❍Brand franchises: These are important because of the time and
investment required in building them. Once established effective
brands have high levels of customer loyalty, create competitive
positions that are defendable and obtain higher margins because
customers feel a higher price is merited by the added value that
the brand provides them. Weak brands of course show the oppos-
ite characteristics.
❍Market leadership: A strong brand may not be the market leader
but a brand leader enjoys distinct advantages such as excellent
market coverage, widespread distribution and beneficial shelf
positions in retail outlets.
❍Country of origin: Consumers associate particular attributes to dif-
ferent countries, these then become associated with an organisa-
tion or a brand that derives from that particular state. So, for
instance Germany is associated with efficiency and quality.
Products like Mercedes and BMW benefit from this perception of
their country of origin and it reinforces their quality positioning in
the market.
❍Unique products and services: These are key assets. Their distinct-
iveness in the market can be built on a number of attributes such
as price, quality, design or level of innovation.
2 Distribution-based assets
Distributing a product or service successfully into the market is a
critical marketing activity. Therefore a number of potential assets lie
in this area such as:
❍The size and quality of the distribution network: The size of the distri-
bution network should be seen in terms, not only of geographic
spread but the intensity of that coverage on the ground. An organ-
isation may only distribute over a specific geographic region of a
national market, but have built up a strong presence in that area
and be locally dominant. Quality should be seen in terms of fit-
ness for purpose. There is a range of factors that could be used to
judge quality such as ability to guarantee supply, lead times or
ability to react quickly.
❍Level of control over distribution channels: An organisation that can
exert control over the main channels of distribution in a market is
at a huge advantage, making control a key marketing asset. For
example, Irn-Bru is the market leader in the soft drinks market in
Scotland. However Coca-Cola successfully stopped Irn-Bru being
distributed through McDonald’s fast food restaurants in favour
of Coca-Cola. Coke were able to apply control over that
channel of distribution due to their global relationship with
McDonald’s.
3 Internally based assets
There are a number of internal organisational assets that lie outside
the marketing function but can be deployed to give advantages to
marketing activities. It is important to identify the underlying asset
rather than just the activity. It is the asset that has the potential to be
Internal analysis 91