Friday, July 24, 2009

Compare Unknown Brands to Best-Known Brands

Retailers often can get especially good purchase prices on product brands new to the target market or otherwise not well-known. But selling those branded items means creating in the shopper's mind a brand image strong enough to overcome the risks of purchase which always lurk as the shopper's deciding. As they look over this unfamiliar brand, they want to know, "Will this product solve the problem I'm buying it to solve or help me make the gain I'm looking for?" "Is it safe to use, both physically and socially?" "How much time would I need to invest in learning to make best use of this product?" "What is this brand of the product really like?"
     Answer those questions by hitchhiking onto the very strong images created by what are called prototype brands. These are the brand names most strongly associated with their respective product categories, and their manufacturers devote massive amounts of marketing support to maintaining top-of-mind awareness. For laundry detergent, the prototype brand might be Tide, so you compare your newly introduced laundry detergent brand to the Tide brand. For peanut butter, the prototype might be Skippy. Prototype electronics brands include Sony and Samsung. For beer, it would be Budweiser in America and Heineken in the Netherlands.
     The objective is to inform the consumer, not to confuse the consumer into purchasing something other than what they want. So sometimes in advertising, signage, and face-to-face selling, you'll say, "Tools that do the job like Black & Decker, but less expensive to purchase" to communicate the quality of this unknown brand. But you'll say that only when, in fact, those tools do have a proven performance that's equivalent to Black & Decker. In other cases, you'll want to set the brand apart from the prototype: "More all-round dental protection than Crest."

Click below for more:
Introduce Unknown Products with Charity
Compare Unknown Brand Extensions
Display Unfamiliar Brands with Prototype Brands

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