Brand Management

Types of Brand: Part 1

There are, in fact, many different types of brands each with its own recognisable features. The following characterises the essential features:

A Premium Brand - Compared with other products in the same category, the price is pitched at a premium. The age group that is identified more than any other with premium brands is that of the 30-65 grouping. Furthermore, this age sector continues to increase in its receptiveness.

An Economy Brand – This is a brand that is targeted, which means that it is focusing on a specific market rather than following the marketing strategy of mass marketing, to a high price elasticity market segment. The price elasticity of demand is a measure of how the quantity demanded is affected by changes in price. It is measured as elasticity. Water is an example of a product that has inelastic demand in that people will pay anything for it. Conversely, sugar is very elastic since, as the price of sugar increases, people will turn to other products, such as saccharin, which are treated as sugar substitutes.

A Fighting Brand - It is a brand that is created specifically to act as a challenge against the threat from a competitive product. A typical example is a low-priced manufacturer’s brand sold with the minimum amount of advertising. This brand is designed to compete with the dealers' brands.

Corporate Branding - This refers to a company that uses its own name as the designated name to be used on a product brand. This means that the product and the company name become the brand name. An excellent example is the drink Coca Cola.

Family Branding – It involves selling a number of products, which are related to each other in some way, under one brand name. It differs from individual branding whereby each product is given an individual brand name. Product quality is an important facet. Should one product within the range prove unsatisfactory, it could reduce sales of all the others. This feature figures prominently in Family Branding.

Individual Branding – When all a company's products are given their own individual brand names. Each product has its own image and identity, and it is this that constitutes the added value. A case in point is that of Coca-Cola and Bacardi Mixers. They both have their own brand name, and so can be identified individually, but are owned and marketed by the Coca-Cola Co.

Brand Leveraging – A company can use the brand equity inherent in an existing brand name in order to introduce a new product or product line. Hence, consider the case of an existing range of products. Should another product be added and it was found that this was of better quality than the other products in the range. This would be characterised as trading up or brand leveraging.

Co-Branding – This involves at least two brands working in association with each other in order to market their products. Ingredient co-branding is a particular form of co-branding. Examples include:

Betty Crocker’s brownie mix contains Hershey’s chocolate syrup

Dell Computers are built with Intel Processors

Pillsbury Brownies are made with Nestle Chocolate

Branding – How To Succeed