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Question: Critically Evaluate the Concept of Branding, with examples. How can branding be used to create Sustainable Competitive Advantage? Answer: Introduction Branding is considered to be the most vital concept which helps in bringing out the desired elevation in the execution of the business process of any of the organization concerned. It has been evaluated that there are many of the well-known firms those who have significantly used innovative strategies to enhance their brand reputation in front of the customers. The primary aim of any business organization is to capture the entire market segments by gaining competitive advantage throughout the market segments concerned. This research paper will help in evaluating different branding strategies required to enhance the execution of the business processes throughout the competitive market segments concerned. Different types of the marketing concepts need to be evaluated effectively in order to gain the competitive advantage over the other competitors (Dibb, 2012). Segmentation, targeting and positioning approaches should be used to target a particular group of the customers. Moreover, the paper will highlight the use of the marketing strategies, theories, and concepts for the evaluation of the brand's reputation in front of all of the customers. In order to understand the marketing concepts and the use of branding strategies, McDonald Corporation has been taken into consideration. Main context Description of the company McDonald Corporation is one of the fastest growing fast food chains which is operating its business processes throughout different parts of the world. Moreover, the firm has adopted several effective strategies in order to enhance its business processes within the competitive market areas (Baines, 2011). The firm is having more than 36000 restaurants operating in more than 100 countries across the world. It is an American Hamburger as well as the fast food restaurant chain which was founded in the year 1940. The primary motive of the firm is to assist the customers with the great quality of the foods and services in order to increase their reliability regarding the products offered. The effectiveness of the work processes has helped in evaluating its brand reputation in front of the customers concerned. The evaluation of a particular company is considered to be vital as it helps in bringing out more positive results for the firm concerned. There comes a different factor which needs to bed analyzed as it helps in promoting the brand imaged in front of the customers concerned (Brassington Pettit, 2013). It is important to understand the quality of the products, as well as the services offered by any of the firms, is of large importance as these generate direct impact on the minds of the customers concerned. The development of the brand's identity is of great importance as it helps in attracting a large number of the customers towards the firm (Kotler, 2013). The brand identity is defined refers the business that is going to be perceived by the customers throughout the market areas concerned. There are few of the vital components of the brand; they are logo, tone, tagline and typeface, which help in creating the desired value of the brands in front of the customers concerned. There ar e different types of the branding strategies used by various other organizations, such as name brand recognition, individual branding, No-brand branding, brand extension, private labels and crowdsourcing (Areni, 2010). The use of branding should be done in a way in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage throughout the concerned market areas. Company name This concept critically highlights the development of the strong name of the brand or that of the company which helps in increasing the selling of all of the products. McDonald Corporation is supposed to be one of the fastest fast food restaurant chains operating its business process throughout different parts of the world. The firm has developed its brand reputation by working as per the satisfaction level of the customers (Arora Stoner, 2009). There has been no compromise regarding the product quality and the services offered to all its respective customers. Moreover, the customers are assisted effectively and efficiently in order to increase the satisfaction level which helps in acquiring the desired competitive advantage throughout the competitive market areas (Ballantyne Aitken, 2007). Moreover, the company owns a large number of the franchise and restaurant chains operating throughout different parts of the world. Individual branding It needs to be understood that each of the brands possesses a separate name which is put into the desired competition against the other brands concerned within the market segments. There are few of the individual brands such as Kool-Aid and Tang which are both owned by Kraft Foods. Therefore, the concept of individual branding should be analyzed properly as to compete with the other brand present within the market segments concerned. It is a matter of fact that the individual brand names generally allow the greater amount of flexibility by allowing a variety of the different goods without making the consumers confuse (Dev, 2008). Moreover, the development of higher quality of the products draws the desired attention of the customers towards purchasing the product from that particular brand only. Therefore, the different aspects of individual branding need to be evaluated effectively as this will help in boosting the growth and development of the organization concerned. Attitude Branding and Iconic Brands This particular concept is used for representing the larger feeling that is not generally associated with the product and services at all. There are few of the other companies which are effectively using this type of the branding concepts; these are Nike, Starbucks and Apple Inc. Moreover, the Iconic brands can be defined as having different aspects which contribute towards consumer's self-expression as well as the personal identity (Barwise Meehan, 2010). The attitude and the behavior of the employees associated with a particular organization play vital role in enhancing the effectiveness and reliability of the consumers concerned. there are a few of the well-known brands that have a strong identity which makes them Iconic Brands' in front of the customers concerned. For example, few of the Iconic Brands are Apple Inc, Nike, McDonald Corporation and Harley Davidson. Therefore, there needs to be a formulation of effective strategies for the growth of the firm throughout the concerne d market areas (Ind, 2013). Derived Brands There are few of the suppliers that promote their respective products in order to show their own position in its own right. Many of the firms use their own respective strategies to increase the effectiveness of their business process and to increase the selling of the products and services offered by their organization. Brand Extension and Brand Dilution The existence of the strong brand name can be effectively used as to be the desired vehicle for the new products within the concerned market areas (Kapferer, 2008). There are many of the well-known fashion and designer firms which have extended their respective brands into fragrances, accessories and shoes, hotels and furniture. Consequently, the product is no different than what is already offered within the market segments, but it has a brand name marking on it. It becomes, moreover, important for any of the firm to understand the desired aspects of brand extension and its dilution as to bring out the positive outcomes for the organization (Kotler Pfoertsch, 2007). On the other hand, the risk of overextension is known as the brand dilution, which comes when the brand loses its brand associations throughout the competitive market areas concerned. Multi-brands strategy The use of this concept is done by many of the well-known firms in order to attract a large number of the customers towards the firm (Laurie Mortimer, 2011). It has been seen that in a very saturated market situations, a particular supplier can deliberately bring up complete new brands in the apparent competition having its own existing brand name for capturing the entire market segments. The primary reason is that having 3 out of 12 brands in this type of market will help in giving great overall than instead of having 1 out of 10. The identification of the market share seems to be more important as it generates the great amount of impact on the execution an evaluation of the business process of the firm concerned. It has been seen that Marriott uses the name as Fairfield Inns for its respective chains. One of the issues with multi-brands strategy approach is Cannibalization, which reflects the undertaking of the established brand by a new brand which the company also owns. This particular strategy can be acceptable if there is the net overall gain (Lovett, 2013). Private labels These are also called store brands or own brands which have become increasingly popular. The labels indicate the desired strength of the brand identity of the retailer, which is used to compete against the other competitors present throughout the market areas concerned. The strong appearance of the products and services are supposed to be of vital importance as this helps in generating great impact on the minds of the customers present throughout the market segments (Salinas Ambler, 2009). The leaders and the managers plays vital role in increasing the strength of the brand by enhancing the quality of the services and products offered to the customers (Pickton Broderick, 2005). The managers and the leaders associated with McDonald Corporation critically boost the growth of the firm by increasing the reliability of the customers with the help of superior quality of products along with services. Therefore, the identification and the use of the private labels plays the vital role in e valuating the brand image of the firm in front of the other customers concerned. Individual and Organizational Brands These are those types of the branding which treat the individuals or the organizations as to be the desired products to be branded. Moreover, personal branding treats respective persons as to be their career brands. Crowdsourcing Branding These are those brands which area created and developed by people for their respective business processes which are considered to be the opposite of traditional method where the preferred business is responsible for creating brand (Tesseras, 2014). There are few of the benefits of this type of the branding concept, as it minimizes the desired risks of brand failure (Vallaster, 2012). Therefore, the evaluation of the brand value and brand image can be easily increased by adopting this particular branding concept. Therefore, the uses of different marketing branding strategies are considered to be more important as it helps in evaluating the growth of the firm throughout the targeted market segments concerned. Examples of Branding in Marketing The factors coming within the marketing of a particular product or a particular organization needs to be understood effectively as this generates enormous impact on the execution of the business process of a particular organization (Walsh Lee, 2012). Branding is defined as the desired technique used in order to develop the brand image of a firm in front of the customers as to increase the selling of the products. Analysis of the examples in developing the brand image of a firm seems to be more important as it helps in the identification of the factors required for Branding. Few of the important factors required for the development of the brand image are as follows: Symbols Symbols are effectively used by many of the firms like McDonald Corporation; Apple Inc. Samsung etc in order to help the consumers in recognizing their Brand Presence. The use of Logos and different types of the symbols are used to reflect the brand presence of the concerned organizations, which generates the enormous amount of impact on the minds of the customers (Gallucci, 2015). Development of the trust of the consumers with the firm is important and this can be reflected with the help of symbols concerned. Slogans Slogans are also used by many of the firms in order to create their own brand image in front of the targeted audiences throughout the competitive market areas concerned. One of the famous slogans used by McDonald Corporation as a part of their marketing campaign is I am loving it. The development of the slogan is done in a way as to generate the huge amount of impact on the minds of the clients in order to increase the number of customers for the organization (Oeppen Jamal, 2014). The famous should be made as it draws the desired attention of the customers towards the products and services offered by the organization. Differentiation There are different types of differentiation strategies that are used by various other firms in order to specify their respective products and services from that of the other one. It helps in providing the desired competitive advantage to the concerned company throughout the targeted market areas. For example, a particular business can effectively position itself as being the innovator, reflecting its competitors offering the same services or same products (Ponnam Balaji, 2015). The reflection can be easily made with the help of differentiating in the products and services offered by the firm to all its customers and it also helps in increasing the brand image of the firm throughout the market segments concerned. User experience The best illustration of branding can be made with the help of measuring the user experience, which different companies aim to create. For example, there are many of the firms those provide unmatched superior services and experiences to all their respective customers (Aln?a?k, 2014). Moreover, McDonald Corporation uses its advertisements for developing the brand image of fun placed for the parents in order to take their respective children for having a great meal. These types of the strategies evaluate user experiences and increase the reliability of the customers which finally brings out more profitability for the firm. Branding in creating a competitive suitable advantage A sustainable competitive advantage occurs when a particular organization attains or develops an attribute or the desired set of combination of the attributes in order to outperform its respective competitors. Before proceeding further, the definitions of brand and sustainable should be understood properly. In general terms, the brand can be explained as the established product name, symbol or design. It is the combination of actual characteristics which are associated with a particular recognized product or service. Brand positioning In order to develop a specific position of the concerned brand, a differential advantage needs to be developed in front of the customers concerned. The customer needs to be identified and targeted in order to position the brand itself throughout the competitive market areas concerned. It is supposed to be very important for a powerful brand to establish the brand name in the minds of the customers as this helps ion providing the desired competitive advantage within the concerned market segments. The offering of the desirable benefits to all of the customers helps in increasing the productivity and profitability of the firm within the competitive market segments (Aln?a?k, 2014). The reason for buying of the products from the particular organization needs to be shown to the customers as this helps to make the suitable position for the brand. In order to position its brand reputation in front of the customers, McDonald Corporation requires highlighting the benefits and the superior serv ices offered to its entire respective customer. The focus should be on strong values and beliefs as these strikes the minds of the customers regarding the products and services offered to them. Moreover, customers personality is one of the other aspects which need to be considered by different brands. It has been seen that there are many of the customers those like to match up their personality with the suitable brands and thus, the identification of the choices of the customers will help in getting the desired competitive advantage within the competitive marketplaces (Chowdhury, 2015). Furthermore, McDonald Corporation is also looking forward to bring up suitable strategies in order to match up with the customer's personality which will help in evaluating the significant growth and development of the organization throughout the concerned market areas. The attitudes and the behaviors of the customers need to be recognized in this particular regards as this helps in influencing their respective decision-making processes regarding the purchasing of the products concerned. The primary target audience for McDonald Corporation is children of ages 11 years to 18 years of age. Therefore, the identification of the choices of the children is vital as this will help in increasing the effectiveness and the efficiency of the business processes of the firm. Development of the Brand Associations The development of the brand associations with many other firms helps in providing the preferred elevation in an expansion of the business processes throughout the concerned market areas. The brand associations are not the benefits but they reflect the images or the symbols in association with the brand or the brand benefits. Association of a particular brand with something positive increases the profitability of the firm and therefore, there should be a formulation of the effective strategies in order to increase the productivity as well as the profitability of the organization throughout the concerned competitive market segments. Conclusion The research paper critically evaluates the fact that branding is one of the vital factors which helps in bringing more profits for an organization. Brand may be defined as the established product name, symbol or design. It is the arrangement of actual characteristics which are associated with a particular recognized product or service. The paper evaluates the factors required for the development of a brands image throughout the concerned competitive market segments. 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