Contents

• Introduction 2
• W H Smith Plc and its Online Store 3
• Amazon UK and its Online Store 4
• Brand Identity 6
• Core Identity 6
• Extended Identity 8
• Value Proposition 10
• Relationship 11
• Recommendations 11
• Conclusion 12
• References 14

Description

The companies need to establish brand identity in the market if they are to sustain amid changing marketing forces for a long time. Brand identities can be thought of as promise statements by the companies and their members to consumers about the benefits of the use of their products (Schmidt & Ludlow, 2002). Brand identity is the projected value addition to the customer’s life (Balmer & Grey, 2000). Brand identity is a set of associations that the customer identifies with the product or the company (Kotler et al, 2006). In order to create brand identity the company has to define core values of the brand, its associations, perceptions by the customers about the brand, the personality traits the customer associates with the brand and relationship of the brand with the customer (Holt, 2004). For example, a jeans trousers brand may project a macho image of the wearer. The customer identifies with the brand’s ruggedness, toughness of character, and macho man image. The brand can have psychological and emotional bearing on the minds of customers too. A person wearing the particular brand of jeans may actually think and behave like a macho man. Thus the brand identity of the particular jeans brand can be that of macho image. These projections are not the results of how the products were perceived by larger sections of customers. But they are carefully thought out strategies by the brands themselves. Before launching a new product in the market the companies normally strategize and plan as to what the brand image of the product is. The branding strategy depends upon the target customers, their demography, salient features of the product, life cycle of the product etc (Stuart, 1999). Amazon UK and WH Smith are two of the largest book sellers and retail merchants of the UK. Both the companies have online as well as physical stores. Both the companies started as book selling stores and later expanded their business to retail sector. The products range showcased on their web sites are similar. The brand identities of thee two stores as planned by their brand strategists are different. The report analyses the web sites of both Amazon UK and W H Smith Plc to study the brand identity of the two companies. The report also analyses the four components of brand identity viz., core identity, extended identity, value proposition and relationships as applied to both the brands. The report makes recommendations to both W H Smith and Amazon UK to improve upon in areas that fall short of optimum performance.