Product Branding Strategy

Branding is the central piece when it comes to marketing. This explains why there are so many liquor companies, but only a few make great profit and are highly recognized. These companies simply have a unique brand, they are different and provide distinct offering to their clients. Often, companies work together with celebrities, football teams or even relief operations to advertise their brands. This has proven to be a very effective marketing strategy and has played a major role in influencing the purchase pattern of their products - by making their products famous. Branding is the use of a term, name, symbol or design to give a product a distinct identity in the market. Marketers have three main strategic channels: individual branding vs. family brands; manufacturer branding vs. private labels; and co-branding. Additionally, they must take into consideration whether to seek trademark protection for their brand.

Ø Manufacturer vs. Private Brands

When a brand identity is expressly tied to the manufacturer of the product, it is termed a manufacturer’s brand. Sometimes called a national brand, marketers often prefer this option when the firm has a solid, positive image. But some commodities, particularly if they are not well-separated in the market, gain by being associated with the shop where they are sold. For instance, key drugstore chains regularly offer their own private-label brands of staple goods like skin cream and pain relievers.

Ø Individual vs. Family Brands

Individual branding is a strategy used by companies with enough resources to make a separate identity for each commodity they offer. It starts making more sense when a company sells stuffs in very different classes, like detergent and candy, or to highly unique target audiences. On the contrary, firms with various offerings in the same class, like cereal or soup, usually market a wide range of products under the same name/label. This use of a common channel is termed family branding.

Ø Co-branding

Co-branding is a technique that ties two existing brand names to create a product with a new identity. There are three ramifications of this technique. Ingredient branding is when one product is associated to another, for example, an ice cream brand mixed with popular liquor. In complementary branding, brands are marketed jointly to highlight the advantages of using both, for instance, a restaurant giving deductions at a local movie theater. Cooperative branding entails two or more brands sharing a promotion. For instance, Hertz and Hilton Hotels can advertise jointly for holiday vacationers.

Ø Trademarks

Irrespective of which technique they use in branding a product, marketers usually seek trademark protection. This provides them exclusive rights to the symbol, brand name and design, required by law and consists of penalties for illegal use. To get a trademark, the company must file-in an application with the Patent and Trademark Office and fulfill specific guidelines. The consequence of not doing so will be risking a competitor copying some elements of the brand identity and gaining unfairly from the original company’s investment.

Celebrity branding

Celebrity branding is a type of marketing strategy  or advertising campaign used for branding activities, companies, or NGOs which involves a well-known person or celebrities utilizing their fame or social status to assist in branding a product/product branding, service or even raise awareness on social or environmental issues. Marketers utilize celebrity endorsers hoping that the positive images of the celebrity endorser of the brand will be passed on to or the brand image associated with the celebrities or the products. Celebrity endorsement is often commonly utilized by beauty or fashion brands, but a non-profit organization equally depend on celebrities as well, as celebrities possess mass communication skills which can pull people's attention and can be used to reach a wider audience to raise their awareness with regards to an issue or a certain organization; thereby, making celebrities effective fundraisers.

Advantages of celebrity branding on sales and advertising

The advantages of celebrity branding activities is having a product that the endorser utilizes and likes and integrates into their lifestyle as well as having an idea about the product. This would be beneficial in advertising the product since the endorser would be more passionate about the product and promote the good in a credible way that clients would be convinced by.

Celebrity endorsements have significant influence in sales when promoting a brand and product, as they can provide information, which is centered on the remarkable features and advantages of the product in a standard and unbiased form, which has a substantial effect on the business revenue.

A benefit of celebrity branding is by utilizing social network platforms, since it is a less costly effective strategy of distributing and assembling information so that consumers become more aware of the product before buying it, together with having massive online consumer reviews will heighten sales due to mass advert done by the brand/company and the celebrity endorsing the product.

Celebrities via advertising make the advert more conspicuous to consumers; they distinguish themselves from the media clutter making them a good basis of retaining and capturing consumer attention. Research have shown that utilizing celebrities in adverts grows the message's persuasiveness resulting in consumers having a better recognition and recall for the brand or product.

Celebrities are believed to hold qualities such as expertise, attractiveness, likeability and trust worthiness, which promoter’s and advertiser's hope will be transferred to the product or brand thereby creating positive images for that brand or product. A lot of consumers idolize celebrities and strive to replicate their lives with the products they consume and clothes they wear. Celebrities create sense for the consumer through their communication with products in adverts.

Disadvantages of celebrity branding

• If celebrities cause themselves a bad reputation or name, Brand images can change.
• Celebrities can be overexposed. Tiger Woods is a good example- when he endorsed so many products for different companies, his credibility was in doubt.
• Celebrities start to over cloud brands. Customers will begin paying attention on the celebrity rather than the brand or product.