Strategic Brand Management

Abstract

Building a strong brand in the market is one of the goals of many organizations, especially for a newly launched brand. The aim of this article is to design branding strategies for a newly established company by imagination. It investigates the perception of the customers in the current market and subsequently explores the potentials for the brand. By designing the right brand strategies and formulating the development, the newly launched brand should be able to break through the market barriers and sustain a competitive position in the market.

Contents:

* 1.0 Company Profile

o 1.1 Background

o 1.2 Challenges of launching the proposed new brand

o 1.3 Brand objective

o 1.4 The "brand" to be launched to the market:

* 2.0 Brand Element

o 2.1 The motto behind the brand

o 2.2 Brand name and the meaning of the brand logo

* 3.0 Brand development and justification

o 3.1 Product

o 3.2 Price

o 3.3 Place

o 3.4 Promotion

* 4.0 Engaging with the brand

o 4.1 Media engagment

o 4.2 Ad engagement

o 4.3 Engaging market

o 4.4 Brand engagement

* 5.0 International aspect branding and criteria to make it go international

* 6.0 Co-branding and its impact upon the selected brand

* 7.0 Conclusions

* 8.0 Reference

1.1 Background:

In many Asian regions, Hong Kong in particular, a great number of people have low self-esteem or negative self-perception. According to a research stated that, there are more than 6000 patients and 6500 potential patients in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong Christian Service, A) Generally speaking, those people lack communication skills and self-confidence. They tend to rely on something "virtual" to interact with others, such as the Internet. Compared with face-to-face interpersonal communication, the Net creates a platform where people can camouflage and easily make up their background, making it an excellent medium for those people to assume another identity for communication. Online games or web chat room are typical examples of such platform. Those people are also prone to resort to something "superficial" in order to build up self-image and self satisfaction. For example, they receive body treatments and beauty treatments of different sorts to become more "attractive". In Western countries, most people who seek and receive slimming or beauty treatments are those who have practical health needs. By contrast, in the Hong Kong market, many beauty salons and slimming companies emphasize outer beauty and slimness, rather than the personal attributes and uniqueness of the individuals, as the essential elements in self-confidence and successful interpersonal relationship.

In view of such promotional strategies employed in the beauty industry, clearly there is a neglected market segment: the focus on self-differentiation and self-appreciation to direct how people perceive their inner qualities. In particular, there is a need to build up their self-confidence and their interpersonal skills so that they can function well in various social activities.

1.2 Challenges of launching the proposed new brand:

Launching the proposed new brand will create competition with the beauty industries in the current market because their target groups of customers are essentially the same. Even though their marketing strategies differ from each other's, their main drives behind those brands are contradictory. The existing beauty industries suggest that appearance is the major factor to determine one's success in interpersonal relationship. On the other hand, the suggested new brand advocates that people can utilize their inner qualities as a way of self-differentiation.

Moreover, the existing beauty industries have already built up a concrete position in the market by placing extensive advertisements through the mass media and hiring celebrities as their spokesmen. Therefore, the new brand needs to consider how to remove such marketing barriers.

(Spokesman- Janice: Prefectshape.com, 2007)

1.3 Brand Objective:

In this project, a new brand is to be launched in order to capture the above mentioned market segment. The brand objective is to provide a new concept for the consumers: people should discover their own strengths and make use of their uniqueness, instead of the outer appearance alone, to differentiate themselves from others.

The second objective is to guide the customers to view themselves positively and provide training and image building consultation to enhance their communication skills and improve their appearance whenever necessary. The management personnel of the new launched brand have to increase the perceived values of their product to the customers. This can be achieved by formulating their branding development: setting up the right "tone" for the new brand, designing a marketing program to introduce the brand to the market and subsequently raising the brand equity for the company. To understand and satisfy customers' wants and needs, the brand management must first identify what the wants and needs are, and then assess what products or services it can profitably provide. The target market and its external environmental factors must be analyzed to devise and revise the strategic plans to reach every potential customer. When such needs or wants are clearly understood, the company can locate the sweet spot and address it on target.

1.4 The "brand" to be launched to the market:

Unlike other beauty industries in the market, the newly launched brand aims to create a brand