Brand Re-Positioning: Brand Management Essay Example

strong brand is a means of making people aware of what the company represents and what its offerings are.

Brand name: It is required for brand recall and brand association

1. Logos ; Symbols: Visual nature of logos and Symbols aids in easy recall and recognition.
2. Characters: It means assigning human or real life characteristics. It helps in enhancing brand personality and building brand relationships.
3. Slogans ; jingles: I help in attracting attention, breaking through the clutter in the market and in communicating key product benefits.
4. Packaging ; Signage: It helps in conveying the relevant information.

It also helps in product transportation, protection and storage Criteria for choosing brand elements Elements should select such that:

• They are easily recognizable, easily recallable
• They should be descriptive as well as persuasive
• They should be aesthetically persuasive

Brand positioning Positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. Brand positioning must make sure that:

• The brand is unique/distinctive vs. ompetitors
• The brand is appropriate to all major geographic markets and businesses
• The brand is validated with unique, appropriate and original products
• It should be sustainable and can be delivered constantly across all points of contact with the consumer
• It should be helpful for organization to achieve its financial goals
• It should support and boost up the organization

Sometimes, when these purposes are not fulfilled or there has been an error in the positioning, brands go for repositioning.

Re-positioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market. Methodology of data collection: To study

in depth about the various aspects of brand repositioning and its aftermath consequences we have used the following methodology: Various well known journals of marketing field have been searched and analyzed to understand the basis reason for a company to go for Brand Repositioning:

1. Reading and Understanding various marketing magazines and newspaper supplements about brand repositioning.
2. Reading various interviews of the executives of big firms which were involved in the brand repositioning exercise of their firm so as to understand the insights and impact of this exercise.
3. We also conducted a small consumer survey to understand the impact on brand repositioning among the consumers about their preference, buying behavior and perception.
4. The recent brand repositioning exercise conducted by different brands like Airtel, Videocon have been studied to get a greater insight into the process.

Analysis of Data: After studying and thoroughly analyzing various journals and other relevant sources of information we found that there are numerous reasons for a company to go for Brand Repositioning. However some of the important reasons for the organizations to go for brand repositioning are as follows:

1. Reduction in the share of market pie: If the sales are declining, the company should take a step back and figure out why this is happening. It could be that their brand needs to be refreshed.
2. Changes in the preferences of the customer: It means that may be with the passage of time, the requirements of your target customers has been changes and thus you also need to changes accordingly to fulfill your customer’s requirements.
3. Evolution of the product category: It means that, may be with the passage of time the product category an
   

organization is dealing get evolve with the time. The basic features, the usage pattern and the customer expectations about the product have changed. So you also need to revamp yourself to align ith these changes.

Brand Repositioning Pros and Cons: If the new positioning is better aligned with the needs of consumers that are unmet, the potential returns can outweigh the risks taken when doing a repositioning exercise, but if the market research is flawed, the whole exercise can paralyze the business. In the worst case, brand equity can be diluted completely and shun away all consumers. Thus, a brand repositioning should always be backed by a stronger understanding of target consumers gained through market research and brand research.

Some of the benefits that can be derived from this exercise are as follows:

• Value over other competitors - Brand Repositioning helps in increasing the company’s product offering values over your competitor. This can be done by introducing new features, introducing new designs etc.
• Updated Personality and image of Brand – Brand Repositioning can help the company to get away with their old dull and monotonous image and get the new refreshed and rejuvenated image which can be more close to the
  

customer.

However risks associated with such exercise are as follows:

• Loss of focus: During the course of brand repositioning, a company may lose its focus in deciding its target customer, its actual offerings, message it wants to communicate to the audience etc.
• Neglecting original Customers – New Revamped image of brand may be sometimes does not like by the original customer and they felt isolated and ignored by the new image
• Losing credibility of the brand: Newer look and feel of the image does not necessarily comply with the product offering of your company. This needs to be care off with utmost care.
• Creating confusion among the consumers regarding the brand -Sometimes new brand image provides lot of information which is not in sync of what customers wants to know before purchasing the product. Hence unintentionally end up creating confusion in the minds of consumers.

Challenges in the path of brand Repositioning: Though the benefits of brand repositioning are many and justify to an extent, the reasons why companies undertake it, a brand manager must also keep in mind the challenges imposed by it.

There have been a number of studies done on firms that have undergone brand repositioning to find out the common challenges faced by brand managers

Relevant to consumers’ frame of reference: An attempt to position a brand outside this zone of credibility would not be accepted by consumers and would rather confuse the consumers, ultimately leading to failure of repositioning efforts. For ex: Can we imagine Red Bull trying to become Pepsi? Red Bull

is an energy drink and will remain so in consumers’ mind. Repositioning it like Pepsi will be rejected by clients.

There’s nothing more dangerous than making promises which aren’t going to be delivered. And when new promises are made, the expectations go higher. Not only is it important to deliver on promises, but also to manage the expectations that consumers might have from the new positioning. Supportive Organization If management believes that the brand doesn’t need to change, while a repositioning exercise is already in progress, there can’t be anything dangerous than that Another aspect of organization that poses a challenge is its ability to ‘unlearn’ (Bettis and Prahalad 1995).

Repositioning is not only bringing new methods and messages; it’s also leaving aside the old ones. Inertia has to be overcome that is “ingrained in norms, values, social networks, myths, stories and heroes that have evolved over time and guide behavior” (Tushman and O'Reilly 1996). In fact, the longer these artifacts have been in place, the more difficult it becomes for an organization to unlearn them.

The executives who are responsible for repositioning exercise are compensated n their short term objective achievement; their bonus is based on performance within a 12 month period which is minimal compared to horizon of repositioning exercise and hence they all want to reap the fruits of repositioning within short span of time which sometimes caused lot of trouble.

A brand repositioning exercise that is not based on consumer insights can be dangerous. Thus, consulting consumers before, during and after the repositioning exercise is an important task and only an organization that has a market orientation can do it.

An important part of the exercise

is to improve brand knowledge of the consumers which can be done only when the brand is visible to the target consumers. Also, the new communication must catch the attention of consumers.

Timeliness The time elapsed between change in the marketplace environment that calls for repositioning and the actual repositioning should be minimized. If the delay gets elongated, the brand decays for that amount of time and might move out of the consideration set of the consumers and they might get indifferent to what brand has to say any further. Avoid Alienating Old Consumers As much as it is important to add new consumers for being relevant in the new times, it is equally important to be considerate to the old consumers as well. There always is a tradeoff to be made among gaining new more profitable consumers and losing already secured and set consumers.

Message Consistency There are multiple media through which consumer gets to know about the new message. Though these media operate independently, consumers do not take them as isolated sacks. At the consumers’ end, the message gets integrated and any consistencies aren’t accepted.

Often brands are a part of portfolio of brands that the company manages. Consumers see these brands together and hence the new positioning should be consistent with the positioning of all the brands in the portfolio.

A brand manager must make sure that attempts to reposition a brand aren’t very often. Frequent repositioning efforts can blur the image of the brand and might create confusion in their minds.

The challenge of repositioning can be seen on two dimensions: target and meaning. Trying to move on one is much easier than moving on both.

It is easier to position to different target consumers with the same basic meaning, or change the meaning with the same audience, than doing both at once. Survey conducted to judge the perception of customer due to brand Repositioning A small survey was conducted to know the effect of brand repositioning among the consumer i. e. effect on buying behavior of consumer, perceptions about the brand etc.

Sample size: A sample of 50 people was taken for survey; the group consisted both male and female between 20-27 years of age. Results obtained from the survey are as follows:

Whenever a brand repositions its brand by changing its logo, looks, packaging, tag line etc. Then it is important for the company that its consumers are able to recognize the brand. From the survey conducted it has been found out that there is sometimes confusion when they see the new brand logo, ads, tag line. Most of the consumers were not sure about whether they could connect the changed brand image with the brand (50%).

Consumers were asked about, whether they will change their buying behavior if a brand they use repositions itself. Most of them said that they won’t change their buying behavior while some of them also thought that if they don’t resonate with new brand image they may change the brand. So, there is a possibility that a firm may lose some of its customers after repositioning its brand image. When a brand repositions itself, it can become a center of attraction. It creates a buzz among the customers of that market and people start talking about its new look, tag line, changed attributes etc. It has

been confirmed from the survey that people often discuss with their friends about the repositioned brands they use (eg. New ad, new looks, features etc ). This can help in gaining market share.  If the repositioned brand image is really convincing and attracting, then customers may start using the brand.

While some of them (26%) are ready to give the repositioned brand at least one try. We can thus say that new consumers can be added through effective repositioning of brand. During repositioning, if a brand decides to change the point of sales, i. e. if for example if they decide to make their product available only at exclusive showrooms then they have to be careful about their location with respect to the targeted customer because they may lose hold of some consumers due to unavailability of the product. Repositioned brand image should most importantly able to convince the consumers to buy the product; consumers should be able to connect with the product. If the consumer can identify themselves with the product, then not only they will continue to use the product but will also recommend it to others. Limitations of Methodology Followed and Suggestion for Improvement: The Methodology that we have followed for understanding the repositioning of brand is learning through examples.

Some of the limitations that we have encountered during the process are:

• Analysis of the examples was mostly based on the secondary sources of data except the survey
• The survey conducted gives a fair idea but since the sample size was limited and not very diverse, it may have the biased opinions of a particular set of people
• Success or Failure of Brand repositioning
  

by any company depends on several other factors that includes economic conditions, competitors density etc.

These factors were not considered in our study To overcome these limitations, methodology should be improved and include some level of primary research which may include interviewing the company personal who were responsible in their brand repositioning activity. Also, the methodology should include study of economic factors and competitors study also when analyzing any brand repositioning. Key Learning:

• Brand repositioning is an activity that can make as well as destroy the brand if not planned or implemented properly.
• Brand repositioning gives a chance to the company to create a buzz in the market and increase its target market. At the same time, it also may lead to attrition of its existing customer base.
• It is of utmost importance that new image or logo of brand should resonate with its customer base needs as well as new customer base.
• Proper communication should be made to the existing and target consumer base with the information and advantages of brand repositioning. Gap in information cam lead to decrease in market share.

Conclusions and Recommendation: Whatever the challenges might be in the process of repositioning, the benefits are tempting enough to get the brand manager decide in favor of doing it.

While they do brand repositioning, they must also make sure that they are aware of both the short term and long term implications of the exercise. In short term, there is a modification of consumer knowledge about the brand and the new communication after the exercise must reinforce the beliefs acquired through new knowledge. The old ways of communication, tone, theme, colors, etc need to change

to avoid confusion to consumers. The associations of brand image need to change. And the kind of characteristics communicated about the product needs to change.

While repositioning gives new consumers to the brand, the old consumers would be lost in the process. Thus, brand manager must decide on profitability on both sets of consumers. Some extent of cannibalization can also not be denied. The long term implications of the exercise are more profound than the short term ones. Consumers see the change take place over an extended period of time and it does not happen immediately. Even the change in behavior towards the brand is also not immediate. It takes time and hence improvements in sales - if repositioning is success – are seen after long.

A brand repositioning will rarely deliver short term increase in sales. In fact, in the early days, sales might decline due to old consumers moving away while new consumers do not join because of an initial inertia. The bottom-line would be even worse because of escalating costs of promotions during the exercise. If the objective of a company is increasing sales in short term, it should possibly look somewhere else but repositioning. As a result, it becomes important for a brand manager or a marketer to set the expectations right.

If the expectations aren’t managed well - not only externally but internally as well – chances are that the top management might not continue the effort. And then, returning to old positioning is going to create all sorts of confusion in consumers’ mind. The brand might just end up being nowhere. Also, marketer should understand that while repositioning a brand takes place,

resources have to be invested there which could have been invested somewhere else. The brand that is not doing well might have to be given resources which otherwise belonged to the one that was doing well.

Any failure to deliver on promises made by the brand can lead to damage to reputation built over years. It may move the consumers to a state of indifference on the brand. Hence, reducing market share and fading loyalty towards the brand ultimately leading to dissolved brand equity.