What does brand decision consultation include?

1. Brand Decision-making Does the enterprise want to build a brand for its products? Historically, manufacturers or distributors directly took products from sacks, boxes and other containers for sale, and there was no identification certificate of similar products in the market. After hard work, medieval guilds in Europe asked craftsmen to print marks on their products to protect themselves and protect consumers from inferior products, which resulted in the earliest brand marks, and then gradually developed to the extent that few products did not use brands. Generally speaking, brands can consider not using them in the following situations: (1) Most unprocessed raw material products, such as cotton, soybeans, ores, etc. ; (2) Commodities with different characteristics, such as steel and rice, will not be formed by different manufacturers; (3) Some small commodities with relatively simple production and little selectivity; (Consumers are used to products with unchanged trademarks, such as furniture, toys, sugar, food, middle and low-grade clothing, socks, shoes and hats) (4) goods produced temporarily or once. (5) Enterprises that provide raw materials or spare parts for downstream enterprises carry out brand-free marketing to save advertising and packaging costs, reduce costs and selling prices, strengthen competitiveness and expand sales. In recent years, some consumer goods and medicines in the United States have shown a tendency of "no brand". It is estimated that the price of brand-free goods provided by its supermarkets is about 30% ~ 50% lower than that of similar brand products, which is very popular with low-income consumers, but the quality of brand-free goods is generally not high. With the rapid development of market economy and the impact of economic globalization, the trend of branding is rapid and abnormal, and branding almost dominates all products. The salt is packed in a package marked with the manufacturer, and the name of the citrus grower is attached to the citrus. New foods such as chicken and ham are also advertised under brand names, especially many manufacturers that produce intermediate products such as motors and computer chips. Fiber has also entered the ranks of the final brand products. Intel's direct brand promotion to consumers makes many PC customers only buy computers with built-in "Intel" brand, which in turn makes some major PC manufacturers (such as IBM, Dell and Compaq) have to give up other low-priced suppliers and buy Intel chips instead. Similarly, DuPont's brand promotion makes many clothing manufacturers use DuPont fabrics, because clothes made of DuPont fabrics can sell at higher prices. Obviously, creating a brand is a very challenging decision for enterprises. Enterprises not only need to pay high costs and efforts, but also bear the risk that the brand will not be recognized by the market. In this case, most enterprises still want to brand their products, because brands can bring them a series of benefits: (1) Branding can protect the product characteristics of enterprises by law and prevent them from being copied and counterfeited by competitors; (2) Branding is conducive to building brand loyalists for enterprises and increasing consumers who buy repeatedly; Extend and help launch new products. (3) Branding helps enterprises to subdivide and control the market, and is conducive to the expansion of product mix; (4) A strong brand is conducive to establishing a corporate image and gaining the trust of dealers and consumers, thus making it easier to launch new products. (5) Value preservation function. (6) Intangible assets and great wealth. Under the condition of market economy, the ownership and use right of trademarks can be sold and transferred, such as Haier. In short, products are things produced by factories, and brands are things bought by customers; Products can be copied by competitors, but the brand is unique; Products will soon become obsolete, and successful brands will always exist. Therefore, an enterprise pursuing long-term market development should not only provide customers with satisfactory products, but also have its own successful brand. In addition, the branding of enterprise products is also beneficial to dealers and consumers. Distributors regard brand as a means to facilitate product management, identify suppliers, master product quality standards and enhance buyers' preferences. Consumers can identify and judge the quality differences of similar products through brand recognition, so as to make efficient purchases. 2. Brand ownership decision After making a brand decision, the manufacturer must decide who owns the brand and who manages and is responsible for the brand. Manufacturers have several choices in brand ownership: manufacturer brand (also known as national brand); Dealer brand (also known as special brand or private brand); Or use both brands, that is, some products use manufacturer brands and some products use dealer brands. Supplement: ④ Co-brand. For example, use both manufacturer brand and dealer brands in products. In most joint brand operations, a company uses another company's well-known brand and its own brand through permission, which usually requires signing an agreement and a license certificate. (5) The manufacturer obtains the trademark rights of other manufacturers through licensing. For example, some reputable manufacturers will rent their trademarks to other manufacturers at a certain initial fee. Historically, manufacturer brand has always occupied a dominant position in the industrial and commercial field, because the design, quality and characteristics of products are determined by manufacturers. However, in recent years, there are more and more brands of dealers. Sears, a famous American retail chain, sells more than 90% of its own brands, such as "tenacious" batteries, "artisan" tools and "Kenmore" gas appliance, which has won the brand loyalty of users. 50% of the shelves in Sambo, the largest food chain in Britain, are owned by their own brands. In recent years, some domestic middlemen have also begun to develop their own brands, such as the "supermarket" brand of supermarket chain co., Ltd. Why should middlemen take pains to develop their own brands? This is because using your own brand can bring various benefits. First, it can guarantee and control the supply of goods. Middlemen can find suppliers who can provide stable quality products and control them (middlemen can threaten manufacturers by changing suppliers). Second, we can control the purchase price, improve the competitiveness of products at a lower price and obtain higher profits. In the competition between manufacturer brand and the brand of middlemen, middlemen have many advantages. For example, due to the limited shelf space of retail stores, many supermarkets accept new brands by charging shelf fees to share the display and storage costs of goods, but middlemen can set aside significant display positions for their own brands to ensure more adequate stocking; Middlemen pay special attention to promoting their own brands in order to win the trust of customers. Enterprises should weigh the advantages and disadvantages before making a decision whether to use manufacturer brand or dealer brand. In the case of good market reputation and large market share, most manufacturers use their brands. On the contrary, if the financial strength of the manufacturer is weak, or the goodwill in the market is far less than that of the middleman, it is suitable to adopt the middleman brand. Small and medium-sized enterprises, especially those newly entering the market, are unable to market their products with their own brands, and middlemen have a good brand reputation and a perfect sales system in this market field. In this case, it is often advantageous to use the brand of middlemen. This is also a common practice in international trade. Supplement: Generally speaking, the following products are more suitable for the use of retailer brands: ① Products with low brand requirements by customers, such as toilet paper, towels and slippers. (2) low-tech goods. It is easier for such commodity dealers to control product quality. ③ Products with high freshness and short shelf life are required. Distributors of this kind of goods can use their own brands to purchase goods directly from manufacturers, which has the advantages of short sales channels and quick timeliness. (4) Commodities that do not need packaging or simple packaging. Of course, not all dealers are qualified or able to use their own trademarks. Generally, dealers who use their own trademarks must meet the following conditions: ① Strong funds. Dealers must purchase a lot of goods when using their own trademarks, occupying a lot of money; In addition, dealers also spend a lot of money on advertising their own brand products. (2) Have the ability to strictly inspect the quality of the manufacturer's products. ③ Strong market research, market forecast and brand promotion ability. (4) Dealers have high popularity and reputation among consumers, ensuring that their brand products will be accepted by consumers soon. 3. Individual brand and unified brand decision This is the decision of the enterprise to determine the number of brands, that is, the products of different types, specifications and quality produced by the enterprise use different brands respectively, or all use one brand. (1) Personal brand strategy. It means that enterprises use different brand names for different products. Like Unilever. The advantages of this brand strategy are: if the reputation of the enterprise is not tied to the success or failure of a product brand, the enterprise will not bear greater risks because of the decline of a brand reputation; It can enable enterprises to seek the best brand for each new product without introducing the brand of high-grade and high-quality products into the lower-quality product line; Every new brand can create new excitement, and establishing new beliefs is conducive to the penetration of enterprise products into multiple market segments. The biggest disadvantage of single brand strategy is that it increases the promotion cost of products and makes enterprises at a disadvantage in the competition. In addition, too many brands are not conducive to enterprises to create famous brands. (2) Unified brand strategy. Unified brand, also known as family brand, means that enterprises use the same brand for a variety of products they produce, such as "Yumeijing" series cosmetics. The main advantages of this brand strategy are: enterprises can use a variety of media to promote a brand, show their strength and shape their image with the help of brand awareness; It is helpful for new products to enter the target market, and it is not necessary to spend a lot of advertising fees to establish understanding and preference for new brands. However, all products of a unified brand should have the same quality level, otherwise it will affect the brand reputation, especially the reputation of products with higher quality. For example, all products of Toshiba Household Appliances Company of Japan adopt the trademark "TDSHIBA". All products produced by Canon use the "Canon" trademark. All products of American General Electric Company use GE as the brand name. The washing machines, color TVs, stereos, air conditioners, refrigerators and fax machines produced by Panasonic, Hitachi and Sharp all use the same trademark. Honda has introduced many products such as cars, motorcycles, snow blowers, motorboats, snowmobiles and lawn mowers under the name of Honda. Enterprises that adopt unified trademarks are often strong, and trademarks have gained a certain popularity and reputation in the market. The unified trademark strategy is essentially a brand extension strategy, that is, an enterprise extends its successful trademark brand to other products. For example, after the success of Master Kong's instant noodles in the market, manufacturers extended this trademark to oolong tea, eight-treasure porridge, biscuits, fruit juice, purified water, fragrant rice cakes and other products. Robust Group has also adopted a brand extension strategy. Yang Jieqiang, the company's marketing manager, said: "The advantages of sound brand extension outweigh the disadvantages. Before the brand extension, Robust's turnover was only 400 million yuan, reaching nearly 2 billion yuan in less than one year. Brand extension has accelerated the development of Robust. If Robust introduces a new brand when developing new products, it may not succeed at first. Even if it succeeds, it may drag down the investment and cultivation of Robust brand. " In short, a unified trademark strategy or brand extension strategy is conducive to the successful introduction of new products to the market by enterprises using the reputation gained by trademarks; Can save the cost of trademark design and registration; There is no need to promote multiple brands in advertising and public relations; Consumers can easily accept a unified trademark, which also helps to shape the corporate image and show the strength of the enterprise. However, when using the unified trademark strategy or brand extension strategy, if one product of an enterprise has problems (such as quality problems), other products will also be affected, so the quality of all products must be strictly controlled. In addition, many products use the same trademark, which easily confuses consumers about the characteristics, grades and functions of the products. Rongchang Company, which produces Rongchang Anal Thai, has also introduced Sweet Dream Oral Liquid, one for export (treating hemorrhoids) and one for import, which makes people unbearable. China Business Times distributed two boxes of 28-vitality pure water to each employee. Some people have been afraid to drink, and they always feel the smell of washing powder. Thirdly, the extended use of the brand should conform to the established impression of consumers on the brand. If Crest introduces low-grade toothpaste, Parker introduces cheap pens and Mercedes-Benz produces low-priced cars, it may damage the brand's impression in the eyes of consumers, and it may not be worth the loss. (3) Unified brands are juxtaposed with individual brands. Enterprises with multiple product lines or product types can consider adopting this strategy, which is usually preceded by the company's trade name. The starting point of adopting this strategy is to try to combine the advantages of the above two strategies, that is, it can not only make new products enjoy corporate reputation and save advertising expenses, but also make brands maintain their own characteristics and relative independence. For example, General Motors Corporation of the United States produces many types of cars, all of which adopt a common trademark consisting of the letter GM, while different brands such as Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Potic and Chevrelet are used in various products. Each individual brand represents a product with specific characteristics, such as Chevrolet for Volkswagen and Cadillac for luxury cars. 4. Brand expansion decision Brand expansion, also known as brand extension, refers to enterprises using successful brands with market influence to launch improved products or new products. For example, the "Nestle" trademark, which is famous for Nestle Coffee, has been extended to milk powder, chocolate, biscuits and other products; Sony has also extended its brand to most of its new electronic products. The obvious advantage of adopting brand expansion strategy is that an eye-catching good brand can make new products recognized by the market immediately and easily accepted by the market. If the brand development is successful, it can further expand the influence of the original brand and corporate reputation. However, brand expansion is risky. First, if a well-known brand extends to a product field that is inconsistent or not close to its image and characteristics, it may damage the original brand image. Secondly, if the original products and brand expansion products are not related or complementary in resources and technology, new products may be difficult to be accepted by consumers. Finally, if the brand of high-quality image is extended to some products that are of little value and easy to manufacture, consumers may resent it, such as Haier ketchup or Boeing perfume. Abuse of brand names will lose its special position in the eyes of consumers. Brand dilution occurs when consumers no longer associate brand names with specific products or similar products. In a word, adopting brand expansion strategy has advantages and disadvantages, and the risk is great, so enterprises should act cautiously according to the conditions. 5. Multi-brand strategy Multi-brand strategy means that an enterprise uses two or more competitive brands on the same product at the same time. Procter & Gamble took the lead in adopting this strategy. For example, the shampoo produced by this company in joint venture with China and Guangdong includes Head & Shoulders, Rejoice and Pan Tong. "Sassoon" several brands. Although multiple brands will affect the original sales of a single brand, the sum of sales of multiple brands will exceed the market sales of a single brand, thus enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises in this market field. The main advantage of adopting multi-brand strategy is that (1) different brands can occupy a larger display area on the shelves of retailers, which not only attracts more consumers' attention, but also increases retailers' dependence on enterprise products. (2) Providing similar products of several different brands can attract curious and innovative brand changers. (3) A variety of brands can make products penetrate into many different market segments and occupy a broader market. (4) It is helpful to the competition among multiple product departments within the enterprise, improve efficiency and increase total sales. The main risk of adopting multi-brand strategy is that the number of brands used is too large, so that each brand product has only a small market share, and no brand is particularly profitable, which makes enterprise resources dispersed by many brands and not concentrated on a few brands with higher profitability, which is a very unfavorable situation. The solution is to screen brands and eliminate those weak brands. The ideal situation should be that the brand of an enterprise can annex the brand of a competitor, rather than competing with each other among multiple brands of an enterprise; Or even if they compete with each other, the net profit after adopting multi-brand strategy can reach a large number. Therefore, if the enterprise adopts multi-brand strategy, it should consider before launching a new brand: whether the brand is innovative; Whether this new idea is convincing; The appearance of this brand may take away the sales of other brands and competitor brands of this enterprise; Whether the sales of new brands can compensate the expenses of product development and product promotion, etc.