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Image analysis as a base for brand profiling marketing essay

This study evaluates the role of international image analysis in brand profiling and a case study of a luxury car will be analyzed utilizing its conceptual foundations. Brand building becomes more and more important. The value of some brands is even higher than their book value. In a global market place, only a few companies have the means to invest into building one global brand like Mercedes-Benz or Coca-Cola. A company like Bentley, although part of

Volkswagen, has not the financial means to invest into that process.

Consequently, Bentleys influence in terms of brand building is only limited. It can be expected that the perception of Bentley Motors differs from market to market. A Bentley to a customer in for example Switzerland (a mature market) means something completely different than to a customer in Russia or Ukraine (new markets).

1. 2 Definitions of Relevant Terms

Brand – it is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller of group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.

Brand name – it is that part of a brand that can be vocalized and is utterable. Examples of brand names are Avon, Chevrolet, Tide, and American Express.

Brand mark – it is that part of a brand which can be recognized but is not utterable such as symbol, design, or distinctive coloring or lettering. Examples are the Pillsbury doughboy, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion, and the distinctive red K we see on a Kodak film box.

Trademark – it is a brand or part of a brand that is given legal protection. It protects the seller’s exclusive rights to use the brand name or brand mark.

Copyright – it is the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, and sell the matter and form of a literary, musical or artistic work.

Objectives and Procedure / Structure of the thesis

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the different perception of the brand Bentley within different markets. Since it is rather hard to get hold of Bentley customers, this work will be based on dealer interviews. The dealer interviews happened a year ago with more or less the same target: To understand the different perceptions of Bentley within different market places.

The structure of the thesis is that the study is organized into four chapters. Chapter one discussed the problem and its relevance as well as its objectives and procedures. Chapter two discusses the theoretical foundation of the study and Chapter three analyzes the case study of Bentley in terms of its brand history, brand identity, market situation, target positioning. The results of the interviews will be analyzed. In addition, the research design will also be explained.

Finally, Chapter four discusses the conclusion as well as the recommendations of the study.

CHAPTER TWO: CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF BRAND MANAGEMENT

2. 1 Objectives of Brand Management

The objectives of brand management is to create a brand that is acceptable to the market as well as to position the brand to a targeted market considering its unique selling position (USP).

2. 2 Brand Management

Consumers view a brand as an important part of the product and branding can add value to the product. As such, branding decisions are an important part of product strategy. A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller of group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. A brand name is that part of a brand that can be vocalized and is utterable. Examples of brand names are Avon, Chevrolet, Tide, and American Express (Kotler, 1994)

A brand mark is that part of a brand which can be recognized but is not utterable such as symbol, design, or distinctive coloring or lettering. Examples are the Pillsbury doughboy, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion, and the distinctive red K we see on a Kodak film box. A trademark is a brand or part of a brand that is given legal protection. It protects the seller’s exclusive rights to use the brand name or brand mark. Finally, a copyright is the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, and sell the matter and form of a literary, musical or artistic work (Kotler, 1994).

Branding poses difficult decisions to the marketer.

The company must first decide whether it should put a brand name on its product. Historically, most products went unbranded. Producers and businessmen sold their goods directly out of barrels, bins, and cases without supplier identification. Branding’s real growth occurred after the Civil War with the growth of national firms and national advertising media. Some of the early brands still survive, such as Borden’s Condensed Milk, Quaker Oats, Vaseline, and Ivory Soap (Kotler, 1994).

Branding has grown so strong that today almost everything is branded. Salt is packaged in branded containers, common nuts and bolts are packaged with a distributor’s label, and automobile parts bear brand names that differ from those of the automakers.

In the 1970s, there was a return to “ no branding” of certain consumer products and these are called as generics and they plainly packaged with no manufacturer’s identification. The purpose of generics is to decrease the price of the products by saving on packaging and advertising. However, this also raised some questions. Why have branding in the first place? Who benefits? At what cost? Branding helps buyers in many ways such as informing the buyer about product quality and that this quality is assured if he or she buys the same branded product (Kotler, 1994; Lamb, 1984; David, 1989).

2. 3 Challenges of Brand Management in the International Market (to be continued)

CHAPTER 3: CASE STUDY BENTLEY MOTORS

3. 1 Empirical Analysis of Bentley’s Positioning

3. 1. 1 History of the Brand of Bentley

The history of the brand of Bentley can be seen in Figure 1. It can be seen in the figure that in the 1920s, the Bentley brand was “ Blue Train” and in the 1930s the “ Mark V” which is considered as the “ the Silent Sportscar.” In the 1940s, it was renamed as “ Mark VI and in the 1950s, the R-Type Continental was introduced as well as the S-series.

During the 1960s, the T series were launched and in the 1970s, the Corniche Convertible was also initiated. In 1982, the Muissane Turbo brand was introduced and in 1984 the “ Eight” brand was also made. In 1985, another brand which was the “ M. Turbo R” was launched and in 1987, the Muissane S brand was initiated.

During the 1990s, new brands were also introduced such as the Continental, Brooklands, Azure, and Arnage. In 2002, the Arnage T/TR/RL were introduced and in 2003, the Continental GT brand was also introduced. In 2005, The Continental Flying Spur brand and the Azure brands were also made. Also, in 2006, the Continental GTC brand as an innovation was also started. Finally, in 2007, the Brooklands brand was also relaunched.

Figure 1 Bentley Brand History

3. 1. 2 Brand Identity of Bentley

The brand identity of Bentley is illustrated in Figure 2. It can be seen in the figure that the brand is being identified from racing, driving, power, design, and craftsmanship. It’s selling position is being focused on its relaxing refinement and its exhilarating performance.

Figure 2 The Bentley Brand Identity

3. 1. 4 Target Positioning of Bentley

The target positioning of Bentley can be found in the figure below:

3. 2 Design of Empirical Survey

This study utilizes qualitative research and analysis. The results of the interviews have been analyzed qualitatively and each interviewee quoted in the analysis. Documentary analysis has been used in describing and analyzing data and information related to the case study. Definition of secondary data is information that could be found on the internet websites, newspapers, electronic journals, magazines and books for the necessary data that already exist and of relevance to the report (Corbetta, 2003).

In this report, the author collected all the relevant information first before going into primary research, so that there was be no waste of time and money to recollect the same type of information that already existed in books or journals. Primary research on doing studies on data that had not been collected before and is not available as secondary data. Primary research can be done using qualitative approaches like interviews or observation and quantitative approaches, for example questionnaires or surveys to collect information (Denscombe, 2003).

Interviews

According to Thomas (2003), an interview would have three advantages. The first advantage would be having a greater flexibility and personal control, for example, when the interviewee would be unclear about the question, the interviewee could ask the interviewer to explain the question more clearly. Furthermore, the interviewee could easily elaborate on the answers which would not be possible in the questionnaires or surveys, for example, some people could not use words to elaborate what they wanted to say, but by having a conversation with the interviewer, elaboration of answers could be obtained. The second advantage would be one-on-one interview. This will usually be more effective in eliciting the interviewee’s sincere participation in a research project. Lastly, interviews would be more efficient for collecting information about people’s knowledge, personal backgrounds and opinions. For example, during the interview, one could see and hear the tone of the interviewee, thus there would be better understanding of their background and opinions. This would help to gather information in a more ethical way as it would not pry into their privacy.

As such, the main method of research that will be utilized this study is the interview method wherein participants’ interviews as regard to the image of Bentley will be used in analyzing the brand profiling of the product being investigated. The guidelines for interview can be found at the appendix.

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