Brand Maintenance...

Time and again the world has seen the rise and fall of brands, but it is believed by famous brand gurus that its products that die, brands survive if maintained well. What do they mean when they say about maintaining brands? To me, maintenance is all about... maintenance what else. But how have many successful companies done that to sustain their brands.

When a vehicle or a machine starts wearing off, we get it repaired for longitivity, same holds true for brands. Brands usually lose their sheen and it is imperative for companies to repair those scratches by continuous improvement in brand value. When I was preparing for my entrance exams, one question that followed me was, "why companies keep promoting their products again and again?". The answer was simple enough, to create awareness, but then if creating awareness was the only motto then why do companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nokia, Reliance etc ever need to use IMC. Well everyone knows what these words stand for.

Thus, repeated promotion is not just to reach out and give customers more exposure but to maintain brands. It’s hard to build brands and harder to maintain them. Volkswagen had proudly developed and sold millions of beetles but then it did not move too well to the future, what did VW do? They recreated the magic with the new beetle.

Do brands survive massive maintenance? The question arises in a situation when companies like Jaguar and land Rover are up for sale and not surprisingly Tata Motors ahs bid for them. A recent news item revealed that brands like Jaguar and Land Rover spend three times on just the passenger division R&D of what Tata Motors spends on its entire array of products. Imagine the costs that run into maintaining the brand. What many experts feel is that any one who buys these great brands should have deep pockets, Tata Motors sure does.

Time will tell how these brands will be maintained. When mergers and acquisitions are at the zenith of business growth and victory, brands are rather changing hands. Thumps-Up became bigger with Coca-Cola but these marriages of brands and firms do not always end up in harmony. Let’s see how far Indian companies succeed in keeping brands alive and happening.

Probably we will see a few Jaguars and Land Rovers lined up with fiat cars and not to forget the very Indian Tata models in the same showroom.