BRAND MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

BRAND MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH - Essay Example To be able to become a market leader it is vital to guide or, to a certain extent, control the customers. If the firm, by means of the obsolete portion of marketing theory, merely follows what the customers want, the brand will certainly, in the future, be surpassed in the market. The explanation is that unless there is a zero turnaround time, or the possibility of delivering immediately what is demanded for, the firm will fail to keep up (Nilson 2003). By the time the firm has created, manufactured and delivered what the customers requested for, they possibly have modified their preferences or a competitor may have by then introduced something into the marketplace satisfying the demand. Moreover, it is not possible for a customer to identify what a producer can offer. Merely listening to customers is to abandon the brand to the consumers and the management of the firm—and abandoning accountability is seldom a way to develop a strong brand identity, value, image, and positioni ng. The objective of this essay is to analyse in detail the McDonald’s brand in terms of its identity, value, image, and positioning. The Brand The significance of brand management is simply described by John Stewart, the CEO of Quaker Oats (Armstrong & Kotler 2007). He stated that â€Å"If this business split up I will give you all the bricks mortar and land and I would keep the brands and trademarks, and I would fare better than you† (Armstrong & Kotler 2007, 214). This evidently means that a strong brand can be more priceless than all the assets of a firm which make brand management very crucial. According to De Chernatony (2006), â€Å"a successful brand is an identifiable product, service, person or place, augmented in such a way that the buyer or user perceives relevant, unique, sustainable added values which match their needs most closely† (p. 13). A brand, in addition, can be defined as a system of signs and symbols that engages the customer in an invent ed or symbolic process that provides tangible value to a product or service (Kapferer 2008). The symbol of McDonald’s, which is an arching M, is only an M until every brand message has been sent or received by the potential customer. Herbert Rotfeld (2008) examines further the other abstract advantages and values branding can put in to a product or service. Similarly, Kapferer (2004) claimed that the brand is a mark whose objective is to express the hidden aspects of the product or service which are not readily available to the senses. McDonald’s is considered as one of the most popular brands across the globe. This essay will show how McDonald’s tries to constantly improve its brand by focusing on both its customers’ and brand owner’s perspectives. It also acknowledges the various stages in the branding and marketing process. Branding builds an identity and image for an organisation, product, or service. In particular, the brand image implies how customers distinguish or recognise the company. The mechanism of brand management will only be effective when a company performs and communicates itself in a trustworthy way (Nilson 2003). Techniques of marketing communication, such as advertising and promotions, are used to build brand identity, images, appeal, and methods which provide the brand its particular image (p. 49). This is represented at McDonald’s by its Golden Arches. The McDonald’s Brand McDonald’

Multi Media buy Rationale Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Multi Media buy Rationale - Essay Example Each medium had a budget of $214,000 for April, giving a total of $642,000. During the months of May and June, each had a budget of $143,000 giving a total of $429,000. This gives a total budget of $1,500,000. Tactics for Magazines: The MNI networks for the different packages are presented below, with their respective median age, female % and median HHI. It was concluded from the tables that female population played a big role in these magazines. The Ad Size of these magazines was full page, full colors were used to design their pages. According to the budget and calculations, it was concluded that the magazines to be included in the April budget were: Beauty, Style&Design, Family, Healthy Living, Luxury and Entertainment. The magazines to be included in the May and June budget were Beauty, Style&Design, Family and Healthy Living. The Weekly Broadcast TV Expenditures are shown in the table below. Most of the budget goes to the prime day time. For the introductory period (April), the Net budget per week was $53,500 and the Gross budget per week was $62,943. For the Sustaining period (May & June) the Net budget per week was $31,778 and the Gross budget per week was $37,387. April had 36 spots per week, consuming $59,760 from the April gross weekly budget. The sustaining period of May and June had 22 spots per week, consuming a total of $33,200 from the gross weekly