A STUDY OF BRAND IDENTITY & BRAND POSITIONING AS A PART OF BRAND MANAGEMENT FOR BUILDING BRANDS CONCERNING ENGINEERING SMES. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY FOCUSING ON SMES FROM PUNE (MAHARASHTRA, INDIA)
Abstract
The role of Brand Management, when it comes to SMEs, is significantly underutilized and ignored. Based on various research findings, SMEs are not following the scientific process of Brand Positioning, Brand Promotion, and Brand Management compared to big corporate brands. Studying the effects of brand identity and brand positioning as a part of the overall process of Brand Management on the brand development process employed by SMEs is one of the study's main objectives. The second purpose is to comprehend how much the overall brand identity and positioning influence enhancing or growing the brand value in the targeted markets. Other goals include researching the crucial and significant facets of brand positioning that set certain companies apart from rivals and presenting Engineering SMEs with a conceptual process model of brand management. Various statistical techniques are used for data analysis and interpretation. The Hypothesis is tested using Regression analysis, Factor analysis, and ANOVA. The study also presents the reliability and validity of the relation between identified variables and brand building. For this study, out of the proposed four variables in the Brand Management Process Model, the first variable, 'Brand Identity & Brand Positioning,' is used to test its effect on the brand-building process. With the lack of awareness and knowledge about progressive brand management methods, Engineering SMEs tend to follow a few initiatives related to brand building based on superficial thinking and a lack of a long-term brand-building strategy. The factor analysis sufficiently proves that SMEs do not give the necessary weightage to defining the factors like Brand Promise, Brand Values, Brand Positioning, or Internal Branding. This research paper also proposes the Brand Management Process Model, the research platform with the projected benefits for Engineering SMEs.
Keyword : Brand Management, Brand Identity, Brand Positioning, Engineering SMEs, Brand Value.
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