In the present competitive business environment, marketers of commodity products like salt, wheat, sugar, rice, etc., must work harder than ever before to achieve some degree of differentiation for their products to build strong brands in order to avoid their product from being viewed as a basic commodity, and increase brand awareness and loyalty. Branding, however, is more than simply putting the company's name on a product and advertising the name to its target customers. For commodities like salt, wheat, etc., branding is a multidimensional construct, which includes not only how the customers view the basic physical product, but also the distribution, quality, purity, package, company image and brand image. The success of the commodity brands mainly depends on the brand strategy based on the effective use of product, price, place and promotional tools, to provide the true economic value for the customers. The growing competition makes customer loyalty mandatory for any organization. The benefits of making customers loyal are building a strong market share; making higher profits; providing greater resistance against brands of the competitors; and reducing the marketing costs. Customer satisfaction is one of the factors for bringing about loyalty, but not always the main one. Dissatisfaction guarantees switching; but satisfaction does not always promise loyalty. Brand loyalty can be measured using the Preference Behavior Model (PBM) for low involvement products. PBM utilizes both the attitude and behavioral components for the measurement of brand loyalty. The focus of this paper is on commodity products, and the products chosen for the study, belong to the fastest growing category in commodity market, i.e., salt and wheat. The model aims at giving the consolidated brand loyalty score for the different brands in salt and wheat. This paper presents a strategic framework for building strong brands in commodity products and providing various strategies to increase brand awareness and create a loyal customer base.
Commodities
are generic products, like rice, wheat, sugar, salt,
vegetables, cement, steel, etc., which are used for
mass consumption, based on the nature of the basic product
and their utility. Branding
and brand preference have gained importance only in
the recent past. Earlier consumers were not able to
differentiate/compare the features of the commodities
due to lack of brand names available in the market. Many
of the manufacturers/companies have started highlighting
the product features with specific brand names in the
commodity market helping the consumers differentiate
and choose the products which best suited their requirement.
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