Page 225 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

194 Chapter Eight

that all four perspectives are employed. Brand identity is a perception in
customers’ minds that results from their entire experience with the products
and services of that brand. What perception customers get depends on the
products and services themselves, on how customers are treated by the
company, as well as on advertisements and promotions. Ultimately, however,
it depends on the company’s business strategy and business operation. To build
a strong brand, it is desirable that the company should carefully design a good
brand identity for their products or services and make this ideal brand identity
a reality. On the top of Fig. 8.3, a strategic brand analysis is performed first.
Strategic brand analysis consists of three components: customer analysis, com-
petitor analysis, and self-analysis. The purpose of strategic brand analysis is to
provide a basis on which to design an appropriate brand identity for the product
or service offered by the company. The details of strategic brand analysis will
be discussed in Sec. 8.4. To design a good brand identity, we need to consider
all four perspectives though we may not deploy all of them. We describe these
four perspectives of brand identity in detail.

The Brand as a Product: Product-Related Associations
Product-related association is always an important part of brand identity,
because customers are buying the product. The product-related association
has the following aspects:
1. The product scope: This aspect deals with what product class the
brand is associated with. For example, McDonald’s is associated with
the product class of fast food; Visa is associated with credit cards;
Hertz is associated with rental cars. For an unsuccessful brand, when
the brand name is mentioned, most people do not know what product
class it is related to. For a nondominant brand, when the brand name
is mentioned, people know what product class it is related to. However,
for a dominant brand, only the product class needs to be mentioned
and most people will recall the name of the brand. For example, when
“soft drink” is mentioned, the name Coca-Cola will at least be thought
about once. On the other hand, when Faygo, a nondominant brand is
mentioned, some people will recognize it is a soft drink brand;
however, many people will not recall Faygo as a soft drink choice.
2. Product functions: This aspect deals with what functional benefits, as
well as some emotional benefits, the product or product class that is
related to the brand can provide to customers. How well this aspect
will perform depends on how well the customers’ needs (told and
untold) are met. For example, McDonald’s functional benefits include
all their breakfast and ordinary meal items, hamburgers, fries, soft
drinks; fast purchase cycle time (time from ordering to getting the
food); Happy Meals and toys; playgrounds; unrivaled worldwide