Brand Exploratory

Discuss about the Case Study for Brand Management of Owned Companies Management.

LEGO group is one of the renowned family owned companies occupying a predominant place in the realm of manufacturing industry. LEGO has started its journey in the year 1932 and created a recognizable image among the manufacturing companies. Headquartered in Denmark, Lego aims to develop the mental growth of those children. For this purpose, the products have been designed in such a way that children would like to show their interest to purchase these products. The products and services of LEGO have already created a craze in the current market. The play materials have been designed by making numerous innovative plans and ideas. Children have to apply their mind while using the play material of this particular organization.

After the innovation of ‘LEGO bricks’, children from different geographical areas have showed their immense positive response towards the brand value of LEGO (LEGO.com, 2016). Moreover, along with maintaining the quality of product, the service providers of this particular organization tend to maintain an effective communication with the customers. Quality service is one of the major parts of raising the brand awareness. After enhancing the demand of market, this particular organization has intended to change their brand strategy as well as pricing strategy as well. The products have been decided to be promoted in such a way that people from different geographical boundary can easily make the best use of those products.

Brand exploratory is the major source of research, based on which an individual can understand the opinion and perception of consumers regarding the equity and reliability of a particular brand (Annie Jin, 2012). In order to understand what customers are thinking about this specific brand or product, the company tends to focus on several factors that include:

Customer awareness:

Customer awareness is the integrated part of organizations’ marketing and communication plan with the help of which the marketing executives tend to reach the doorstep of customers. IMC managers intend to make an effective communication strategy by maintaining the following steps. These are as follows:

Position of the brand:

Brand positioning has been considered as one of the most effective marketing strategies based on which the company can reach their product or brand to the doorsteps of different customers. In order to position a brand properly in the market, the marketing executives have to be concerned into some of the major factors that include:

Customer Awareness

Use the platform for brand promotion:

Organizations should use the popularity of media based on which the brands can create a market demand (Sola, 2012). Media is nothing but the tool with the help of which the customers would be able to know necessary information on the reliability of products. LEGO generally intends to utilize the popularity of electronic media as well as new media both. Children are not well accustomed in operating new technologies (Balmer, 2012). Therefore, the organization has decided to use the platform of electronic media so that the children can also show their interest for purchasing these kinds of innovative products.

Effective communication is highly important in order to collect the feedback of customers as well as making an effective interaction with them. Apart from the platforms of media, LEGO believes in direct marketing based on which they can communication directly with the customers (Dinnie, 2015). The marketing executives like to visit directly with the target consumers in order to communicate with them for colleting an immediate feedback. After promoting the product with the help of direct marketing, the sales executives get the opportunity to interact with the target audience directly in order to know their needs and demands (Selnes, 2013). Based on the needs of customers, LEGO tends to re-form their brand strategy and policy. With the dynamic progress of civilization, the needs and demands of the customers are changing day-by-day. Effective communication is the major tools to keep a constant update about changing needs and demands of the customers.

Target market:

Target market is the selected group that a specific company wants to select as their future or chosen customers. Before analyzing the target market LEGO has primarily selected three aspects as a matter of consideration in order to enhance customer awareness. These include:

Demographic:

As per demographic market segmentation, LEGO has chosen 3 years to 15 years age group customers for their target market (Rosenbaum-Elliott et al., 2015). People having average income level would be able to afford various innovative toys for the customers.

Geographic:

Geographic market segmentation is primarily concerned with the market size and the progress of market based on which LEGO can promote their brand (Qian, 2014). Apart from Denmark, the brand managers of LEGO have to decide expand their business in Enfield, USA, UK, Shanghai, China, Singapore and so on. The marketing size of these areas is vast and wide (ErdoÄŸmuÅŸ & Cicek, 2012). Therefore, marketing executives of this organization has decided target those geographic areas for circulating their creative toys. 

Position of the brand

Psychographic:

Psychographic target market segmentation is based on the values, culture and beliefs of people. The playing materials that have been designed by the product designers of LEGO do not follow any kind of religious gender biasness (Loureiro, Ruediger & Demetris, 2012). The products have been designed in such a way that people from various cultures and backgrounds would like to show their interest for purchasing products and services.

Brand association:

Brand association is the attributes with the help of which customers get a positive vibrant from the specific brands. Customers in general tend to provide their positive feedback in using the products and services only when they get a positive response from the celebrities or legend personalities.

Brand performance and personality:

After conducting a market survey, the IMC managers of LEGO has evaluated that, a large number of customers from different countries have showed their positive response both on the brand quality as well as brand services. Therefore, it is evident that the product manufacturing strategy made by the brand managers of LEGO is getting successful day-by-day.

In order to create a personality of a particular brand, celebrity endorsement has been considered as one of the major tools (Gatti, Caruana & Snehota, 2012). Celebrities help to create a demand in the market. LEGO in order to promote the brand in various countries tend to utilize the popularity of celebrities. The ICM managers intend to promote the brand in various countries with the help of media so that people from different geographical boundaries can get an in-depth overview about the reliability of brands.

Portfolio of the brand:

As per the current market situation, LEGO has become one of the leading toy makers among numerous renowned toy-manufacturing companies around 55 countries. This particular group from the very beginning tries to maintain brand value strategy within the organization based on which the manufacturers have provided many innovative, interesting as well as creative playing materials to the target customers (Freling & Forbes, 2013).

Before maintaining the promotional activities, LEGO should conduct, an effective market survey based on which they would be able to position their brand more effectively than the competitors. The entire business process and the products of LEGO are based on new technology. In order to position the brand amidst competitive market, the steps that LEGO should follow are like this:

Using the popularity of digital media; various platforms of social media would help to reach the games of LEGO to the people of various geographical boundary

Use the platform for brand promotion

Using hoardings, banners in order to make an effective offline promotion

Maintaining personal selling as well as direct marketing for collecting an immediate feedback from the customers

In order to form an effective brand strategy, the product managers like to make an internal analysis to acquire knowledge on strength, weakness, opportunity and threat of the company for manufacturing and circulating innovative toys to the children.

Table 1: SWOT Analysis

(Source: Iglesias & Bonet, 2012)

Summation of SWOT analysis:

After conducting an effective SWOT analysis, it can be evaluated that LEGO has already created an impression in the realm of toy manufacturing industry among almost 55 countries. At the same time, it is undeniable that this particular company is very much restricted within stipulated target market. People who are not accustomed with advanced technology would not be able to use the service as well as products of LEGO. Therefore, stipulated target customers have become a major threat for this organization. As a result, the online games of LEGO had faced a serious downfall in the share market. In order to overcome the competitor’s market threat, LEGO should enhance their range of target customers.

Conclusion:

This particular study has provided an in-depth overview about the importance of brand management. Maintaining the quality of products and services can never be the suitable ways of rendering organizational success. In order to reach the brand to the doorstep of consumers the brand managers have to know the major ways of promotion based on which the customers can show their interest for purchasing the products. This particular study has focused to discuss the brand management strategies and policies of LEGO with the help of which the organization has drawn the attention of customers. Before promoting the product in various countries, LEGO has made effective target market segmentation as per the geographic, psychographic and demographic market structure.  

After evaluating the entire brand management strategy, some of the necessary recommendations can be provided. The recommendations are as follows:

• Choosing the appropriate media vehicle:

In order to reach the customers properly, the business organizations should use the popularity of media platform. The target customers of LEGO are very much restricted to 3 to 15 age group of people. Therefore, electronic media has been chosen as primary media vehicle based on which this particular group can draw customers’ attention. Children show their interest in watching television at their leisure. Therefore, late evening has been chosen as their prime time for promoting the brands of LEGO. In addition, new media has also been given a priority for creating effective brand awareness. By utilizing the popularity of digital media, people can easily draw the attention of people from different geographical areas. As a result, LEGO group would be able to expand their entire business process in the global market as well.

• Conducting the effective market survey:

Maintain effective communication

Before creating a brand strategy, LEGO’s marketing executives should always conduct an effective market survey with the gap of few days. With the help of market survey, the sales executives are able to collect customers’ feedback, be it positive. Positive feedback always remains as the motivational factors for every organization (Kapferer, 2012). On the other hand, based on the negative feedback, the brand managers should re-think on the promotional strategy and policy. As per the needs and demands of the customers, the managers should amend the brand strategies. Therefore, market survey is highly important for collecting the in-general response of the target customers.

• Maintaining effective customer service relation:

Along with maintaining product quality, the service providers should also take into consideration on how to maintain customer relation. Customer service system is one of the most effective processes based on which most of the customers tend to show their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Kelley, Sheehan & Jugenheimer, 2015). LEGO has created recognition as one of the best toy-manufacturing makers. Therefore, maintaining effective communication with the customers is one of the most effective tools of following customer relation. In addition, the service providers should make a balance between the supply and demand of the products. The customers should never wait for a long time in order to use the service from the organization.

Brand management is the primary concern of this particular study. The primary aim of LEGO is to develop the mental skill and ability of children. Therefore, the product designers have decided to design the toys in such a way that it can draw the attention of the children easily. Before attracting the children, an effective brand promotion is highly needed to reach the customers. Therefore, the product managers have decided to use the popularity of electronic media in order to maintain the promotional activities effectively. In addition, the study has focused to make a clear evaluation on brand exploratory process.

Brand exploratory is the systematic procedure, based on which the market executives can select brand positioning, target market, brand portfolio, brand personality and so many. Before making the brand strategy, an effective SWOT analysis has been conducted in order to get an overview about the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats of LEGO. Based on the weakness and threat of the company, the brand managers tend to form their marketing or promotional strategy. Both the electronic media and digital media have been considered as one of the most effective pathways for creating brand awareness in the mind of children.

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