Brand Management
Introduction
Brand management is known to be able to create proper strategies and decision regarding the marketing of the business can grow the brand and increase the product value as well. To achieve this, Lidl must have a positive relationship with their business and the market they have been targeting. Apart from that, the brand must be able to maintain product administration as this allows the organisation to be associated between the business and the consumers, for business. The report shed lights on an international supermarket business, which is called as Lidl. As the brand has its various chains all over the world, it must be able to maintain its brand image. Brand image plays an important role as it will showcase the brand apart from the other competitors. It takes years for any business to be able to achieve a strong and positive brand image in the market.
Branding
The procedure of getting being able to generate as well as distribute a brand name is known to be as branding (Swaminathan et. al., 2020). It branding of Lidl showcases how the company has been progressing and how they differ from other companies in the eye of the public.
Importance of branding as a marketing tool in Lidl and how it has emerged as a business practice
Branding has become an important part of Lidl’s marketing strategy and has assisted the organisation in the following ways:
The loyalty of the brand: By being able to maintain brand loyalty Lidl can build a positive and good relationship with their target consumers, which overall assist the business in increasing their sales (Hupp, J.R., 2019).
Awareness: By ensuring that Lidl is being able to spread their business through promotion and advertising they are being able to showcase their brand to create more awareness towards their consumers.
Quality perception: When customers are being seen purchasing from Lidl, they are already liking the quality of the product as well as have perceived the nature of the product, this is due to the positive branding of the organisation (Johnson, 2017).
Association: Due to good branding, Lidl can attract more organisations and business to collaborate with them, which showcases what an important role branding plays in marketing
Exclusive asset: By having proper maintained intellectual property rights, Lidl is being able to create a beneficial trade partner which would help the company in the long run.
Brand Equity
The brand equity is being referred to as a value that the company generates from its products as well as services. Lidl can create their brand equity by providing, easily recognizable products as well as of superior quality (Steenkamp, 2017).
Brand strategy
Brand strategy is known to be a plan that is being created by the organisation for a long-term purpose to be able to achieve specific goals which would eventually assist the Lidl in being able to meet the need of its consumers
Key components of a successful brand strategy of Lidl
Various components lead to the success of Lidl’s brand strategy as well as their brand equity, one of them is the perception of the consumer and what their past experiences have been regarding the brand. This showcases if people are thinking highly of Lidl, this showcases that Lidl was successful in maintaining positive brand equity through their strategies.
By being able to maintain positive brand equity, Lidl is can add the strategy of increasing their prices which would initially assist the company in increasing their market value, which would initially create more revenue leading to higher profits. The brand equity of a brand is being built by the following three steps (Duffy,brand, 2021) . The first one being that Lidl introduces an advanced product in the market, and keeps launching new products which will allow Lidl to enhance their brand equity. The second step taken by Lidl is, to be able to maintain the quality of their products to ensure that the loyalty of the consumers is with the customers. The last step is that Lidl should be focusing on creating a relationship with their customers along with the brand
Keller’s Brand Equity Model
This model is also known to be as a customer-based equity model which allows a brand like Lidl to be able to build strong brand equity, which eventually makes sure that the organisation is being able to change the perception of the consumers regarding the brand and create a positive brand image in the eyes of the public (Vasileva, and Vasileva, 2017).
Brand identity: The main aim of Lidl is to be able to increase as well as create awareness that their brand is different from the rest of its competitors. Here awareness is being spoken in terms of how the consumers are perceiving the brand and are they perceiving the brand in the right way
Application: Lidl focuses on doing proper research of their brand in the point of view of the consumers.
Brand Meaning: The meaning of the brand showcases how Lidl has been performing in the market as well as the reliability of its products and services. Furthermore, efficiency and price also showcase the meaning of the brand (Duman, Ozbal and Duerod, 2018).
Application: Allowing Lidl to create a separate personality for their brand.
Brand Response: The brand response generally includes quality as well as the superiority of the brand. This kind of features is being judged by the consumers who are following the brand.
Application: Lidl focuses on the areas that they could be improving in the perception of the consumers.
Brand Resonance: This consists of the behaviour as well as the loyalty of the customers regarding the brand. The consumers who are involved are those who are purchasing the products of Lidl and engaging with the brand on a regular purpose.
Application: Making sure that Lidl is being able to provide their consumers with the best offers.
It could be stated that the Lidl has been seen facing many issues as they were not being able to properly understand the nature of their consumers to be able to create their brand accordingly. Furthermore, it has been observed with the numbers of competitors increasing as well as continuous changes in the technological sector, the company has not been able to maintain its sustainability. But it could also be showcased that due to their positive brand equity, Lidl was able to overcome the following challenges allowing them to become a success in their niche industry.
The 3C’s will showcase strategies of brand portfolio:
Price perception of consumers: The following theory showcases that the customers have already a price regarding the product they would be purchasing. After having the prices set, they start looking for the product and their quality in the exact price range they have set.
Quality Perception of customers: The perception of the product is being created when the individual is being satisfied and happy from their purchase (Pinheiro et. al., 2018). To ensure that Lidl is being able to survive in the market, it is necessary that the products are being created according to the quality perception of the consumers.
Competition in the market: To be able to compete in the market, business focus on creating the best marketing strategy to be able to develop and grow their organisation.
The following are the strategies for brand equity:
Communication: The organisation must be being able to maintain proper communication to get investors to solve out legal matters as well as increase their sales to gain brand equity.
Awareness: By creating awareness regarding the products and services, will assist the business in gaining brand equity as a consumer will start remembering the names of the business (Sarker, Mohd-Any and Kamarulzaman, 2019).
Legal and ethical decision making: By following proper legal and ethical laws, will assist the organisation in creating a positive brand image which could directly increase the brand equity of the company.
Some of the brand hierarchy strategies are as followings:
Commercial marking hierarchy strategy: In this method, the organisation uses their brand name to promote their business instead of promoting the products. In Lidl, the company is using its brand name under all the product when it comes to promotion.
Individual branding hierarchy strategy: This strategy is just the opposite in which, the organisation is using the products to promote their business. This allows the organisation to create a unique image towards the product specifically (Misra and Panda, 2017).
Critical analysis of different models
House of brands: When it comes to the house of brands, they focus on a single brand. The example could be Unilever and P&G. All the brands are very independent from each other.
Branded house: This model has become one of the most common forms when it comes to the architecture of the brand. Google and Apple are examples of branded house.
Hybrid: The following model, has gained the elements of the both above models which are the house of brands and the branded house, one of the examples would be Coca-Cola and Amazon.
Lidl has been seen maintaining their brand equity management as well as focusing on evaluating and properly maintaining their brand system which has been very beneficial for Lidl to be able to provide better and good reputation for their brand as well business.
The brand portfolio is one of the most significant parts of the company as it assures that proper maintenance of the brand is being maintained time to time as well as evaluated various factors such as the price and the quality of the products of Lidl. It could be observed that the portfolio of Lidl has helped the organisation in ensuring that proper implantation of the plans is being achieved (Lim, Pham and Heinrichs, 2020).
The followings strategies and suggestions could be used by Lidl to achieve the success of the organisation:
Lidl should be focusing on making a forecast of the demand for the products they have been selling. This will assist Lidl in being aware of the products they should be sold according to the trends going on.
The organisation could also focus on creating a proper marketing strategy that would assist the business in being able to meet the needs and interest of their consumers.
It is also necessary for Lidl to be able to maintain proper product management for the organisation this will assure that any sorts of uncertain situation don’t arise during the phase of marketing.
Proper quality of the products and services should be provided by Lidl to their customers as they are paying a certain price to receive them.
Lidl should stay up to date with the latest technology in their specific industry to be able to implement it in their strategies for the effective working of the business.
Lidl should be increasing their product line containing different price ranges which would be attracting consumers from various classes.
As Lidl has a huge number of competitors in the market, the brand must be able to maintain their position and have a strong foot in the competitive market. Various brand extension, as well as leverage strategies of Lidl, would be studied and analysed The following ways Lidl is being able to achieve and manager their brands at a both domestic as well as in a global level are:
Brand strengths that can be leveraged
By expanding its brand, Lidl is ensuring less risk which overall is cheaper for the organisation. This would allow the brand to be able to increase their success rate and became an established brand (Baumgarth, 2018).
Knowledge of Customer
Having proper knowledge regarding the taste and preferences of the consumers allows Lidl to be able to strengthen their brand. This showcases that the customers are accepting the new products which show the brand extensions is on a positive side.
Low costs
By implying the strategy of low costs, Lidl would be able to easily expand their existing brand instead of launching a new brand from scratch. This strategy would be cheap for Lidl as well as the success rate for this would be much higher compared from starting from scratch.
Loyalty and trust of the customer
If Lidl would continuous be ensuring that they are being able to provide their consumers with good quality of product’s and services this will create loyalty and trust of the consumers towards the brand. This allows Lidl to be able to collaborate both on the domestic as well as global level (Lin, Swarna and Bruning, 2017).
Enhancing the visibility of the brand
By improving their brand visibility as well as enhancing that would be very beneficial for Lidl to strengthen their brand position in the market. This also allows Lidl to be able to reach more consumers.
Collaboration
The process of partnering up with two and more organisation to work towards a particular goal is known to be a collaboration. Lidl has been seen collaborating with the various brand all over the world. The retail brand has collaborated with the red tractor to be able to provide a high quality of fresh meat, fruits and vegetable from the farms of the United Kingdom. Apart from that, the organisation is being seen collaborating with the brand UTZ certified, which works towards providing proper education to the farmers showcasing and spreading knowledge regarding how they can produce a better quality of cocoa in a more effective as well as sustainable way (Benstead, Hendry and Stevenson, 2018). Furthermore, the brand has collaborated with various brands such as RSPCA Assured, Fairtrade, Marine stewardship council, Rainforest alliance, Stronger together, British Retail Consortium, Supplier Ethical data exchange, Amfori business social compliance initiative, Seafood ethics Common Language group, Spanish ethic Trade Forum.
These are the following techniques that could be used by an organisation to be able to extend on a global level as well as on a domestic level
Effective Marketing plan: When it comes to managing the business on another platform, they must be being able to attract more and more customer as this will allow the business to be able to increase the reach and expand on a global level (Brexendorf, and Keller, 2017).
Developing a strong market value: By creating a strong market value, Lidl would be able to achieve a strong position in the market which would allow the organisation to have a competitive edge in the market.
Increasing the interactions with the customers: Lidl needs to be able to understand the advantage of having a higher customer engagement as this will allow the business to be able to improve their interaction session for the organisation.
Social media marketing: By investing their budget into social media marketing, Lidl would be able to increase their customer reach both on a domestic as well as on a global level.
Regular deals and discounts: Another strategy that could be sued by Lidl when it comes to attracting more and more consumer towards their business is by providing when with regular deals as well as discounts (Walsh and Williams,2017).
Brand Value
The value of the brand is based on the amount a company is being able to pay to have the rights to use the companies, identity as well as a logo to be able to promote and sell their products and services in the market.
When it comes to measuring the brand value of Lidl various techniques could be used to measure and manage the value of the brand. When it comes to an international brand such as Lidl, the company must take steps to create a positive brand value (Zéman and Bogdan, 2019).
The following will showcase the evaluation of the techniques that are being used by Lidl:
Impressive product packaging: Lidl uses impressive packaging for its products to attract their consumers to their retail stores. As the consumer is getting more and more aware regarding using friendly environment products, Lidl has focused on creating their packaging in a way that it could be reused by the consumers again. Apart from that their packaging is intended to be creative and Instagram worthy so the young consumer would be attracted to purchase it and upload those pictures.
Promotion on digital media platforms: The organisation has also adopted using promotion as a tool to promote their products on various social media platforms. This has allowed Lidl to be able to increase their customer reach and ensure that the organisation has been able to run effectively and efficiently.
Modifying the products: With the increase of competition and the rise of globalisation, the rate of organisation and the competition in between them has been increasing. Due to this, the consumers are being introduced with a lot of options they could choose from. So Lidl must stay and be able to identify what the consumers are been looking and accordingly modify their products. This will allow the organisation to be able to maintain loyalty as well as a positive brand image (Guzmán and Davis, 2017).
The brand value acts as an important tool for the Lidl to be able to attract more and more investors to make some investments in their business apart from that it also allows the organisation to be able to increase their business and is being used as a powerful tool. The evaluation of the techniques could be achieved from the following techniques:
Market – based Evaluation: This method assists the organisation in understanding the current value of Lidl among the competitors in the same sector. The more proper understanding Lidl would be having about its own company, brand and their value of the stocks and the other things which are related towards it. As this will allow Lidl to be able to manage and expand by fulfilling the market requirement for the organisation.
Assets perspective evaluation: When it comes to the evaluation of its assets, Lidl must be able to evaluate both its tangible as well as tactical assets. This will allow the brand to achieve the exact calculation regarding their brand value. By being able to know what their exact brand value is, Lidl would be able to create strategies accordingly to increase its value in the market. It could be observed that the more the value of the brand, the more the brand would be able to compete easily in the competitive business world (Grace, Ross and King, 2020).
Customer perspective evaluation: This method focuses on understanding what the perspective of the customers is regarding the products as well as services that are being provided by Lidl. This also showcases how loyal and how much faith the consumers have towards the brand and their products. The evaluation is being done by understanding the following factor which allows the organisation to be able to understand the current needs and wants of the consumers and where the organisation stands in the marker accordingly.
The branding of Lidl is not only, their tagline, business cards as well the logo, it also focuses on creating a strong brand position of the business, bringing out a unique personally different from kits competitors and partnering up with other brands in the same training (Rather and Camilleri, 2019).
The above following things are being included in the brand management of Lidl. This allows the organisation to be able to create the value of the brand and even gain loyal customers, apart from that it also allows motivating the employees. Lidl needs to also focus on planning out their financial budget which will assist the organisation in creating better marketing and branding strategies.
To conclude, the following report showcases what an important role brand management play for organisations, especially when it comes to expanding on the domestic as well as global level. Various methods and strategies where being discussed that could be followed by Lidl. The more the company would grow and expand, the more significant it becomes for the business to be able to measure its brand value. The strategies and techniques would be helpful for Lidl, in ensuring that the business is being able to operate effectively and efficiently as well as is being able to maintain a positive relationship between the organisation and the consumers for the long-term growth of the organisation.
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