DEVELOPING AND MANAGING BRANDING 3
appeals form an effective brand, and so is a company’s daring to be different. Thus, a company
should always design its brand in a manner that attracts, satisfies, involves, and associates with
customers’ needs and preferences.
Brand Positioning/Repositioning
Brand positioning or repositioning is important to a brand in responding to changing
marketing conditions. In 2014, the fourth-largest cigarette-making company, Imperial Tobacco,
announced that it would be spending $7.1 billion in a program meant to expand business in the
US (SAS, 2015). The management of the company decided not to buy any company but instead
venture in a three-way deal. The deal involved Lorillard and Reynolds American. They decided
to pick a sales force, a factory, and more importantly, a collection of several brands (SAS, 2015).
. The two brands are Blu and Winston, where they were to invest most of the money and time.
However, it was adamant that every one of the management experts would imagine that it
is strange that Imperial Tobacco would spend the majority of the $7 billion budget on some
ethereal things such as brands. Such things such as brands are more valued things that are owned
by companies which are more diverse such as McDonald’s and Apple. Brands are often worth
more than machinery and property. Moreover, brands are responsible for 30% or more of the
value of stock market of corporations that are in the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index as stated
by a market-research company known as Millward Brown (SAS, 2015). The rand acquisition
was very important for Imperia Tobacco because it gave the company more value in its products.
For instance, a Coke without its logo is simply cola, a Ralph Lauren shirt from Polo is more
expensive than a polo shirt and such explains why the company CEO Ms. Cooper was hopeful
that the company would exploit unexploited brand equity of Winston (SAS, 2015).
