Introduction:
Companies have relied upon Branding as a powerful tool for
providing a differentiated offering. Branding has been around for centuries
as a means to distinguish the goods of one producer from those of another. Today,
the market scenario is a Battleground for various competitors who have commoditized
products across various Sectors of the Industry. Intensive usage of Technological
advances through Research and Development have made firms to achieve a stage
where imitation of product features is easy and a sustained market monopoly
has almost vanquished. The biggest issue and challenge facing manufacturers
today from a marketing perspective is: How is it possible to differentiate a
commodity so that their business rises above commodity market place and persuade
some buyers to pay a premium for the offering over an extended period of time.
Branding is a key defense against “Commoditization” – a situation
in which a company’s products and services become perceived by users as being
interchangeable with those of other companies, so buying decisions become driven
by price. Branding will help you "fence off" your
customers from the competition and protect your market share while building
mind share. Once you have mind share, you customers will automatically think
of you first when they think of your product category. Over-cluttering of advertisements,
varied promotional schemes and Price Wars have rather created confusion in the
minds of the customers. Gone are the days when companies used Advertising as
a tool for influencing the Customers Purchase decision. This has thereby affected
their decision making process making it more and more complex in nature.
Thus it is very essential to communicate the various aspects of the brand to
the potential customers. This research project has been carried out to address
the significance and role of Below & Above-the-line Communication Efforts
in influencing a firm’s brand building activities with special emphasis on the
Color Television Industry in India. Below-the-line promos are differentiated
from Above-the-line activity by the simple fact that no commissions are paid.
These cover direct marketing, promotions, events, loyalty programs- all activities
that do no involve mass media.
From the exploratory study of various Brand Building and Communication
Strategies, of the different companies operating in the Color Television Industry
in India, various tools & factors were identified that can serve as a mode
of differentiation. Also a descriptive research was carried out to find the
impact and effectiveness of various Below & Above-the-line Communication
Efforts from these companies on Brand Building with respect to Brand Awareness,
Image and future Purchase Intentions.
From the study it has been found that Above-the-line Communication efforts
have a significant influence in creating a strong brand awareness however they
do not have a significant impact in influencing the future purchase decisions.
Below-the-line communication efforts on the other hand significantly influence
the brand preference and eventually the future purchase decisions of the consumers
in the consumer durable industry. Advertising can get your information across
to the consumers, however there is a need to back them up with ground-level
activities that enables the company to make a direct grab for the customer.
Below-the-line efforts tend to create more interaction between the customer
and a company, creating powerful, long term loyalties and profit. Advertising
as a tool, may be useful in maintaining a brand however advertising for launch,
reposition or brand building is ineffectual. What works in branding today is
publicity, not advertising. A new band must be capable of generating favorable
publicity in the media or it won’t have a chance in the marketplace. The best
way to generate publicity is by being first. What others say about your brand
is so much more powerful than what you can say about it yourself. That’s why
publicity in general is more powerful than advertising.
Number of Pages of Project Report: 89
Package Includes: Synopsis/Project Proposal + Project Report
Synopsis Available: Yes
Project Format: Document (.doc)
Table of Contents of Project Report:
- Executive Summary
CHAPTER I: Introduction
1.1 Relevance of Branding: A brief overview
1.2 Brand Building: Conceptual Framework
1.3 Brand Building and its components
1.4 Review of literature
1.5 Rationale For The Study
1.6 Objectives of the study
1.7 Organization of the study
CHAPTER II
2.1 Scope of the study
2.2 Hypothesis formulation
2.3 Research design
2.4 Research Assumptions
2.5 Sources of Data
2.6 Data collection procedure
2.7 Sampling Framework
2.8 Statistical Tools and Techniques
CHAPTER III
3.1 Color Television Industry: Overview
3.2 Brand Building Strategies
(a) LG Electronics India Pvt. Ltd
(b) ONIDA
(c) Samsung Electronics India Ltd.
CHAPTER IV
4.1 Analysis & Findings
CHAPTER V
5.1 Conclusion
5.2 Recommendation
5.3 Limitation
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
