Brand elements for managing fast food restaurant

Brand elements for managing fast food restaurant Brand Management is the method of applying activities to products, and brands which will help enhance and maintain brand equity. Brand management is a very big topic, out of it comes many roots and are called brand elements, such as brand equity, brand research, customer based brand equity model, designing the brand, brand loyalty, brand advertising, brand pricing and etc. A brand which is the logo, name, symbol, and slogan, is supervised by a brand manager. For example, nestle has many products such as tea, milk, and ice cream, each brand of these has a brand manager who is responsible for it. Brand can also be physical feeling such as packaging, physical appearance and guarantees, not just a name that pops up into a consumer mind (Aaker and Biel 1993:33) .In 1980s people started to realize that the weight of the company is measured by its brand, and not by its physical assets (Kapferer 2008:18), Brand success is measured by its ability to maintain in a good position in the market a nd never leave a customer mind. The five stages of brand cycle measures whether the brand is succeeding or not: (Benson ,2006) The brand definition. The awareness experience. The buying experience. The using and service experience. The membership experience. (Benson ,2006) In order to define the brand and how its perceived by customers there are certain components which will help brand management understand how the brands are defined by the consumer: Who: the primary and valuable target customer for the product or service. What: features, capabilities, and offerings that are being offered. Why: customer make use of the benefit provided by the brand. How: the approach makes use of delivering the promise. (Benson,2006) Brand management must be careful when setting brands in different countries, because, brands maybe viewed differently by people according to their cultures, beliefs, values, and traditions. All of these points should be taken into consideration carefully because they can lead to failure or success of the band. Brand managers should study carefully where they are trying to position their brand, and who are the consumers that are going to be targeted, so that any misunderstanding of the brand could be avoided. Here are examples of how brand names are perceived differently from country to another: In Spain Mitsubishi Pajero is an insulting word while in Arab countries its a normal word. So here there is a problem which needs brand managers to get involved inorder to settle this misunderstanding. McDonalds all around the world is in a red color, but there is a state in USA were they perceive the red color as violence, so in order to solve this problem, McDonalds changed their color in this state into blue. Literature Review Brand Equity First of all I will define what is brand equity which is the value and weight of the brand to the consumer and how they are loyal to it. Perception and feelings toward a product and its performance is represented by brands, so brands are not just symbols and names they are the fundamentals for a company to acquire a strong relationship with the consumer. (Kotler 2008:230). Building strong brands is very important inorder to have the ability to survive and succeed in the market and be able to compete with other strong brands, their is a process to follow which will assist in building a strong brand they are : Brand positioning Brand managers their mission is to try positioning their brand in the consumers mind. The positioning of the brand comes at three levels which are attributes, benefits, beliefs and values. Attributes are the weakest level to position a brand (Kotler 2008:231). These days most of the competitors are copying each other attributes, but the thing they are missing here is that consumers no longer interested in the attributes it self but they are interested in what will the attributes help them to acheive. Benefits are the out comes that the consumer will get when using a certain brand. Beliefs and values are related to emotions, its about how purchasing these products empowers its socially conscious customer (Kotler 2008:232). Brand Name Selection A well choosen brand name can give a push to a brands success, but to find a name which will help in the success is very difficult (Kotler 2008:232). To choose a brand name we should take these following points into consideration: Simplisity in pronouncing the brand name, memorizing, and recognizing it. (Kotler 2008:232) A brand name should be unique. Simplisity in transalating it to other languages and at the same time avoiding, the misunderstanding of the names in different countries. Expanding the brand name by, widning the activities of the company. Brand sponsorship Brand sponsorship is very important, because it creates a kind of attraction and spreads the brand world wide, sponsoship could be involved in many events: Matches Concerts Tv. Show program Football players kit Brand Development When companies are willing to develop their brands, Their are ways to do it: Line extension: it happens when companies would like to extend the existing brand names to new, colors, sizes, forms, flavors, and etc (Kotler 2008:237). Brand extensions: extending the brands that are avaible right now to new products in a new category (Kotler 2008:237). Customer Based Brand Equity Their are questions that should be asked, regarding howa create a strong brand? And what other ways we could use to build strong brands? The CBBE model approaches brand equity from the perspective of the consumer, whether the consumer is an individual or an organization. Understanding the needs and wants of consumer and organization, and being able to satisfy them is the heart of successful marketing (Keller2008:48). D:Folderspictures83888258_80b2635f61.jpg . (Haddad 2008:24) The Customer based brand Equity was designed to be: Comprehensive ( Haddad 2008: 22) Cohesive ( Haddad 2008:22) Up to date ( Haddad 2008:22) Actionable ( Haddad 2008:22) Identifying each part of the CBBE pyramid: Salience: the brand awareness measurement. (Keller 2008:60) Performance: are the products and service meeting the customer. (Keller 2008:65) Imagery: are the ways in which the brand meets the psychological and social need of the customer. (Keller 2008:65) Judgments: the evaluation and the opinion of the customer towards the brand. (Keller 2008:67) Feelings: the response and reaction of the brand towards the customer. ( Keller 2008:68) Resonance: The relationship that the customer feels with the brand. ( Keller 2008:72) Brand Research Brand research is used to identify the feeling of the consumers towards the brand, which customers purchase the product, what other brands are competing with your brand. The need to know about the present customers: Why they choose your brand? Are they going to repurchase it? How are they using the product? Where do your customers purchase the products? (Haddad 2008:11) The best way to describe the consumers is through the segmentation variables which are geographic (nations, countries, neighbors, city), demographic (education, age, sex, income), psychographic (The market is being divided based on the personality) (belch2009: 51), Behavioristic( the consumers are divided into groups according to their loyalties, buying of the product, and usage) (belch2009: 52 ). There are other methods used to make research: Qualitative research: exploring the areas where knowledge doesnt exist. ( Tench Yeomans 2009: 204) Advantages Disadvantages Identify unknown information It takes a lot of time Provide insight into motivation Requires large amount of money Quantitative research: The results are expressed in numbers. ( Tench Yeomans 2009: 204) Advantages Disadvantage Generate comparable results Could mislead to irrelevant directions Clients have a higher percentage of accepting it Cant go into deeper analysis Brand Advertising Brand advertising increases the recognition of the consumers towards the brand; its also the generator which helps the business to succeed. Most of the owners, who own businesses, think of the brand as a logo with color and a slogan. They dont understand the relation between the brand and the consumer. The brands that really succeed are the ones which have emotional relationship with the consumer. So successful brand advertising is about how to make the consumer reach the emotional relationship with the brand. Owners might feel that their brand is credible and trustworthy but this is not enough, because they cant think from their own perspective, trustworthiness should reach customers in order to achieve brand loyalty and a strong brand. (Long, 2009) Forms of brand advertising: Television. Radio. Print ads. Internet. Bill boards. Banners. Relating brand elements to McDonalds( restaurant) How does McDonalds build brand equity? Advertising, building relationship with consumers, building trust, good service, trying to make our products affordable as much as possible to everyone, participating in community activities and fund raising, all of these factors will improve our image and create a strong brand. How are you going to build a strong brand using the brand strategy decisions? Brand positioning comes in three levels as I mentioned above, attribute (McDonalds are not just concentrating on their food attributes because, there are many junk food businesses who produce same attributes). Benefits (are what McDonalds concentrating on, they care about their food taste, freshness, place neatness and cleanness, and the satisfaction of customers after finishing their meal). Beliefs and values (in Egypt McDonalds dont offer pork meat because its against people values and beliefs). Brand name selection McDonalds is an easy name which could be memorized its very simple and kind of funny, this brand name differs from other fast food brand names, because McDonalds is trying to be different than other brand names, by sending message to consumers which is. Consumers can eat all they want, but they can have healthy life by controlling their food. Brand sponsorship McDonalds sponsors football teams, world cup 2010, it concentrates more on athletic activities and events so that they can create a healthy brand image. Brand development McDonalds are always trying to develop their products by having the best taste and reasonable price, developing their service by having the fastest home delivery service in Egypt. Developing their ads by making it more funnier and simple. How can McDonalds create successful customer based brand equity (CBBE?) Salience: consumers perceived McDonalds 43% best, 43% not bad, 14% bad. Performance: McDonalds target all consumer ages, and they also target class A, B, and C. Sandwiches prices The service in McDonalds is very fast in different ways, its the fastest delivery in Egypt, fastest problem response, and one of the best employee customer relationship. The style and design of the place is very clean, neat, and makes you happy and comfortable while sitting inside. Imagery McDonalds in Egypt started 15 years ago, and established 60 restaurants till now. McDonalds offer their products according to consumers values, beliefs, and cultures. For example in Ramadan, McDonalds offer iftar menu for people who are fasting. In Christmas they offer siyamy menu which is fillet fish. There are obstacles which are being faced trying to adopt another countries food, in Thailand McDonalds offer shrimps sandwiches because its their traditional food over there, you cant make consumers in Egypt adopt seafood sandwiches from McDonalds because its not their traditional food over here. Feelings McDonalds are doing their best to provide excitement and fun for their customers, McDonalds TV. Ads are very funny, during the half time of the matches; TV ads appear so viewers are encouraged to buy meals while they are watching the match. If there is a big match between Egypt and another country McDonalds designs the place with Egyptian flags, and they have artists for people who would like to draw on their faces. Judgments according to what we have mentioned above, customers are happy because we try to meet their need in every possible way, and solve any problem they face with our food or place. McDonalds Is a credible brand because its a very strong competitor all over the world, its the second best competitor in fast food businesses after KFC. Resonance There is a strong relationship with the employees and the customers, employees are always friendly and smiling to customers so that they can make them feel welcome, and they always try to make them comfortable as much as they can. How is Qualitative research being used? Qualitative research is being used to know how consumers see our products (tastes, freshness, new products, and etc.) Service (delivery service, employees relation, and place.) How is quantitative research being used? It provides assistance to know the quantity of combos needed to be increased daily, weekly, and monthly. It also identify what type of products are consumer demanding, the sandwich double big tasty was created using the quantitative research. How do use Advertising to strengthen McDonalds brand? McDonalds advertise mostly on television using simple and funny ads which will attract customers to buy their products. They used to advertise on radio too. McDonalds uses FP7 which is the advertising agency to help them, FP7 is working with McDonalds since 15 years ago, they helped them create the delivery TV ad, and other comedy ads. Off course McDonalds sponsors Egyptian football teams such as: Ghazl el mahala El gaish El masry All of this will help improve the advertising.