PRODUCT Branding Perhaps the most distinctive skill of

PRODUCT

Branding Perhaps the most distinctive skill of professional marketers is their ability to create, maintain, protect, and enhance brands of their products and services. A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of these, that identifies the maker or seller of a product or service. Existing BRAND NAME Line Extension Brand Extension Multibrands New Brands New Existing New PRODUCT CATEGORY

• Line Extension Existing brand names are extended to new forms, sizes, and flavors of an existing product category. Dove Soap, Dove Gentle Exfoliating Soap & Dove fresh moisture Bathing Bar Fair & Lovely Fairness Cream-1978 Fair & Lovely Ayurvedic Fairness Cream-2001 Fair & Lovely Fairness Cream with extra brightness -2003 Fair & Lovely Menz Active-2006

• • AXE Deodorant-1999 Tagline “The Axe Effect” Portrayed as a ‘weapon of seduction’ Five Fragrance: Dimension, Java, Phoenix, Pulse and Voodoo

• Brand Extension Existing brand names are extended to new or modified product categories. Virgin Atlantic Virgin Mobile Virgin Cosmetics Virgin Trains Virgin Money * * 80 Virgin Brands

DETTOL

ANCHOR

• Multibrands New brand names are introduced in the same product category. HUL: Lux, Lifebuoy, Liril, Hamam, Breeze, Dove, Pears, Rexona Cannibalization

• New Brands New brand names in new categories are introduced

• Co-Branding Kingfisher NDTV Good Times

Packaging involves designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product. The package may include the product's primary container (the tube holding Dettol Shaving Cream); a secondary package that is thrown away when the product is about to be used (the cardboard box containing the tube of Dettol); and the shipping package necessary to store, identify, and ship the product (a corrugated box carrying six dozen tubes of Dettol Shaving Cream). Growing Use of packaging as marketing tool; 1. Self service 2. Consumer affluence: consumer are now willing to pay a little more for convenience, appearance and prestige of better packages. 3. Company & Brand Image: Instant Recognition 4. Innovation Opportunity Labeling, printed information appearing on or with the package, is also part of packaging.

PRODUCT MIX AND LINE A product mix (also called product assortment) is the set of all products and items that a particular seller offers. A product mix consists of various product lines. A product line is a group of products that are closely related, because they function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same types of outlets, or fall within given price ranges. Width – Number of different product lines offered Length – Number of products offered within a particular product line. Product Line Depth – Number of versions offered of each product in the line. Consistency – how closely related the various product lines are in end use, production requirement, distribution channel.

Product-mix Width & Product-Line Length for LPU

• Line pruning - There is a tendency for product lines to lengthen over time. Hence a review must be carried out regularly. • Line modernization – Modernizing all products in the line • Line featuring – Selecting a few items from the line and promoting them aggressively to attract attention to the total line

Competitiveness has increased manifold especially in Metros

While more competitors can be seen within each product category, the ‘ Big Daddies’ continue to dominate

• All product categories are behaving similarly OR are there any differences? – Increasing competition and – Dominance of few companies • If there are differences, then are there any specific movements that can be observed in the product mix of these categories?

CONSTRUCT

EXAMPLE

CATEGORY GROUP

CATEGORY GROUP CHARACTERISTICS

HOME TASK Please divide the class into five-six groups of about 4 – 6 persons to each group. Each group will take up for study one product (and brand) offerings. Please do the following: a) Prepare a chart showing the product mix and product lines of the concerned institution. What are your comments on product-mix-width and on product-linelength? b) Identify the consumer, customer and influencer for each product offering or product line. c) Focus on one product offering from the product mix and discuss the following questions: i. What are core, tangible, and augmented products of the product offering? ii. Are tangible, core, and augmented products in line with the needs, wants and demands of the consumers, customers and influencers? Do you see any scope for improvement? How would the suggested improvements affect costs? iii. Are any brand issues involved? Each group may discuss for 30 minutes. Subsequently, each group will make a presentation to the class. Discussion time 30 minutes Presentation time 5 minutes for each group Question time 5 minutes for each group