4. What is a brand?What is a brand?
A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design,A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design,
or a combination of them,or a combination of them,
intended to identity the goods or servicesintended to identity the goods or services
of one seller or group of sellersof one seller or group of sellers
andand toto differentiate them from those of competitorsdifferentiate them from those of competitors
- American Marketing Association- American Marketing Association
5. What does a brand convey?What does a brand convey?
A brand can convey up to 6 levels of meaningsA brand can convey up to 6 levels of meanings::
• Attributes
• Benefits
• Values
• Culture
• Personality
• User
6. Why brands?Why brands?
• Brand signals the source of the product
• Protects customer and producer from
competitors who have identical products
• Consumers form relationships with
brands, not products or companies
• Brand makes an emotional and trust-
based connection with consumer and
distinguishes it from competition
7. Why is branding critical?Why is branding critical?
• Brand loyalty is the foundation of business
• Every purchase opportunity presents itself an
excuse to change brands and shift loyalties
– Father buys cigarettes every day
– Mother buys diapers every week
– Family buys groceries every month
• Branding determines status quo vs. shift
8. Why is it hard to build brands?Why is it hard to build brands?
• Proliferation of competitors
• Pressure to compete on price
• Fragmenting markets and media
• Complex brand strategies and relationships
• Bias towards changing strategies
• Bias against innovation
• Pressure to invest elsewhere
• Short term pressures
10. Brand equityBrand equity
• Brand Equity is a set of assets linked to a
brand’s name and symbol that adds to
the value provided by a product or service
to a firm and/or that firm’s customers
• Brand Equity is a set of liabilities linked
to a brand’s name and symbol that
subtracts from the value provided by a
product or service to a firm and/or that
firm’s customers
11. Brand equity: Key aspectsBrand equity: Key aspects
• Brand equity is a set of assets
– Management of brand equity involves investment to
create and enhance these assets
• Each brand equity asset creates value in a
variety of very different ways
– It is imperative to be sensitive to the ways in which
strong brands create value
• Brand equity creates value for customer and firm
• For assets or liabilities to underlie brand equity,
they must be linked to name/symbol of the brand
12. Value to the customerValue to the customer
• Brand equity assets can help customers interpret,
process and store huge quantities of info about
products / brands
• It can affect customers’ confidence in purchase
decision
– Due to past-use experience or familiarity with brand
• Both perceived quality and brand associations can
enhance customers’ satisfaction with use
experience
– Knowing brand is Arrow can can make user feel different
13. Value to the firmValue to the firm
• Brand equity can enhance programmes to
attract new customers or recapture old ones
• Perceived quality, associations and known name
provide reasons to buy & affect use satisfaction
• Usually allows higher margins by permitting both
premium pricing and reduced promotions
• Can provide leverage in the distribution channel
• Brand equity assets provide a competitive
advantage that present a barrier to competitors
14. TideTide : For extra-tough family laundry jobs
CheerCheer : Works in cold, warm or hot water
GainGain : A detergent with fragrance
BoldBold : Includes fabric softener
DashDash : Concentrated power
DreftDreft : For baby’s clothes
OxydolOxydol : For sparkling whites
EraEra : Concentrated liquid detergent
SoloSolo : Heavy duty, with a fabric softener
15. Major asset categoriesMajor asset categories
1. Brand name awareness
2. Perceived quality
3. Brand loyalty
4. Brand associations
16. Brand awarenessBrand awareness
• A known devil is better than an unknown angel
• Awareness refers to the strength of a brand’s
presence in the consumer’s mind
• Consumers instinctively prefer a brand that they
have previously seen to one that is new to them
• Familiar brand has an edge!
17. The awareness pyramidThe awareness pyramid
Dominant
Top of mind
Unaided awareness
Aided awareness
Unaware of the brand
18. Value of brand awarenessValue of brand awareness
• Anchor to which other associations can be
attached
• Provides the brand a sense of familiarity
– Customers like the familiar
• Awareness can be a signal of presence,
commitment and substance
• Awareness gets brand into the consideration set
– Giving it a chance to get purchased!
19. Perceived qualityPerceived quality
Perceived quality can be defined
as the customer’s perceptioncustomer’s perception of the overall quality
or superiority of a product or service
with respect to its intended purpose,with respect to its intended purpose,
relative to alternativesrelative to alternatives
20. Perceived qualityPerceived quality
• Perceived quality is an intangible and overall
feeling about a brand
• Perceived quality cannot necessarily be
objectively determined because it is a perception
• Perceived quality could be different for the
corner store versus the department store
• Both are judged by a different set of criteria
• Perceived quality differs from satisfaction
– A positive attitude could be generated because a
product of inferior quality is very inexpensive
21. Perceived qualityPerceived quality
• Perceived quality is a brand association,
elevated to the status of a brand asset:
– Among all brand associations, only perceived quality
has been shown to drive financial performance
– Perceived quality is often a major strategic thrust of a
business
– Perceived quality is linked to and often drives other
aspects of how a brand is perceived
22. Perceived vs. actual qualityPerceived vs. actual quality
• Consumers may be overly influenced by a previous
image of poor quality
• A company may be achieving quality on dimension
that consumers do not consider important
• Consumers rarely have all the info necessary to
make rational or objective judgment on quality
• Consumers may not know how best to judge quality
– Maybe looking at wrong cues
– Ex., when buying tyres
23. Value generated by perceived qualityValue generated by perceived quality
• In many contexts, perceived quality provides the
pivotal reason to buy
• Could differentiate and be a principal positioning
characteristic of a brand
• Provides the option of charging a premium price
• Could be meaningful to channel members and
thus aid in gaining distribution
24. Brand loyaltyBrand loyalty
• Brand loyalty, a central construct in marketing,
is a measure of attachment that a customer
has to a brand
• It reflects how likely a customer will be to
switch to another brand
– Especially when that brand makes a change, either
in price or in product features
• It is one indicator of brand equity which is
demonstrably linked to future profits
– Brand loyalty directly translates into future sales
25. Brand loyaltyBrand loyalty
• A brand has value only in its potential to create
loyal customers
• It is simply much less costly to retain customers
than to attract new ones
– ‘The Hindu’
• Considering loyalty as an asset encourages and
justifies loyalty-building programmes
– Which helps create / enhance brand equity
26. The loyalty pyramidThe loyalty pyramid
Committed
Fence Sitters
Considers it a friend
Passively Loyal
With switching costs
Satisfied / Habitual Buyer
No reason to change
Switchers / Price Sensitive
No brand loyalty
27. Strategic value of brand loyaltyStrategic value of brand loyalty
• Brand loyalty reduces the marketing costs
of doing business
• It provides trade leverage
• Helps attract new customers
• Brand loyalty provides a firm with time to
respond to competitive threats
28. Brand associationsBrand associations
• Brand equity is supported by associations that
consumers make with a brand
• Brand association is anything linked in memory
to a brand
– Associations include product attributes, celebrity spokesperson
and symbol
• Association not only exists but has level of
strength
– A link to a brand will be stronger when it is based on many
experiences or exposures to communications, rather than few
– Will also be stronger when supported by a network of other links
29. Types of associationsTypes of associations
• Product attributes
• Intangibles
• Customer benefits
• Relative price
• Use / application
• User / Customer
• Celebrity / person
• Lifestyle / personality
• Product class
• Competitors
• Country / geographic area
30. Value of brand associationsValue of brand associations
• Brand associations helps process / retrieve info
• An association can provide an important basis
for differentiation
• Many brand associations involve product
attributes or customer benefits that provide
specific reason to buy
• Some associations are liked and stimulate
positive feelings that get transferred to the brand
