International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-2, Issue-5, May.

-2016

BRAND BUILDING CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL MARKET: AN

OVERVIEW
MOHAMMED RIZWAN ALAM

Assistant Professor – Marketing University of Modern Science PO Box: 231931 Al Tawar – 3 Dubai
E-mail: rizwan2040@gmail.com

Abstract- Marketing has undergone a constant transformation amidst environmental changes at rapid pace, and so has
branding exercise in the last forty years. Brand building has been challenging for the brand custodians in scopes and scales at
local and global level. In this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to explore the key challenges of global brand building.
The data collection method is secondary. The findings show that marketers are faced with the challenges on the key
elements, such as innovation, loyalty, positioning, counterfeiting, among others. The significance of the study lies in the rich
and detailed antecedents, several apt examples - all highly insightful to the academia, industry, budding researcher, students,
and so on.

Key words- Branding, Innovation, Benefits, Customers, Management,

I. INTRODUCTION these brands command enviable share of mind, heart,

wallet; credibility, consumer connect, and point of
“A global brand-building strategy is, in reality, a local difference.
plan for every market.”
- Martin Lindstrom, Clicks, Bricks & Brands However, branding task is not a cake walk to the
Great minds from theory and practice will definitely brand builders. Some brands have either gone into
agree that the very conception of branding is a extinction or been sold off. Example includes
function of competition-led identification. Global Arcelor, Jaguar, Gillette, and Corus that faced tough
branding is not an all-or-nothing proposition, rather it challenges. Brand builders from India, too, could not
is an extent to which brand is evaluated and adopted save the brands such as Kingfisher, Tata Indicome,
in geographic continuum. Global brand must grow and Mahindra Voyager against tough challenges.
globally to sustain locally. Brand building usually
pose resounding challenges to the marketer in terms II. LITERATURE REVIEW
of concepts, positioning, licensing, communication,
environmental change, product life cycle, brand “The beginning of wisdom is to call by their right
equity, consumer behavior, market share, names” (Chinese proverb, Cococran, 2007). Keller
customization, and so on. (2009) referring to American Marketing Association,
puts brand is a "name, term, design, symbol, or any
Today, challenge has been extremely intense and other features that identify one seller's good or
even fatal which is supported by the view of William service as distinct from those of other sellers". While
Black as, “Great things are done when men and David Aaker (1991) views brand consists of
mountains meet. This is not done by jostling in the “concept, promise, benefit, proprietary signs, name,
street.” Brand builder must be potent enough to trademarks, symbols, and logo “A product is
understand brand elements, connect branding exercise something that is made in factory; a brand is
with multipronged socio-commercial phenomenon, something that is bought by a customer. A product
and act on the challenges finally to empower and can be copied by competitor, a brand is unique. A
sustain brand value in ruthlessly competitive product can be quickly outdated, a brand is timeless”
marketplace. Internationally, some brands have been (Aaker, 1991). “Distinctive brands have to be
empowered to cut through all marketing odds and are powered up to deliver a full sensory and emotional
affably adopted by the consumers. These brands keep experience” (Lindstrom, 2005). Kotler (2003) holds
their promises through functional, emotional, and “brand identifies seller or maker”. Leon and Raggio
symbolic satisfaction or even delight. Apple, L’Oreal, (2007) put “a brand represents a promise of benefits
The Body Shop, Google, Emirates Airlines, to a customer or consumer”. “A strong brand stands
Cambridge University, for instance have been out in a densely crowded marketplace. People fall in
nurtured to stay strong, unique, favorable on a global love with brands, trust them, and believe in
scale. Whereas, on the Indian front, brand builders superiority” (Alina, 2009). Erden (2002) views “For
have energized some brands which can compete in companies, the concept of a brand is as powerful,
the national market and are doing fairly good in the elusive, and appealing as sex. It is a strategic talisman
global market. State Bank of India, Tata, Dabur, that increases sales, hinders competitors, and
Wipro, Himalaya, for instance, are strong domestic maximizes sales efforts”. The value in terms of
brands and well regarded brands globally, too. All equity of a brand is hard to understand. Brand equity

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is defined as ‘a set of brand assets and liabilities or complementary brands. The going gets even
linked to a brand, its name and symbol that add to or tougher when brand builders are raveled in between
subtract from the value provided by a product or initial purchase and continued purchase wherein lies
service to a firm’s consumers” (Aaker, 1991). ‘awareness, authenticity, excitement and a sense of
Wheeler and Katz (2006) present “Countries, gain’. Along the continuum, the customer wants not
corporations, communities, and individuals are only to be reminded of the features but also
leveraging their brands to gain a transcendent incentivized for their repeat purchase.(Somma, 2014).
advantage in marketplace”. “Brands that are proven
to have international acceptance and appeal are Innovation
inherently stronger than national or regional brands” Product, service or idea is perceived as innovative
(Aguirre, Leinwan, Saha, and Aurelie, 2008). when they are newly introduced to the adopters who
Moreover, “Brands are our economy’s atomic core, find the enhancement in functionality or hedonism
but they are threatened like never before by a series (Flint, 2006). Innovation through technology,
of hostile forces in a confused and diffused creativity, initiative, alliance with trading partners
marketplace that is evolving faster than the brands and competitors keeps firm handling challenges.
that populate it” (Upshaw, 1995). Branding is Technological innovation often leads to newer and
challenging as this exercise is carried out in a highly better ways of solving old problems. Innovation also
competitive environment. Challenge is so intense can become part of a firm's corporate strategy for
that survival today is attributed to branding. sustaining competitive advantage (Shocker,
Srivastava, and Ruekert, 1994). Branding area
III. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY majorly hails from marketing, which is vital
component of a business, as also famously
The study aims to present insights and analysis into accentuated by Peter F. Drucker, “Business has only
the challenges of building global brand in terms of two functions — marketing and innovation”.
 Time Horizon Innovation is potent to enhance brand personality if
 Brand Loyalty managed justly (Bhat and Bowonder, 2001).Brand
 Innovation builder is faced with challenges when incoherent and
 Positioning inconsistent practice creates brand confusion
 Quality resulting from the infringement of identity (Flint,
 Language and Communication 2014). Dell’s innovative way met market challenges
 Counterfeit quite successfully. Samsung learned lessons quickly
and rode high tides beating all branding challenges
 Changing Environment
globally, while Nokia and Motorola slipped to lower
 Miscellaneous positions as they failed to anticipate and innovate on
time. Micromax took global giant head kept on
Time Horizon innovating and resultantly emerged as market leader
Product manager is face with the dilemma of short or
by market share in short time.
long run brand building campaign, especially when
such manager’s organization suffer from ‘myopic
Positioning
view’, i.e., short term orientation. Such manager finds Positioning is an act of placing an image of a product,
very challenging to judiciously perform on short term brand, firm, or entity in the mind against the
basis. Promotional schemes intended to build brand is competitor through continuous education,
conceptually and practically at loggerheads with
information, and satisfying offerings to the
long-term brand building exercise, which undermines
consumers, publics, and stakeholders. “Successful
brand building principles. Successful brand building marketers must dare to be different, not only to get
demands a fine balance between ‘short term goals and ahead, but to stay there (Shocker, Srivastava, and
long term objectives’ (Krishnamurth, 2013). The Ruekert, 1994)”.Positioning is sensitive, and volatile.
cliché,“It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” Hold true in It should be trendy and relevant in both local and
brand building exercise. Forbes, for instance, takes
global market. Wal-Mart for instance, has revised its
four months commitment on its BrandVoice platform
positioning. Koak Mahindra in India positions itself
where content campaign grows typically in the third in the customer’s mind as one entity- “Kotak”-
month (www.contently.com, 2014). “Think Investments, Think Kotak”.Ries and Trout in
their book, “Positioning – The Battle for Mind”
Brand Loyalty (McGraw-Hill, 1981) argue that marketers struggle to
Loyalty is linked to the hopes that consumers have find a slot in the consumer’s mind in the competitive
for their lives. Stories and ideas that brand articulate
environment. Marketers face challenge in branding
stimulate the customer and arouse their buying through positioning as this act is subjective. Nokia,
interest. Buyers are more interested in the logo and for instance, an iconic brand dominated the world
not a company, where in emotion is treasured. The market with fifty percent market, but it could not
biggest challenge facing the marketers is maintaining
align its positioning with the rapid and widespread
the appeal of inducements from the luring substitutes
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International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-2, Issue-5, May.-2016

changes at the right time, as a result it swiftly lost its locally. This company adapts and responds to the
market and finally merged withMicrosoft for $7.5 local needs retaining minimum global standards.
billion in 2014. Nokia did not reposition and fixthe Marketers have hard time to use right language even
strategic issues in time resulting in its own demise on with India as India is multicultural and multilingual
the heap of complacency (www.gadgets.ndtv.com, country. Packaged goods especially face more
2013).On the other hand, Xerox promptly challenges than industrial goods. The same applies to
transitioned from ‘the document company to one that communication or integrated marketing
generates more than half its revenue from business communication majorly constituting advertising,
services, like operating call centers, processing public relation, events sponsorship, sales promotion,
insurance claims, handling automated toll payments’ and so on. Communication or advertising strategy
(www. Carone, 2013). The brand builder must handle used in small country like Haiti, Kuwait, Hong Kong
positioning error to ease up challenges in terms of being mutually distinct on value system may not be
‘over positioning, under positioning, confused and easily used as in United Kingdom, USA, Singapore,
double positioning’. and Australia. There are 22 constitutionally
recognized languages in India (Gugnani, Arora, and
Quality Shukla, 2008). Some product from Kerala, India use
Quality is a deliberate perception through expectation Malayalam language along with common language
to meet the consumer need. It is a key force leading to English, which benefits Keralites in the Gulf, for
delighted customers, firm profitability, and the instance.
economic growth of nations (Deming 1982; Kennedy
1987; Rust, Zahorik, and Keiningham 1995, Golder, Counterfeiting
Mitra and Mooman, 2012). It is subjective and “Counterfeiting refers to the infringement of
relative to benchmarked practices. Because of intellectual property rights of any kind, including
subjectivity, relativity, and environmental dynamics, trademarks, patents, industrial designs, copyrights
issue of certification, multi-disciplinary in scope, the and related rights (European Report, 2010).
businesses are faced with ever increasing challenges. Counterfeit goods are non-genuine goods (Mallor,
Creating quality of product or service is as important 2007, Lewis 2009). A person creates or sells a non-
as perception Marketers find it an uphill task to genuine good in an attempt to “usurp the brand or
achieve perception of quality without the tangible trademark of another, that person is guilty of
base of quality claim. When Citbank, for instance, counterfeiting (Hopkins, 2003, Lewis, 2009). Indian
improved back-office efficiency in process Bollywood is losing huge sums because of
automation, the customer feedback was upsetting, counterfeiting. China is alleged to have counterfeited
meaning that was either not noticeable enough or the most. A recent study conducted by Business
could be identified by the customer. This does imply Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP)
the effort in quality enhancement must ‘resonate’ indicates the global value of counterfeit and pirated
with the customer goods is currently estimated at US$650 billion, is
(www.brandingstrategyinsider.com, 2009). In 2000, likely to double by 2015. The following is the
Toyota,for instance, could not meet much of the illustration of seized counterfeited good in
expectation of the USA consumer on its Prius, percentage.Counterfeits pose increasing challenge to
whereas Lexus in 1980s was a run-away-success in the brand managers. This chokes market growth
the same market. Iconic automotive brands like Aston despite the products availability in the potential
Martin and Lamborghini despite being quality brands market. Today, India and global market needs to
struggle in the emerging markets. corroborate with regulatory and political bodies to
combat such colossal loss.
IV. LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
Changing Environment
Language constitutes words, phrases, and terms Everything changes but change itself (John F.
through which company communicates to its Kennedy, n.d.). Here, change is company’s internal
consumers and others (Lindstorm, 2005). Word and external environment surrounded by local and
choice and tone in verbal and nonverbal presentation international dynamics which keep changing in terms
connote a specific meaning, which is technically of firm’s strategy, demography, economy, polity,
guided and controlled by regulatory body, which is regulation, culture, technology, among others.
not standard globally. Global brand manager often Besides, unforeseen circumstances- natural and or
outsources to work on language selection so that artificial pose often unpredictable and unrolled
language used on the label, brochure, and copy, phenomena to the brand managers. Tsunami
among others should not be abusive, irrelevant, earthquake pushed brand Japan down from second
intimidating, and enigmatic to any culture, value, spot in the chart of best economy in the world. Global
faith, and country at large. Also, it should be sensitive brands, such as Unilever, Pepsi, Greyworld, A. C.
to legal framework of any society. McDonald is a Nielsen, and Citibank, among others have adapted to
glocal brand which is available globally but marketed the requirements of Indian consumers. This is clearly

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evident that “one-size fits all” strategy is not much in forced and else competitor may vanquish even
use to leverage global brand. Roelling (2001) the market leader. Nokia is a glaring example.
supports the same in his words as “A global brand  The brand manager must understand the brand
must retain its autonomy while also adhering to local value, copyright issues, individual market’s
sensitivities.” regulation, demand supply gaps, business cycle,
currency exchange rates, intricacies of
Miscellaneous distribution channels, pricing policies to tackle
The challenge and complexities include but not limit the challenges of counterfeit.
to some more additional attributes such as  Most importantly, the company must engage in
technology, brand value, merger and acquisition, constant innovation, research and development
trust, relevance, culture, measurement, consumer, with a genuine intention to contribute to the
strategies, regulation and so on, which vex the brand society rather than indulging in ‘me too’ products
manager more often than not. Coca-Cola quantifies and short term financial goals.
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