Current Affairs Banking

Category : Banking

Branding and Packaging

Brand Brand is a name, term, symbol, design, or a combination of these which is intended to differentiate the goods of a company from competitors' goods.

Branding: It is the practice of creating a unique name for a product and giving marketing support to that name. He has to decide whether the firm?s product will be marketed under a brand name or a generic name. Generic name refers to the name of the whole class of the product. For example a soap, a camera, etc.

When products were sold by generic names, it was very difficult for the marketers to distinguish their products from that of their competitors'. Thus most marketers give a name to their products, which helps in identifying and distinguishing their products, which helps in identifying and distinguishing their products from the competitors' products. This process of giving a name or a sign or a symbol is called Branding.

Brand Name: The pronounceable part of a Brand is called Brand Name Brand Name is the verbal component of Brand. For example?Lux, Grainier Raymond?s, TOYOTA motors etc.

Brand Mark. Brand mark or logo is the distinctive color, letter/ symbol, alphabet, which is used for the brand.

Brand Loyalty: Brand loyalty or customer loyalty is that state in which customer buys a brand not only because of habit, but also due to a preference or liking towards that brand. Habit combined with favorable attitude called loyalty. A strong loyal customer finds it very difficult to switch over to another brand and considers his chosen brand as much more superior. Although in reality there can be presence of similar an even better brands in the market.

Product Line: Product line is a group of related items which are aimed at the same target customers or which are in a common price range or which are distributed through the same network and which satisfy a common need. For example ? a range of Raymond?s cloth is a product line at it satisfies on need for different market segments. Similarly, a group of cosmetic is a product line as it satisfies different but inflated needs of one market segment say rich urban women. Thus product line is a group of products that are closely related either because they satisfy a class of need are used together 11 °] are sold to the same customer groups are marketed through the same type of outlets or fall within given price range

Product Mix: Product mix is the collection of all product items that are offered for sale by a company, also it is the sum total or composite of

1.             All product that are manufactured and sold by a company. The product mix of a company can consist of one, two or more product lines.

For example -the product mix of Hindustan Machine Tools includes a diverse range of products. Such as watches, machine tools, tractors, printing machinery and electric lamps.

Brand Awareness: It is a measure of how quickly and how well people can recall a brand immediately after the product class that is mentioned. It indicates top of mind awareness of a brand that is why particular brand is on top of mind of the customer?

Brand Cannibalization: When a Company introduces new brand aimed at the same market it may happen that instead of capturing new markets, the new brand may end up competing directly with each other. In other words, they may eat up the sales of existing brands of the same company. Companies normally avoid such a practice except when a deliberate attempt is made to phase out or eliminate an existing brand.

Advantages of Branding

(i) Brands make customers more efficient. Generally people the market with specific brand name in their shopping list thus minimizing unnecessary wastage of time.

(ii) Customers can identify the quality difference between products and purchase intelligence.

(iii) Customers are assured of good and consistent quality product because branding requires maintaining a consistent quality of output.

Packaging

It is the art of packing goods in attractive and efficient container. It refers ' to the activities of designing and producing the container or wrapper of the product. Packaging is the use of containers and wrapping mat

Plus decoration and labeling to protect the product to help and promote its sale and to make it convenient for the customer to use the product.

Objectives of Packaging

(i)         Physical Protection

(ii)         Barrier Protection                                              

(iii)        Containment or agglomeration

(iv)        Information transmission

(v)        Marketing                                                 

(vi)        Security

(vii)       Convenience

Attributes of a good Packaging:

(i)         It should be attractive.

(ii)         It should be cost effective.

(iii)        It should be convenient to handle store etc.

(iv)        It should be safe to handle.   

(v)        It should project a favorable image of the Company.

(vii)       It should communicate the product benefits, tell the product story.

(vii)       In case of consumer goods, it should be play the role of silent salesman.

(viii)      It should build consumer confidence by giving a clean and health look.

(ix)        It should not be misleading in composition and information etc.

(x)        It should facilitate product differentiation.

(xi)        It should be strong enough to handling by the middleman. It should stand up under normal condition able to tolerate moisture, temperatures, and humidity etc. labeling provides written information about the product. It serves the purpose of indicating the contents, weight or measures, instructions for use rice, name of the producer, date of expiry and manufacture etc.