Question # 1
Explain the importance of creating building brand strategy. Provide an example of a company that has developed a strong branding strategy.

The real impact and strength of a brand is in the thoughts, feelings, images, beliefs, attitudes, and experiences that exist in the minds of existing or future customers. This so called “brand knowledge” affects how those customers respond to products, prices, communications, selected channels and other marketing activities (ultimately, impacting brand value). A brand strategy is the proactive effort to use advertising tools to position a given brand relative to competitors, so targeted customers are convinced that the brand offers greater value than competing brands – goal is to positively impact those thoughts, feels, etc. of consumers. Thus, effective positioning is most important to attract customers, gaining marketing share and building a loyal following. Companies use a variety of strategies to establish strong, favorable, and unique associations for their brands. One needs to understand consumer behavior and how consumers make decisions about whether a brand is likeable or not. Thus, need to be clear about a) unique features of a brand (points-of difference) that are favorably seen by consumers, and b) features that are shared with other brands (points-of parity). Furthermore, marketing managers need to develop the right, memorable brand elements (name, logo, slogan, packaging, etc.) that customers can associate with the given brand. An example of a company that has developed a strong branding strategy is BMW. The company cars are positioned as luxury, classy, high-end, premium cars. With that, the company targets the premium end of the mass market. Those consumers are the more sporty but classy ones. Besides regular TV ads, outdoor ads, social media marketing strategies, BMW also implemented