Secrets to Brand Success - Book Review:Strategic Brand Communication Campaigns

Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Vishaal 0 Comments


 Title: Strategic Brand Communication Campaign Revised 5th edition
Language: English
Author: Beth E. Barnes, Don E. Schultz
Genre:  Education - Management
Publisher: The McGraw-Hill Companies(1999)
ISBN:0844229520
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 400 

What is the secret for a brand to be successful in the highly competitive market place of the 21st century? If you want to find an answer to this question and many more, Strategic Brand Communication Campaign by Don E. Schult and Beth E. Barnes, is the perfect book for you.

Today advertising alone cannot assure the success of a product or a service in the market. Today’s market place is very complex and hence a brand requires a highly developed mode of promotion to survive.

The authors have compared today’s market situation with the traditional system. They start with the very basic elements of marketing by describing four Ps: product, place (of distribution), price, and promotion. The transition, which took place in various economies between 1960 to 1990, is also dealt with very thoroughly. After 1990, the book mentions how the customer and the consumers have started exercising greater control over the market and the various strategies that dominate it.

There is a serious indication that information technology will play a key role for accessing market information. This gives rise to a need for a critical form of communication. This form of communication must be broader and perhaps deeper than present day marketing itself.

The authors say that this critical form of communication itself is a brand that communicates value to customers and prospects. The term “Integrated Brand Communication” (IBC) is used for this form.

According to them, IBC is the process of identifying and managing contacts with customers in the form of sales, promotion, advertising and public relation. For this they discuss the different aspects of consumer behaviour, consumer research, budgeting, massmedia, public relation, sales promotion, direct marketing and media planning.

There are different plans in the “IBC” strategy. The book analyses the way to determine or define brand share of the total category usage by a customer or group of customers. For determining relevant customer value, they mention Recency-Frequency Measurement (RFM) analysis and value analysis. RFM determines only the amount of income that the brand organization has generated from the customer or customer group. After knowing the customer value, a set of objectives has to be determined. That’s why they analyse customer pattern with reference to three categories of consumers, i.e. existing, competing, and emerging categories.

The authors analyse consumer behaviour from the point of supermarket purchasing pattern. By applying Elaboration Likelihood Model, they analyse persuasive communication, and motivation theory in relation to consumer.

For brand building, mass media advertising also plays a certain role. Thus vivid descriptions of how a campaign should be conducted, is found in the book.

One of the big important issues is which channels should be used for brand promotion. Trade sales promotion is one of them. The book analyses different strategies from slotting allowances, forward buying, and diversion.

They also give description about financial measurement on basis of return on investment policy.

Overall this book is really interesting. Anyone without knowledge of management can also understand it very easily. Today we are faced with a highly dynamic market situation, where the consumer is the trendsetter. This book will go a long way in helping him understand the ways of the market in which he plays such an important role.

0 comments :