International Marketing Strategy

Assignment Question

One important decision in the international marketing is branding. Discuss the role and important of branding in international markets, with appropriate examples.

Executive Summary

In this report, we will attempt to address the importance of the relationship between consumers, businesses and the key brands.

In the first part of the report, we will introduce branding and its relationship with the consumers. By defining the idea of 'brand', we can understand what is brand made up of and how it has the ability to affect the consumers.

Next we will explain the 'county of origin' effect. Country of origin effect exists when the product choice is influenced by the producer's source country or country of manufacturer. Through this, we explain how consumers are affected by this effect.

Following, we will proceed to explain the types of branding in the market. Branding has been divided into 3 mains categories, namely: Private branding, National branding and Global branding. In the different sub-sections, we explain each type of branding and the effect of each type of branding.

Next, we will describe the importance of brands, how it interacts with the consumers and how it can affect the market place. We will also illustrate the importance by providing examples.

Lastly, we will go into the 5 different benefits and advantages of branding. Through these illustrations, we can understand why branding is critical in international marketing.

Introduction

Branding is the blend of art and science that manages associations between a brand and memories in the mind of the brand's audience. It involves focusing resources on selected tangible and intangible attributes to differentiate the brand in an attractive, meaningful and compelling way for the targeted audience with customer loyalty being the key to the long term success of a brand and business.

Branding and its Relationship to Marketing

In business, everyone is focused on creating and delivering the product or service that customers want, at a price they are willing to pay. However, in modern organisations, one of the main functions of marketing is to focus on brand management.

Branding is the foundation of marketing and is inseparable from business strategy. It is more than putting a label on a fancy product. Nowadays, a corporation, law firm, country, university, museum, hospital, celebrity, and even you in your career can be considered as a brand.

As such, a brand is a combination of attributes, communicated through a name, or a symbol, that influences a thought-process in the mind of an audience and creates value, A strong brand acts as an ambassador when companies enter new markets or offer new products. Its shapes corporate strategy, helping to define which initiatives fit within the brand concept and which improve market competitiveness.

Definition of Brand

Brand is an identifying mark, image or concept which distinguishes a product or service. A brand is a symbol created by a marketer to represent a collection of information about a product or group of products. A brand name is part of a brand if it consists of words or letters that can be verbalized. A brand is often associated with product's promise, the product or service's point of difference among its competitors which make it special and unique. Consumers look at brand as an important aspect of a product and which adds value to a product or service. It also carries the reputation of a product or company. For a customer to be loyal to a company brand, he / she must be able to easily understand what the company offer in products and services.

In the world of brands, it is the word association and at a glance view of all industry of the company, subsidiary, division, product, services, technology and other related branded names and how they are related to one another. For example, a branded laundry detergent is usually sold twice as much as a store brand detergent. Most consumers think that the branded product is better because it's more expensive and has a better quality. Likewise to a house of brands or a brand house companies may find themselves in an interesting mish mash of proprietary and non-proprietary brands that may or may not be related to the parent company brand. (http://brandchannel:naming names)
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This situation can exponentially increase the complexity when the company has a large number of divisions and operating companies. Therefore these companies have to be able to distinguish themselves and understand how brand works.

The concept of branding applies to any individual, organization, product, or service, as long as there is a transaction between human beings. As branding relies on fundamental principles of psycho-sociology - it is essentially the way our memory processes, stores, and recalls information. Not to actively manage one's brand name is the equivalent of putting one's head in the sand and wishing for ...

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