Marketing Essentials: Branding, Pricing, Distribution, Communication

ITEM 6 — Branding and Packaging

1. Brand: A brand is a name, term, symbol, or combination of these elements, protected by law, that differentiates a company's products from the competition.

2. Brand strategy:

• Brand-only (single brand): Product-market similar; same level. Resources (including money) can use the same distribution channels.
  • Advantages: Facilitates the introduction of new products and reduces advertising and promotion costs.
  • Disadvantages: It applies only to a single product unit.
• Brand strategy (opposite approach): The opposite of the previous strategy (individual or separate branding for each product).
  • Advantages: A negative result for one product does not affect other products of the company.
  • Disadvantages: Additional costs are required to introduce new products.

3. Packaging and product line: Packaging is the container and its functions; it includes the design and production activities related to the product's container and packaging.

Packaging features and functions:

• Representation effect (brand/product image).
• Time savings for the retailer.
• Protection for the consumer.
• Protection for the product (physical protection).
• Facilitates advertising and promotion.
• Facilitates the correct use of the product.

ITEM 7 — Price and Its Components

1. Definition of price and its components: Price is the value the buyer gives in exchange for the value received.

Components:

• Monetary amount paid.
• Time invested or spent.
• Effort required.
• Discomforts or inconveniences suffered.

Importance of price as a marketing tool:

• Short-term instrument for demand stimulation.
• Competitive tool.
• Provides income to the company.
• In many purchasing decisions, price is the only information available to the buyer.
• Has a psychological impact on the buyer.

ITEM 8 — Distribution and Channels

1. Distribution: A set of operations executed from the moment the product under normal use reaches the store until it is delivered to the consumer.

2. Distribution channels: The way by which the flow of the product circulates from its origin to its final consumption or use.

ITEM 9 — Communication, Advertising, Promotion, PR, Sales

1. Communication: The transmission of information about the product or the company through media, with the purpose of stimulating demand.

2. Advertising and its purposes: Impersonal and paid transmission of information through the media via paid advertisements.

3. Promotion: Activities that use materials or economic incentives (prizes, discounts) to stimulate short-term demand.

4. PR (Public Relations): Relations with the media and sponsorships aimed at disseminating favorable information about the product, the company, and other market audiences.

5. Sales force: All persons who perform acts directly related to the sale of the company's products.