BRAND MANAGEMENT: A SINGAPORE-GROWN COMPANY

Brand management is the method or the strategy used by companies to maintain their brand (Dhar 2007, p.14). The main reason for the strategy is to ensure that they stay competitive in the consumer market. This article will focus on the strategy with the consideration of SingTel company to help us understand the different elements of the brand management

The Singapore home grown company under consideration is Singapore Telecommunications Limited abbreviated as SingTel. The company was founded about 135 years ago back in the 1870’s. The company has over 500 million customers and subscribers from its operations and regional customers. The company provides internet services, mobile network services and the fixed line telephone services. The company has expanded its services outside the Singapore home community to other areas like Thailand, India, Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. They have also gone regional operators like the Australian telco among others. In terms of market company capitalization, it has the largest scale in the Singapore market. With the largest investment from the government of Singapore under the name Temasek Holdings.

SingTel being the Asia’s leading telecommunications company has a large commitment in the delivering of end to end solutions with wireless and internet platforms. They have products in the consumer market such as the mobile products and the services related to the mobile phones. They have other products such as mobile telephony, broadband, fixed line internet services, the digital televisions, the IT services and the network services.

Referring to the brand management theory the SingTel is a brand considering it has stood out in the Singapore market of networks and being Singapore’s largest company. The company has plans in improving the territory by winning over the consumers, sustaining them and extending their services to other areas. The company have a wide range of provisions and they have prices that are competitive in the communication sector. The company is doing much in the brand management for example they are making an annual investment of a billion coins to take the networks to the next level and having it updated. The company is focused on improving its offers thus making its brand very competitive in the regions that it covers. Looking at the present coverage areas such as the Unites States, Taiwan and the previously named areas. However, being a leading brand it is facing competitions from companies such as the M1 company, Starhub company among others.

From the rising competition it is required of SingTel to have a business strategy. Also from the millions of users that it has, has challenges that it has to keep overcoming. For the company to be able to have a sound development strategy hey should consider taking a look at the SWOT analysis method. By this it should look at the strengths that they have. In the Asian market they are the best communication company and this is one of their strengths and they can use this to expand on their market. They also have partners in the other named countries and this spread of geographical services is a strength that the SingTel company has capitalized on. Their products and the services that they offer also is growing in the revenues that is raised from them. Another strength may be an example of the contract that they got by beating the starhub in broadcasting the next football premier leagues. They may also look at their weakness such as competition from the company’s such Starhub and other competitions. Another competition may be from the Chinese community that is no among their large consumers. There is a requirement of pay TV that the company could establish a universal set top box to overcome the challenge (Pfoertsch and Michi 2006 p.52).

They have opportunities in the Asian community and they can use this to grow their market. This is from the Africa and Vietnam rising markets in the mobile space. Threats may be from the crashes they have with the companies like M1. They offer the same services at a cheaper fee. This poses a threat to the company’s strategy. For example, the internet data bundles they offer at a cheaper fee therefore reducing the market for the SingTel company. Some of the contracts that have been taken by other companies to sell their products such as the iPhone is a big blow.

With the rise in different needs in the business requirements of the internet, SingTel offer wide range of options to suit the different and respective needs. The company markets these services for example through the broadband. They have the branch by the name Singnet Fiber Broadband that delivers high speed internet connectivity. Through services like the Wi-Fi package for different businesses. The different packages are cheaper and the higher the package purchased the larger the discount with more bundles of date and the internet speed for lesser cash.

The company also have services like the cloud services which have huge applications, infrastructure and connectivity with managed services. With these services one can save loads of work on the online cloud. The space is very huge that makes it easier to access the data at any time anywhere without necessary carrying the hardware. This has been applied in the transport sector to store the different videos that have been recorded on the roads. The videos have large lengths thus only the cloud technology can help in this.

This assures the security of the date since it is hard to have it stolen. There are services also like the telephony and conferencing and the international roaming. With this services the company have made promotions such through giving discounts on the international calls rates. One be able to call another from the mobile phone or telephone line to a person who in a different continent. They have reduced the prices of this services and this has made them more popular in the sector (Kapferer 2008 p.34).

Through the CBBE model basically which stands for customer based brand equity. Its aims to identify the strong band and how to improve on it. in the resonance sector is on how to improve the loyalty of the community. In SingTel they have a strong website where one can sign up and have an account. Through this its esteemed customers can receive the services at a cheaper rate. This improves the feeling sector of the mode. Social media being the most famous consumer products in the market, SingTel have exciting deals and through the services of connectivity. In the salience sector SingTel have improved on their performance. They have very high internet speeds and this improves on their awareness. With the unending discount rates the company have been able to convince large numbers. The judgements from the customers and other like the stock exchange the company have very competitive services having gotten into may other businesses like in the innovation. This continues to provide services that are up to date (Glynn and Woodside2009 p. 76).

The company can use the marketing mix strategy to ensure long product life cycle. The company introduces a product, extends it and its warranties at this growth stage. On applying the 4P model, the company should first identify the kind of product or products in this matter, they would be dealing with. This will help them identify probable customers. It would as well serve as a tool to ensure that they do research concerning the product and customer fulfilment. They would therefore be able to make themselves unique as compared to their competitors (Temporal 2010, p.23)

The company should then change the price of the product in the introductory phase and this allows the price to penetrate the market and then meet the competitive price in the maturity phase. This comes after concrete understanding of the product full under sting of the product to be deal with. Determining then prices will determine the profits the company will realize. This would call for different positioning of different items and products in case they might be having different prices. They can as well start with a low price than raise the price when they take root. (Elliott and Percy 2007 P.124)

On promotion, the company should seek advice from experts whoa are good at marketing. This will put them at par, if not better than their competitors. They should learn on how positioning their products and prices to please the customers. Marketing agencies might be used in this stage to disseminate information to the customers (Kapferer 2008, p.34) This might include social media, public relations, advertising and video marketing.

Lastly, the place should be selected efficiently since failure to this would result to failure of the company and losses. Marketers understand that succeeding in any business means placing it at a strategic place. It therefore ideal to evaluate the location of the business before setting it up. This would work in converting potential clients into actual clients (Verma 2006, p.67)

Looking at some other brands in the market that are very important are, we should consider google, Facebook and Samsung. From the services they offer in every day’s life makes them key brands similar to the SingTel company. Looking at this brand services they offer are not exploitable. For example, in doing research work on different topics in the course work they offers a lot of helpful materials. This makes research work easier to manage. The company offers connectivity thus makes research work in the area easier (Verma 2006 p.71).

The SingTel brand is similar to the selected brand of apple. some factors that have contributed to the building of its strong brand equity are the product range. This means that the fact that the SingTel company makes computers, laptops and phones and not forgetting other products they make. Their quality is also very good comparing the quality in the other market products. There is also the social status that is related to the SingTel services and products. Most of the users are taken as first class people in the Asian community. The benefits of the product of the SingTel brand is from the new technologies thus giving it easier market development, competitive advantage and the perceived popularity and real visibility. There is a relationship between the two since the benefits of the product mostly leads to the building of the brands strong equity in the market.

SingTel is ranged as among the fastest growing firms. The factors that have led to increase it its brand equity and benefits from the increased position have been earlier highlighted. On picking a brand that seems not to be doing so well is the yahoo. Looking at their technologies seems to be old fashioned and they have been overtaken by products such as Gmail. The SingTel brand company can reposition itself to capture the eye of the consumer market. For example, they can focus more on the modern technologies that are there. Look for innovative ideas to make their products greater again and even more competitive than the rest competitors (Aggarwal 2008 p. 204)

The brand has also worked on the Improvement on their performance. On the map they have repositioned themselves as a social media platform and improve the speed of their services. They can also look at new services such as online conversations that through them they engage with their consumers concerning their products and their services that would help to resell their brand. They have also improved on their security issues since their products were victims of hacking and the improvements have reduced loss of data or the cyber bullying or still the online hackers (Temporal 2010 p.108).

In conclusion the SingTel’s company strategies have been explored and the areas that they can improve on to ensure that they continue being the brand number one in the Asian-pacific region. The article has also focused on the threats and the weaknesses on the brand not forgetting the marketing mix on the brand product and the services they offer.

Reference list

AGGARWAL, S. (2008). Brand management: a theoretical and practical approach. New Delhi, Global India Publications.

CHEVALIER, M., & MAZZALOVO, G. (2012). Luxury brand management a world of privilege. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons.

DHAR, M. (2007). Brand management 101: 101 lessons from real-world marketing. Singapore, Wiley (Asia).

ELLIOTT, R., & PERCY, L. (2007). Strategic brand management. Oxford [u.a.], Oxford Univ. Press.

GLYNN, M. S., & WOODSIDE, A. G. (2009). Business-to-business brand management: theory, research and executive case study exercises. Bingley, JAI Press.

KAPFERER, J.-N. (2008). Strategic brand management: creating and sustaining brand equity long term. London, Kogan Page.

KAPFERER, J.-N. (2008). The new strategic brand management: creating and sustaining brand equity long term. London, Kogan Page.

KOTLER, P., PFOERTSCH, W., & MICHI, I. (2006). B2B brand management. Berlin, Springer.

MKT09709 Brand Management Lecture Topic 10 Extending Brands

MKT09709 Brand Management Lecture Topic 11 Managing Brands: Geographic and Time Perspectives

MKT09709 Brand Management Lecture Topic 4 Marketing Mix Considerations

MKT09709 Brand Management Lecture Topic 5 Secondary Associations in Branding

MKT09709 Brand Management Lecture Topic 8 Legal Protection of Brands

MKT09709 Brand Management Lecture Topic 9 Branding Services

MKT09709 Brand Management Topic 1 Brands and Brand Management

MKT09709 Brand Management Topic 12 Strategic Marketing and Brand Management Processes

MKT09709 Brand Management Topic 2 Customer-Based Brand Equity

MKT09709 Brand Management Topic 6 Brand Equity Measurement and Management

TEMPORAL, P. (2010). Advanced brand management managing brands in a changing world. Singapore, John Wiley & Sons (Asia).

VERMA, H. V. (2006). Brand management: text and cases. New Delhi, Excel Books.