Author: Shabbir Chunawalla

Just like a human child whose genetic code is fixed at the time of the birth, a brand too is born with an embedded life script or a coding pattern. If that string is vibrated, it plays back the original music. But if the genetic code is not stirred, we get erratic performance or dissonance.

The pattern created at the time of brand’s birth is a matter of circumstances and intentions of people who shape that brand. A brand team has to stick to the brand’s birth intent steadfastly or else the brand wavers.

As Congress party in pre-independence India fought for freedom under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru, Gandhi appointed Nehru as his heir in post independence era. After being associated with Congress, for long, Nehru saw the seeds of a dynastic rule in congress. This is a historic truth. Janta Party came on the scene to challenge the hegemony of Congress, and thus it acquired a pattern of being challengers to the main ruling party.

Life script of a of the brand changes when there is complete disruption in the environment of the brand or a complete change in the leadership or ownership of the brand.

Colgate was a market leader in the tooth paste market. Close-Up entered the scene. Close Up usurped the new gel category. Colgate was slow to launch gel. Instead, it tried to challenge Close Up. Its leadership script got a dent.

Colgate’s birth intent could be decoded as protecting teeth. From this perspective, it should not have considered Close Up as a threat. Instead, it has to develop a gel brand with distinct health-related discriminator. It would have considered its dental hygiene position, and aligned it to its life purpose.

The birth vision of a brand is shared by the entire brand team.

In the race of Coke and Pepsi, Coke was a leader worldwide. and Pepsi a challenger. If these roles are reversed, both these brands are affected.

A brand should be defined only in terms of leader and challenger scripts. Coke has steered its script towards human cohesion, and Pepsi is driven by a sense of distinction. Coke always tries to bring people together and Pepsi will never tire from defying the established order.

But brand destiny premise has its fallacy. What is the role of a brand management team if the brand unfolds only its life script? Though a brand has has a relationship with its source, it has also an internal driving impulse which influences the brand’s path.

A brand is open to new interpretations by positioning. The idea behind the brand — its abstract philosophical core  — determines or substantially influences the content and form of the brand. The brand idea of rugged masculinity vests Marlboro with the leadership script. A brand system must be understood as it is a composite entity. It makes us clear about our role as brand managers.

Brand’s life script is what Kapferer calls brand kernel and Yound and Rubicam, brand belief. It explains the genesis of the brand, and the source of its energy, inspiration, and sense of purpose.

Though brand’s life purpose is valuable, it is a moot point how many brands take care to decipher it. Mostly brands are indifferent or misconstrue their vision. There are occasions when the fortunate few brands whose life mission is known change it the midway when the baton passes from the original father to others who succeed him.

Memory loss on account of plaque in the brain is a very serious condition called Alzheimer’s. The research focuses on understanding the role of amyloid, the protein that builds up in the brain to form plaques.

A new avenue of research has been opened now. On studying mice, they realised that immune system protects the brain. Instead these begin to consume a nutrient called arginine, an amino acid. If this consumption is blocked by a drug, plaque formation is prevented.That halts the memory loss. The study will have to be extended to the humans.

The arginine-blocking drug used is difluromethylornithine (DFMO).

Arginine is produced in cell-division, healing and immune responses. It is found in food including dairy  products, meat,nuts. The blood brain barrier regulates the flow of arginine.

This study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience and was led by Matthew Kan in Professor Colton’s lab.

We can try several permutations and combinations to position the brands. We give some positioning concepts or slots here.

Technology Slot

The brand can take advantage of the pioneers lead, e.g. first in no-frost technology, first to issue photo credit cards with chips, first to market soft drinks through vending machines etc. Later, others hitch to the same brandwagon.

Experential Slot

There are sensorial perceptions about the brand which cannot be quantified and measured, e.g. freshness of a soap, lustre to hair given by a shampoo, fairness given by a cream or soap etc.

User Slot

A brand can be slotted for specific users as Johnson’s Baby Shampoo or Vicks VapoRub for children. Later more users can be included.

Trendiness Slot

Charms is the spirit of freedom. This cigarette slot started a trend. It is consistent with the life style of  the users.

Repositioning a Rival Brand

In comparative advertising, Savlon was pitted against Dettol antiseptic which gave a burning sensation, whereas Salvon did not. Such repositioning worked in favour of Savlon.

New Product Category Slot

Unfixed deposit is a slot against the usual fixed deposits. This creates a new product category in the mind of the consumers. Another example is 7-up as an uncola drink.

Attribute Slot

One or a combination of attributes can be used to position the brand. There are several toothpastes based on attribute positioning.

Let us see what a brand manager does.

• A brand manager maintains a brand’s character, image and integrity.
• He puts brands that deliver value in the service of the consumers.
• He assures the consumers that they can trust the brand they are buying.
• A brand manager has to assure the brand’s success.
• There is a battle for resources in the organisation. A brand manger advocates his brand’s requirements of resources effectively. He makes use of consumer feedback to claim for resources.
• Brand managers have to be within a framework. But they should know when to expand the boundaries of this framework and cross it if necessary in view of the market conditions.
• Brand managers have to work in collaboration with the other departments.
• Brand management is slowly evolving into category management. A brand manager takes an inside-the-company viewpoint and seeks to maximise the brand’s share, position and equity through managerial effort.In category management, an outside-view is taken. Category managers take care of a number of brands within that category. They have a strong influence in pricing, promotion, advertising and all of the marketing and sales activities of their category. They have considerable work at the level of the distribution channels.
• Brand management provides power to sales management and customer teams serving influential customers.
• In brand management, there is a challenge to balance the short-term and the long-term goals.
• It is important to have consistency in brand identity.

Keinichi Ohmae (1982 ), a strategy expert, considers brand share to be an important contributor to the development of a brand strategy.

Brand share indicates how for the brand satisfies the consumer needs.

Active brand share is the given by the consumers actively competed for and won . It could be further subdivided into the following categories depending upon customer satisfaction and bying behaviour.

Brand loyal customers are satisfied by the brand and continue patronising it. The strategy adopted is to improve the  satisfaction and remove dissatisfaction as soon as it appears.

Brand switchers are satisfied with the brand but fall prey to competitor’s brand on account of sales promotion. The trade off they are making  must be understood and factored into  formulating the brand strategy.

Apathetics feel the brand falls short of fully satisfying their needs, but continue with the brand just to avoid inconvenience. The brand can be fine tuned to meet their needs. To illustrate, bank customers are reluctant to switch to a new brand as account opening is cumbersome.

Doubters have tried the brand but their next buy would be another brand, though there is effort involved in doing so. Their perceptions of what the brand could do for them or about them have not even realised. The reason for this perceptions must be studied and if possible, changes can be considered.

Several brands do not realise their full potential as they are not available. It requires distribution strategy.

There are brands where customers are competed for and lost. The introductory model of Indica had technical problems. The model was improved and new model VZ was launched, which became successful.

Our brand may not offer something extra that the customers are seeking. The challenge here is to develop new versions which improve on the core brand.

Passive brand share is another component of brand share consisting of customers intending to buy our brand.

The more the success of the brand, the closer the ratio of active and passive brand share. It approaches 1. Market research helps to determine this ratio by recording the buying intention and then the actual purchase. If the brand bought is different from the purchase intent, the reasons can be found out. It helps as to fine tune our marketing strategy.