Post #6: Raisin(g) Bran(ds)

Brands define businesses. Branding is a marketing decision in which an organization uses a name, phrase, design, symbols, or combination of these used to distinguish a seller’s goods or services. The concept “brand/branding” has many characteristics that will be covered in today’s blog.

Kellogg’s is a classic and world-renowned example of a company which has strengthened the brand of their product, Raisin Bran, through effective product development. This results in what is known as brand equity, the added value a brand name gives to a product beyond the functional benefits provided. The common misconception is that Kellogg’s Raisin Bran is a trademarked brand. However, according to a 1944 case by the District Court of Nebraska, “A name which is merely descriptive of the ingredients, qualities or characteristics of an article of trade cannot be appropriated as a trademark” (Skinner v. Kellogg). Hence the use of the name “Raisin Bran” by other cereal companies.

Thus, the fact that Kellogg’s has so successfully marketed this cereal to occupy itself in the consumer’s mind as “the” Raisin Bran proves the effectiveness of Kellogg’s early marketing strategy. The four steps used by marketers to achieve such brand equity included the following:

    1. Developing positive brand awareness in the consumer’s mind.
    2. Establishing the brand’s meaning in the minds of the consumers, both functional and abstract dimensions.
    3. Elicit the proper consumer responses to a brand’s identity and meaning (to think and feel
       positively about the brand).

    4. Create a consumer-brand connection evident in an intense active loyalty brand relationship.

One company’s brand equity can lead to lucrative brand licensing opportunities for other companies. Brand licensing is a contractual agreement whereby one company (licensor) allows its brand name(s) or trademark(s) to be used with products or services offered by another company (licensee) for a royalty or fee. A well-known example exists in the way that many packaged foods, like cereals and Kraft™ Mac N’ Cheese, sometimes feature popular television characters to promote the sales of their product. Brand names are any word, device (design, sound, shape, or color) or combination of these used to distinguish a seller’s goods/services. They represent a company’s mission statement, helping the consumer identify with the company and its message.

Some companies will follow a marketing tactic known as multiproduct branding, which is when a company uses one name for all its products in a product class. This tactic gives the company an edge when marketing their product as consumers that have had positive experiences with the product in the past will feel the same when considering the company’s other products. Thus, product line extensions—using a current brand name to enter a new market segment in its product class—become possible for companies such as Campbell’s Soup Company. Campbell’s has expanded their target market through the extension of their soup varieties, including Campbell’s Condensed, Select Harvest, and Chunky soups, with over 100 soups flavors. In this way, multiproduct branding also proves valuable for a company as it reduces advertising costs and raises awareness levels while remaining highly effective. However, product line extension can harm a company if it begins cannibalizing the company’s products, and does not take sales away from competing companies.

Another method of avoiding cannibalization is through multibranding, a branding strategy that involves giving each product a distinct name when each brand is intended for a different market segment. Frito-Lay created Santitas, what is known in the business world as a fighting brand, which confronts competitor brands, to contend head-to-head against regional tortilla chip brands that were taking away from Frito-Lays brands Doritos and Tostitos. Many consumers do not realize that Santitas are a branch brand under Frito-Lay, instead assuming that Santitas is an independent company. This works out to Frito-Lay’s advantage as brand loyalty (to Frito-Lay or their competitors) does not influence the consumer’s decision to buy the product. Part of Santitas success—aside from being a superior substitute good due to their delicious quality—revolves around their packaging, seen below, which looks like the labelling of an independent foreign tortilla chip company. Labels are an integral part of the package that typically identifies the product or brand, who made it, where and when it was made, how it is to be used, and package contents and ingredients. Santitas’ label not only characterizes a classic Central American theme, but it’s simple yet attractive design with a bright “$2 Only” selling point effectively captures consumers’ attention, in addition to immensely undercutting popular brands like Tostitos.

Packaging—a component of a product that refers to any container in which it is offered for sale and on which label information is conveyed—proves highly important in influencing the consumer to purchase a company’s product. Many companies, in their early years, invest a great deal of time and money in package and product development. Coca-Cola experimented with bottle design early on, hoping to create a package which would prove both voluminous and distinguishable. Early prototypes achieved these goals, but sadly, proved problematic in that they were unstable on conveyer belts. By shrinking the diameter, but keeping the contour shape of the bottle, Coca-Cola achieved a stable bottle that remained recognizable to the consumer, so much so that today it is one of the most identifiable packages worldwide. This highly effective form of packaging has greatly impacted the success of Coca-Cola and their brand equity.

Brands prove a highly important concept in the business world. They represent a company’s mission statement, their success, ways in which one company can implement another company’s brand for increased market standing, a means of cutting marketing costs while expanding their product line, and methods of increasing sales through ‘stealthy fighting brands’. With this new-found understanding of this important aspect of marketing, one should be able to apply it to both their life and professional career.

Works Cited:

Skinner MFG. Co. v. Kellogg Sales Co. Same v. General Foods Sales Co., Inc. 143 F. 2d 895. U.S. (1944).