BUSINESS STRATEGY: Branding Through Information Technology
Product may die; brand don’t die
BY- PULKIT GOIAL
ABSTRACT
This paper talk about the, how can organization convert a product into a brand with the help of information technology (IT). In present market condition this is very popular to use various tools of advertising that help the product to create awareness front of consumer in very short time period but for long term. But today many organizations also use social networking site to provide the awareness of product that help to company to enhance the value of the product front of consumer that directly link with the branding and create direct relationship with the consumer to share their view & experience about product at very short time period. India a high internet usage country and growth of usage internet is increasing very fast rate, in that situation it have a huge opportunity to create branding through information technology. ITC and HUL is the best example of this in India, they create a strategic impact of IT on branding of their organization, product and services. So this paper tells us about how company can get benefit of IT to create branding strategy.
Key word: Branding. Information Technology (IT), Creating Value,
INTRODUCTION
Branding is huge topic in itself, when we talk about brand theoretically it is easy to how can we develop the product as a brand but practical this is very difficult to create brand or convert a product into brand. I will talk about how can companies convert their product into brand with the help of IT. Before explaining the brand understand the who create the branding strait answer -customer but according to my view this is not complete truth branding is also created by company employees, investors, suppliers, even by security guard also, create the branding and by all the person related to product or organization and misconception about brand that the logo the advertising the copy the look the image, well a brand certainly encompasses all of those things, but that is not the full extent of it. Branding is, in a nutshell, the entire customer experience: the relation between company and customers, reducing the risk of customer, loyalty of customer towards product, ensure consistently across geographical barriers, focus on ensuring relevance in different countries and market. In order to develop globally, it is necessary to think locally. The some global brand- Amazon, BP, Google, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Apple, Vodafone, British Airways etc…..
Eg. Coca-cola is the company not have a worth of 66 million but the brand value of coca-cola is more than 66 billion that is imaging and we can understand the value of brand.
Create banding through IT is the not easy task but present scenario it is very useful because usage of internet is increasing at very fast rate, it help companies to make branding strategy. This paper mainly focus on the company strategy, how the companies using IT to create product branding.
BODY OF PAPER
Objective of the branding using IT
There are various objective of the organization create branding using IT, but according to my view the main objectives are-
Create difference
Future prospective
Fast way to reach customer
Maintain the relation with customer and stakeholders
Infrastructure cost saving
Impact as a strong global brand
Enhance global customer relationship
Changing consumer behavior
Create difference means to create core competency over the competitors I want to clear this by Indian example of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) they create a website for their Sunsilk shampoo where girls can share their view, It create the help of HUL in create branding of Sunsilk as well as company.
Future prospective is the main aim of branding strategy by the organization because world is changing very fast towards technological change and also internet user increasing day by day. So companies seeing it for future prospective.
Fast way to reach customers is the another way to create product branding Amozon and is the another example here they sell product online and this way they create lot of image in the market and now Amazon is big brand in the world.
Maintain the relationship with the customers is also helpful in creating branding of product as well as company, Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) is the best example of this they create e-chopal for help of farmers, providing information about crops, maintain relation with farmer to purchase wheat, and many more, its helps to ITC to create branding of ITC and now ITC Fast Moving consumer Goods(FMCG) business is running very well and now they are on 2nd position after HUL in FMCG business.
Infrastructure cost saving also the main part of branding strategy of any company so they created their own website help them to create direct impact on the consumers that help to company create branding, and it help to company to save lot of money help aging to create branding.
Impact as a strong global brand is also part branding strategy Google is the best example of strong global brand because they provide the facility to internet users to create difference. Now Google is world no. one brand it helps Google to collect lot of revenue, because of brand image.
Enhance global customer relation, with the help of IT, information flow in all world is very easy and very fast take an example of BMW innovation lounge, Dell idea storm. These companies create global customer relation help them to become global brand.
Changing customer behavior is very fast because technological changes happens day by day if take an example of age group only 8% to 10% people of India is more than age of 60 years, so we can say people move towards the technology. So company making branding strategy according to that way.
These are only few objective of company to make branding strategy with the help of IT but many more.
Now the big question that how can company create the branding with the help of IT, so there is some ways to create banding with the help of IT are-
Websites
Blogs(Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
Bookmarking/Tagging(adobe, Kodak)
Brand monitoring (Dell. MINI)
Content aggregation (Alltop,EMC)
Crowdsourcing/voting(Oracle,Starbucks)
Discussion boards and forums(IBM, Mountain Dew)
Pop-up ads
Event and meetups (Molson.Pampers)
Mashups (fidelity investment,Nike)
Microblogging(Method, whole foods)
Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
Organization and staffing (Ford,Pepsi0
Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
Podcasting (Ericsson. McDonalds)
Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
Public relation-social media releases(Avon, Intel)
Rating and review (Loblaws, Turbo Tax)
Social network: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)
Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
Virtual worlds(National geographic, Toyota)
Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
Wikis (Second Life, T-mobile Sidekick)
These are not the complete picture of IT help in creating branding, many more method to help in create branding like- advertising on net, pop-up ads, e-mail, etc……
Problems facing by the companies
If IT branding strategy have some advantage it also have some problem to get apply or get the revenue out of it are as-
It is cover only targeted customers those are using internet
All the concepts not covers rural population(specially in India)
Return on investment(ROI) on it very slow and long term prospective
Conclusion
Branding is essential tool for any organization in this changing world, because business is going towards more competitive compare to past. According to that perspective organization branding strategy is also going forward in an strategic way to create competency. Most of the organizations use social networking site to create relationship with the customer because it help to organization to take right feedback from consumers, maintain, solve customer problem, and many more we take an example of Punjab National Bank (PNB) they provided their toll free number to solve the consumer problem using IT, it is the simple and strategic branding.
References:
ICFAI journals (marketing mastermind),
No comments:
Post a Comment