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Brand ManagementNegative Brand EquityIn the previous discussion on brand equity, one aspect needs consideration. It is this – is it possible for brands to have negative brand equity? Consider now both sides of the conundrum:From one perspective, brand equity cannot be negative. The application of effective marketing by way of a combination of advertising, public relations, and sales promotion unequivocally gives rise to positive brand equity.From another perspective, however, there is a case to support the belief that negative brand equity can exist. The validity lies in the characterisation of a political brand. A pertinent example is that, at a particular moment in time, the Democratic brand may be judged to be negative in respect of the Republican brand in the sense that the former is performing poorly compared with the latter. On the other hand, of course, the contra may be the prevailing truism.Retail BrandsRetailing – This is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise from a specified location, such as a department store, or by mail, in small or individual quantities for delivery directly to the purchaser.Private Brand – This usually involves a retailer, who buys in bulk from a manufacturer, and arranges for the product to bear its own name. This strategy is only feasible when the retailer deals in very high volumes.The advantages to the retailer are:Greater freedom and flexibility in pricing
Greater control over product detail and quality
Higher margins or lower selling price, whichever is appropriate
Manufacturer’s promotional costs are minimised
The advantages to the manufacturer are:
Minimal promotional costs
Dependable sales volumeStore Brand – Also known as Own Brand in the UK, it refers specifically to retail stores or store chains. The retailer has a number of choices, viz. to manufacture goods under its own label, or re-brand private label goods, and even outsource manufacture of store-brand items to various third parties (who are often the same manufacturers that produce brand-labeled goods).Store branded goods are, in most cases, cheaper than national-brand items since the retailer can maximise the production to suit consumer demand whilst, at the same time, reducing advertising costs. In certain retail sectors, it is possible for store brands to account for 40-50 percent of total sales.Since store branding is a mature industry; then some store brands have been able to position themselves as premium brands. It is not unusual for store-branded goods to style themselves on the shape, packaging, and labeling of national brands so as to acquire premium display treatment from retailers.Some retailers take the view that, whilst advertising by premium national brands attracts shoppers to the store, none the less, the retailer invariably makes more profit by selling a store brand in preference to a premium brand. In the majority of cases, while store brands are usually cheaper than national brands, they remain more expensive than generic brands (products with no brand name, e.g. Cola) sold at the store.The “no-frills” grocery chains, such as Aldi, principally sell store brands in order to promote lower prices. In comparison, supermarket chains sell several brands over and above other products.Branding – How To Succeed

To counter the problem of health-care financing in the USA, Consumer-directed health care (referred as CDHC) has emerged in the recent past, designed to decrease the health spending by providing financial incentive for consumers to choose the best health care proposition. With both public and private sector financiers looking to reduce their health-care expenses, CDHC has been opted as a way of bringing greater efficiency and cost control into health care.Consumer Directed Health Care refers to health insurance plans that permit patients to use medical payment products like personal Health Savings Accounts, Health Reimbursement Arrangements etc as a mode of settling the routine medical claims. So, patients have more control over their health budgets as they pay through consumer-controlled accounts for routine medical claims as opposed to a fixed health insurance benefit. Principally, it aims at giving patients greater control over their health care, both economically and medically. It is also meant to improve healthy competition among health care providers to increase the range of patient control.Consider this example. A health savings account (HSA) linked with a high deductible health plan lets you take care of routine claims through HSA and other high claims through the regular health plan. This is a typical CDHC plan with a lower premium than a traditional health plan premium, allowing you to take charge of your routine health-care expenses in turn making you more aware of the cost and quality of care involved before spending your money.There are tax advantages as well like in the case of HSA. However, each individual needs are different and a health insurance plan must be taken after careful consideration and professional advice on the matter.

Home health care is a delicate matter and must be handled with tact and commitment. There may come a time when a parent or other elderly loved one is no longer able to safely support themselves on their own. Home health care is a viable alternative to sending someone to a nursing home and is a convenient option that enables your loved one to get the care they need without having to be uprooted from their home. With an enormous amount of options, it can be tricky to find the best service but continue reading and you will discover several easy tips for finding a high quality home health care provider.Get References/RecommendationsAny successful home health care provider should have references or recommendations readily available. Talk to your loved one’s doctors, attorney, financial advisor and other members of the community that may know of companies that offer a premium quality service. Your local Area Agency on Aging will have a list of providers you can look at. If this agency or a hospital social work department can give a recommendation that would be great because they rarely do so and tend to save such references for the very best services.Find Out Your LiabilityWhenever you hire a private home health care provider, please understand that there will be certain liabilities involved. Be sure to learn more about insurance, taxes, worker’s compensation, training and background checks before making any decisions. If you use an employment agency to make a hire for example, you could become the official employer of the caregiver which means responsibility for payment, taxes and numerous other obligations.Analyze Their EquipmentOnly consider home health care providers that use cutting edge communications and monitoring technology. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. For example: How long does it take the service provider to find out if their employee has not turned up? How do they communicate with you? Do they provide online monitoring? Be specific with your questions and don’t be fobbed off by vague answers.Know Your ProviderAs this company will be responsible for taking care of your loved one, you need to learn more about them and how they operate. Find out if they allow you and your loved one to interview candidates for the job and get information on how they train and support their team. Additionally, you need to find out how many different caregivers will be responsible for providing care. It is best if only 1-2 staff members are involved to maintain continuity. Your loved one should not be subjected to the confusion of having several different strange people in his/her home.Remember that home health care is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution and the company you choose should have the ability to provide a service specifically tailored to the needs of your loved one. The home care agency you choose should be licensed and subject to state regulations but there will always be qualifications and skills that sets one provider apart from all the rest. Don’t settle for second-rate home health care, do your research and ensure the person you love receives the best level of attention and support possible.

“I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.” – From the HAL 9000 computer, 2001: A Space OdysseyWhen it comes to technology solutions for your business it is easy to get carried away with the latest-and-greatest gadgets and solutions. Everyone wants to have the latest shiny thing. In larger organizations, managing technology can become burdensome due to competing and duplicative technology requests. Left unfettered, the company technology platform can resemble a “spaghetti bowl” over time. Often is the case, new technology requests are submitted without any business case to support their investment.I am a big proponent of having non-technology business leaders play an active role in the determination of the technology solutions utilized at an organization. While it is critical to include an IT perspective from a technical interface standpoint, having non-IT personnel drive technology solutions often lead to decisions based on thebusiness needs of the organization. As such, any technology request would require a business plan to support the investment.Form A Technology Committee: This is the start of your technology approval process. Create a technology committee that represents various personnel from cross-functional departments. Consider selecting an operations, marketing, accounting, technology and finance member to this team. This committee is charged with creating the process for submitting technology solution requests for the organization as well as providing the prioritization and ultimately, approval of the requests.Develop A Submittal Process: Inherent in a well-thought through technology strategy for an organization is developing a process for the submission of ideas. Following the “garbage-in, garbage-out” mindset, developing a detailed process for submission will help weed out the “nice to haves” and focus the committee on real, tangible solutions. This process should not only include the technology solution identified, but as importantly, the business case for its justification. For approved projects in the queue, a monthly communication should be sent to the organization recapping the activity of the committee.Focus Your Projects: A technology committee creates focus throughout the organization. While it would be great to have every new iteration of technology that gets released, that is impractical and costly. The committee can help with providing a high-level perspective on the entire enterprise since it is considering all requests. All to often, departmental requests have a tendency to be created in a silo, with only the impact on that department considered.Need To Have Vs. Nice To Have: This is a biggie. It is easy to feel that an iPhone 3 becomes obsolete as soon as the iPhone 4 is released, but when the technology is run by the committee, the “nice to haves” usually fail due to a lack of business case. The committee allows the organization to run with an unbiased interference with respect to technology. The committee is charged with improving ROI on technology solutions and since it is comprised cross-departmentally, there should be no “pet” projects.One Project, Big Picture: I have headed a technology committee in the past and the greatest “aha” moment for me was the amount of similar technology solutions that were being presented from different departments. Had all of these requests been accepted, the organization would have overspent IT dollars as well as created duplicative solutions to the same issues. The committee allows for its members to “rise above” the fray of the organization and view the technology requests in the big picture. The committee’s goal was to ensure that any approved request was accretive to the overall company.Create A Business Case: This is the best way to clear out the clutter. Ask employees what they need from a technology solution and the committee will be inundated with ideas. Ask them to submit in a business case (cost justification for the investment) along with their solution and ideas are significantly reduced. The business case for a technology solution not only helps in identifying whether the investment is worth it, but also forces the author to think about how this solution interfaces within the existing platform.Post Analysis: Lastly, carefully measuring the business case proforma against the actual cost/return of the projects not only holds the submitter responsible, but also the committee. The goal with the post analysis isn’t to “call people out”, but rather provide an unbiased financial review of the project. Without this type of post analysis measurement to hold this team accountable, the committee eventually will serve no purpose.