Summary Brand Management - Articles + Lectures summary (E_MKT_BMAN)

BRAND MANAGEMENT – SUMMARY
LECTURE 1 – CUSTOMER BASED BRAND EQUITY
LITERATURE
1. Keller, K.L. (2001). Building customer-based brand equity: a blueprint for creating
strong brands. MSI Report 01-107

LECTURE
WHAT IS A BRAND?
 Identification
 Differentiation
 Mental Construct
 Relationship Partner
 Driving force

 Brands: Enable identification & differentiation, create meaning (associations) for
consumers, help consumers to build relationships with organizations & products, and
serve as a driving force for organizations

BRAND = IDENTIFICATION
 A name, term, sign, symbol, design, or any combination of those, used to identify
the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers.
- Important basic function of brands
- Stamp logo/brand and distuingish from different goods of sellers


- Lely  Round, red, logo
BRAND = DIFFERENTIATION
 A distinguishing name or symbol intended to identify the goods or services of one
seller, and to differentiate those goods and services from those of the competitors.
(FedEx = fast)
- Help consumers differentiation process between your brand and competitors brand as
marketeer

BRAND = MENTAL CONSTRUCT
 Brands are mental containers of meaning and serve as internal information sources
for buyers




 Brands are networks of associations
- Brand associations  mental container of meaning
- Value of brand is in head of consumer
- Associations stay for a long time and hard to get it out of consumers’ head

BRAND = RELATIONSHIP PARTNER
 “... brands can and do serve as viable relationship partners [and] consumer brand
relationships are valid at the level of lived experience...”
- Consumers have idea of some brands that are important to them and have some
relationship with them, passionate or hate them

BRAND = DRIVING FORCE
 [B]rands are the mechanism that connects organizations and people... they are also
the cultural forms that allow us to express who we are ... [and] the soul of
corporations, organizations and movements.
- Internal, wihin a company


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,- Brands are tool that connect organization with people like employees, customers and
suppliers
1. KELLER, K.L. (2001). BUILDING CUSTOMER-BASED BRAND EQUITY: A BLUEPRINT FOR
CREATING STRONG BRANDS. MSI REPORT 01-107
Customer Based Brand Equity (CBBE) Pyramid




4 steps & questions for building strong brand
 Achieving these 4 steps involves establishing 6 brand-building blocks
1. Who are you? Establishing proper brand identity: breadth + depth of brand
awareness
1) Brand salience
2. What are you? Creating appropriate brand meaning through strong, favorable and
unique brand associations
2) Brand performance
3) Brand imagery
3. How do I think & feel about you? Eliciting positive, accessible brand responses
4) Brand judgements
5) Brand feelings
4. What is our relationship? Forging brand relationships with customers characterized by
intense, active loyalty
6) Brand resonance: occurs when all other brand-buidling blocks are established
 customers have high degree of loyalty

 Brand Equity: Understood through Keller’s pyramid: (1) build brand salience, (2)
create associations on performance and imagery, (3) foster favorable judgment and
feelings, (4) develop strong and meaningful relationships with customers (resonance)

LAYER 1: BRAND SALIENCE – BRAND IDENTITY
 Achieving right brand identity involves creating brand salience (=brand
must come to mind easily)
 This means you have to build BRAND AWARENESS: ability to recall and
recognize brand
(in relation to the needs it satisfies!)

2 types of brand awareness: recall vs recognition
 Recall = brand comes to mind spontaneously aka “top of mind awareness” (TOMA)
“what brand(s) of [category] can you think of?”
 Recognition = brand is recognized from relevant cues (name, logo, packaging,
design)  aided recall “which of these brands do you know/recognize?”
 easier to achieve than brand recall, easier to be recognized than remembered
spontaneously
 for some brands recall more important for some recognition

Key criteria Brand Identity
Brand awareness can be distinguished in 2 key dimensions
 Depth: How easily do you recall/recognize the brand?
 Breadth: In which situations does the brand come to mind?
 high salience brand: posses both depth and breath of brand awareness
- Important that brand is top-of-mind and at right time and places




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,Brand salience 3 functions
1. Influences formation and strength of brand associations that form brand image and
meaning
2. Creating high level of brand salience in terms of category identification and needs
satisfied is crucial during possible purchase or consumption opportunities
- Influences likelihood that brand will be member of consideration set for purchase
- Important during possible consumption settings in terms of maximizing potential
usage
3. When ‘low involvement’ with product category consumers make choices based on
brand salience

Some general tips for building awareness
 More exposure is better (low involvement learning is based on repeated
exposures), so budget is key, but also:
 Be consistent (think 10 times before changing logo / name / packaging)
 Always establish link to product need
 Ensure sufficient exposure to package (two second rule) for recognition
- See packaging recognize later in store, only name is harder to recognize than
packaging
 Create a personal connection (use a presenter who establishes this)
 Use mnemonic devices (music, sound, imagery)  helps for your memory

LAYER 2: BRAND MEANING
 Brand meaning: associations with brand, built by: own experience,
experience of others (WOM) & advertising
Key criteria Brand Meaning
Brand associations categorized in 3 dimensions
1. Strength: how strongly is brand identified with brand association?
2. Favorability: how important/valuable is brand association to customers?
3. Uniqueness: how distinctively is brand identified with brand association?
 Needs to be in this order
Good associations: Favorable, Strong link to the brand, Unique (distinct from other
brands in category)

2 types of associations:
1. Brand performance  Functional, performance-related
- Ways in which product/service attempts to meet customers functional needs 
intrinsic properties of brand in terms of inherent product/service characteristics
2. Brand imagery  Imagery-related (often more abstract)
- How people think about a brand abstractly rather than what they think brand actually
does

Brand associations can be formed:
 directly: customers own experiences and contact with brand
 indirectly: through depiction of brand in advertising or other source of info (wom)

Brand Meaning I – brand performance
5 types of attributes & benefits that underlie brand performance
1. Primary characteristics & secondary features: (low sugar, high engine
power)
- secondary elements of product that complement primary characteristics
2. Product reliability (consistency), durability & serviceability
- Reliability: consistency of performance over time
- Durability: expected economic life of product
- Serviceability: ease of servicing product if it needs repair
3. Service effectiveness (level of satisfaction), efficiency (speedy & responsive) &
empathy (trusting, caring)


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, 4. Style & Design
- How product looks and feels
5. Price
- pricing strategy dictate how consumers categorize price of brand (low, medium, high)
and how firm/flexible price is perceived (frequently/infrequently discounted)
Brand Meaning II – brand imagery
4 categories
1. User profile(s): what kind of people use the brand?
2. Purchase & Usage Situation: when do you buy/use the brand?
3. Personality & Values
- Sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness
4. History, Heritage & Experience (both shared & individual)

LAYER 3: CONSUMER RESPONSES TO THE BRAND – BRAND RESPONSES
 Brand responses: How do consumer THINK & FEEL about the brand?

1. Brand Judgments: opinions and evaluations with regard to brand, how
customers put together all different performance and imagery associations
for the brand to form different kinds of opinions
4 important types (ascending order of importance)
 Brand quality
 Brand credibility (= trustworthiness, expertise, likability)
 Brand consideration (would I buy this brand?)
 Brand superiority (better than the others?)

2. Brand Feelings: customers emotional responses and reactions to brand
 warmth, fun, excitement
 security, social approval, self-respect
 first 3 are experiential and immediate, increasing level of intensity
 latter 3 are private and enduring, increasing level of gravity
 boarders can be fuzzy

LAYER 4: CONSUMER-BRAND RELATIONSHIPS – BRAND RELATIONSHIPS
 Brand Resonance: What relationships do consumers (want to) have with the
brand? Does the brand “resonate” with customers?
4 categories
1) Behavioural loyalty
- repeat purchase how often much, amount/share of category volume
attributed to brand
2) Attitudinal attachment
- strong personal attachment, go beyond having positive attitude
3) Sense of community:
- identification with brand community social phenomenon whereby customers feel
kinship with other people associated with brand
4) Active engagement:
- consumers are willing to invest time, energy, money or other resources into brand
beyond expended during purchase or consumption of brand
 strong attitudinal attachment or sense of community are necessary for active
engagement to occur

Key criteria brand relationships
Two dimensions:
1) Intensity: how strong are the feelings?
- How deeply loyal, strength of attitudinal attachment
and sense of community
2) Activity: Do consumer act on their feelings?
- How frequently consumer buys and uses brand and
engages in other activities not related to purchase
and consumption

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