Brand Strategy and Development

Question: Discuss about the Brand Strategy and Development. Answer: Introduction The main aim of the report is to analyze and discuss the brand strategy of Webgate managed services AG that is a spinoff of webgate consulting a subsidiary of IBM group. The report summarizes the methods used by the organization to develop the brand name. Social media and digital marketing plays an important role in promotion of the product. The use of facebook and twitter is widening and is widely used by the organization to promote the product. Core market segments of the company are identified by the managers in an organization so that they are able to develop the plan that targets the customers. Competitors play a vital role in determining the brand position of the company (Gerrath and Leenders 2013). Brand strategy is development of a marketing plan that is developed for long term in order to achieve goals and objectives of the firm. A business plan should be such that it caters to the needs of customers as well as employees. The brand strategies are developed in such a way that it is able to achieve competitive advantage in global world. Webgate is a software architecture company that is responsible for developing softwares for customers. Its clientele include a group of small corporate houses, Non Governmental organizations and innovative companies. The company has collaborated with IBM to provide information and connect with experts and people. Webgate managed services is a stock corporation that was founded in the year 2015 (En.webgate.biz 2016). The main aim of the company is to achieve the top most position in the stock market so that it can compete with its competitors. The management team is divided into various divisions such as managed server, system administration, helpdesk and remote monitoring system. It is a public limited company under the Swiss law. The main aim of IBM business partner is to expand its business. Webgate Managed services AG is an IT firm that deals in computer related services. It is a start up firm that is a subsidiary of Webgate consulting services. The responsibility of the company i s to resell the softwares developed by IBM (Docplayer.net 2016). Summary of brand strategy Brand strategies are the marketing plan that is used to achieve the long term objective of the organizations. The strategy ensures that it fulfills the needs of the customers and keeps in mind the emotions and interests. Brand strategies determine the position of the organization in the market. In order to develop a brand strategy it is essential for the company to know the purpose of the organization so that the strategies can be formed accordingly (Aaker and Joachimsthaler 2012). While developing strategy it is essential to maintain consistency, consider the emotions of the customers and be flexible. A good strategy is one that is flexible in nature so that it can be used in any situation. Employees are the essential part of the organization and should be involved in decision making. The company operates in an IT sector to support the infrastructure building. The company operates 24 x 7. It extends its services to large and global customers as well. The main aim of the company is to provide the best services to its customers by developing software that can be used by architectural firm in infrastructure building. While developing a brand strategy it is essential for the firm to analyze the macro and micro factors that affect the business. Webgate managed services is a newly established organization that needs a strong brand development in the global world (Shapiro and Varian 2013). Webgate managed services helps the infrastructural firms mitigate risks during the time of phase out that requires resources and knowledge. The main aim is to provide best IT services for good project management. The main strategy of the firm is to use hire the best professional tem for the product development so that they can provide a good service to its customers. Customers play an important role as its main customers are the architectural corporate. It is a hundred percent subsidiary of webgate consulting services AG that is responsible for proving modern database for infrastructural development. The company is located in Switzerland (Kotler et al. 2015). The company can manage and market its service through proper campaigning and developing a marketing plan. There are various forms of marketing strategies that can company can use to establish and promote its brand. This includes marketing through advertisement, industry events, new letter, telemarketing, direct mail and email marketing. The marketing of managed services helps in increasing the satisfaction of customers as it improves the operational efficiency. Developing a proper strategy also reduces the cost of IT provision. Before marketing its managed services the firms must identify the target market at the first place (Clancy, Berger and Krieg 2013). Then the next step is to prepare an effective marketing list and create a compelling message to attract the targeted customers. A proper budget needs to be set by the organization so that it can use the methods of promotion accordingly. The firms must first set a short term goals in order to test whether the marketing plan is work ing or not. The goals can be expanded if the marketing strategy works. Core market segments Market segmentation is the division of broad market segment into smaller target markets. The target markets and countries whom the company wants to sell its product to is divided on the basis of the common needs, interests and prospective. It is not possible for any firm to market its product in the entire country. Hence it is essential to divide the broad market into small segments. Marketing segmentation helps in identifying the target market and positioning (Cross et al. 2015). Core market segments are of various types. It is divided on the basis of following criteria. Geographic segmentation- the target market is segmented on the basis of place, region or country. The segmentation is so done that the target customers belong to same place or country so that it is easy for the marketers to identify the needs of the people to promote the product. For example, Webgate managed services AG will target the clients of Switzerland and a nearby so that it is easy to promote and manage the service (Jefferson and George 2014). Demographic segmentation- segmentation that is based on gender, age, income, career and education falls under this category of market segmentation. For example, Webgate managed services AG will target those clients of firms that have high education level and a knowledge on IT and architecture. High income group will be preferred as the services provided by the company are expensive in nature that can be afforded by rich people. Their main clients are corporate firms that deal in infrastructural development. Behavioral segmentation- segmentation is on the basis of attitude, response and lifestyle. The organization will target the clients that are user friendly, computer friendly and loyal in nature. Psychographic segmentation- segmentation based on attitudes, beliefs, lifestyles and religion is categorized under psychographic segmentation. The marketers identify the behavior that affects the personal activities. For example, Webgate managed services AG will develop software according to the needs of the different firms according to the services that they provide for developing infrastructure. It greatly depends on the behavior of the organization (Jefferson and George 2014). Cultural segmentation- segmentation based on the culture and religion of people is cultural segmentation. It includes cultural origin and dimension including the thinking of society and entire community. In case of an IT firm cultural segmentation does not lay any role as the services and information provided by the company is for all the consumers and clients. There are various indicators that helps the company determine as to on which basis should they segment the target market. The three main clients of target markets of Webgate managed services AG are Archroma that is an industry famous in chemicals and colorants. The second customer is Projections 2015 that is a social research extrapolations and the third is Ricoh Scheweiz that is a trading firm. Hence, it is worth noting that the company aims at broadening its prospects. It not only targets a single type of industry or firm but diversifies its choices. The company has diversified its range of choices from trading firm to chemical firm. Hence the company targets an architectural form that uses softwares to provide infrastructural services to its customers. The company is also involved in solving the query of customers by providing 24 x 7 services (Carroll et al. 2014). Brand positioning Brand position is a strategy that helps in identifying the position that the brands hold in an international market. Segmentation, targeting and positioning is a three way process where the firms identify the types of customers that exist. Then it chooses the target group among those customers that it wants to provide its service. The third is implementation stage that helps company determine its position. It basically explains the relationship that the firm holds with its customers. It is essential for the firm to target the customers that is loyal so that the firms dont lose their position when new brands enter the market (Kumar and Kim 2014). The strategy is developed to achieve competitive advantage so that they can maintain top position in the global market. There are four main factors of brand positioning. These include price, promotion, distribution and competition. There are two ways of formulating brand positioning strategy. First is promoting the brand name through customer and the second is establishing brand name with the help of competitors. There are various firms that are indulged in selling computer related services (Schlegelmilch 2016). Its biggest competitor is IBM that is international business machines Corporation, a consulting firm indulged in developing softwares that offers a wide range of consulting services. The company has an estimated sale volume of 1.56 U.S. million dollars and is engaged in employing very few employees. The competitors of the organization have lower sales volume and also employ more people than that of Webgate managed services AG. The other competitors of the organization are Agile Experts Gmbh that has an estimated sale volume of 577,172 dollars and has four employees working. Freo Switzerland Ag also has an estimated sale volume of 577,172 dollars that employs two people in its firm (Singh et al. 2014). The main difference between IBM and Webgate managed services Ag is that IBM targets its customers that have geographic distinction in New York while Webgate targets customers of Switzerland. The main strategy of IBM is to differentiate its product and services from that of its competitors in terms of quality. It believes in providing high quality goods and services to its customers so that it is able to attract loyal customers. The quality and design that the company produces helps the organization maintain position that it has achieved (Wedel and Kamakura 2012). The selection of target customers should not be restricted to one particular field nor should it be too broadened. An unnecessary promotion of its brand creates a negative impact on its customers. The product and services that the company provides should not be hyped as it creates a negative image. Establishing a clear mission and vision is essential for the organization as it helps them set a target and formulate effective strategy (Kuuru and Tuominen 2016). A good positioning strategy follows several steps that include drafting a positioning statement, competitor analysis, determining current position, and developing a unique idea to position its brand. There are various ways to analyze the strategies that the competitors use in order to achieve competitive advantage. This includes Porters five forces that are analyzing supplier power, buyer power, and competitive rivalry, threat of substitution and threat of new entry. The positioning strategy should be simple and keep in mind the emotions and interests of all the people attached with the firms be its stakeholders, customers or employees (Santos-Vijande et al. 2013). Role of social media in promotion The advancement of technology has encouraged a new way of promotion that is through the internet. Social networking sites such as facebook and twitter helps in maintaining a competitive edge. Promotion of any goods and services is essential to make the consumers aware of the product and services. Social media is also used to promote its brand image. Since social media helps in getting respond and feedback of the customers the organizations can know the view that they hold in the market so that they can work on it. Issues of the products and services can be known by the organization (Goh et al. 2013). A consumer appreciates consuming those products and services for which they can leave a feedback. It is the responsibility of the organizations to respond to their queries in a positive way and try to solve the query. This helps in maintaining brand loyalty. Many online e commerce sites have also been launched where the products and even the services are available online. Webgate managed services AG; a computer service provider is active in various social media sites such as facebook, twitter, XING and LinkedIn. The sites are used by the company to advertise the services that it provides so that customers and clients are aware. The main aim of advertising the services is to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization and to increase the sales volume (Singh et al. 2012). The website of Webgate managed services AG includes the vision and mission of the company so that the employees and even the customers are aware of the companys image. Since Webgate managed services AG is a startup firm promotion of the services is important as the customers are not aware of the organization. It is essential for the organization to promote the services that it provides to the target group such as corporate firms and architectural that is involved in infrastructural building. The relationship with customers also becomes stronger through the use of social media (Ward and Peppard 2016). In an IT firm it is not only essential to promote its services through advertisement but it is essential for the organizations to advertise its success stories of the projects that it has worked on. It is essential for the firms to acknowledge the efforts that have put on. The logo and other things should be so chosen that it is professional in nature. Brand awareness is necessary that can be created by using social media and other online activities. There are various companies that help in promoting services (Okazaki and Taylor 2013). With the help of these professional companies promotion of products and services become better. Startup firms should concentrate mainly on two things that is developing a good quality product and services and promoting the organization so that it is able to achieve competitive advantage over its rivals. Communication is one of the key tools to promote information technology services and products. The information and advertisements promoted should be we ll surveyed and researched (Wu et al. 2013). Impact of digital marketing on brand Promotion of commodity to the target market through the use of digital tools is known as digital marketing. The main objective of promoting its product through digital marketing is to increase the volume of sale, the number of customers and to make the consumers aware of the product. Digital marketing is the term used to promote its products and services to its customers using various digital tools such as the internet, social media, report, and news. The key objective is to promote brands, build customer loyalty, and build preference and engaging with clients. Digital marketing is also known as online marketing (Leeflang et al. 2014). It is the most preferred set of the marketing strategy used by the customers to access information. The growth of competitors makes it necessary for the organizations to promote its product. Digital marketing not only helps the marketer promote its product, but they can also get valuable feedbacks from its client. There are various tools of digital marketing such as: Creation of website- The industry can create attractive websites of the company stating the entire information of the activities and services provided by them. The website of the company includes the information of the clients of the company so that the other clients can know the type of customers the company deals with. The customers can also get review about the service of the company from the clients (Ryan 2014). Social media- social media sites such as facebook and twitter can be used to post advertisement of the services that the company provides to its customers. A new trend has been where a facebook page is created by a firm or company to promote its product. The page has all the information of the company and the services that it provides (Okazaki and Taylor 2013). Search engine marketing and Blog- This includes maintaining mobile friendly applications and information that is user-friendly and easy to access. All the informations are accessible through these applications itself. Various blogs are also available in the internet that is written by a team of experts. Blogs helps in giving direction to the organization as well as customers (Srivastava 2016). News channels- another way of promotion of service through use of television and internet. The advertisements and posts can be made available in news channels (Srivastava 2016). Digital marking is an innovation in technology that is gaining a wide range of popularity and is used by the maximum organizations in the new era. The main benefit of using social media as a way of promotion is that it sis cost effective in nature and also easy. Managers do not have to spend more time in promoting the products as it is a short process (Ryan 2014). Conclusion Webgate managed service is a startup company that was just founded in the year 2015. It is engaged in employing very few people. Hence it is essential for the firm to develop an efficient market plan so that it is able to achieve competitive advantage over its competitors that are already established in market. Webgate is a computer related service provider that provides its services to architectural firms for development of infrastructure. The main aim of the report was to develop a brand strategy that helps the firms determine the position that they hold in the market. There are various techniques that the organization uses to promote its product. Use of social media is increasing. The company has registered its website on various social media websites such as facebook, twitter and other websites. Role of digital marketing is increasing and the main reason is advancement in technology. Digital marketing is an innovation in technology that is gaining a wide range of popularity for t he promotion of the product. Internet is taking over peoples lives. Identifying a proper market segment is essential as the whole marketing plan depends on that itself. Effective brand strategy is a key to success especially in case of startups. References Aaker, D.A. and Joachimsthaler, E., 2012.Brand leadership. Simon and Schuster. Carroll, J., Davidson, P. and Lakshmanan, T., Go Daddy Operating Company, LLC, 2014.Website content optimization for target market. U.S. Patent Application 14/309,826. Clancy, K.J., Berger, P.D. and Krieg, P., 2013. 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