Page: 17
Learning Objective: Identify the steps in the strategic brand management process.
AACSB: Reflective Thinking
 
5.  What do you think of the new branding challenges and opportunities that were listed in the chapter? Can you think of any other issues?
 
Brand builders have faced forms of some of these challenges in the past, including increased competition and media fragmentation. Though the new challenges certainly make it more difficult to build a strong brand, by no means to they make it impossible. Other issues include brand backlash, which illustrates a different type of accountability. As the repeated targeting during anti-globalization protests of retail locations of multinational companies such as McDonald’s, Gap & Starbucks illustrates, a recognizable brand can also become a lightning rod for criticism & protest.
 
Page: 24
Learning Objective: Describe the main branding challenges and opportunities.
AACSB: Reflective Thinking
 
 

Exercises and assignments

 
1.   Ask students to poll 10 or so consumers about their brand loyalty in various product categories (e.g., toothpaste, dishwashing soap, shampoo, deodorant, toilet tissue, soda, salsa, ice cream, cereal, potato chips, jeans, running shoes, and socks). Are there brands or categories for which consumer loyalty is relatively high? How do consumers explain their loyalty or lack thereof? How are marketing strategies affected by consumer attitude and behavior patterns (or, alternatively, how should they be affected)? (Can be related to Branding Brief 1-1: Coca-Cola’s Branding Lesson.)
 
Page: 5
Learning Objective: Define “brand,” state how brand differs from a product, and explain what brand equity is.
AACSB: Analytic Skills
Question type: Individual/Group
Time to complete the exercise: 15 minutes
This activity may be carried out at the beginning of the class.
 
2.   Have students identify three brands that are on the endangered species list and: 1) analyze reasons for the problems, and 2) suggest prescriptive marketing measures. Appropriate brands might include Wise potato chips, Oldsmobile cars, Tang drink, LifeSavers roll candy, J.C. Penney.
 
Page: 20
Learning Objective: Describe the main branding challenges and opportunities.
AACSB: Analytic Skills
Question type: Individual/Group
Time to complete the exercise: 12-15 minutes
This activity may be carried out right after the class has been introduced to the concept of the strongest brands.
 
3.   Tell students to survey consumers about their buying behavior with respect to private label or store brands. In which product categories do such products pose the largest competitive threat to premium brands? Which retail stores have the strongest private labels?
 
Page: 20
Learning Objective: Describe the main branding challenges and opportunities.
AACSB: Analytic Skills
Question type: Individual
Time to complete the exercise: 10 minutes
This activity may be carried out before the class is introduced to the concept of the strongest brands.
 
4.   Give a prize to the student who comes up with the best list (as voted upon by other students) of “weird” brands – products that don’t seem to lend themselves to branding but yet are very successful in the marketplace. Candidates might include Blue Rhino propane gas, Banker’s Box boxes, Rent-A-Husband home handyman service, Campbell’s mushrooms, and Merry Maids housecleaning service.
 
Page: 20-21
Learning Objective: Explain how branding applies to virtually everything.
AACSB: Analytic Skills
Question type: Individual
Time to complete the exercise: 8-10 minutes
This activity may be carried out before the class is introduced to the concept of the strongest brands.
 
 

Key take-away points

 
1.   A brand is a “name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition.”
2.   Brand elements can be based on people, places, things, and abstract images.
3.   A product is anything that is offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want.
4.   A brand can have dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same need.
5.   By creating perceived differences among products through branding and by developing a loyal consumer franchise, marketers create value that can translate to financial profits for the firm.