MBA in 2 minutes | Lesson 5: Protecting your brand

We will be solving practical challenges through MBA concepts. No theory only applications !

Many people study MBA to make foray in the magic world of marketing. Well with this lesson, I will share a key business take-away on how to safeguard your brand.

Step 1

In many FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) or automobile companies, firms have a renowned monopoly brand in a category. For eg: Lux, Surf Excel, Cinthol, Wheel etc. are all brand names and lets say Santoor soap is high selling brand in middle income segment.

However, standing alone at the top is usually a life full of insecurities and fear (some gyaan :p). You are cautious whether other firms might attack your brand from bottom.

Santoor might want to protect itself from other brand's monopoly in low income segment because with macroeconomic growth low income people using another brand (eg, Lux) will become middle income in future.

Step 2

In such scenario, branding and product teams talk to each other for brand extension i.e. new product under same brand name.

Infact folks interested in marketing should know that brand not only deals with communication around product but is also involved in sharing consumer demand insights with product department on new product launch.

Step 3

To protect itself, firms launch a brand called flanker brand leveraging existing brand equity. We can hypothetically say here to launch "Santoor Safed" for lower income,which will be cheaper and most importantly hold fort for Main Santoor in middle income segment. This is how many companies launch an inferior product which hold fort against nearest competitors and safeguards their main high selling brand.

I find this concept of protecting brand so interesting that it could be applied in our lives also. If you yourself are a brand, what tools in your life have you used to safeguard it ? You can write in comments below, perhaps someone might be able to take a leaf from your new book on branding.

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