Brand Management of Marks and Spencer

BBrand Management

INTRODUCTION

The development of loyalty and trust among the clients can be attained with brand management that is the combination of intangible and tangible goods and facilities. It has been found that companies with a strong brand name possess the highest market growth and market share. The report is emphasized on the procedure of understanding the concepts of brand management and its formation. M&S is a public limited organization that has been operating in the retail industry. The British retailer is headquartered in London, UK, and serving from 1463 locations present worldwide. There are over 80,000 staff members that are helping the company in the revenue generation of £10,181.9 million.

Task 1: LO1

IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING AS A MARKETING TOOL

In the role of the marketing consultant of Marks and Spencer in this part, the development of the brand name has been explained for dealing with the problems. The significance of branding with the implication of several marketing concepts has been described.

Brand

It can be defined as the recognition of the goods and facilities as per its values is called a brand. In current times there are lots of goods and facilities that are provided in the market and each of them is branded in the relation of the quantity and quality (Ritch, 2018). Trust and loyalty have been developed by the brand name of each goods and services although it all is dependent on the practices such as the marketing and promotion of the goods AND services through the different channels.

BRAND VS PRODUCT:

A product can be identified as the item that has been sold by the organization to gain more profits. While the feature of the goods and services are represented by the entity known as the brand (Wilson, 2016). These are characteristics that are used by the consumers for differentiating them from the other products of the competitors.

BRAND EQUITY:

The overall worth of the brand is portrayed by brand equity as an individual asset. It is also reflected according to the perspective of the clients for the brands. A brand can also be defined as the intangible asset whose impact is also the recorded n the financial books of the organization such as the prices, profitability, and market share.

Emerged in business practices

The uniqueness of the products and services of marks and Spencer is maintained as the business model is based on providing different products all across the world. Branding of the products is not only essential for targeting the customers but for the development of the emotional connection and raising the credibility of the brand in the marketplace (Jin et al.,2018). The success of the branding or the marks and Spencer is highly dependent on meeting the requirements of the customers. This can be done by implying approaches for defining, researching, and building the brand name.

Marketing plan strategy can be created by Marks & Spencer if the brand objectives are aligned with business allowing a clear understanding for the customers and alignment of the different objectives. Therefore, brand building can be accomplished with the implication of the steps that are given below:

• To form the target market of Marks and Spencer and assess the requirements of the consumers that add to the brand value of the organization.

• To evaluate the area in which the brand valued are to be developed.

• To identify the rivalries and their goods and perceptions of the brand among the consumers.

• To assure that the brand value facilitates the satisfaction of the consumers.

• To examine the needed changes in the organization according to the rivalries portfolio.

The brand image of Marks and Spencer facilitates a competitive edge not only domestic market but also in the global market (Pande and Gupta, 2020). Nowadays the organization can't sell its goods without proper marketing and brand management. The brand cannot be built without the right marketing strategies.

In this part, the concepts of the branding that are implied by Marks and Spencer and to be followed for the management of the brand value has been described. Brand loyalty theory that explains the psychological relationship of the customers with Marks and Spencer is the positive technique that has been adopted by the company. It is categorized into three components that can be because of the emotional attachment, behavioural, and evaluation aspect.

KEY COMPONENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL BRAND STRATEGY FOR BUILDING AND MANAGING BRAND EQUITY

The role of brand equity has been analysed as an important one and there are three steps to boost up the brand identity, these could be identified as introducing, elaborating and supporting (Keller and Brexendorf, 2019).

Introducing: This involves introducing the new product into the market also to encourage the name of the company in the market, this is because the trends continuously change and so does the customers demand. For example, M&S does this by keeping aware of web traffic and customers perceptions (Keller and Brexendorf, 2019).

Elaborating: This is to keep the clear acknowledgment about the product to the customers and making them stay loyal to the company.

Supporting: This relates with building stronger and smooth relations with the customers of the company to engage in better brand loyalty (Keller and Brexendorf, 2019). For example, M&S does this by providing the loyal customer a special coupon card for discount on their purchases.

The leading brands such as Marks and Spencer are recognized all across the world not only in the UK. Its value has also been noted in the balance sheets of the organization (Le Thuy and Oe, 2020). It is a part of the strategic decision of Marks and Spencer when an amount of the goodwill or the premium purchase to paid to the brands. Marks and Spencer follow the model of capitalizing over the total value paid for the goods and services. As per the AMA, definition branding can be identified as the name, term, symbol, name, or any other characteristic that facilitated the recognition of the goods and facilities that are differing from the several sellers. The main elements for the development of the successful brand approach at Marks and Spencer have been given below:

Public Relations:

The reputation of Marks and Spencer is enhanced with strong public relations. This is maintained through various channels like leadership promotion, corporate news, and other kinds of content that assist in the achievement of the organizational objectives (Bernon, 2018).

Digital Marketing:

The marketing principles can be implemented by the organization for promoting the brand value and strategy. therefore it becomes essential to develop the resource sand contents like the leadership content, blogs, and white papers that are utilized at Marks Spencer by the professionals.

Search Engine Optimization:

Another element for the development of the brand strategy is SEO that consists of providing the higher quality of the content and providing the authority to most search engines. It helps in finding the website of the company more easily.

Task 2: LO2

BRAND HIERARCHY

Source: (Misra and Panda, 2017)

Corporate brand: This is for persuading the name of the brand in the products, this is used by M&S to create the effective recognition of the brand and to build a effective recognition of the company in the minds of the customers (Misra and Panda, 2017).

Family brand: This is done from clarifying the customers that the company has varieties in marketing the product for example M&S has variety of product range but under the name of the company such as men, women and children.

Individual brand: This involves every product holding a unique identity to be sold and every product is specials in its own self (Misra and Panda, 2017).

Modifiers: This is to create clear differences in the models and the types of products such as differentiating the family products from those which are unique and special in their own identity.

DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

These approaches emphasize the framework of scheduling and administration of the brand. The umbrella structure can be referred to while describing the portfolio as different categories of the products are provided by the company in the market while catering to the requirements of the customers.

The brand portfolio is developed as every brand has limitations because of which they are unable to meet every requirement of the customers (Mete and Davies, 2017). Therefore the brands have to keep the records of the brands along with the formulation of suitable policies so that the present resource can be allocated as pert the requirements of the brand. For attaining success in the long term the organizations such as Apple, Starbucks, Unilever, Airbnb, Marks & Spencer the brand portfolio must be developed.

DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF BRAND HIERARCHY

Brand hierarchy is considered as the building block for a successful strategy. it emphasizes the customer's satisfaction and the goals of the organization (Leite, 2020). The marketing theory states that brand property, brand house, and hybrid are three kinds of the brand hierarchy of more. The portfolio in which the portfolios of the company are reflected in the different name falls under the category of the brand house model. This model is utilized by several organizations such as Nestle and P & G and other organizations (Rashid, M.D., 2016). In the branded property model the single brand is included in all the different categories like the Virgin Group, Harley-Davidson. Both the previous strategies are includes in the hybrid model that are utilized by the many multinational organization.

DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF BRAND EQUITY MANAGEMENT

The customer's preferences and perceptions are the basis on which the brand equity of the organization is determined. It includes the sources of the framework and brand equity that allows the regulation of the organization. The dissimilarities in the perception of the clients for several goods are vital for branding. The model of brand equity was developed by David Aeker and Kelvin lane Keller (Goffin, 2017). According to this model, brand equity stands for the overall liabilities and assets of the brand that are either increased or declined in the value of the goods and services of that brand. It can be clearly understood that brand equity is the worth of the brand that is dependent on the experience, awareness, and perception among the consumers related to the brand for a longer period.

TASK 3: LO3

TYPES OF METHODS FOR MEASURING AND MANAGING BRAND VALUE AND THEIR APPLICATION

BRAND VALUE

The term brand value determines the importance of the company and is the evaluation of the money, which is analysed after he brand is sold. This is essential and important to build up a strong and bold reputation of the company in the market as it helps the firm to stay competitive in the market (Zerfass et al., 2017). M&S initiates various techniques to measure the brand value for example M&S does this by identifying the financial output and the sales as to maintain the brand image.

BRAND AWARENESS

This is the step with which the consumers are made aware and known about the products of the company and this traits is used by the companies to promote themselves in the market. M&S is the company, which is known for the quality of the products, and there are various measures of the through which the company performs this (Kamboj et al., 2018):

Focused groups and surveys: M&S manages the survey from the focused group people as to attain as to keep the company aware of what their customers think and make their services better.

Web traffic: This the availability of the company on the online portal whereby the company could receive the feedbacks from the customers and encourage M&S performance strategy. For example with the help of direct traffic M&S identified what their customers are preferring (Kamboj et al., 2018).

CONSUMER SATISFACTION

M&S to expand the productivity of the company manages the delivery and satisfaction of the customers with the help of official app or via surveys. This helps the company to apply the improvements in the departments or in the services wherever required. There are various measurement of customer’s attitudes in M&S (Zerfass et al., 2017):

Function of utilitarian: This method is to enhance the engagement of the customer to purchase the particular product and satisfy the needs of the customers. As an example M&S customers will purchase its products then only when they are completely aware about it.

Function of expressing values: This is based on the customers behaviour and depend on their attitude of buying the products, this is majorly for those customers who buys the products so that their identify socially does not get affected (Kamboj et al., 2018).

CONCLUSION

In this report, detailed knowledge of insights on the brand management of Marks and Spencer is provided. Management of brand is considered as the most essential marketing technique which is useful for generating awareness and influences the consumers. Here, Marks and Spencer were taken as the organization to understand the brand value management and portfolio along with the structure of the brand of the company. Several brand equity models are implemented for determining the brand equity of the organization and for managing the brand hierarchy, its impacts, and several approaches are taken into consideration. Apart from this, for measuring the brand value various methods and approaches are executed in the Marks and Spencer Company.

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