Companies always strive to succeed in their business activities. In the case of Honda as presented in this study, the company has modified its brand image to be more appealing to its customers. Rebranding, branding, and brand equity are crucial communication and marketing practices used in defining a company's image. Re-branding is often utilized when a company seeks to reposition itself in the target market. Honda capitalized on the company's brand equity.
Honda-Current Brand Strategy
Honda has taken numerous actions to achieve new growth as it moves towards the fast changing era in the world. Its re-branding campaign is a progressive initiative, which has increasingly gained momentum over the years. This paper will focus on Honda's re-branding and brand equity strategies as reviewed in case studies and scholarly writings. Honda has maintained to be the most successful automotive import company in Japan. According to various automotive and financial analysts, Honda is geared towards becoming the leading automaker across the world. Currently, General Motors Corporation holds this position. This posits new challenges to Honda and its brand image. Honda launched brand equity and re-branding campaign to show its impact on the Japanese economy. This study looks at the possible success of Honda's re-branding and brand equity strategies.
Re-branding
Re-branding can be defined as how a brand is re-born. In most cases, a company utilizes the re-branding strategy when it desires to change the public perception of its image. It is also used when it seeks to reposition itself in the target market. Honda is in a peculiar position because it attempts to formulate a new image in the Japanese market while retaining its current image in foreign markets. Honda does not want to be viewed as a company, which surpassed the leading domestic auto-manufacturer from being the leading automotive company. As part of its re-branding strategy, Honda strives to be accepted and respected by Japanese consumers. The company seeks to reach out to Japanese consumers. An innovative technique used by the company as to open plants across Japan and in foreign nations (Roll, 2010). In most of the plants, in an effort to connect with community members, Honda launched literacy programs in areas where it built new plants. This strategy allowed Honda to develop a positive image of the firm while displaying the guiding principles that lead the firm on how to relate best to the community. This demonstrated to be effective as it helped bridge the gap between the community and the automaker besides attaining a formidable relationship between the two.
The re-branding effort also included advertising. The company ran advertisements in numerous national magazines and newspapers, which were a success. This included adverts that displayed volumes of revenues Honda contributes to the Japanese economy. This publicity facilitated a dialogue process with Japanese consumers and showcased figures and facts consumers were not exposed to prior. For years, Honda never portrayed a reputation that the Corporation had a desire to court the Japanese consumer. It does not put exorbitant financial elements or energy on messaging campaigns in Japan. Soon, Honda realized that when local auto manufacturers started to struggle, it could benefit by capitalizing on the opportunity and aligning itself with the Japanese consumer. This enabled Honda to educate consumers on the company's economic contributions and thus, advance its presence across the United States (Heneric, Licht & Sofka, 2009).
Brand Equity
Brand equity is described as an intangible asset manifested as the brand name. It generates value for an organization in four distinct ways like brand associations, perceived quality, brand awareness, and brand loyalty. Honda is aware of the value of brand equity. As a result, it has invested in finding a balance between persuading Americans that it has invested in the Japanese economy and interests of Japanese consumers while assuring worldwide customers that at its core, it is a Japanese company. Honda Motor Corporation entails all the four mentioned features of brand equity. Its long time client base is brand loyalty: Honda has a strong consumer base that buys autos because Honda makes them (Gelder, 2009).
Brand awareness shows the strength of a brand in the consumers' mind. Honda is popular in the auto industry and across global consumers for manufacturing well made and reliable products. The element of perceived value refers to the preconceived notion held by the customer base about the company (Kay, 2011). For Honda, it is mostly a positive image. Brand association refers to the image associated with a company. For instance, when the client base thinks of Honda, most of them imagine about its hybrid electric and gasoline cars. The company has a culture of discussing its founding principles and its culture, which is based on Japanese traditions. Honda discovered that although these aspects made it extremely successful in its home country, they might not be useful in foreign markets due to cultural differences. Thus, it must seek ways to address issues of cultural diversity in these markets.
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