When companies sell products, they want to distinguish their products from the others available in the market. Therefore they give it a name which encapsulates the characteristics of the product which makes it different from others, such as packaging, ingredients, benefits etc.).
Thus a brand is created. It is important to know that a "brand" is a name given to a product by its manufacturer, whereas the name given to a product by a retailer is an "own label". But in any case, the different name enables the consumer to identify the product and the values associated with it. Then they match these values with their own values and the characteristics they are looking for in a product. For ex: a consumer who gives much importance to saving money may go for a brand which promotes itself as proving economy.
Also if the consumer likes a product, he/she will find it easier to pick it out in the market every time they shop. If they don't like it, they can avoid it easily. The fish and sea food market is a market in which fresh quality and taste is very important to consumers. Consumers cannot judge taste and freshness every time they go shopping if there is no brand name to differentiate each product. They can't taste each product before buying.
So once they try each brand maybe once, and decide which one they like best they can easily make their future purchase decisions without having to experiment again and again.This is why branding is very important in this market, because providers who provide good quality can be identified and the ones who do not provide good quality or taste can be avoided. Part 2: Show how your brand has been leveraged. What is leveraging? Leveraging a brand means making the most out of its goodwill.
According to the theory presented by David Aaker, a brand can be stretched and extended and co-branded with other brands so that the maximum value can be achieved from the brand. To assess that a brand is successful or not David Aaker has presented the theory that the brand should fulfil the following criteria:1. The brand should have loyalty of the customers, because loyal customers do not need further convincing from the brand owner and this reduces marketing costs. Also loyal customers promote the brand themselves by word of mouth advertising. We know that Birds Eye Fish Fingers and their other products have the second largest share in the market.
21% (Mintel 2008) even though their products are pricier than Young's and own label. This shows that people are willing to pay more for their products because they are so loyal to this brand. The brand has been around for2. The brand must have perceived quality. Birds Eye Fish Fingers have highly improved perceived quality because they have invested heavily in sourcing sustainable good quality fish for their fish fingers. They are regularly introducing new varieties of fish fingers like the Wild Salmon and the Omega 3.
3. The other important factor of successful brands is Brand Awareness: Birds Eye Fish Fingers company were actually the ones who invented fish fingers and since 1925, they have been involved in regular advertisement schemes to improve awareness of their brand. They inform their customers about new products through their website in which they also give tea time tips. They continually contact their customers through online newsletter.4. Lastly, a brand has to have important Brand Associations to be successful.
Birds Eye Fish Fingers launched their Captain Birdseye Mascot in 1967 of a friendly, good natured Captain which is a very famous association as people remember him from their childhood. When consumers think of Birds Eye Fish Fingers the fist thing that comes to mind is the freshness and quality of the product. Their advertisements also promote the message that this product is free from preservatives, and ice is the only preservative they use. So this brand is associated with freshness.These factors tell us that Bird's eye Fish fingers is a very successful brand. Part 4: Assess the threat to your brand from own labels.
Theory on own labels: Own labels are products with the retailer's name on them. As we have seen in the market report, own labels constitute the largest part of the fish and sea foods market. Therefore they are an important part of the market and a serious threat to the existence of branded products. Bird's Eye Fish Fingers. There are Type 1 own label products available from Sainsbury's and Tesco which Birds Eye Fish Fingers are fighting with powerful advertising campaigns, innovating new products like 'wild salmon fish fingers' and 'mega fish fingers' and Omega 3 fish fingers which the own label providers are not offering.Bibliography:Jobber.
D "Principles and Practice of Marketing" 2001, Maidenhead, Mcgraw Hill publishing Company: http://news.bbc.co.uk
