Brand Management Assignment: Google Pixel

Question

Task: Your mission: This is your first project as a brand strategist for a medium size Sydney based marketing firm. Your boss has presented you a brief below, which you have been asked to write a project proposal. Your mission is to win this project.

Brand Management Assignment Brief: Google Pixel
Google Pixel is Google’s product extension within the smart phone technologies. Its parent company is Alphabet Inc. Google has ownership of the Android operating system, which is used by its competitors; Google Pixel does not offer a wide variety of models unlike the market leader’s iPhone and Samsung Galaxy. Google Pixel does not offer customers with options to choose a model based on price, aesthetics, memory size, and camera or opt for the premium. Google would like to grow its market share in Australia by strengthening its brand equity. The company would like to understand what they need to do to be Top of Mind. Based on this problem, provide a roadmap to that will lead brand growth.

Identified and justified core branding problem
Discussed why this is a problem with support from literature.

Answer

Introductionto Brand Management Assignment
A brand strategist is a person who develops, recommends, and guides marketing research analysis to define the elements and tones in a brand. The enhancement of branding of the product is the responsibility of a brand strategist(Ariza, 2020). A brand strategist performs his duties and responsibilities under the supervision of the brand manager and marketing team. Through the analysis of market trends and data, a brand strategist will formulate a marketing plan for the brand. A brand strategist needs to know the insights regarding the industry and the consumers.

Google in the year 2013 developed electronic devices for the consumers that ran on Android OS or Chrome OS. However, Google pixel does not provide a wide range of models like other smartphone companies. There are no options for consumers to choose and compare. This report will discuss the branding problems of Google pixel and provide strategies to address the identified problems.

Identification and Justification of Core Branding Problem
Google pixel was not able to capture much of the market with its new brand extension. The core problem was the pricing policy of the brand that aimed at the premium smartphone market. The brand offered their phone at a very high price to their consumers but the product did not justify the price(Hristov, 2020). In the premium smartphone market, there were established brands like Apple and Samsung. When Google pixel announced their smartphone launch at a high price people were intrigued and attracted. This is because Google already has a positive reputation in the market as a search engine. The positive reputation combined with the high price, the brand made the consumers expect a premium quality product.

When they finally launched their product, it did not meet the expectations and the specification of a premium quality smartphone. After getting a negative response from the market, Google dropped the price of their products. Google pixel presented itself as a premium brand and this became their core-branding problem. As a premium, brand consumers expected their product to be of exceptional quality(Forrest and Sanders, 2019). The quality and performance of the smartphone offered by Google pixel did not justify its premium branding. There were many hardware and software issues in the products of Google pixel. This created a negative image of the brand and consumers started abandoning the brand. The brand would have been successful if it had sold premium quality products in the market.

Strategies to address the identified problems and the implementation of the strategies
Business strategy in general refers to the amalgamation of the various decisions taken and actions adopted by the firm to achieve diverse business objectives to secure a better competitive position in the market. It is essential for every business and it is the pathway of business steps that leads to the desired objectives. Any mistakes in devising the right pathway may result in a loss in the business profits and could lead to the extinction of the company.

Google pixel is supported by Google's brand strength that will surely enhance its competitiveness in the marketplace. But they have to grapple with the numerous daunting challenges of providing its gadget to the customers. One of the primary strategies they have to adapt to address the identified problems is to fix its retail strategies in Australia. It has failed in its retail strategies as per the company's retail reports, so it needs to fix the retail strategies (Gurman, 2016). They have been more inexperienced in terms of dealing and recycling. Unlike its rival Company Apple, the Google Pixel has a dearth of stores in many which might help showcase its hardware to please the clients but unfortunately, it relies upon other companies to display its products. They have made every effort to build the product to look more stylish and fashionable and recently adding Google's digital assistant Alexa to counter Apple's Siri. But they require a huge amount of investments in branding, marketing, and the distribution of their gadgets. Google is selling its gadget via its online store and investing in retailing market in Australia could go a long way in improving its branding and marketing in Australia (Chicago Tribune, 2016).

In addition to that, Google has to fix its Google pixel pricing strategy in Australia to better compete with the other Smartphone particularly Apple products. Google has successfully established itself as a tech giant but it needs to fix the prices of new Google pixel phones to gain and improve its branding in Australia. Google Pixel comes with good software along with well-furnished hardware but it needs to fix its pricing policy to capture and remain competitive in the market in Australia (The Economic Times, 2020). They have to fix its pricing policy and make it affordable to target the general mass of the people in Australia to counter the heavy competition with different smartphone brands such as Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi besides Apple, Samsung, and OnePlus presently dominated the premium segments.

Apart from the above-mentioned problems they need to make a better strategy of identifying and researching the target clients which will the base of its branding strategy in Australia. This will help the Google pixel to narrow down its focus which will boost its performance because if there are diverse target clients, it will hamper the marketing efforts. Researching the behavior of target clients and market conditions will help Google pixel to strengthen its competitiveness in the market.

This strategy is helpful to identify the focus of the sales of Google Pixel and its marketing efforts. It will prove to be a beneficial strategy for Google to understand the target customer. There are various effective ways to identify the target clients such as collecting the data of the targeted audience, researching the competitors, monitoring the online customer feedback, building a better market position, and many others (Malnik, 2019).

The implementation of the three listed strategies such as fixing its retail strategy, pricing strategy, and strategy of identifying and researching the target clients will prove to be helpful for the Google Pixel to capture the Australian smartphone market while successfully countering the diverse popular cell phone brands like Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi, and many others.

The implementation of a retailing strategy for Google Pixel may lead to diverse marketing opportunities in Australia. It will build a good relationship with the customers which can foster the business. However, the retailing strategy can be expensive and it needs extra labor and infrastructure. It depends on the implementers of the retailing strategy to make this form of business model to make the best type of marketing strategy. One of the grave limitations of the retailing strategy, that it may hinder reaching the customer and increases the cost of marketing. The effective implementation of the retailing strategy will increase the profit, foster the competitive environment because it will reduce the costs of products and makes the competitors aware of the prices of similar products in the market (Thomson, 2018). From the above-mentioned fact, retailing strategy in Google Pixel could lead to the success of the business in Australia. However, there are some chances of failure of this strategy could lead to its failure because it uses a huge amount of extra labor and costs.

The implementation of a better pricing strategy for Google Pixel will lead to strengthening its base in Australia. A better pricy strategy for Google Pixel will make the product more appealing to the customers and it also covers the costs. This will lead to the success of its business in Australia because devising a competitive pricing strategy makes the product compare with other products to formulate a better price. It will help to leverage the profits of the business if it is formulated properly (Gartenstein, 2018). Nevertheless, there may be certain instances that could lead to the failure of this strategy in Google Pixel such as lowering down the prices of its gadgets may not successfully cover the expenses that have been employed in the development of gadgets.

The strategy of identifying and researching the target clients will help understand its marketing prospects of Google Pixel in Australia. It will help in understanding the behavior of customers and especially the targeting of clients could lead to the focus of the sales of its products by sending out customer surveys and understanding the customers. However, it can be time-consuming and may lead to the failure of the marketing strategy of Google Pixel as its time-consuming. As it depends on doing a significant amount of research, it would require additional expenses and labor which might not be the effective strategy for the Google Pixel.

Theoretical Concept
The theoretical concept of branding has evolved and developed over time. There is four branding literature the has been identified through historical analysis. The four theoretical concepts of the brand are identification, personification, asset, and differentiation. Google pixel can use these concepts to expand its market share and strengthen its brand equity. Brand equity is the value of a brand based on the perception and experience of the consumers(Farjam and Hongyi, 2015). Strengthen brand equity is very beneficial for the Google pixel for extension of product portfolio and pricing policy.

The identification concept of branding allows Google pixel to associate itself with the owners. According to this concept, a brand is named after the owner’s name so that it looks appealing in the market. The concept was adopted by Google pixel, which was named after its owner Google. The second concept of branding is differentiation that means branding helps to identify one brand from others. This concept allows products to differentiate themselves from the other competing products in the market. Branding is about presenting a product in such a manner that it can be identified among other identical products(Bertilsson and Tarnovskaya, 2017). Third, the personification concept of branding suggests that a brand is a symbol that has different attributes and ideas. According to this concept, branding is not only about differentiating the product in the market.

Through this concept, Google pixel can communicate ideas and social messages to its consumers. This will allow Google pixel to improve their relationship with the consumers and retain the success of the brand. Lastly, the asset concept of branding suggests that recording the brand in the balance sheet increases brand equity. Brand value can be calculated using different accounting tools. Google pixel can use this concept to evaluate and analyze their brand equity in the market.

Conclusion
In conclusion, Google pixel has faced a branding problem to solve which appropriate strategies are also given. Through these strategies, Google pixel can successfully capture the market and expand its market share. Since Google pixel presented itself as a premium brand, it needs to fulfill the specifications of the premium smartphone. It needs to resolve its hardware and software issues and review its pricing policy. Many other phone brands are offering similarly featured products at a low price. If Google pixel can successfully implement the given three strategies and the branding concepts, it can successfully capture the market share.

References
Ariza, S. (2020).What is a brand strategist anyway? [online] Medium. Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/what-is-a-brand-strategist-anyway-f4d70ae1b97b [Accessed 16 Feb. 2021].

Bertilsson, J. and Tarnovskaya, V. (2017).Brand theories : perspectives on brands and branding. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Chicago Tribune (2016).Google has its own phones. Now it must fix its retail strategy. [online] chicagotribune.com. Available at: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-google-pixel-retail-strategy-20161005-story.html [Accessed 16 Feb. 2021].

Farjam, S. and Hongyi, X. (2015). Reviewing the Concept of Brand Equity and Evaluating Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) Models. The International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, 1(8), pp.14–29.

Forrest, C. and Sanders, J. (2019).Google Pixel phone: A cheat sheet. [online] TechRepublic. Available at: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/google-pixel-phone-the-smart-persons-guide/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2021].

Gartenstein, D. (2018). Advantages and Disadvantages of Pricing Strategies. [online] Chron.com. Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-pricing-strategies-22271.html [Accessed 16 Feb. 2021].

Gurman, M.B., Mark (2016). With Pixel phones, Google requires a new retail strategy. [online] mint. Available at: https://www.livemint.com/Industry/NHhEWCtcrwu3X7B5nLfxgM/With-Pixel-phones-Google-requires-a-new-retail-strategy.html [Accessed 16 Feb. 2021].

Hristov, V. (2020).Google Pixel history: the evolution of “Google Phones.” [online] Phone Arena. Available at: https://www.phonearena.com/news/Google-Pixel-history-the-evolution-of-Google-Phones_id122277 [Accessed 16 Feb. 2021].

Malnik, J. (2019). 9 Ways to Accurately Identify the Target Audience for Your Website | Databox Blog. [online] Databox. Available at: https://databox.com/how-to-identify-the-target-audience-for-your-website [Accessed 16 Feb. 2021].

The Economic Times (2020). Google needs to focus on Pixel 4a pricing, go to market strategy in India to better compete: Analysts - ET Telecom. [online] ETTelecom.com. Available at: https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/google-needs-to-focus-on-pixel-4a-pricing-go-to-market-strategy-in-india-to-better-compete-analysts/77344902 [Accessed 16 Feb. 2021].

Thomson, J. (2018). Advantages & Disadvantages of Retailing. [online] Bizfluent. Available at: https://bizfluent.com/info-8291181-advantages-disadvantages-retailing.html [Accessed 16 Feb. 2021].