Date: 24th November, 2006
Mr. Krishnankutty – GM, Sales and Marketing, Chandra Hyundai
Mr. M.S Krishnankutty, GM, Sales and Marketing, Chandra Hyundai, conducted an interactive session with the ASB students on Nov 24, 2006. The talk which was about branding was highly informative and engrossing. He started the talk by introducing the concept of what branding means in the actual sense by stating the example of the Kingfisher brand to illustrate how the name of a bird became the brand name for many products.
He continued the talk by listing and defining the ABC’s of branding. Some examples are brand awareness, which is the knowledge about the brand that people posses. Brand audit refers to the process of evaluation of the brand. Brand attributes are the special characteristics associated with the brand. Brand equity is the special value that the customer is willing to pay for the brand.
Brand extension is the extension of the brand in the market through by adding other products.
Brand identity is the uniqueness of the brand in terms of its attributes. Brand image is the special image in the minds of the customers that the brand has created for itself. Brand loyalty is the attachment that the customers have towards the brand. The brand loyalty is divided into brand preference and brand insistence. Brand preference is where the customers prefer one brand to the other, in the case of absence of the required brand. Brand personality refers to the special features of the brand. Brand value proposition refers to the extra features or the extra value that the brand promises or owes to its customers.
Every product has a product life cycle that consists of introduction, growth, maturity, saturation and decline. The cycle is controlled by the process of brand management. This process begins with creating awareness about the brand, then creating preference for the brand in the minds of the customers so that they thoroughly understand the importance of the brand and its features. Later the final success lies in the customer insisting only on that particular brand. The brand positioning is the concept of positioning the brand correctly in the minds of the customers so that they understand the features of the brand and use it effectively. The ultimate purpose of brand positioning is to increase the market share of the company. This also helps in developing long term relationships with the customers. For example Coca Cola introduced the mini bottle at Rs.5/- to achieve penetration in the rural market.
To brand a product it is necessary to
• Differentiate
• Have innovative ideas
• Think differently
• Think fast
• Change the market before someone else brings about a change.
Thus at the end of the colloquium we had acquired a broad picture about the concept of branding and its power in the modern world to attain an increased market share.
S. DINESH
1st year MBA
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