Strategic Brand Management: Brand Positioning

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Strategic Brand Management: Brand Positioning
Kingsford Charcoal is among the many investments of Clorox Company. By 2000, Kingsford Charcoal contributed an approximate of 9% of the Clorox’s income (Kingsford 1). It is a type of company that deals with the production of charcoal briquettes from wood. The quality of the produced charcoal is high as it produces more heat than the normal wood and also lasts longer. The main product produced by this company is charcoal and grill gas. Kingsford Company has two major competitors in their business market. These competitors are Private labels Company and the Royal Oak. The stiff competition between the three companies made Kingsford company brand to diminish. Due to that the company decided to employ two new brand managers to manage this crisis. The two managers are, Allison Warren and Marcilie Smith. Initially in the 1980s, Kingsford Company experienced higher profits however in 2000, these profits decreased by 2% (Kingsford 1).
Being an important branch of Clorox Company, Kingsford Company has put measures in place to ensure that they maintain their position in the business market. For them to manage their brand, Kingsford brand managers ensured that the quality of their products and services were high, their staffs were discipline, developing new brand products, and maintain constant prices on their products. Generally, the brand managers of Kingsford came up with strict measures to ensure that the products reaching the market are of high quality.

To manage their brand, the company also maintained constant prices of their goods and services despite the regular fluctuation of charcoal prices in the market. When the managers of this company realized that their charcoal business was declining, they immediately switched to grill gas business so as to maintain their brand.
Strength and weaknesses
Just like any other normal company, Kingsford Charcoal Company also has its strength and weaknesses. Strengths are the advantages that Kingsford has over its competitors while the weaknesses are the setbacks to the company’s progress. These are the strengths of this company; highly experienced sales team, a detailed business plan, and quality products. Having an experienced sales team has been a major advantage contributing to the productivity of Kingsford. Qualified sales team in this case have the ability to come up with brilliant marketing ideas that can improve the Company’s sales as well as promoting the brand. A detailed business plan is the key foundation of its progress. The business plan is what guides the entire marketing team on the actions to take depending on various situations. Quality products act as the basic foundation of a successful business (Kingsford 5). However much competitive the business market might be, the product quality is what determines the company’s position in the market and this is what contributes to the success of Kingsford Charcoal Company.
Weaknesses
Kingsford Company is known for one major weakness that is lack of media for advertisements. Despite having the best sales team and quality products, this company has become less productive because of poor advertising strategies. Advertising is an important aspect in business because it helps in reaching the consumer and creating awareness about the availability of the product in the market. Ideally, a company might have the best product but due to the lack of advertisements these products might not be known by a large number of people thus leading to failure of the business. Therefore, poor advertising strategies have been a major setback to the productivity of Kingsford Charcoal Company.

Work Cited
Kingsford Charcoal. Excerpt from the front flap of the book titled Born to Grill: An
American Celebration (1998) by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison