Branding paradigm for the bottom of the pyramid markets

Rajagopal

Rajagopal is a Professor and National Researcher based at the Graduate School of Administration and Management (EGADE), Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico City, Mexico.

Summary Purpose This paper aims to deliver new models of brand management in bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) markets, considering the personality traits, image, technology and reputation of rms associated with the brands. Design/methodology/approach Reviewing the previous research studies, the paper advocates new strategies for enhancing the performance of global brands in BoP market segments, improving brand-positioning approaches, measuring brand performance and consumer value, evaluating brand attributes, and underlining brand dynamics in the competitive marketplace. Findings The study argues that the performance of global brands in low-prole consumer market segments is constrained by high transaction costs and coordination problems along the brand promotions, consumption and consumer value chain. Hence, rms looking towards managing brands in BoP market segments need to reduce brand costs by increasing the volume of sales and augmenting consumer value. Brands of BoP market segments are socially and culturally embedded. They are co-created by consumers and rms, and positioned with the inuence of brand equity of the premium market. Unlike traditional brands, BoP brands may be sufciently malleable to support brand interpretations in the rural and suburban consumer segments. Research limitations/implications Acquired brands need to be merged into the existing structure, especially where these brands occupy market positions similar to those of existing brands. A balance needs to be maintained between the brand name and its equity. Managers should keep themselves better informed about consumer needs, market changes and company initiatives, thereby enabling staff to help consumers to improve service quality, which in turn can improve market positioning. Practical implications In todays rapidly changing product markets, a rm needs to focus on a limited number of strategic brands in international markets in order to consolidate and strengthen its position and enhance brand power. The paper offers new business strategies to managers on brand positioning and targeting in suburban and rural markets with convenience packaging, pricing and psychodynamics. Originality/value New initiatives to manage global brands in BoP markets comprising suburban and rural markets that need to be implemented in the existing organizational culture are discussed. Keywords Markets, Brand management, Brand image, Consumer behaviour Paper type Conceptual paper

Introduction
In an increasingly competitive world, multinational companies are exploring remote markets to position global brands. This strategy has leveraged the market access of global brands to a regional level. Such accessibility to markets is further reinforced by reducing trade barriers through far-reaching business communication strategies, product and market development programs and consumer relations. Markets for implementing brand strategies can be divided into three levels comprising premium markets, regular markets, and bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) markets located in rural areas of a region. Consumer behavior towards brands in the premium and regular markets is generally driven by push factors including brand equity, brand personality, and brand endorsements, while brand

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VOL. 13 NO. 4 2009, pp. 58-68, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1368-3047

DOI 10.1108/13683040911006792

strength is determined by the consumer pull factors like price advantage, social status and perceived use value in BoP market segments (Rajagopal, 2009). Consumer brands in the global marketplace strive to reach the lowest consumer segments by generating the social impact and nancial viability that provide optimal value for money to consumers. Thus, popular brands demonstrate higher brand equity at various tiers of the market in a given region and face a challenge to meet the twin goals of commercial protability and the social development of the rm. Brands with a larger market share and higher equity implicitly signal a lower perceived risk and higher acceptance by the marketplace. Such brands also tend to have larger resources, higher brand equity, buying incentives, and increased loyalty, and undertake higher levels of advertising in bottom-line markets (Anderson, 1979). Competing brands show higher concerns on quality, cost and management factors in order to prove themselves better than others. The consumer, the end user, is the ultimate target of competitor rms in building aggressive and defensive strategies in business. Competing brands try to attract consumers by various means of polarizing their business and earning condence in the market place. It is necessary for successful business companies to look for a place of business that provides them with a better location advantage and holds consumers for their goods and services. Business cordoning or securing trade boundaries is an essential decision to be taken in building competitive strategies to attack rivals across regions. The concept of brand development from the perspective of the bottom line segments of society argues that, moving beyond decades of mutual distrust and animosity, competitors are learning to cooperate with each other. Realizing that their interests are converging, rms are working together to create innovative business models that are helping to grow new markets, and also accelerate the eradication of poverty. People in China, India, Indonesia, and Brazil are eager to enter the global marketplace. Yet multinational companies typically pitch their products to tiny segments of afuent buyers in emerging markets, and thus miss out on much larger markets further down the socioeconomic pyramid (Prahalad and Lieberthal, 2003). The BoP philosophy of business further argues that by stimulating commerce and development at the bottom of the economic pyramid, multinationals could radically improve the lives of billions of people and help create a more stable, less dangerous world. Achieving this goal does not require MNCs to spearhead global social development initiatives for charitable purposes, but to establish business rationally by also positioning global brands in BoP markets (Prahalad and Hammond, 2002). This paper discusses the attributes of brand dynamics in the mass market located at the BoP of the global marketplace. An emerging brand strategy concept referring to BoP market segments is argued to illustrate how multinational companies can reach the lowest stratum of markets to serve consumers efciently. Managerial perspectives on brand positioning and targeting in sub-urban and rural markets with convenience packaging, pricing and psychodynamics are also emphasized in this paper.

Bottom of the pyramid brand personality

Philosophical motivation BoP marketing strategies are oriented towards stimulating commerce; multinationals could radically improve the lives of billions of people and help create a more stable, less dangerous world. Achieving this goal does not require a multinational company to spearhead global social development initiatives for charitable purposes. Prahalad and Hammond (2002) laid out the business case for entering the worlds poorest markets, noting that 65 percent of the worlds population four billion people earns less than $US2,000 per year. But despite the vastness of this market, it remains largely untapped. The philosophy of managing bottom-line markets gives a clear indication to multinational companies that the reluctance to invest is easy to understand, but it is, by and large, based on outdated assumptions of the developing world. Although individual incomes may be low, the aggregate buying power of poor communities is actually quite large, representing a

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substantial market in many countries for what some might consider luxury goods like satellite televisions and phone services. Because these markets are in the earliest stages of economic development, revenue growth for multinationals entering them can be extremely rapid (Prahalad and Hammond, 2002). The debate on BoP markets includes various perspectives, including global rms confronting their own preconceptions, particularly about the value of high-volume, low-margin businesses for companies to master the challenges or reap the rewards of these developing markets. Thus, global rms need to start thinking about their marketplace as being all six billion people on the planet (Prahalad and Dearlove, 2009). Global rms could augment their revenue through poverty alleviation, as the poor deserve world-class products and services. The lifestyles of the poor are different to what their income levels might suggest, as can be seen from the way poor people allocate their income to consumption (Prahalad, 2002). Brand personality Brands of BoP market segments in unorganized market segments can have a psychological impact led by personality traits on marketing strategy formulation, over and above the real effects of absent infrastructures. It can be noted in this context that in the 1970s, the early marketing activities of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) in India tended to focus on the urban middle class and elite. Meanwhile, an Indian entrepreneur produced and marketed a detergent, Nirma, targeting the lower consumer segments sector and the brand turned to be the second largest volume seller in the country by 1977 (Sabharwal et al., 2004). In the skin care market, as well as competition from leading global players, HUL has also been losing share to South-based player Cavincare Ltd. In the food business, Tata Tea in packet tea, Nestle in coffee and culinary products, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation with the Amul brand in ice creams, and Godrej Pillsbury in staple foods are the main competitors. Protable growth is the revised focus of the company, in contrast to a strategy of expansion through acquisition, woven around rationalization. A focus on 30 power brands, which are major contributors to protability, seeking new avenues of expanding distribution reach, and improving the protability of food businesses that are in the investment phase are the thrust areas in BoP market segments. Strategies for the non-fast moving consumer goods marketing of multi-brand rms are either being hived off or are being strengthened by partnerships with players who have technological expertise in rural or sub-urban retailing (Rajagopal, 2006). Global companies are targeting their brands in BoP market segments comprising large consumer communities with small per capita purchases. These companies are developing BoP market strategies based on personal brand relationships, with local institutions being retailers or distributors of global brands in the region. BoP market segments have been identied as potential outlets for global brands when semi-urban and rural markets are modernized. Globalization has segregated consumer behavior in rural and semi-urban marketplaces and inuenced urban marketplaces (Cruickshank, 2009). Intensive competition from reputed brands of global rms has not only decreased brand share in the premium and regular consumers market segments, but has also created price wars, reducing prot margins and limiting the market growth of rms. This situation has motivated companies to consider positioning brands in the sub-urban and rural segments, which are unexplored. By targeting these segments with products in small packs at lower price points, companies have experienced great success (Dubey and Patel, 2004). BoP market segments, which constitute a large number of small consumers, have become the principal target of most of the consumer brands emerging from multinational rms. The brands penetrating the BoP market should provide constancy and agility at the same time. Constancy is required if the brand is to build awareness and credibility, while agility in the brand builds perceived values among consumers. Agility is required if the brand is to remain relevant in a free marketplace (Blumenthal, 2002). Consumer-based brand equity emerges when the consumer is aware of and familiar with the brand and holds some favorable, strong, and unique brand associations in memory. Hence,

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brands may not be positioned uniformly in markets without understanding the cognitive dimensions of consumers towards brand association. It is observed in urban markets that brand performance differs across demographic populations, and brand value may not hold much beyond the name in the minds of consumers in particular market segments (Zentes et al., 2008). There are two different approaches for analyzing brand loyalty: 1. the downstream approach, based on observing consistent purchases of a brand over a period of time; and 2. the upstream approach, which focuses on the motives that are behind a repeat purchase of a brand (Amine, 1998). Brand mindset mapping may be a basis for the spatial segmentation of markets in urban areas. Companies holding strong brands dene market access strategies, consumer value propositions based on product features and brand relations among consumers in terms of perceived brand values across market segments within urban habitats. In this process companies determine markets rst and then build and position brands around identied market segments. Consumers preference for utilitarian brands are signicantly higher in BoP markets while opulent brands build high equity in the premium markets, attracting consumers to make personal visits to evaluate the brand. The merchandise-related attributes of store formats have a higher impact on the utility formation of consumer brands, and the service- and convenience-related attributes of brands add value to the perception of consumers in bottom-line markets (e.g. Reutterer and Teller, 2009). Supermarkets have emerged as discount retailers catering to the consumers of satellite markets and have begun to utilize a supercenter retailing format that combines a full-service grocery store with a discount department store, while store formats in central markets serve exclusive brands encompassing high brand equity. Brand drivers Brands penetrating in BoP market segments are largely inuenced by the consumption needs, promotions, lifestyle and societal indicators that affect consumer behavior in relation to purchasing featured brands of upstream markets (Beard, 2008). BoP brands develop the acquaintance and familiarity of consumers with the rm, and the buying behavior of consumers towards the acquainted brands, which is referred to as brand association. Consumers have only one image of a brand, created by the deployment of the brand assets at their disposal, such as name, tradition, packaging, advertising, promotion, pricing, posture, trade acceptance, sales force discipline, consumer satisfaction, repurchases patterns, etc. Clearly, some brand assets are more important to product marketers than service marketers, and vice versa. Some competitive environments put more of a premium on certain assets as well. Quality and price do not exist as isolated concepts in consumers minds and are interrelated (Rajagopal, 2008). BoP brands need to focus on a prot-oriented approach in order to access commercial advantage, inculcate repeat buying behavior among consumers, boost the volume of buying by standardizing products, measuring brand trial effects, and should run on low-price strategies. Such strategies of brand penetration in BoP market segments scale up consumer loyalty, which ultimately improves the brand association not only of the clients themselves but also help the brand to lead in the mass market (Akula, 2008). Successful marketing by multinational rms to the large numbers of consumers belonging to the bottom of the pyramid in the world can be realized through positioning global brands in the BoP market itself, managing consumer animosity towards high-prole brands, building the inuence of global umbrella brands and developing responsive marketing as a guiding principle for BoP markets. Exploring the potential of BOP markets requires the positioning of global brands at radically lower prices and requires the enhancement of consumer value (Wood et al., 2008). Individual and cultural attributes of consumers in the BoP market are vital to the strategy of any brand that ties consumers personality traits with the underlying brand propositions. These factors also add enormous value to the functional orientation of a brand at the lower

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end of markets in a region. The personality traits of consumers, cultural value, brand identity effect, and functional utility of the brand help in developing a powerful strategy for successful brands (Kumar et al., 2007). Brand personality traits provide symbolic meaning or emotional value that can contribute to consumers brand preferences and can be more enduring than functional attributes. Successfully positioning a brands personality within a product category requires measurement models that are able to disentangle a brands unique personality traits from the characteristics common to all brands in the product category. Consumers perceive the brand on dimensions that typically capture a persons personality, and extend that to the domain of brands (Rajagopal and Sanchez, 2004). The dimensions of brand personality are dened by extending the dimensions of human personality to the domain of brands (Rajagopal, 2008). Branding paradigm for BOP markets Globalization thrust in the market has increased competition on the one hand and the behavioral complexities of consumers on the other. The traditional marketing and branding strategies of multinational rms are gradually rened in reference to changing business dimensions to gain competitive advantage. It is observed that in current times marketing mix strategies considerably inuence branding strategies in different types of markets. Marketing mix has now stretched beyond the product, place, price and promotion dimensions to packaging, pace (competitive dynamics), people (sales front-liners), performance of previous brands, psychodynamics (consumer pull), posture (brand and corporate reputation) and proliferation (brand extension and market expansion). Based on the attributes of brands discussed above, the functional paradigm of brands in BoP markets is shown in Figure 1. The BoP branding paradigm is derived from the constituents of the marketing mix (11 Ps) and behavioral factors including personality, image, reputation and trust (PIRT). The concepts of image and reputation have been increasingly emphasized in the elds of public relations and marketing. It is argued that consumer creativity, identication with the brand community, and brand-specic emotions and attitudes, including PIRT attributes, drive brand passion among consumers. In this process, brand knowledge is also considered an important determinant of consumers willingness to share their knowledge with the fellow consumers and rms (Fuller et al., 2008). Previous research has established that there is a close relationship between brand attributes and corporate brand image concerning emotional values. This relationship in turn inuences the consumers responses towards building brand loyalty in the lower layer of markets in a region (e.g. Silva and Alwi, 2006). The Figure 1 Bottom of the pyramid brand management strategy
Market taxonomy for brand positioning
Product, place, price, posture of firm and brand, proliferation of brand and firm, packaging

Agile

Strategy response on branding

Sustainable brand growth, brand image, brand equity, personality factors, social attributes of brand

Strong-sluggish

Brand Strength

Premium market brands scope

Product, price, place, promotion, packaging, people, performance, posture

Brand icon Premium brand Band sensitivity Brand personality Brand share Brand identity Brand appeal and advantage Perceived brand value Brand loyalty

Perceptional shift

Slow growth, promotionlinked sales, switching attitude of customer

Regular market brands scope

Product, price, place, promotion, packaging, psychodynamics

Mass market, large number of consumers, low volume of per capita buying, price sensitivity, brand offers, competitive gains, wider scope of expansion, brand loyalty, brand value

Long-run advantage, growing challenges

BoP Market brands scope

Tensile

PIRT Attributes of Brand

Sluggish-strong

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quality connection between personality traits and brand association depends on the perceived attractiveness of the brand to a large extent. However, the role of attractiveness in the relationship varies across individual brand personality dimensions (Hayes et al., 2006). BoP brands largely afrm value to consumers in reference to strategies pertaining to product, price, place, promotion, packaging and psychodynamics. When a BoP brand is supported by these strategies, it develops a consumer pull effect and becomes more tensile. BoP brands face consumer sluggishness in the beginning but become strong over time with increasing consumer satisfaction with the brand. In contrast, premium market brands are found to be initially stronger in perceptional values of consumers, and these turn sluggish over time as new brands penetrate the market. Thus, often, consumer brands in the premium markets live in agility. The relationship between the brand and consumer personalities has three dimensions: 1. strong; 2. vacillating; and 3. weak. The strong hold of the relationship leads to loyalty development, while the weak links form a discrete relationship. The vacillating dimension cultivates the risk of brand switching due to uncertainty in the consumer of whether to be associated with the brand or otherwise. Values of consumer brands are estimated to be higher in BoP market segments, as illustrated in Figure 1, because of the mass market, the large number of consumers, and the wider scope of brand and market expansion. However, BoP brands are price-sensitive, and lean on brand offers and competitive gains. It is observed in India and China that the dominance of consumer brands of multinational rms is getting stronger in BoP market segments, known as rural markets. Such market growth reveals that a competitive edge can be developed from superior technologies, products, and systems to build stronger BoP competencies of global brands (Williamson and Zeng, 2004). Although the per capita response to sales may be lower in bottom-line markets, the aggregate buying power of consumers is actually quite large, representing a substantial variety of goods and services. Since these markets indicate buying potential, long-term sales advantage exists for a large number of companies. Thus, managers must shift their thinking towards the bottom-line market, which holds value of high-volume but high-margin businesses in the long term.

Attributes of BoP market brands

Brands in BoP market segments are largely identied in the context of packaging. A study revealed that rural residents in India found that packaging is more helpful in buying, that better packaging contains a better product, and that they are more inuenced by the ease of storing a package than their urban counterparts. Easy to carry size of package, gross weight, simplicity, transparency and similarity of packaging have also emerged as critical brand identity factors among consumers in BoP market segments in urban areas (Sehrawet and Kundu, 2007). The concept of brand leadership has been applied by many companies; however, few companies can maintain leadership. Multinational companies optimize their performance in the market by brand leadership and several other activities, as follows:
B

Consumer knowledge Consumer goods retailing rms study their consumers and channel partners through periodical surveys and intelligence gathering. The suggestions of consumers and distributors are screened and due consideration is given to those that require re-engineering market strategies. Long-term vision Long term implications in developing brand extensions are drawn by rms intending to penetrate BoP market segments. Such strategies lead to brand appeal from upstream markets and drive high perceived use value among consumers. However, brands of multinational rms may struggle with local brands existing in the market in terms of volume and price sensitivity factors affecting the buying behavior of consumers.

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Product innovation Firms need to make continuous efforts to improve the product quality to maintain high brand equity in BoP market segments as well as premium segments. It is important for brand managers to understand that brand equity in BoP market segments is an outgrowth of the brands of premium and regular market segments. Hindustan Unilever has made a dent in BoP detergent market segments in India by continuous improvement in its detergent brands, and over a period Surf Excel Blue has been launched in the BoP market while Surf Excel Automatic has been positioned in the upstream market as a premium brand. Quality condence Firms should also bank on the quality platform to maintain therr brand share and expand in new market segments. This would increase condence on quality among consumers and channel partners and enhance brand equity. Product line Firms should extend the product line covering the class and mass market segments to provide more shelf space to brands and narrow down competition to emerge as brand leaders in BoP market segments. In these markets brand equity is determined by the consumers in reference to perceived use value and value for money measures. Therefore in a large product line, brand switching and inter-temporal substitution within and outside the product line is very common (Simester et al., 2009). Multi-brand strategy In order to penetrate brands in BoP market segments, rms should operate with multi-brands in the marketplace. Firms need to build their brand architecture on a two-dimensional matrix structure with products and geographic platforms for the effective diffusion of brands in BoP market segments. Such brand architecture would enable rms to design brands to reach different consumers in BoP segments and compete against localized monopolistic brands. This strategy would help in locking up shelf space in retail outlets and gaining more clout with distributors. Aggressive branding BoP brand strategy demands intensive advertisements, sales schemes and an attacking sales force. BoP brands should have strong point-of-purchase displays, sales promotion schemes and consumer response analysis at the retail outlets. Brand equity and price premium on consumer products in BoP market segments delineate the role of uniqueness, together with awareness, qualities, associations and loyalty as principal dimensions of brand. Relevant brand associations like origin, health, organizational associations and social image along with quality attributes such as taste, odor, consistency/texture, appearance, function, packaging and ingredients are the major variables that inuence consumer behavior towards brands in BoP market segments.

Brand dynamics in bottom-line market

Signicant differences exist in consumer perceptions of hedonic shopping value across several retail brands. Therefore, consumers appear to recognize the uniqueness in the in-store experience that retailers are working hard to achieve. This delivery of value, then, seems to be an effective source of differentiation. The results of this study indicate that retailers using a store as the brand strategy should continue to invest in creating a specic, unique shopping experience for their target consumers. However, retailers should always be mindful that regardless of the excitement and fun delivered in the shopping experience, consumers appear to expect utility, including the right merchandise, in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price (Carpenter et al., 2005). The growth of franchising has signicant implications for the development of retailing. The shopping behavior of BoP brands prompts a sequential relationship among rural or sub-urban consumers leading to shopping satisfaction through the perceived values of recreational attractions and store loyalty. Higher price volatility makes consumers more sensitive to gains and less sensitive to losses, while intense price promotion by competing brands makes consumers more sensitive to losses but does not inuence consumers sensitivity to gains (Han et al., 2001). The performance of BoP brands in the retail food sector is largely associated with product design and the promotions offered to the consumers. In achieving success in the markets at the bottom of the pyramid, it is argued that brand is the

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only common element to the entire demand chain that inuences business-to-consumer transactions and consumer-to-consumer (word of mouth) interactions. Brand plays a key role in value chain dynamics, particularly as a moderator of consumer behavior in bottom-line markets (Glaser, 2008). In view of the above discussion, brand dynamics in BoP markets are illustrated in Figure 2. The convergence of three forces in managing BoP brands consumers, manufacturers and retailers is explained in Figure 2, which illustrates that mother brands of a rm are saddled with the dual responsibility of serving consumers of premium and regular market segments as well as providing brand resources to consumers in BoP market segments and providing competitive gains to rms at the lower market end. Consumers who have lower purchasing power but higher demand for consumer goods are commonly referred to as the bottom of the pyramid, and such markets are commonly referred to as subsistence marketplaces. Scholars and practitioners alike suggest that the problems existing in subsistence marketplaces demand the attention and involvement of doing business responsively with consumers in such marketplaces, and that this can become both socially responsible and protable (Weidner et al., 2009). The buying decision of consumers largely depends on the BoP brand environment, wherein consumers evaluate the level of satisfaction and generate consumer-to-business pull if satisfaction is signicantly high. Such conditions would help the extended brands and mother brands of the rm to experience a smooth expansion of their business in unfamiliar market segments and augment the brand value. Hence, it is necessary for managers to understand that consumer value is context-dependent and there is a whole value network to measure, not just a value chain. This value network will contain important entities far beyond those commonly taken into consideration in nancial projections and business analyses. Appropriate promotional strategies considering the economic and relational variables discussed in the study may be developed by managers when measuring the intensity of leisure shopping and the scope of expanding the tenure of leisure shopping in view of optimizing consumer values and prot of the rm. One of the most challenging aspects of targeting BoP brands is nding the right consumers, and sales people who are willing to devote signicant time and resources to working closely with their product portfolios, if they wish to gain satisfactory value from their external business operations and investments. Figure 2 Brand dynamics in the BoP market
C to C Dynamics Up-market customer thrust Push effect in buying behavior

Word of mouth Peer experience Expert referrals

C to C Dynamics

BoP Market Segment Service

Satisfactory

Availability
Just in time

Customer Environment
B to C Dynamics

PIRT Criterion

Need matching Low cost marketing Large volume sales Competitive gains Brand sustenance

Regular market segment Price

Attractive

Buying Decision

Acceptable

Promotion Continue buying

Technology Advertising Communication Brand image Manufacturer support Product quality

Parent Firm/ Mother Brand Premium market segment

Brand Extensions

Customers
Add value and revive

Customer Audit

C to B Dynamics Pull effect in business

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Managerial implications
Product markets continue to change rapidly. Focus on a limited number of strategic brands in international markets enables the rm to consolidate and strengthen its position and enhance brand power. Brands that are acquired need to be merged into the existing structure, especially where these brands occupy market positions similar to those of existing brands. Equally, when the same or similar products are sold under different brand names or have different positioning in each market, ways to harmonize these should be examined. Establishment of strong and distinctive brand images for different product lines helps to establish their separate identities and diversify the risk of negative associations. Independent brands may be able to make a high impact in niche markets by putting heavy stress on attributes and application advantages over closely competing brands. An appropriate brand personality helps in building a brands strength in a rm. Brand strength appears to be linked to four main practices: 1. investing in marketing communications to improve consumer awareness; 2. understanding corporate and product brand values; 3. contributing to the wider community to improve corporate reputation; and 4. improving internal communications (internal marketing). Accordingly, managers can keep themselves better informed about consumer needs, market changes and company initiatives, thereby enabling staff to help consumers better, and improving service quality to improve market positioning. Firms should let consumers experience key brands and develop brand-specic perceptions to build loyalty over time. Managers need to focus on featured brand categories where the differentials in personality traits among competing brands are narrow, and strategically to develop favorable PIRT attributes. Accordingly, the perceived attractiveness of the brand interacts with other consumer personality traits, which enhances the brand performance and fosters consumer association. Managers can improve brand performance by integrating corporate image, reputation, brand identity, and consumer perceptions beyond their visual pretense. They need to be more proactive, and also have to express and embed their brand value propositions within their identity and reputation in their dealings with consumers. Approaches to market segmentation in reference to the value and lifestyle (VALS) and personality attributes of consumers need to be carefully converged to determine positive brand effects and higher loyalty. Managers should understand that a brands protability is driven by both market share and the nature of the category, or product market, in which the brand competes. Developing the most protable strategy for a premium brand means re-examining market share targets in light of the brands category. Consumer perceptions play a key role in the life cycle of a brand. The role varies according to the stage in the life cycle, market situation and competitive scenario. It may be required for a company to invest in appealing communication strategies to create awareness of unfamiliar brands to inuence the decision of consumers towards buying brands they have not tried before. Systematically explored concepts in the eld of consumer value and a market-driven approach towards new products would be benecial for a company to derive a long-term prot optimization strategy.

Conclusion
Brands can be successful when they are closely associated with consumers and are preferred by consumers over unbranded products. Personality factors of the brands give consumers the means whereby they can make choices and judgments. Based on these experiences, consumers rely on chosen brands and sense guaranteed standards of quality and service, which augments consumer trust and brand value. PIRT attributes help in building consumer-centric brand strategies in a rm. Human personality traits need to be

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evaluated meticulously by rms in a given market to determine the short-term competitive advantage. The performance of global brands in low-prole consumer market segments is constrained by high transaction costs and coordination problems along the brand promotions, consumption and consumer value chain. Hence, rms managing brands in BoP market segments need to reduce brand costs by increasing sales volumes and augmenting consumer value. Brands in BoP market segments are socially and culturally embedded, and co-created and positioned by the inuence of premium market brands. Advertising and point-of-sales promotions also strengthen the brands in BoP market segments.

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Corresponding author
Rajagopal can be contacted at: rajagopal@itesm.mx

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