Brand development happens after creating brand awareness. Brand development is a long-term marketing strategy meant to build, improve and strengthen the brand image.
Branding differentiates the brand name from the competitors’ brand names. It is the process by which companies distinguish their product offerings from the competition. The way in which a firm differentiates itself from rivals. Branding is a form of differentiating a firm’s products from those of its competitors.
Both brand awareness and brand development help brands to stand out from the other brands on the market. While brand awareness can occur quite quickly, especially with an effective and properly targeted marketing strategy, it takes much longer for a firm to develop a brand and its desired image.
What is brand development?
Brand development is the marketing process of building the brand name by creating a brand strategy that is consistent with strategic vision of the firm, its mission and values.
This approach to developing the brand will make a brand more successful by enlarging it over a long-period of time to ensure that it remains popular and relevant.
Example 1: The Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson products were first launched in the 19th century over 100 years ago, however they still remain highly successful brands today.
Brand development ensures that the firm achieves higher sales revenue and gain more market share.
How to develop a brand?
Brand development must align the brand name with the brand’s core values. In order to develop a brand, businesses often hire brand managers whose main responsibilities are to look after for specific brands.
The business will try to provide a unique, relevant message and cohesive messaging through the brand to current customers and potential customers. This will be done together with adding an element of positive emotional attachment.
Developing a brand includes making changes to key elements of Marketing Mix to align the whole brand image with the brand’s main mission. Changes will be made regarding product positioning, the logo and slogan as well as micro elements representing the brand visually such as such corporate stationery, typography, color palettes, signage, etc.
How to measure brand development?
Brand development is measured by Brand Development Index (BDI).
It measures the infiltration of a product’s sales in a specific area usually per 1,000 people in that area. The percent of the brand’s sales in a particular area is compared with the percent of the country’s population in that area.
Example 2: If 100 people living in the place of 1,000 buy a product, the product has a brand development index of 10% in that area.
Brand Development Index (BDI) indicates where significant groups of a brand’s customers live to help direct marketing efforts to that specific area.
Benefits and costs of brand development
Brand development is a long-term marketing strategy.
Successful brand development helps the firm to make the brand’s message stand out from the noise of the marketplace and capture the consumer’s attention.
It also helps to extend Products Life Cycle (PLC). A really strong brand properly developed over a very long period of time can extend the maturity stage of the product’s life as well as maintain the cash cow position of a product to sustain high level of sales.
While the benefits of brand development are immense, the costs of developing a brand can be extremely high. Firstly, brand building is a marathon rather than a spring as it takes a very long time to develop a brand into the desired one.
Also, while brand owners generally strive to maximize the popularity of their brand names, there is a danger that generic brand names will lead to problems of enforcing copyright protection of the trademark.
The ultimate goal of developing a brand is to make it so famous (or generalized) that people mistake it for the name of the product itself. Such brands are known as generic brands.
