promotion activities can be carried out with a single budget and a basic strategy.

2. Separate Brand Name Strategy in the Product Group:

The main purpose of this strategy is not to confuse the brand image of the products in different classes produced by the same company. Especially companies that have products in different price segments and for different customer groups differentiate the image of both brands by using different brands.

For example; Toyota is a car brand referred to in the middle segment as one of the world’s best-selling car brands. Lexus, on the other hand, is another brand of Toyota with top segment models that Toyota produces prestigious vehicles.

The negative aspect of this strategy is that a separate advertising promotion budget should be prepared for each brand, and all efforts for brand and product promotion should be separated. This strategy increases the costs of marketing communication.

3.Personal Product Name Strategy:

This strategy is to use the model and number to begin with the brand name when naming the product groups of the company. The combination of the commercial company name and product image facilitates the consumer’s acceptance of the products.

Pepsi Company’s Pepsi Max, Mercedes Company’s Mercedes Vito products are examples of personal product name strategy. Companies wishing to launch new products or facilitate entry into new markets by taking advantage of a strong brand use this brand strategy.

4. Brand extension:

Companies that make changes in the content of their products and make additions to their products, taking advantage of the awareness of their existing brands with this strategy. They promote their refurbished products. The main purpose of this strategy is to ensure that consumers who know the original product quickly accept the new product. Thanks to this strategy, marketing costs are reduced. Retailers will order the new, improved version of the currently recognized original brand without hesitation. Coca Cola’s renewed product Coca Cola New Coke and Pepsi One brand extension strategy introduced by Pepsi was launched.

5. Brand stretching:

It is a strategy that develops when marketing managers feel obliged to deal with the issue of how much the brand name can be improved most depending on the brand development approach. However, this strategy has some risk factors. Although a profit can be made from marketing costs, a lesser-known brand can be more successful than a well-known brand due to intense promotional campaigns.

If the new brand name is combined with an existing brand, it can also be called a sub-brand. If the current brand used for expansion is the parent brand, it is called a core brand. If the main brand is associated with more than one product as a result of its expansion, it can also be called a family brand.

Many companies use their strong and successful brand in most of their new products such as Nivea, Kellog’s, Sony in the world use this strategy. For example, Sony uses the Sony brand in all electronic products it produces, from televisions, game consoles, mobile phones to music systems. The main reasons why brand stretching is used as an ordinary business strategy is that the marketing process of new products and brands is long and costly. On the other hand, if a successful brand fails in the new product group that it produces and uses its existing brand, this failure negatively affects the image of the brand and the image of all products to the consumer.

6. Private branding strategy:

Private branding strategy is also known as the Distribution channel branding strategy. Many suppliers use this application. Front selling stores and market chains. They give production orders to different manufacturers with their own brands.

Along with the manufacturer’s generic brand, they also sell products bearing their own brands in their own stores. Supermarket chains such as Carrefour and Tekso sell many products with a private label strategy with labels such as Carrefour Sugar and Carrefour milk.

7. More than one branding strategy (Multi-branding):

This approach is applied to enable two or more brands of the same business in a particular product category to compete with their competitors. Similar to the personal brand name strategy, multiple branding efforts are concentrated in a single market.

This strategy requires allocating a marketing budget for multiple brands. These brands that will compete in the same market sometimes affect each other’s sales, but this strategy is considered successful if the market share achieved with more than one brand exceeds its market share with a single brand. The Coca-Cola company entered the sparkling beverage market with the Fanta brand and continues to be sold as the second brand of the same company for years with its market share.

8.Generic brand strategy:

The main purpose of this strategy is to create generic brands by imitating the brand names that are identified with the product in the local market and to make sales without the need for an extra marketing budget. Generic brands try to get a market share as an imitation of the main company with a low price policy.