CUSTOMER-BASED BRAND EQUITY

Zeenat Jabbar

15.1

Brand Knowledge Structure

• Brand awareness, depth, and breadth

• Brand associations

15.2

Summary of Customer-Based Brand Equity Framework

• Sources of brand equity– Strength– Favorability – Uniqueness

• Outcomes of brand equity– Greater loyalty– Less vulnerability to competitive marketing actions– Less vulnerability to marketing crises– Larger margins– More inelastic consumer response to price increases– More elastic consumer response to price decreases– Greater trade cooperation and support– Increased marketing communication effectiveness– Possible licensing opportunities– Additional brand extension opportunities

15.3

Tactical Guidelines

• Building brand equity1. Through the initial choice of the brand elements

making up the brand 2. Through marketing activities and the design of

the marketing program 3. Through the leverage of secondary associations

that link the brand to other entities

15.4

Guidelines for Building Brand Equity

• Mix and match brand elements• Create a rich brand image and high perceived

quality• Adopt value-based pricing strategy• Consider a range of distribution options• Mix marketing communication options• Leverage secondary associations

15.5

Importance of Complementarity and Consistency

• Complementarity means choosing different brand elements and supporting marketing activities so that the potential contribution to brand equity of one compensates for the shortcomings of others.

• A high degree of consistency across these elements helps to create the highest level of awareness and the strongest and most favorable associations possible.

15.6

Guidelines for Measuring Brand Equity

• Formalize the firm’s view of brand equity• Conduct brand inventories• Conduct consumer tracking studies• Assemble results of outcome measures• Establish a department to oversee the

implementation

15.7

Guidelines for Managing Brand Equity• Define brand hierarchy• Create global associations• Introduce brand extensions• Clearly establish the roles of brands in the

portfolio• Reinforce brand equity over time• Enhance brand equity over time• Identify differences in consumer behavior in

different market segments

15.8

Characteristics of Strong Brands Managers

• Understand brand meaning and market appropriate products in an appropriate manner

• Properly position the brand• Provide superior delivery of desired benefits• Employ a full range of complementary brand elements and

supporting marketing activities• Embrace integrated marketing communications and communicate

with a consistent voice• Measure consumer perceptions of value and develop a pricing

strategy accordingly• Establish credibility and appropriate brand personality and imagery• Maintain innovation and relevance for the brand• Strategically design and implement a brand hierarchy and brand

portfolio• Implement a brand equity management system to ensure that

marketing actions properly reflect the brand equity concept15.9

Seven Deadly Sins of Brand Management

1. Failure to understand the full meaning of the brand

2. Failure to live up to the brand promise3. Failure to adequately support the brand4. Failure to be patient with the brand5. Failure to adequately control the brand6. Failure to properly balance consistency and

change with the brand7. Failure to understand complexity of brand

equity measurement and management15.10

Industrial and B2B Branding

• Adopt a corporate or family branding strategy• Link non-product-related imagery associations• Employ full range of marketing communication

options• Leverage equity of other companies that are

customers• Segment markets carefully and develop

tailored branding and marketing programs

15.11

Guidelines for High-Tech Branding

• Establish brand awareness and rich brand image

• Create corporate credibility associations• Leverage secondary associations of quality• Avoid overbranding products• Selectively introduce new products as new

brands and clearly identify the nature of brand extensions

15.12

Guidelines for Service Branding• Maximize service quality• Employ a full range of brand elements to enhance brand

recall• Create and communicate strong organizational

associations• Design corporate communication programs that augment

consumers’ service encounters and experiences• Establish a brand hierarchy using distinct family or

individual brands as well as meaningful ingredient brands

15.13

Guidelines for Branding Retailers

• Create a brand hierarchy consisting of the store as a whole as well as individual departments

• Enhance the manufacturer’s brand equity by communicating PODs

• Establish brand equity at all levels of the brand hierarchy

• Create multichannel shopping experience• Avoid overbranding

15.14

Guidelines for Small Business Branding

• Emphasize building one or two strong brands• Focus the marketing program on one or two key

associations• Employ a well-integrated set of brand elements

that enhances both brand awareness and image• Design creative brand-building push campaigns• Leverage as many secondary associations as

possible

15.15

Guidelines for Online Branding

• Don’t forget the brand building basics• Create strong brand identity• Generate strong consumer pull• Selectively choose brand partnerships• Maximize relationship marketing

15.16

Future Brand Priorities

• How will branding change in the coming years? What are the biggest branding challenges? What will make a successful “twenty-first-century brand”?

15.17

Building Brand Equity

• Brand elements– In a cluttered, competitive marketplace, the brand

elements that make up the brand will have to do more and more of the selling job.

• Marketing programs– Strong brands in the twenty-first century also will

rise above others by better understanding the needs, wants, and desires of consumers and creating marketing programs that fulfill and even surpass consumer expectations.

15.18

Measuring Brand Equity

• Marketers of successful twenty-first-century brands will create formalized measurement approaches and processes that ensure they continually monitor their sources of brand equity and those of competitors.

15.19

Managing Brand Equity• It will be essential in building strong twenty-first-

century brands to align internal and external brand management. – Internal brand management ensures that employees and

marketing partners appreciate and understand basic branding notions and how they can affect the equity of brands.

– External brand management requires understanding the needs, wants, and desires of consumers and creating brand marketing programs that fulfill and even surpass consumer expectations.

• Companies must also align bottom-up and top-down marketing management .

15.20

Achieving Marketing Balance

• The most fundamental challenge of marketing and brand management is reconciling the many potential trade-offs in marketing decisions

• There are three means or levels of achieving marketing balance, in increasing order of potential effectiveness:– Alternate – Divide – Finesse

15.21