BRANDING OF DESIGNER’S PRODUCTS AND RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Introduction: The rapid changes that are coming in the global business market have created the need of developing products that are seen as value by the customers. The focus today is not how the product is, but it is about how the product can actually make customers purchase it and find superior value in it that can satisfy their need want and desire. It the value, that is being sought after by both the manufacturers as well as the customers. In doing so, the most common strategy being followed is the red ocean strategy, which indicates a fierce competition existing in the market of such goods . Given that, manufacturers have identified a key need to tap on to, which is creating difference. That difference is the brand which a company makes out of a product. A brand can be defined as a name or logo or symbol or identity or sound that is closely associated with identifying the product. Hence, it would not be wrong to say that a brand is simply the identity given to a product. It is a way of differentiating one product from a similar one and associating value with it. The paper will discuss the strategies adopted to make a product a brand and how customers tend to build relationships with those brands, specifically about Porsche Targa. Porsche as a Brand: Porsche is the German brand that has been one of the most successful luxurious car companies. The new Porsche Targa has been the current obsession of people who have love for luxurious cars. The car has rear engine, the engine is air cooled and has rear suspensions that can bear the shocks. It is an innovative car that has been the first of its kind and has been really admired by the customers. Porsche being the luxury car manufacturer has kept few principles in order to ensure that it has created the brand that customers actually admire. These values are the superior customer value that Porsche wants to provide to its customers. Being a valued brand, competing against Lamborghini, Ferrari etc. Porsche has made itself being differentiated as an ultra luxury car. The premium price of the product is another focus that must be understood as a strategy of making a brand and ensuring that only the target market would be attracted, hence, the company was successful in it. The one factor which has made Porsche as a brand and Porsche Targa as its product is the uniform strategy followed worldwide. The idea of uniform marketing strategy is not only cost effective, but gives a message of belonging to one family of Porsche family. Differentiation: In order to make a product known and acceptable, it is important to make it different. It’s not the product appearance, but the very offer of the product should classify itself as different, separate and unique. In marketing, product differentiation has been one of the most successful competitive strategies adopted by marketers to ensure that their product sold more than those of competitors. Differentiation is done to attain competitive edge and to ensure that the customers identify the superior value that is being offered by the product. The same strategy is adopted by the company, by providing rear engine, rear suspension and air cooled engine. It is the unique selling proposition (USP) of Porsche. There can be several things that can be differentiated about in a product. It can be the quality of the product, the functional features or its design, such as the interior or the exterior of the car, the way a product is marketed and positioned in the minds of the customers. For instance, the pricing of the car ranging between $105,000-$108,000 targets only the affluent class that can afford the car, unlike the Toyota,
Nissan, VW, General Motors, Suzuki, Mitsubishi etc that target the low and medium income group earners (Friedman, 2009). Product Life Cycle: A product grows with time and its life cycle stages determine where it is going. Porsche Targa has been introduced and it has quickly gained success through its excellent strategy making. The Product Life Cycle is based on four stages. It can be said that Porsche is at its maturity stage and as a result of the stage, the brand loyalty is created amongst the customers and they become loyal to the company and product. As this stage, the costs get low and sales volume rises. Brands and Relationships: Marketers have established the fact that customers tend make relationship with the brad and feel close to the brand they like most. The paper earlier has thrown light on the behaviour of the customers of Porsche such as the Baby Boomers and the Gen Y, and how they choose a product over the others. The development of the relationship of any brand and customer is difficult. It is the way the product should provide superior quality to the customer. According to the executive director of Relationship Research Institute in Seattle, John Gottman, relationships do not rely on communications rather they depend on those few moments of intimacy and attachments. However, many at times the relationships are weak and they are constrained. One bad experience breaks the ties and creates dissonance in the customers. However, by and large, it had been observed that relationship is built because of the experiences that people have had. It might be that a person who has love for cars feel mostly attach to his Porsche because it reminds him of his success, his victory and that’s how loyalty comes and remains intact. Hence, customer relationship with brand also helps it sells as the word of mouth spreads the message of the product being liked. The moments of intimacy and experience leave a great impression in the hearts of customers and they blindly trust the brand so that they can again have the same experience. Conclusion: Brands are the loyalty symbols of any organisation. Be it nay vehicle, brand loyalty is closely associated with it and it also pays off to be the best amongst the competitors and people in the market. Aonepapers.com completely realizes this problem. To achieve the grade of your choice there are certain issues and requirements which must be completely addressed in your essays or any other sort of academic paper. We understand that there are a number of college and university students who are trying to present high quality academic papers to their teachers in the required time – but unfortunately they are not able to do so. The most helpful solution is to hire a cheap paper writing service online such as ours for low prices by the most experienced writers at our company.