According to Kotler and Keller, 2009, today brands play a number of important roles that improve consumer’s lives and enhance the financial value of the firms. As defined by them, a brand is a product or service whose dimensions differentiate it in some way from other products or services designed to satisfy the same need. While brands such as Wrigley’s, Coca-Cola, and Heinz among the few that remained brand leaders for many decades, we also have examples of other brands such as Polaroid, Levi Strauss to name a few, which have not lasted forever (p. 253).
Similar to the product life cycle, all brands also go through their individual life cycles. The Business and Management Dictionary defines the brand life cycle into three stages. The introductory period is during which the company develops a brand and introduces it to the market. The brand faces competition from other products of a similar nature during the growth period. Finally during the maturity period, the brand either extends to other products or its face is constantly updated.
Grocutt (2006) showed that a combination of internal and external environmental factors affect brands. The internal factors include customer preferences, financial stability of the company and promotional activities. The external factors include political, economic, legal, societal and environment developments. Organizations may review their brands positions within the marketplace by understanding these influencing factors. Additionally, they might need to strengthen, revitalize and reposition their brands to adapt to critical changes, as and when required.
In constantly changing environments, marketers may benefit from carefully monitoring their brand portfolios over time. This might help them identify...
