(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Brands as Firewalls Dr. P K Sinha Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad July 5, 2003

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Structure What are brands? What builds brands? How are they built? Do they give a competitive advantage? What are the dangers of a large brand? How do we protect the brand?

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 What are brands? Names Symbols Insignia Images Personalities Identities

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 What Builds Brands? Promises kept consistently in terms of: –The product –The price –The delivery mechanism –The communication

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 How to build a brand? Define Unique/different Value Proposition Find out the Enablers and Deterrents in the Environment Find out what it takes to deliver the Value Proposition PriceDistributionCommunication Service Product Assess in terms of experience of buying, usage and disposal

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Therefore Brands are experiences and reside in the mind of the customers Popular Sayings: Companies Own Products, but brands are owned by the customers and Advertisements do not build brands, they may create awareness of a brand name (Iridium)

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Brand Ladder Commodity Brand Product Differentiation/ Competitive Advantage Intangibility

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Value Ladder Attributes Functional Values Benefits Differentiation/ Competitive Advantage Intangibility Emotional Values

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Do they give Competitive Advantage? Benefits to the Customers –Interpretation and processing of information –Confidence in Purchase Decision –Use satisfaction Benefits to the Companies –Better Efficiency of marketing resources –Extensions –Trade Leverage –Better price / margins –Social Status Competitive Advantage: Market Share, Profitability, Better Employees, Other Intangible Benefits

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Dangers of Branding Copying / Imitation –Opportunities Explode/ Likely to explode –First mover advantage –Company not able to serve: Reach or Variation Genericides

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Creating Firewalls Creating Ownership: –Make yourself an Industry benchmark (Windows) –Planned Obsolescence (Intel) –Awareness: Users, Other Researchers, Other Stakeholders (Linux, Lifebuoy, Colgate) Patenting / Copyrighting is assumed.

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Allowing Piracy Cost of fighting is higher than loss (Keo- karpin, Ponds) Does not affect the image (Nike/ Rayban/ Taj) Strategic use for creating awareness and use experience for adoption of the next generation (Fashion Products, Napster, Anti-virus Softwares)

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Endnote Realise that Copycats would always be crouching to pounce, thus build barriers. Connect with user is a way that nobody does (build the brand - as company / product / process / technology / merchandising [Films]). Send signals that you can be nasty if you chose to be and make sure that the world knows about it through a strategic use of media (PR and not advertising)

(c) Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIMA, 2003 Q & A