All the big companies around the world pay special attention to advertising and building brands. Brand managers are hired and they are given a special budget to advertise and maintain the brand position and value. Coca-Cola, Apple, Pepsi, Intel and Apple are the examples of the brands that pay special attention towards brand building. Brand building is about maintain one’s brand in the minds of the consumer as well as continuously deliver the high quality, and meeting all the consumer expectations that are created in the mind of the consumers through advertising, and other public-relations activities.
Many experts in economics and other business fields argue that these companies spend too much on advertising and transfer the higher prices of marketing and advertising the brand to consumers. In other words, consumers end up paying more for the product then they actually should if these companies do not spend such exorbitant amount on advertising related activities. It is a valid point-of-view, as advertising is a costly activity. Often millions of dollars are spent on it. This raises the cost of getting the product for consumers and later the companies add their own margin on the product which raises the prices further causing inflation and high price of products. The argument follows that the companies should spend just enough on advertising and marketing to maintain a brand and should not spend more than what is enough. It is a relative term. For small companies the threshold of how much is enough would be smaller than companies like Apple, Coca-Cola and Microsoft. Hence, the argument in which experts declare “too much money is being spent on advertisements” is of little or no value (Murthy, 2014).
The counter argument given by the brand managers and marketers is that they do not know how much enough is. It is not a biblical fact, nor is it defined anywhere as to how much is enough. They also argue that more they spend on advertising, the higher their sales get and more benefit the company gets. It will be very less thoughtful of them to spend less on advertising specially when there is fierce competition in the industry and one bad mistake can prove futile and loss of business for the company. Many brands have specialized departments that target the selected market and they carefully select the content and advertising medium on which to advertise in order to make sure that the right target market is given the brand message (Stock, 2014). Often products which are not marketed well lose their position in the minds of the consumer. For example, if one good day Coke decides not to spend as much on advertising as it was spending before, will Pepsi stop advertising? No, instead, Pepsi will double its branding and marketing efforts because of the room they will find in the market. Hence, brands cannot spend less on branding, marketing and advertising and will have to continue spending large sums of money on advertising to sustain their brand position.
Some people also argue that all the brands must be restricted through laws to stop inflation. However, this is not a solution, because advertising and marketing have become an specialized industry giving employment to many people around the world. Some ancillary and support businesses have also been setup which support marketing, branding and advertising efforts and provide employment to millions of people around the world. As a result, branding, marketing, and advertising cannot be reduced or banned through law either. (Tauli, 2014)
We must accept in today’s world there is nothing as too much of marketing, branding and advertising and it is necessary for the growth and sustainability of the brand. It also provides employment to millions of people around the world and hence, it cannot be stopped or reduced.
References:
Murthy, M. (2014). Lessons in marketing: How marketers can build brands without spending too
much. [online] Economic Times. Available at: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-09-14/news/53903933_1_red-bull-whatsapp-brand-building [Accessed 23 Oct. 2014].
Stock, K. (2014). Is Nike Spending Too Much on Superstars?. [online] Bloomberg
Businessweek. Available at: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-20/is-nike-spending-too-much-on-superstars [Accessed 23 Oct. 2014].
Tauli, T. (2014). How To Build A Brand On A Small Budget. [online] Forbes. Available at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2013/12/17/how-to-build-a-brand-on-a-small-budget/ [Accessed 23 Oct. 2014].
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