Posted by Managementguru in How To, Intellectual Property Rights, Marketing, Sales, Strategy
on Apr 3rd, 2015 | 0 comments
What is Brand Identity? Definitions Business Dictionary: The visible elements of a brand (such as colors, design, logotype, name, symbol) that together identify and distinguish the brand in the consumers’ mind. Investopedia: How a business wants a brand’s name, communication style, logo and other visual elements to be perceived by consumers. Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism Model: The brand identity prism by Kapferer describes the brand through six different facets. The identity of a brand describes what makes it stand out and special, as well as the attractiveness of the brand. By the brand’s physique the physical appearance is meant. This includes a prototype of the brand: the product that represents the brand’s qualities.The brand personality connects the brand with human characteristics to differentiate. It is the way a brand speaks to its customers.Every brand tries to build a relationship with its customers. This relationship is more obvious for service brands, but product brands like Porsche and Morgan build relationships with their clients The question here is what role does the brand occupy in the relationship. It could be being a friend or being dominant.The culture of the company is reflected by the values the brand is communicating. Values can be linked for example to the origin of the company and their heritage.The reflection of a brand can be seen as the typical user of the product it is the outward mirror of the brand. It therefore often gets confused with the target market.The self-image is the way customers see themselves when using the brand and how this makes them feel. (Kapferer, 2012) Pic Courtesy: Marketing91 What are the top 3 things that make customers loyal to a brand? Quality – Quality in business, engineering and manufacturing has a pragmatic interpretation as the non-inferiority or superiority of something; it is also defined as fitness for purpose. Quality is a perceptual, conditional, and somewhat subjective attribute and may be understood differently by different people. Customer Service – The process of ensuring customer satisfaction with a product or service. Often, customer service takes place while performing a transaction for the customer, such as making a sale or returning an item. Customer service can take the form of an in-person interaction, a phone call, self-service systems, or by other means. Price – For many consumers, price is a very important attribute. The attribute price can indeed be more important on decision making than that of quality, brand name and others. We can conclude that consumer consideration to decide product brand is mainly based on price. The main question is how consumer brand decision is effected by price fluctuations. Does consumer move to another brand as price rises? Branding Gone Bad : Pizza Hut Tries to Lose the Pizza For some bizarre reason, Pizza Hut made an attempt to rebrand in 2009 by calling themselves “The Hut.” As a result, the fast food chain received a significant amount of ridicule from the public, and had to revert back to the original name. Although the company may deny rumors regarding the name change, photographic evidence of the redesigned logo are still circulating online. When British Airways Removed the Union Jack In 1997, British Airways executive Bob Ayling stated, “Perhaps we need to lose some of our old-fashioned Britishness and take on board some of the new British traits.” The company then embarked on a project that saw the Union Jack tail fin flag being replaced with other designs. After receiving numerous complaints from customers, this decision was reversed in 2001 when Ayling was replaced by Rod Eddington, and the Union Jack was once again painted on the fleet’s tail fins. Source: Six Examples of Branding Gone Wrong How Important is Brand...
Posted by Managementguru in Marketing, Quotes and Quotes Only
on Jul 14th, 2014 | 0 comments
1. “Good branding without a good business plan is like prettying up a duck with no feathers. It may look good but it ain’t gonna fly.” Paul Provost, August 2010 2. “For a business not to advertise is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but no one else does.” Stuartt H. Britt, US advertising consultant 3. “The objective of all advertising is to buy new customers at a profit. Learn what your customers cost and what they buy…spend all of your ammunition where it counts.” Claude Hopkins-Scientific Advertising (1923) 4. “Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.”– Bill Bernbach 5. “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.”- Howard Luck Gossage 6. “The only people who care about advertising are the people who work in advertising”– George Parker 7. “In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal” – Bill Burnbach 8. “Don’t find customers for your product. Find products for your customers” – Seth Godin. 9. “Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.” – Milton Hershey 10. “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it well enough yourself” – Albert Einsteen 11. “If you want to understand how a lion hunts, don’t go to the zoo. Go to the jungle.” – Jim Stengal 12.“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”– Peter Drucker 13. “In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope.”-Peter Nivio Zarlenga 14. “I don’t know the rules of grammar… If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.”– David Ogilvy 15. “Don’t tell me how good you make it; tell me how good it makes me when I use it.” – Leo Burnett 16. “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” – David Ogilvy 17. “People spend money when and where they feel good” – Walt Disney 18. “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I do not know which half.” Lord Leverhulme, British founder of Unilever and philanthropist 19. “In marketing I’ve seen only one strategy that can’t miss — and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.” – John Romero 20. “The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men — the man he is and the man he wants to be.” – William Feather 21. “In order for you to profit from your mistakes, you have to go out and make some.”- Unknown 22. “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen 23. “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” – Japanese Proverb 24. “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Carl W. Buechner 25. ”There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.” – Henri Matisse 26. “Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication” – Leonardo Da Vinci 27. Business has only...
Posted by Managementguru in Business Management, Entrepreneurship, Human Resource, Organisational behaviour, Principles of Management, Training & Development
on Mar 30th, 2014 | 0 comments
Values and Beliefs in Organizations What are Values and Beliefs in an Organization: An organisational value is “a belief that a specific mode of conduct is preferable to an opposite or contrary mode of conduct.” Infosys Narayanamoorthy on Value System : Our team was unique in our commitment to a strong value system. We believed in putting the interest of the company ahead of our own interest. We believed in legal and ethical business. A sound value system is what differentiates long-term players from others. Core Values of an Organization: Increasingly, organizations are setting out the core values that they think should govern the behavior of all their employees. Value statements may be produced which define core values in areas such as: Care for customers Concern for people Competitiveness Enterprising Excellence Flexibility Growth as a major objective Innovation Market/customer orientation Productivity Quality Teamwork But, is that all? By just defining what you think is important to guide the action of your employees may not suffice the cause. How do you put them into action! That’s where the secret lies. Imitating the Boss: How do you make people do what you want them to do! Just by being a precedence or role model for your followers, is that not true? The best example that can be cited is the school atmosphere, where the kids take to their teachers. They simply, blindly follow or imitate whatever their masters do. I think IMITATION is the right word, because it makes people easily inclined to the behavior that is appreciated by the organisation’s atmosphere. When you imitate your boss you get a surreal feeling of being a boss at least for that time being. Coercion is not the Right Approach: It is a general fact that it is very difficult to train or mould people the way we want to. And again it can be argued that people can be trained or molded very easily when you have the right kind of motivation and guidance. The core values should be INBUILT; it should be there RIGHT FROM THE START. If you have able managers to run your teams it becomes a cake walk for you to train the individuals without much COERCION. The authority and influence which the team leader has over the team says it all. Influencing the Employees the Right Way: Everybody in an organization plays their own role in cherishing the values imbibed and focus on achieving results, and keenness to “GET GOING AND KEEP GOING”. High work output is expected from a clerical staff, the Supervisor can be depended on for effective organization and control of teams and their work. THE MANAGER is clear about what “success “means for the business and is resourceful in overcoming obstacles. THE SENIOR MANAGER maintains focus on the “BOTTOM LINE” despite continuous changes to procedures and systems, and the EXECUTIVE is focused on results even when dealing with very diverse complex tasks and proactive in tackling mistakes. Performance of Value Oriented Organizations: Value Oriented Organisations perform definitely better than others and achieve their targets in a quick manner. Values give direction to the firm backed up by solid principles to guide the action of the employees and also the commitment and determination to achieve whatever is due. Reliance Industries Limited stands as a testimony for a single man’s dream and vision and his core value was CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. To scale to greater heights, you also need STRONG WILLED PEOPLE RIGHT ATTITUDE ACTION PLANS STRATEGIES PERSISTENCE DETERMINATION and PASSION Values add integrity and honor to your organization and you should always remember that to hold your values you...
Posted by Managementguru in Business Management, Human Resource, Organisational behaviour, Principles of Management, Training & Development
on Mar 22nd, 2014 | 0 comments
How to create an effective and Sustainable Model for Training and Development? The term “change” is synonymous with competitiveness in modern world and thus corporate firms are in a position to evolve unique, sustainable and strategic training model for employees that will facilitate the following: On one hand the training process motivates the suitable employees to perform well and makes them perceive their role properly in order to accomplish the enterprise objectives. On the other hand the organisation keeps itself abreast by constantly updating and understanding the training needs through Assessment of the external environment and Expectations of the employees in terms of rewards whether intrinsic or extrinsic. Porter and Lawler Model: The Expectancy Motivation Model of Porter and Lawler serves as an inspiration for effective training. The stress is on The value placed on performance outcome by the individual. The degree to which the individual believes that his efforts will lead to attainment of these rewards. Psychological aspect of this model: Almost all individuals are motivated by money ( by the way, Who doesn’t want money!). But money alone does not serve the purpose of motivation. Job satisfaction is a relative term in that different people find different things or elements motivating them in their work environment leading to job satisfaction. It might be Challenge Good inter personal relationship Pay Perks Culture Excellent leader Pressure Stress and the like… Assessment of training need: The training needs must be assessed by the respective organisations considering the following aspects: To transform the individual from the capacity of learner to executor Instil in him confidence to do the job well Relate his job to rewards so that he will try to excel Give your employees scope for career advancement Incorporate technical and technological innovations as part of your training process Physical, emotional and social elements in the internal as well as the external environment must be taken into consideration while training the workforce. Physical– relates to the physical fitness needed to perform the technical skills Psychological– relates to keeping the morale of the employees high at all points and maintaining an amiable work atmosphere Social– relates to the friendly relationship that should exist between the trainer and the trainees and among the trainees. Usefulness of the model: This model lends its support to the training and development process through three steps or stages. Diagnosis stage- Need analysis Formulation stage- Programme planning Evaluation Diagnosis stage: The interplay of ability and role perception Training brings out EFFICIENT as well as DEFICIENT performers. That is one good thing and also making the employee understand the role he is about to play as part of the organisation. Training through learning is one aspect which imparts knowledge and training is considered to be effective if one’s behaviour is modified as per the expectations and demands of the job. Role perception can be misunderstood by some individuals when they might try to exercise undue authority or overlook their duties and responsibilities. Confinement of authority Superior-Subordinate appraisal procedures Clear HR policy formulations are needed to avoid confusion and chaos in role playing. Formulation stage: The effected change through learning is expected to be retained by the employees throughout the career span in the organisation followed by constant grooming. The stress is on the value of the activity to be learnt Giving feedback on the progress of employees towards final training objectives Relate the learning activity to increasing, meaningful materials already studied outside the training programme. Evaluation stage: Training evaluation is particularly necessary when the organisation wants to encourage the competitive spirit amongst the trainers and evaluation is considered as a challenge by itself. If the training provided eliminates obstacles...
Posted by Managementguru in Change management, Human Resource, Principles of Management, Project Management, TQM, Training & Development
on Mar 22nd, 2014 | 0 comments
Zero defect achievement – Striving towards perfection! What is TQM: Quality management is all about being proactive and concepts like total quality management and six sigma of recent origin reiterate the fact that hundred percent error free performance is possible the first time and every time. This is what is called as zero defect achievement which most of the companies at corporate level are headed for. The intention is to strive for perfection in work, the way an archer aims for the bull’s eye on a target. It is time for people to cast off their conservative and archaic business practices and think out of the box to enjoy a sustainable competitive advantage driven by quality. Zero defects seek top performance standards the first time and every time. Management scholars offer several suggestions to improve the zero defects programme: The idea of zero defects programme has to be communicated through out the organization right from the top to the bottom level including managers, supervisors and workers. This would harmonize the functions of line and staff. Prerequisites needed for the programme have to be determined and made available. The culture and climate of the firm should be conducive to accomplish the programme. Explain in simple terms about the functions to be accomplished. Design some solid system of recognition. Set up a time schedule as time lines are very important when it comes to product delivery. Spot all the bottlenecks and remove them. Training is absolutely essential– the skill set and mind set of the employees have to be attuned to the goals of the venture. Mock training and rehearsals are helpful. Standardization is the key to the success of this programme. Bench Marking: Total quality management is a process contributing towards quality and bench marking is a means to achieve high quality performance by setting some top notch industry performers as reference points or standards. It is a continuous systematic process employed by a business enterprise to develop business and working processes that integrate the best practices available in the industry. Bench marking is a crucial element in the process of quality management. Quality is one field of production, which reflects the ethical viewpoint and approach of business firms towards the society and other investors or stakeholders. Bench marking is a modus operandi used to: Identify and define customer requirements Plan and establish effective goals and objectives Develop time measures of productivity Become more competitive Determine industry’s best practice The initial step is to decide what is to be bench marked-the product, services, customers or business processes in various departments. The second phase of action is to identify and select your competitors who will set the necessary precedence. With that as reference, decide on your company’s strategies by making meaningful and valid comparisons. Judge the competitor strengths and weaknesses and compare them with that of your own to get a clear picture of your current performance levels and capabilities. This will give you a clear indication on the action plans to be developed and implemented in a phased manner by your organization. Quality management is likely to happen only when all the employees of the organization work as a team with unified principles. Quality demands deep commitment and responsibility from the members of organizations. It calls for intense training to imprint the perception of quality in the minds of...