Strategic Brand Management Event Management Company Building Essay

Strategic Brand Management

Event Management Company

Building a brand is an extensive task that requires multiple important elements to be successful. It does not only involve branding the product/service a company provides, but also focuses on enhancing the image of the brand, developing brand by adding value to it and by improving it according to the dynamics of the markets. Brand development has been made crucial for the companies to flourish in the dynamic markets that exist today, considering the effects of globalization on the world market. With continuous advancements in the business industry, companies, in order to survive or thrive have to develop their brands to differentiate their products from others. This vital importance of developing brands gave birth to Brand management. Brand management is the application of marketing techniques on a product, a range of products or a brand (Shivanand and Hungund 2012). The major purpose of brand management is developing or improving the brand's perceived value in the minds of consumers and thus build its brand equity.

Brand is, as many marketers call it, "a distinct name," "a title," "a sign or symbol" or "a color combination" that distinguishes a product in various ways from other similar products satisfying similar needs of customers (Shivanand and Hungund 2012). It is a promise/pact to customers that they will be provided with the same high quality product for their entire lifetime. It symbolizes quality product or service provision to customers and serves as an identity to the product/service being provided to the customers. From the manufacturer's perspective, brand name helps the producer protect/patent their product's unique features with a unique name (Keller, Parameswaran and Jacob 2011, p.g 7).

Our focus of the paper is on the brand which provides an event management service in Hong Kong and is a new entrant in the market. As the company is new, it preferred to build the company's name as the brand name, distinguishing its unique services that it provides as an event management company among the pool of companies providing the same service. The name of the brand/company is PURPLE and the slogan and logo that goes with it is the following:

"FEEDING COLORS TO LIFE DIFFERENTLY"

The organization's logo and name is PURPLE as it simply exemplifies or compliments the slogan FEEDING COLORS TO LIFE DIFFERENTLY. The slogan represents the main purpose of the organization which is seeing this country enrich with colors of innovation and prosperity through the efforts of its coming generation. Why the color PURPLE? The color purple represents royalty and the brand name and color thus represent the royalty the firm would bring to the country in the form of economic and social progress. The consumer attachment and feeling about the brand would thus help them associate the brand with patriotism and passion to serve the country and its people in the most inventive way possible. Moreover, people being able to contribute to the country's progress would be a two way street as people stepping up and show casing their talent and inventive thoughts will be benefited as well, thus the association with royalty as people are being served as royals.

The paper will focus on how the company could sustain its presence in the respective industry in Hong Kong and how can it work on developing its brand to flourish and thrive in the same market. From this company's perspective we will understand the brand management strategies implemented with justifications of the implemented strategies and how these would help the company achieve its goal of sustenance and growth of the brand.

PURPLE-Feeding Colors to Life Differently:

Purple is an event management company that aims to tap young talent of the country by providing them an opportunity to display their talent and ideas to the corporate world before even entering these markets. The aim of tapping the talent of the young blood of the country is implemented by the organization by organizing corporate or business competitions involving the youngsters to participate and bring out their ideas for the corporate world to see. Also the company aims to arrange corporate events of the organizations helping the other organizations as well to identify and simplify their search for highly talented individuals for future hiring. Moreover, the company goes further by organization professional development workshops for those about to enter the professional market as well as corporate trainings for the development of professionals.

Since the brand comes up into the market with this innovative idea of organizing competitions to tap young talent, it needs to have a separate identity and thus with its one unique purpose, will be able to stand out among the pool of event management companies already existing in the market.The company/brand became operational on November 2010 and launched its first event, which was a business idea competition by the name of ELIXIR. Participants from the Universities from all over Hong Kong were required to bring in an innovative business idea that has never been introduced in the market before, produce a complete business plan for it and present in front of a panel of corporate professionals. The brand aims to organize events along the same lines in the future. ELIXIR is an event organized by PURPLE every year in the first half of the year.

Brand Development decisions

The decision to develop this brand/company in the market has been taken according to the motive of the company/brand which is tapping the young talent of the country and providing them practical exposure. The positioning of the brand is as has been stated-tapping the young talent and providing them practical exposure while facilitating companies in identifying potential future employees. Further detail on its development and sustenance in local market has been stated below.

Sustenance in local market and Brand EquityManagement

In order to implement suitable brand development strategies for this brand, we first need to answer three basic questions to understand the effectiveness and level of intensity as well as the type of strategy to be implemented to develop this new brand in market and create its saliency and equity. The three key elements required to be considered are "who are you?," "who needs to know?" And "why should they care?" (Yerian 2011). For this brand, they first need to define the purpose of the service provided by PURPLE, which is to tap young talent of the country through events related to the youth. The people who need to know are the college and university students which will be participating and the corporations for professional development of their employees or for identifying young talent that suits their company best for hiring. The target market must care because the service being provided is not only beneficial for their career development and business growth but is also beneficial to the country in the long run, helping reduce unemployment that may arise in future or by utilizing the talent that may otherwise be wasted.

Considering these questions the company then comes to the brand development according to the current situation that is introducing itself in the market and creating the brand's market worth or equity. The current Hong Kong market of event management has been flourishing at an immense speed and in the past few years have experienced an exponential growth in the event management market. Due to the location and infrastructure available, the country has become the hub of conventions, conferences exhibitions, meetings and other mega events. The country is a home to a huge number of event management companies professionally organizing events and providing certain support services. This signifies the largeness and competitiveness of the event management market in Hong Kong and thus brings forward many considerations for the development of this brand. Moreover, it also specifies the easiness of setting up an event management company in the country. There is no tedious licensing involved for setting up except some activity-specific licenses or permits. Despite the presence of many event management companies, the demand for event management has been seen to rise continuously and thus setting up this firm would be an easy go (Guide Me Hong Kong 2012).

To develop the brand the first requirement is to research the market, which has been done above. The next step is to develop the positioning and value of the brand in the market. The consumers will perceive the service as providing an opportunity to the youth to discover and reveal their talent to the corporate world, providing practical exposure to the youth and providing corporations with a chance to acquire the talent discovered through hiring. This could also be called the brand's point of difference compared to other brands.

Next in line is specifying the brand's definition which in this case is "For the betterment of the country, the nation, and ourselves" describing that the events arranged will be based on professional development of individuals whether it be students or corporate professional and thus benefit the society in the long run. The next step is developing the name, logo….....