Brand Building in the Internet Age

About the Course

In a time when the perfect storm of the internet, Social Media and price comparison/peer-review apps have combined to remove most of the traditional sources of competitive advantage, organisations are facing a battle for eyeballs and struggling to stay customer-relevant. The only sustainable strategy for organisations now is providing and delivering on excellent customer promises. One of the most powerful ways of doing this is by creating and supporting great brands.

Brands are far more than just fancy names given to products or services. A Brand occupies a certain space in the customer’s mind. It is associated with a promise and generates that most precious commercial commodity, consumer trust. Customers relate to brands, not products. They trust brands. Brands feel familiar with a world where everything is changing, and price comparison tech rules all. A Brand can attract customers and returning customers because it embodies something in the customer’s mind. Your brands are crucial currency – look after them.

Core Objectives

The delegates will achieve the following objectives:

• Understand that brands are hugely valuable assets that must be nurtured and managed
• Learn how they can determine their brand’s core values and communicate these
• Understand how and where to place their brand in the market
• Learn tools and techniques for creating marketing initiatives
• Understand how to manage a Brand portfolio via line extensions, market diversification etc.
• Understand how brand performance is managed, be able to recommend corrective actions where necessary

Training Approach

This Brand Building in the Internet Age training course is highly interactive. It contains several workshop exercises, Group and solo work exercises, and brand case study analyses. It role-plays activities, supporting a series of lectures that mix slide presentations, video presentations, and facilitated Q&A sessions.

It will be experiential, and attendees will get free use of some software tools developed by the trainer to help create their brand strategies. We draw upon expert testimony and reputable sources (e.g. Harvard Business School, The Chartered Institute of Marketing, etc.) and fully referenced tools and exercises. Consequently, the delegates leave the training course fully-equipped to manage their brand portfolios as a consequence of this experiential approach.

The Attendees

There are a great many people who would benefit from taking this training. Principal amongst these would be:

• Brand Managers
• Entrepreneurs
• Marketing Executives
• Advertising Executives
• Product Managers
• Key Account Executives
• Business Development Professionals
• Sales Executives and Sales Managers
• Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) Owners and Managers

Daily Discussion

DAY ONE: BRAND STRATEGY - MARKET POSITIONING AND BRAND VALUES

• What is a Brand?
• Why Bother – Brands are just products with fancy names, right?
• Understanding Branding and Brand Architecture
• Creating and Maintaining your Brand’s Equity
• Developing your Brand’s Anatomy
• The Price-Quality-Market Positioning Dynamic
• Pricing Strategy

DAY TWO: BUILDING YOUR BRAND EQUITY

• Position and Pricing Recap
• Using Market Segmentation to Build Compelling Value Propositions
• Creating and Selecting Brand Identities
• Channel Strategies
• Delivering on your Brand Promise

DAY THREE: GETTING THE VALUES OUT THERE - MARKETING YOUR BRAND

• Advertising - Old World
• Advertising in New Media
• Using Social Media to Build your Brand
• Brands, Channels, and Branding across borders
• Licencing
• Measuring your Progress: Metrics and KPIs

DAY FOUR: MANAGING BRAND PERFORMANCE

• Situational Analysis Techniques for Brand Positioning and Measurement
• Auditing your Brand
• Getting and Analysing Customer Feedback
• Brands as Assets: Valuing your Brand
• Building the Brand Equity

DAY FIVE: ONGOING BRAND MANAGEMENT

• Naming Brands and Brand Extensions
• Adding and Withdrawing Services from the Brand
• Leveraging the Brand in Market Extensions
• Brand Extensions
• ‘Selling’ the Brand Internally: The Value Chain