A Brand Transition Challenge

Introduction

The case is about a brand transition challenge in a Manchester product. The product to discuss is furniture. Brand transition is the changing of a brand name of an organization or the product for a reason. The reason of the brand name is to improve on the exiting brand in order to capture customer’s attention and gain more profits. The brand transition process is difficult process, Laura Lake, ‘Recreating Your Brand: Make it a Smooth Transition’, About.com.

A Manchester product Inc did well in furniture business. It acquired best sells in the products they produced. This was because of the acquisition of Paul Logan’s Division. After Manchester household furniture had acquired the Paul Logan Division, they had to change the brand name to theirs. Before this was done they were allowed or permitted to use Paul Logan’s name for only three years.

Despite the fact that Paul Logan’s Brand was making their business prosper they had to take only three years to look for their brand name. This actually was to bring about the brand transition. Here, brand transition come as a result of the change of the ownership of the organization. We can see that at the beginning the organization was owned by Paul Logan. It was later on acquired by Manchester Household furniture.

In the above statement we can realize that the change of business ownership can also lead to the brand transition. A major factor in this statement will depend on the previous business owner. Some business owners can decide to sell off their business without demanding for the change of the brand name. Others will feel better for their brand names to be changed, or decide to sell the brand name too. The brand name at time can be leased. In some circumstances those buying the business can also decide to change to their own brand name.

There are some factors that someone buying a business should consider before changing the brand name of the business or the products. The major factor includes both the positive and negative effect to business. Before changing the brand name you must take precaution on how the new brand name will directly affect the business. You have to bear in mind that as a brand change customers can take it positively or negatively depending on their test or feeling either to the brand name or the product.

One consideration to make therefore is to study the customer test on the current products or the brand name. Put in mind that some customer hates some products not because of the quality but because of the brand name. This brings a reason why we have to be careful when coming up with a new brand or transition. Customers are more sensitive to the quality of products and this will always attach them to the brand name of the product. This is the reason why they will always want to know the brand name of a product before purchasing them. This will help them to verify the product they are purchasing.

We now realize that before deciding to come up with a new brand name or making a transition in brand, there should be clear reason for it. Apart from having a clear reason, Manchester should take precaution if it wants its customers maintained. The only important thing is to evaluate the customer satisfaction by the present brand. If it is a must to come up with a new brand name then it is good to ensure that the customers are well informed about the change of the brand name. This will make them more comfortable with the product. Customer can only be informed of the change of the brand name if the products produced by the company are of quality and promised that the quality will be maintained or even improved.

If the current brand name is not doing well or producing products of poor quality, then communicating to the customer is not a wise decision. Here the organization should consider silently changing the brand name then improve on the products quality. This will at last make the company to sell its products. The customers will start buying products thinking they are buying a new product but it is just an improvement of product that was long in the market. With this the organization will sell upon the change of the product name and improvement of the product.

Challenges faced by Manchester in brand transition

After Manchester had acquired Paul Logan, they realized that Paul Logan had made an impact for as long as quality products had been known in the furniture market in United States. Not only did Paul Logan produce quality products but also best fashions and designs in the market. The furniture products produced by Paul Logan were therefore selling greatly in the United States. This therefore made Manchester to think of maintaining the Paul Logan brand in order to continue making a wider range of profits.

Manchester on the other hand doing good in the furniture market in the United States, but it was not better than the Brand of Paul Logan. This is the reason why there was the question of maintain Paul Logan brand or merging the two brands. It was thought that the merging of the two brands would even make it better to improve the customer attraction or satisfaction on the products produced. Paul Logan Brand name was equally important and that it is why Manchester was advocating for the three years use of Logan’s brand name.

We can consider bran transition being something difficult or had because of some reasons, we now see that the customers had developed positive attitude towards the Paul Logan’s products, they also had build a trust in the quality, fashion and designs of this brand. Without the brand name of Paul Logan, the sales will not be significant. This became a stumbling block over the brand transition. This actually meant that without this brand name Manchester was not going to make good sales.

This contributed to the reason of merging Paul Logan brand name with Manchester Household. The reason of merging was to make the customers friendly to the products so that at last a means of dropping Logan’s Brand would come easily, John A. Quelch, ‘A Manchester Product: Brand Transition Challenge.

. Another strategy that was to be used was the product price reduction. This was aimed at attracting the customer to the product. When the customer is attracted to the product, it builds customer loyalty. After this the Paul Logan brand will be dropped. Now the customer would have familiarized himself/herself with the product. As a result the change or brand transition will not affect the customers.

During brand transition, customers are likely to be confused. In this situation, the two brand names merging were to make Manchester to sell its products. This can have a negative impact to the customers. The customers that were loyal products of Paul Logan brand name can reduce their confidence because of the confusion. It will make them to take a long period of time before making a decision on which brand to chose. This can probably make Manchester Household to loose because customer influences one another. Sincerely a customer can encourage or discourage a friend concerning the price, quality and brand of a certain commodity in the market. They can come to an agreement on what brand to take and which one to leave.

Manchester products in time have also been considered good. Now the merging of it with Logan’s can make the customers who do not trust the products of Manchester to doubt it further. They will think Manchester is trying to use Logan’s Brand to make it sell better yet producing law quality products as compared to those of the Logan Brand. Now instead of encouraging their friends to buy more from Manchester they can deicide for something different. Actually people or customers’ views are very different. Some will feel it better to be the customers of Manchester, since Manchester is acquiring the business from the Brand they well known and considered best as far as quality is considered.

With the above differences seen among the customers, Manchester has to develop some strategies of brand transition. The strategies of brand transition should target the customer and the organization’s profitability as well. When changing or getting to a brand transition, it should be ensured that change will bring fourth better results than the present one. This is to mean the new brand should be more superior to the present one. Besides the quality of the new products, they brand should also provide attractiveness. This can be in form of appearance, texture the packaging design or even the shapes that the products will take. You will realize that if all this is put to consideration, product transition will always make sense.

A serious problem that Manchester Company faces in the brand transition is the pressure of the competitors in the field. The competitors seem to be entering the market and making great sells. The reason is clear that as the competitors enter the market, they try to produce quality products. Given the reason that Manchester had been known of producing quality products as well and that the customer had familiarize themselves with it, the competitors had to do something. The only thing that the competitors had to do was to lower their prices for them to sell more in the market and realize more profits. Apart from realizing more profits, they were also marketing their brand. For this reasons Manchester faced a great competition from its competitors.

This created a big challenge to Manchester’s decision of the brand transition. Thus Manchester was to device a way of fighting this challenge if they had to come up with the successful brand transition. The strategy that was later taken by Manchester was to lower the prices of the products. This was actually done to capture the attention of the customers. If the customers attention remains captured the process of brand transition will not be difficult.

We have to note that brand transition decision is not really taken without a clear reason. There should be clear reasons for the brand transition. In this case we can realize that there is something happening to Manchester, and it is the reason for the brand transition. The reason of brand transition by Manchester was to take advantage over Paul Logan good reputation, where Paul Logan brand had been known to be the best for furniture products in the United States. Manchester therefore wanted to make an impact in the market of furniture in the United States, for this reason the thought of coming up with a brand name that can be positively reputable than the Paul Logan’s. This was to make Manchester to gain customers through the reputation gained. The customers will always like the brands that adhere to quality and reasonable pricing. Manchester has to apply this principle if they have to be successful in the brand transition.

When comparing the market strength of Paul Logan and Manchester you realize that Paul Logan made a great impact in United States furniture market. Paul Logan brand was actually the leading in the market of furniture products with the highest percentage, this built customer loyalty in the products produce by the Paul Logan brand. This was a great challenge to Manchester and after acquiring Paul Logan company brand transition become an issue. It takes Manchester a long time to come up with the brand transition because the Paul Logan brand was making them to sell and if the were to change the name immediately they would have a great chance of losing customers. This is reason why Manchester used Paul Logan brand name for three more years before making a brand transition.

The possible solution that can help during brand transition

The three years that Manchester was allowed, was to be used to strategize. Manchester was to draw a plan of how to come up with a brand transition that will make it maintain the customers loyalty in the products produced under Paul Logan brand. Manchester was also to make sure that the reputable name of Paul Logan brand was maintained. This will create more confidence to their customers and as well customers will be retained.

Manchester had to make sure that by the end of the tree years a final decision of transition would have been met. The other thing that Manchester has to put into consideration in brand transition is the challenge that will be uncounted. Here the big challenge is that the brand transition was moving toward Paul Logan’s brand which was more reputable to Manchester which is less reputable. This was actually difficult because customers have built their trust in the products produced by Paul Logan brand. The great challenge now is how to make the customers change from a best brand to better.

Manchester still had an opportunity to come up with smooth transition over the tree years that had been allowed the Paul Logan’s brand name. There are two solutions that Manchester would think about if the brand transition was to take smooth transition. One solution was to look for a new brand celebrity name for their new products after acquiring Paul Logan and make sure that the quality was improved more. The other solution is to merge the two brands and gradually change to the desired brand name. This will have made it possible for Manchester to encounter a smooth transition. In most cases the brand transition is always bringing up a product that had lost its reputation. This usually aimed at improving the product in order for it to sell in the market, but with Manchester it is a different case. This is the reason why the brand transition in this case becomes a real issue.

Conclusion

Paul Logan brand was one of the reputable brands in the United States. For this reason Manchester has acquired the Paul Logan Company and need to come up with a brand transition. On the other hand, Manchester is not doing better than Paul Logan and this may bring conflict to the customers, Manchester had been allowed three years of coming up with the brand transition. Within the three years the Manchester products have to improve in quality so that it can have smooth transition of the brand. Alternatively Manchester could think of coming up with a different brand name that will make it come up with smooth transition and match the Paul Logan’s productivity and the reputable name.

Bibliography

Lake L. ‘Recreating Your Brand: Make it a Smooth Transition’, About.com. Web.

Quelch A.J. ‘A Manchester Product: Brand Transition Challenge. Web.