AN ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF PRODUCT BRANDING AS A REPOSITIONING STRATEGY (A CASE STUDY OF FMCGS)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
These days brand positioning plays a vital role to grab the attention and retention of the consumer, as the correct positioning will force consumer to buy the particular brand products and services. Important brand elements include the name, logo, and slogan.
These are considered to be vital organs of every brand name; and if a company decides to change any of these, it is important to make the change have an impact that the consumers would remember, recognize, and can associate with.
The change should be able to make the consumers recall the brand name (AlShebil 2007). With rapid developments and changes in the consumer behavior, the need for outlining rebranding and repositioning strategies arose widely. It gave companies a competitive edge as well.
Visual elements of the brand are redefined in an attempt to reposition the brand as a whole. Usually, the logo, color, and taglines are changed or improved. When a company rebrands or repositions itself, it has to consider factors that are affecting the company.
Brand equity, i-e importance of your brand, how rebranding and repositioning is affecting your brand equity; the image and the importance that your brand gives to people. Another important factor is brand loyalty that is willingness of your customers to go for your brand.
Considering how rebranding and repositioning is affecting your brand loyalty, the affect can be positive or negative depending on your marketing strategies and also evaluating how loyalty is affecting brand equity.
The higher the brand equity or perceptive association, the more favorable will be the customer’s response towards the promotional efforts of the brand.
Rebranding is all about creating new image and position in consumer’s mind and establishing a new name, slogan, tagline or design (Muzellec and Lambkin 2006).
To maintain brand and customer loyalty, rebranding has become one of the important strategies to be successful and to attain brand values. Marketers consider rebranding as an effective way to restore the obsolete brand and considering rebranding the solution to face market challenges (Petburikul 2009).
Repositioning is a source of competitive advantage that gives value to customers at different stages of marketing and at different contact points (Lindberg-Repo, 2005:80). According to Keller (2008:98) repositioning is done for changing the image of the company so that it occupies a new place and value in the mind of the consumers.
Brand loyalty leads to band equity (aaker 2001). According to Aaker (2001) even when you have small loyal customer base it can make a positive significant change in your brand equity. Brand equity is that power which lies in what consumers have seen, learned, heard and felt so far by that particular brand which they have gauged through experience (Keller 2008).
Factors that gives positive or negative value to the brand is a collection of various variables that can be brand awareness, brand perception, brand loyalty and the association that they have with that particular brand (Aaker, 2001)
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Often, when asked the non-price reason behind their choice for a particular brand of product over another, most consumers will readily shout “Quality”. However, one would accept this answer with a lot of ambivalence,
given the fact that it is only on rare occasions that consumers would have what it takes to make an objective quality differentiation among alternative product brands. This category of consumers is highly informed and enlightened and their percentage is quite negligible in Nigeria.
Furthermore, quality status ascribed by consumers to certain product brands is not real but perceived. It is mostly a figment of their perception. It therefore follows that, those marketers who know how best to manipulate consumer perception and therefore better position their brand in the minds of the consumers will definitely emerge winners in the marketing warfare.
In the regulated bottled water industry in Nigeria, it may be expected that the issue of “better quality” should not arise. This is against the backdrop that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has stipulated and is seriously enforcing both production
and marketing standards for all producers of bottled water thereby making every brand of bottled water of equal purity and quality, yet most consumers of this product would readily pay a premium price or are price insensitive when it comes to the purchase of a particular brand of regulated water say “Eva.
This gets one wondering, could it be that consumers in making choice are merely responding to the outcome of their perception which is a function of such attributes like brand name, mark, package, company-of-make etc. A point to note is the fact that most producers strongly believe that branding has a very high influence on consumer’s choice (Ogbuji, 2008).
However, given the fact that many elements constitute branding, one is not sure if these elements play equal role in influencing choice or if some play a higher role than others. This is the crux of the problem of this study.
At first, all that was needed for marketing success was availability. Because the demand for some FMCGS products were far more than the supply, that has since changed. The landscape is becoming more competitive and the growth rates of yesteryears are becoming hard to replicate. In a nutshell, continued success in the contemporary Nigerian market calls for marketing wizardry.
Branding has been identified as one of the major tool in the hands of firms to increase consumer loyalty. In this highly competitive environment, branding (brand name) may be the sellers’ last chance to influence buyers and also differentiate it from like products. .
Branding is a fixation of special and unique image or attribute to a particular product which makes it to be exceptional among other products in the eyes and minds of consumers (Ehikwe, 2005); hence, the reason for the research to give a critical assessment of the impact of product branding as a repositioning strategy.
1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The main aim of this research is to carry out an assessment of the impact of product branding as a repositioning strategy. Other objectives of this study include:
1. to examine product branding as a repositioning strategy.
2. to examine the determinant for the choice of branding and packaging system.
3. to examine the impact of product branding as a repositioning strategy.
4. to identify the challenges of branding as a repositioning strategy.
5. to proffer solutions to the challenges of branding as a repositioning strategy.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION
1. What is product branding as a repositioning strategy?
2. What is the determinant for the choice of branding and packaging system?
3. What is the impact of product branding as a repositioning strategy?
4. What are the challenges of branding as a repositioning strategy?
5. What are the solutions to the challenges of branding as a repositioning strategy?
1.5 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
1. H0: product branding as a repositioning strategy in FMGCS is not effective.
2. H1: product branding as a repositioning strategy FMGCS is effective.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
This study will give an insight in to the impact of product branding as a repositioning strategy as there are many companies that rebranded and repositioned completely or changed some of its elements.
The reasons for rebranding and repositioning vary from company to company, some might want to get greater market share and some want to rebrand because there might be difference in what they wanted and what they have right now.
This study will give more insight in to this.
The importance of rebranding is that it doesn’t involve much cost and can be done within allotted budget.
There is an enormous competition in the market to attract buyers. The outcome of this study helps the organization to understand the consumer expectation better and reposition itself in ways that would be able to attract the larger segment of potential customers which would be helpful in increasing their sales.
This study is significant in the sense that it throws more light to the impact of branding on consumer loyalty, which is the optimal target of marketing. The result of the work will benefit the management of FCMGS (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), as it shows them the perception of the market of it product branding.
The information gotten here will enable adjust where there is need for in order to project a better brand image in the minds of their customers and potential customers? Also this research work is expected to provide to the academic sector a new horizon of enlightenment, as it will serve as a basis for further research into related topics.
From the study; it will help different manufacturing companies to understand that a brand has an added value to the physical product beyond the core product. These may be aesthetic, emotional, psychological and philosophical values that are embedded in the minds and hearts of consumers.
1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY
The study will cover an assessment of the impact of product branding as a repositioning strategy with focus on FMCGS
1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY
1. Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
2. Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.
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1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
FMCG: stands for Fast Moving Consumer Goods and is a general name for consumer goods. These include a diversity of products of light and food manufacturing industries.
ASSESSMENT: the act of judging or deciding the amount, value, quality, or importance of something, or the judgment or decision that is made
IMPACT: The action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another.
PRODUCT BRANDING: Product branding is a symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.
REPOSITIONING: place in a different position, adjust or alter the position of something or Change the image of (a company, product, etc.) to target a new or wider market.
STRATEGY: a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim.
Brand repositioning: is when a company changes a brand’s status in the marketplace.
This typically includes changes to the marketing mix, such as product, place, price and promotion. Repositioning is done to keep up with consumer wants and needs.
BRANDING: The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets.
AN ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF PRODUCT BRANDING AS A REPOSITIONING STRATEGY (A CASE STUDY OF FMCGS)
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