Branding as a Tool for Marketing

Introduction

My presentation is based on branding as a business tool for marketing. The presentation will provide the concept of brand based on the strategies, importance, and influence of branding and to the consumers and towards the end provide a case study of McDonald’s Company for the case study of branding.

Firstly, Hill (2002, p. 79) defined brand as a symbol or a name that businesses use in order to identify their products and use them to separate from the competitors. He further argues that brand development forms a foundational piece of the business marketing communication industries cannot do without.

Reasonably, speaking, there are numerous brand types that may either represent a corporate or personal brand. We must note that in the current globalization and technology driven world, branding has become increasingly significant than over the previous decades.

My research on business branding features the collection of science and psychology to form a premise mark as opposed to a trademark. The brands of the business convey the information of credibility, uniform quality, and experience of the business.

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Brands have life cycles, valuable and outlive the products. Today, numerous companies invest the value of the business in their brand and it has appeared in their balance sheet. The world has become online and numerous markets are growing across nations that have seen the consumers use brands in their purchases.

The importance of brands is, therefore;

• Assisting in the identification of the business. The business that uses branding can clearly be seen, quickly identify and sought after-products.
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• Branding allows time and energy saving through practicality through loyalty and identical purchasing.
• The customer is guaranteed of finding the same quality irrespective of time and place of buying the product
• Branding provides common self-image that is presentable to others
• It allows for satisfaction brought through intimacy and familiarity with the brand that the consumers have using for years.
• Branding provides ethical standards in business due to satisfaction linked to the responsible brand behavior in its societal relationships.

Branding Strategy

This refers that firms mix and match the name of their brand and the products they offer. The degree of synergy between the product brand and the corporate brand depends on the architecture of the brand (Hill 2002, p. 124). I found the following brand strategies as identified by scholars;

• Corporate and individual branding
• House of brand and brand house, including sub-brands and endorsed brands
• Weak endorsement, no endorsement, strong endorsement, and medium endorsement.
• Delineated three types of brand strategy, continuum monolithic strategy, branded strategy, and endorsed brand strategy.
• Endorsement brand strategy, token endorsement, and weak endorsement.

Influence of Branding to Consumers and Business

The legally protected brands are significantly important in the modern marketing. Branding has several influences on the business and the customers. Firstly, branding brings psychological effect that affect the consumers by urging them to choose a specific product over the other based on perception rather than hard facts. I read from the work of Hill (2002, p. 143) that indicated that brands can automatically activate the goals of purchase in individuals without conscious or awareness intent. Likewise, Hill (2002, p. 143) further writes that brands offer promise of performance by the business by assuring the customers of the quality, safety, and other ethical obligations of the product. Further, it is indicated that the socio-culturally based brands present the role of brands through research. Brand satisfaction is a good reason for a customer to choose a specific product over the other.

Case Study of McDonald’s Branding Success

The case study I used was a well-known industry across the globe. With the globalization era, currently; it is easier for brands to show their presence globally in various cultures. Reading from Hill (2002), business operation in a foreign cultural atmosphere comes with changes in the strategies of the business, advertising, functioning and branding campaign. A case study of the McDonald’s different marketing strategies can best exemplify the global marketing strategy.

The company originated in the U.S. in 1940 as a street restaurant and currently serves in 199 countries across the globe. According to Kulkarni, Lassar, Sridhar and Venkitachalam (2009, p. 12) the company’s brand is supported by a highly successful brand campaigns.  In each of all the branding campaigns of the McDonald’s Company, it has prioritized on social values of the target audience that has made functioning as a resilient possible. The comparison of the branding campaign in two completely economically and culturally diverse countries, India and Australia, shows the company’s effective resilience.

My investigations reveal that the company ventured in India in 1996 and in Australia in 1971, but there exists a considerable gap in chronology. It is understood that the company adopted the dissimilar marketing strategies using similar brand values that were quality, service, cleanliness and value (QSC & V). Using this strategy, the company excelled in both the markets in a way that the societies never thought that it was an American brand. The reasons for brand success of the case study company were, perhaps, numerous (Encyclopedia of global brands 2013, p. 677). However, excellent market research tops the list.

The ever-growing process of market research has assisted the marketers to analyze the environment of marketing and define the marketing strategies and product-market fit. Through market research, Light, Kiddon, Till, Heckler, Mathews, Wacker, Brunner, Emery and Hall, (2012, p. 67), writes the company realized the obligation to involve in the local culture. Social marketing, according to McDonald’s (2013, p. 221) assisted the company develop the socially accepted product and satisfies the customer needs better than that of the competitors. Currently, the company runs 780 outlets in Australia and 300 outlets in India. Therefore, the best achievement of the company is through its branding that successfully transformed itself into the local image and fulfilled the brand promises. The people believed in QSC & V that was fulfilled and the TV campaigns often focused on customer relationships.

References

Encyclopedia of Global Brands. (2013). vol. 2, K-Z,   2^nd edn, St. James Press, pp. 675-680

Hill, C. W. L. (2002). International business competing in the global marketplace. New York, McGraw-Hill Irwin.

KonečNik Ruzzier, M., & Ruzzier, M. (2007). From marketing to image, to branding. IV Seminari Internacional D'Innovació I Turisme "Turisme & Branding: La Clau Per Al Desenvolupament Turístic", Palma De Mallorca, 26, 27 I 28 Setembre 2007.

Kulkarni, S, Lassar W, Sridhar C & Venkitachalam A. (2009). McDonald‟s OngoingMarketing Challenges and Social Perception in India‟, Online Journal of International Case Analysis, vol. 1, Issue 2, last viewed 23 Sept 2013, 11.

Light, L., Kiddon, J., Till, B., Heckler, D., Mathews, R., Wacker, W., Brunner, R., Emery, S., & Hall, R. (2012). Branding strategies for success. [Upper Saddle River, NJ], FT Press.