Brand
• A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of the competition
Brand Equity
• A set of assets (and liabilities) linked to a brand’s names and symbol that add to (or subtract from) the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/ or that firm’s customers.
• Brand equity is a combination of intermediate consumer responses and both customer and firm benefits.
Consumer Responses that Make up Brand Equity
Strength of Association
• Refers to the intensity with which target consumers link a particular word, phrase, or meaning to a particular brand.
• Strong associations tend to those that are “top of mind” for the customer.
• Measures of strength include the number of times an association was mentioned, rank order of the association and speed of recall.
• Strength of association is often divided among two criteria: relevance and consistency.
• Relevance: degree to which the brand is perceived as meeting the needs of the target customer.
• Consistency:degree to which each element of the brand reinforces the brand intent.
Valence
• Refers to the degree to which the association is positive or negative.
Uniqueness
• Captures the degree to which the association is distinct relative to other brands.
• Uniqueness can be further subdivided into distinctiveness and memorability.
• Distinctiveness is the degree to which the brand is differentiated from competitors.
• Memorability is the brand’s ability to provide a lasting communication effect.
Ways to Measure Brand Equity
Depth Interviews
• Needed to dig deeply into respondents’ memories.
Portfolio of techniques
• No single technique is adequate.
• Complementary techniques interact with each other to stimulate respondents’ abilities to access and verbalize memories and overcome their unwillingness to share them with the researcher.
Validate research findings
• Can be achieved using multiple techniques including structured and unstructured projective methods, in-depth interviews and surveys.
• Finding the same associations with more than one method adds confidence to the results.
Techniques for measuring brand associations:
• Thought listing
• Visual techniques
• Projective technique
• Sentence completion
• Depth interviews
• Rating scales
Using Marketing Programs to create Brand Equity
Pricing Program
• In some instances, consumers may infer that quality and price are related – the higher the price, the better the quality.
• Price has been found to signal higher quality in situations where:
o Consumers are not able to assess quality easily
o High quality is demanded
o There is a sufficiently large percentage of the market that is able to assess quality and is willing to pay a higher price for it.
• Product categories where such criteria apply include wine, consumer electronics, appliances, video tapes and consulting services.
• Frequent discounting is likely to have a negative impact on brand equity as it communicates undesirable brand characteristics such as “they must have trouble selling it at a regular price” or “it is a discount brand and is therefore not suitable as a gift”.
• Marketing consultants Al Ries and Jack Trout argue that one of the worst pricing strategies multiproduct companies can undertake is to market products at different price levels under the same brand name. E.g. Johnny Walker black (premium) and Johnny Walker red (less expensive).
Product Program
There are seven dimensions of quality that are thought to apply to a wide variety of products:
• Performance – capacity of product to carry out primary function
• Features – characteristics that supplement product’s primary functioning.
• Reliability – probability that a product will malfunction within a specified time period.
• Conformance – engineering term that relates to the degree to which a product’s design and operating standards meet established standards.
• Durability – amount of product use that is achieved before replacement is preferred to repair.
• Serviceability – ease with which a product can be serviced or upgraded.
• Aesthetics – how the product looks, feels, smells, and sounds.
Distribution Program
• Channels used to distribute a product can have a significant effect on brand equity and sales success.
• E.g. Rolex would want to distribute only through retailers that are capable of presenting their brand and product in the best possible light. Every retailer that handles their brand should provide a high level of customer care in terms of return policies, warranty handling procedures, pricing and advertising support.
• Another important way distribution can affect brad equity is the number of retailers.
• If an extensive distribution is used, the brand could be affected negatively because of the increased competition among retailers and causes a downward pressure on price which ultimately leads to negative brand perceptions.
Promotional Program
• Promotion is the “voice” of the brand and is fundamental to brand equity.
• Includes all forms of communications designed to inform, remind, or persuade target customers.
• Advent of the Internet has meant an increase in the number and complexity of branding communications. It has also led to message inconsistency caused mainly by three factors:
o Technological constraints – brands “fracture” when they reach the Web. E.g. Home Depot is known for its vast selection of 50,000 items and knowledgeable, accessible salespeople, but this is hard to replicate on the Web.
o Creative differences for online and offline – firms often use different agencies for their online and offline branding efforts which increases the likelihood of inconsistent communication.
o Media fragmentation – The difficulties associated with integrating the firm’s branding strategy across media are significant, especially considering the differences that exist in the nature of the brand message that can be represented in each medium.
Seven-Step Branding Process
- Clearly Define the Brand Audience
- Understand the Target Customers
- Understand the Competition
- Design Compelling Brand Intent
- Identify Key Leverage Points in Customer Experience
- Execute the Branding Strategy
- Establish Feedback Systems