First national bank case study

Advertising professionals work on branding not only to build brand recognition, but also to build good reputations and a set of standards to which the company should strive to maintain or surpass. Branding is an important part of Internet commerce, as branding allows companies to build their reputations as well as expand beyond the original product and service, and add to the revenue generated by the original brand. When working on branding, or building a brand, companies that are using web pages and search engine optimization have a few details to work out before being able to build a successful brand.

Coordinating domain names and brand names are an important part of finding and keeping visitors and clients, as well as ranging a new company. Coordination of a domain name and brand names lends identification to the idea or image of a specific product or service, which in turn lets visitors easily discovery the new brand. Branding is also a way to build an important company asset, which is a good reputation. Whether a company has no reputation, or a less than stellar reputation, branding can help change that.

Branding can build an expectation about the company services or products, and can encourage the company to maintain that expectation, or exceed them, bringing better products and services to the market place.

1. Audit: commodity, products, company, brand? Differentiates between a brand and a commodity by stating that “Branding is associated with added costs in the form of marketing, labeling, packaging and promotion. Commodities are ‘unbranded’ or undifferentiated products. Distinguish the difference between a product and a brand, by saying, that a product “is anything that meets the functional [tangible] needs of customers”.

In this context, one can say that a commodity represents basic, unbranded products such as Steel or other raw materials. However, products represent the next level, in this case it is automobiles.

As a result, the brand level, which has intangible benefits, is represented by a particular brand in the automobile industry. However, Audit is a company brand which means, that the “name of the company identifies the brand”. This view is supported by Seafarer (2004, p. 5) and Loins (2008, p. 52) who both state that the corporate name is used at the same time as the name of the brand.

Elliott and Percy (2007) add, that “positioning establishes the link in the consumer’s mind between the brand and category need, why you want the product”.

De Cornerstone (2006) defines three characteristics of a brand positioning strategy: 1 . The strategy should be centered on the brands’ attributes. 2. Positioning is about influencing the consumer’s perceptions, not about the development of a brand. 3. The positioning strategy should focus the consumers’ values and expectations of a brand, not the attributes valued by the company itself.

However, these characteristics neglect the competition as an important factor in positioning a brand.

Major competitors and their brands’ attributes and values need to be identified in order to offer distinctive advantages. In addition to this, Seafarer (2004, p. 100) determines four questions in order to be able to position a brand. These questions are concerned with the brand promise and he consumer benefit, the target groups, the occasion when the product will be consumed and the definition of the major competitors. This approach represents the way of proceeding in order to positioning a brand as it considers the consumers as well as the competitors.

Both of the aforementioned approaches by De Cornerstone (2006) and Seafarer (2004) do not consider all of the attributes of a product or brand. Nevertheless, it is of outstanding importance to choose only one or two benefits of a product which can be transferred through a positioning statement. Choosing too many messages can infuse consumers, and as a result, prevents them from buying the product. However, as mentioned in section 1. 1 a brand consists of identification and differentiation.

Therefore, it is vital to position a brand by identifying its attributes and differentiating it from the competition.

Elliott and Percy (2007) define a format of a positioning statement as follows: “(Name) is the brand for (target audience) that satisfies (category need) by offering (brand benefit)”. As ten autumns assert, Tort ten target announce ten Drain “castles winy teen need It, provides a motivating reason for considering it, communicates the optimum benefit ND is consistent with category motivating behavior”. This concludes that a Positioning Statement consists of communicated benefits and the resulting motivation for a customer to purchase the product. 2.

2.

Positioning statement of AUDIT Audio’s positioning statement could be defined as follows: Audit is the fastest growing luxury brand not only in volumes but in aspiration. It is a young-at-heart’ brand and we are clear that our product strategy should have substance and stay ahead of competition. This statement represents the characteristics of the brand Audit. It is a brand which targets nearly every segment Seibel by offering cars in every price-range and for every possible use (See Appendix 1). When Audit supports the targeting of every segment and is congruent with the company’s mission.

Furthermore, Audit is known as a reliable and high- quality vehicle manufacturer, and is also known for durability, reasonable prices and good trade-in value (Seafarer, 2004). 2. 2. 1 . Positioning statement in comparison with competition In order to compare Audio’s positioning strategy with the competition, the main competitor, BMW will be analyses. The positioning of BMW describe as Uniqueness through diversity, Leadership, taking Risk, courteous, This statement embodies the spirit of the constant innovation of the company.

It lends the associations of quality and technological capability to the brand. Session statement is “To become most successful premium manufacturer in the car industry”. The BMW brand stands for one thing: sheer driving pleasure. Sporting and dynamic performance combined with superb design and exclusive quality.. Based on this information, BMW positioning statement can be described as follows: “The mission statement up to the year 2020 is clearly defined: the BMW Group is the oral’s leading provider of premium products and premium services for individual mobility.

” The German Audit and BMW are in a battle for world leadership in Indian industry.

Audit places particular emphasis on the high price range which attracts consumers from nearly every sector, and supports this by stating that the company’s cars are reliable, secure and off high quality. In comparison to this, BMW Group fundamentally believes that sustainable mobility should support quality of life and economic prosperity while, at the same time, minimizing any potential damage to the environment. This section looks at how BMW Group takes responsibility for the environment Ana recognizes ten Importance AT sustainability.

Dual Ana B disagree with each other. Nevertheless, according to Seafarer (2004), positioning does not clearly represent all of the benefits and values of the brand, and it is particularly difficult to differentiate between one positioning statement and the other, especially in this case, when the same product is offered.

3. Audit- Brand Analysis This section emphasizes and critically analyses theoretical concepts which can be used to analyses consumer and stakeholder perceptions such as brand identity, brand mage, brand equity and brand personality.

These concepts will be applied to the brand Audit. For the purpose of clarity: the primary research necessary for this chapter was conducted through social network site, The results will be evaluated in the following sections and presented in the brand pyramid. 3.

1. Brand equity The term brand equity can be defined as “a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to the brand, its name and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to firm or to the firm’s customers” (Asker, 1991, quoted in Hellholes, 2008).

These liabilities can be divided into five categories: . Brand loyalty 2. Brand awareness 3.

Perceived quality 4. Brand associations 5. Other proprietary brand assets In this context, Hellholes (2008) adds, that equity can be seen as the premium a customer would pay for the branded product in comparison to an identical, unbranded product. This suggests that brand equity is an additional source of revenue for a company. In the case of Audit, a consumer buys a car with a well-known, reputable name on it.

The question is: Would you buy exactly the same car without the branding “Audit” on it? Imagine, you can choose between these two cars (See Questionnaire – appendix) a happily Audit car for RSI. : 21/30 (70%) exactly the same car from an unknown manufacturer for RSI. 26,70,000: 9/30 (30%) This result suggests that people rather buy a car with a name on it, in this case Audit, than buying a car without a name on it, even if it is exactly the same car. The price difference of RSI. 42,OHO can be seen as an added source of revenue, because this is what people pay for the brand.

Audit is the oldest car manufacturers, and because it Is a German car, It Is a Key source AT Drain equally People pay Tort ten Drain In order to be assured, that they bought the right car. Two of the divided characteristics of brand equity by Akers (1991, quoted in Hellholes, 2008,) can be transferred to the Audit brand: Did you ever buy a Audit? If yes, would you buy another one? (See Questionnaire) Yes: 26/30 No: 2/30 Not sure: 2/30 Brand loyalty 0 People buy Audit cars and stay loyal to the brand (86,6%). Do you know Audit? (See Questionnaire) yes: 30/30 (100%) No: 0/30 (0%) Brand awareness 0 People are aware of the brand (100%). . 2.

Brand Identity De Cornerstone (2006) defines Brand identity as “the distinctive or central idea of a brand and how the brand communicates this idea to its stakeholders. In addition to this, Seafarer (2004) states, that a brand identity “is the common element sending a single message amid the wide variety of its products, actions and communications. ” This is congruent with the aforementioned basic characteristics of a brand: differentiation and identification. These definitions suggest that the brand identity is developed by the company and not by the consumers.

According to De Cornerstone (2006), the following diagram will help managers to reinforce a meaning behind a brand. This suggests, that there are many bodies inside a company contributing to he establishment of a brand identity, and that all these components need to work closely together, in order to achieve the desired identification.

Figure 3 – The components of brand identity (De Cornerstone, 2006) In the case of Audit, it is hard to conduct primary research on this topic, because Drain lea TTY develops Trot ten Internal coolness AT a company.

However, ten researcher is of the opinion, that the aforementioned positioning statement is deeply related to the brand identity. In order to see if the customer’s perceptions agree with the brand identity, a comparison between the brand identity and the brand image ill be evaluated in the next section. 3. 3.

Brand image Seafarer (2004) and De Cornerstone (2006) both describe a brand image as, a set of attributes and messages of a brand perceived by an individual. These different messages can consist of the brand name, symbols, advertisements or even personal experiences of the brand.

This suggests that a brand image is consumer-orientated and brand identity is company-orientated. However, as De Cornerstone (2006) states: “It is unlikely for two people to have the same image of a brand, but their images may have common features”. Audit identifies itself globally.

This brand identity represents the attributes and values the brand stands for, which were mentioned earlier in the positioning statement. But how do the consumers perceive this identity? The first question of the questionnaire were: What comes into your mind when you think of Audit? See Questionnaire) reliable: 28/30 participants high quality: 29/30 participants (96,6%) comfort: 22/30 participants expensive: 18/30 participants (60%) good service: 23/30 participants (76,6%) others: 9/30 participants (30%) These results reveal that people associate Audit with reliability and high quality, which is congruent with the aforementioned positioning statement, and the identity of Audit. The price image is balanced, as Audit is not considered to be expensive or cheap. Overall, one can say, that the people trust Audit and that the true identity of the company is appreciated by the consumers.

However, this is Just a small scale analysis, which does not necessarily represent all people and can therefore not be generalized.

3. 4. Brand personality De Cornerstone (2006) states that “Brand Personality focuses on what the brand says about the consumer and how they feel being associated with it”. In addition, Seafarer (2004) states that “the way [a brand] speaks of its products or services shows what kind of person it would be if it were human”. This suggests that brand personality can De seen as a reenacted AT ten personality Ana Testily AT ten consumer.