Knowledge and understanding of the Brand

Strategy concepts and theories – CW1

Ian  Adams  

21028547  

Abstract

Have the core fundamentals changed within brands, how have

new media changed how consumers see brands. This report

explores how a modern brand has developed not its products but

how it represents its self as a brand.

The report will look at the following brand concepts; brand

community, brand identity, brand architecture, brand personality,

emotional aspects to a brand, brand awareness, brand meaning,

brand associations, brand loyalty and Brand experience.

Introduction

The report will comparing definitions of branding concepts

mentioned above by a range of academic authors. These

concepts will then be applied to the brand Kit Kat by Nestle.

Brand Community A brand community is a specialized, non-geographically bound

community, based on a structured set of social relations among

admirers of a brand. (Muniz & Guinn 2001) The new post-

postmodern branding proposed, suggests that as marketers are

no longer omnipotent, brands have become citizen-artists and that

brands are cultural artifacts through which consumers assert

themselves as individuals in society. (Quinton 2013) The brand

communities are social entities that reflect the situated

embeddedness of brands in the day-to-day lives of consumers

and the ways in which brands connect consumer to brand, and

consumer to consumer. Three essential markers of community

(conscious- ness of kind, rituals and traditions, and moral

responsibility) are present, but differences in their expression

make brand communities something significant in their own right.

(Muniz & Guinn 2001)

Kits Kat is a very unique brand it has a number of big

communities, after the partnership of with Google (JWT, 2013) to

use Kit Kat as the name of the next android operating system. The

brand has seen a change in its once traditional community. This

new tech audience that spans across ages and regions is tech

savvy so they ill be using social media. To relate to the concepts

above Kit Kat, has lead the brands towards a more community

driven approach, if the community has an issue with the product

they can complain as an entity and be responded to.

Brand Identity

The idea that consumers use brands to express their identities has

led many companies to reposition their products from focusing on

functional attributes to focusing on how they fit into a consumer’s

lifestyle. However (Chernev et al. 2011) depicts that brand identity

has deeper meanings then functional attributes It is about the

ethos, aims and values that present a sense of individuality

differentiating the brand. (de Chernatony 1999) Also reference to

(see Appendix 1) shows the components of brand identity; that are

Presentation, positioning, personality, Brand vision/culture and

relationships that drives towards a brands desired positioning and

identity. (de Chernatony 1999)

Kit Kat brand differentiates itself from other chocolate bars

because it places itself within a situation within the consumer life,

‘take a brake’ and ‘have a brake, have a Kit Kat.’ The many

advertisements that Kit Kat shows a range of different audiences

within busy lifestyles and need escapism.

Brand Architecture

(Devlin 2003) explains brand architecture refers to an

organization’s approach to the design and management of its

brand portfolio and the relationship between such brands.

However (Douglas et al. 2012) explains It should clearly define

deeper importance and role of each level of branding, as, for

example, at the corporate, product division, or product brand level,

as well as the interrelation or overlap of branding at each level.

(Petromilli et al. 2002) places structure with the two types of

architecture “house of brands” has a master brand like IBM, Virgin

and “branded house” groups of stand along brands proper and

gamble.

Kit Kat has mix between the two architecture “house of brands”

and “branded house”. Kit Kat is owned by Nestle that has brand

groups, then within these groups are a collection of brand

extension. Kit Kat has its ‘4 finger’ ‘2 finger’ and ‘Chunky’ range.

All nestle products have the logo on the packaging to portray the

relationship between each products endorsed values.

Brand personality

Brand personality is a vehicle of consumer self-expression and

can be instrumental in helping a consumer express different

aspects of his or her self (Aaker 2005). Yet Brand personality

defined by (Azoulay & Kapferer 2003) is certainly a key facet of a

brand identity, the current scales of brand personality do not in

fact measure brand personality, but merge a number of

dimensions of brand identity. This is shown within (see Appendix

5) with Kapferer brand identity prism (Aaker 2005) further in study

states humanizing a brand empowers it to play a more central role

in the consumer’s life, potentially enabling the consumer to project

an aspect of his or her self that might be desirable for relationships

he or she seeks.

Kit Kat personality is portrayed through its marketing

commination’s, the content shared throughout social media sites

like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are technology focused,

showing the product in a comedic manner. This lighthearted spirit

reflects in their direct response to people commenting and

tweeting the brand. (see Appendix 9) is a good example of a tweet

that shows of personality, this makes the brand relatable and

likeable.

Emotional aspects

If involvement can be characterized by mild affect, brand

attachment refers to a strong emotional bond (i.e., “hot affect”)

between a consumer and a brand, as evidenced by its three

dimensions—affection, passion, and connection. To be clear

emotional aspects are qualities of brand attachment, brand

experience is not an emotional relationship concept it’s the

interaction between customer and product. Experiences are

sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses evoked

by brand-related stimuli. Over time, brand experiences may result

in emotional bonds, but emotions are only one internal outcome of

the stimulation that evokes experiences. (Brakus et al. 2009)

Kit Kat is a chocolate bar so the sensation is the taste; the treat of

the moment develops a passion and an individual connection with

the product. The bar is targeted towards having a brake from the

customer’s busy lifestyle. Because the product fits easily into

consumers day-to-day life and also can find within their friends life

style as the product can be shared.

Brand awareness

Brand awareness indicates customer ’s capability to recall or

recognize a brand. (Aaker & Joachimsthaler 2000) Brand

awareness according (Aaker, 1996) is the first step in the overall

customer experience. It is the first step to understanding the

brand, at this stage it is merely being aware that is exists. This can

be seen at (see Appendix 8). As explained earlier brand

architecture can help to further expose the brand if a ‘Branded

house’ approach has been taken. (Aaker & Joachimsthaler 2000)

explains further, every exposure of the brand in one context

provides visibility that enhances brand awareness in all contexts.

The significant positive effects of both brand identity and

identification suggest that companies should invest on brand

identity and consumer identification. Instead of merely

communicating brands for the purpose of brand awareness, brand

investment should focus on according strong ‘identity’ meaning to

consumers, so that it facilitates consumer search for consumer–

brand bond. (He et al. 2012)

Based on this customer based brand equity conceptualization, the

essential dimensions of brand equity are brand awareness, brand

associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty (Aaker &

Joachimsthaler 2000)

Kit Kat is a mass-market product and well known within the UK

market even if it isn’t the front of mind chocolate bar like Cadbury’s

or Galaxy. However with effective marketing communications the

brand has positioned itself as a quick snack. Awareness is high

and partners with technology companies are only going to further

increase this awareness across markets.

Brand meaning

This meaning can be defined by a number of attributes that means

most to a consumer of the brand. History is just one aspect of the

consumer's brand experience. There is a process of interplay

between the past and the present in contextualizing brand

meaning, just as there is between managerial intent and consumer

action. In choosing to consume a particular product or specific

brand, consumers have the right to construct what a brand means.

At this fundamental level, therefore, the co-construction of brand

experience directs brand management (Schembri 2009)

Kit Kat branding meaning for a consumer can vary from customer

to customer as they will have different symbols experiences and

depending on how successful or strong they where it will mean

stronger deeper meaning. If a customer for example if a group of

customers experienced an outdoor campaign where they won a

free nexus phone they would have a better experience, this would

help them relate this these different values intern developing a

deeper meaning. Campaign can be seen at this reference (Yong,

2013)

Brand associations

Models of associations in memory attempt to explain two cognitive

events. Two types of models can be distinguished within the HAM

tradition, connectionist models and Bayesian models. Human

Associative Memory (HAM) models and adaptive learning models

describe two unique approaches to teach the brand associations

that are subsequently used to make predictions about

consumption benefit. Both types of models represent declarative

knowledge as a network of concept nodes connected by

associative links. These models assume that the learning of

associations between one cue and an outcome is not dependent

on the presence of other cues and their associations with the

same outcome. That is, learning is cue independent.

Connectionist models employ a simple Hebbian or “coincident

activation” learning, each connection is strengthened whenever a

cue and an outcome co-occur(Janiszewski 2002)

As seen in (Aaker, 1996) model of Customer Experience Brand

association is seen to be set two in the journey after Brand

awareness, this is when the customer understands the brand on a

cognitive level taking into account associated stimuli to build a

perception of the brand, this leads to ‘Perceived Quality’.

Kit Kat still relies on nostalgia, because it is well knit to British

society. But with new Google partnership is consumers will build

associations with android long after the next update comes out of

operating system. According to Adweek ‘Andriod Kit Kat’ will

appear on 50million bars (Heine, 2013) Other connotations are

colour red, two/four fingers, unwrapping tin foil and for some it

might be the brand extensions like the during Easter with special

editions.

Brand loyalty

(Aaker, 1996) explains that the last step of the costumers

experience is brand loyalty (see Appendix 8). This step indicates

that the customer has understood all what the brand means down

to the core values, relates to the brand. With this there are two key

behavioral outcomes; customer satisfaction and loyalty

(Chandrashekaran et al. 2007; Oliver 1993) Brand personality can

provide differentiation, increases preference, and enhances trust

and loyalty. Consumer satisfaction affects loyalty. When a

consumer feels good about the relationship and appreciates the

product or brand, a high level of commitment and loyalty results

(Anderson 1993)

Self-image congruence is found to enhance brand loyalty for

consumers who are motivated to conform, but not for those who

are driven to escape. Alternatively, product knowledge is found to

enhance brand loyalty for escapism-motivated consumers, but

inhibits brand loyalty for consumers who are bound to conform.

(Labrecque et al. 2011)

Kit Kat is a within both confectionery and biscuit market, there are

a wide range substitutes so loyalty is low. After all the rich

experience and history with the brand, customers still question do

they need a chocolate bar? Also Mintel reports (Soininen, 2013)

states that loyalty is low across the Biscuit market as people

during economic times tend to go towards the promotions and

supermarket own brands because of the price incentives.

Brand experience

Brand experiences vary in strength and intensity; that is some

brand experiences are stronger or more intense than others. As

with product experiences, brand experiences also vary in valence;

more positive than others or even negative. (Brakus et al. 2009)

Moreover some brand experiences occur spontaneously without

much reflection and are short-lived. Over time, these long-lasting

brand experiences, stored in consumer memory, should affect

consumer satisfaction and loyalty (Oliver, 1980) Brand experience

based on the affection to a brand this can be triggered by Stimuli

may include; “touch and feel,” “appeal to different senses,  smells

nice and is visually warm”  fun,” “refreshed,” “inspired,” “nostalgia”.

(Brakus et al. 2009) as seen in (see Appendix 7) shows the

outputs of a brand experience; Sensory, Affective, Intellectual and

behavioral this can all be effected differently from the above

stimuli that will have a direct impact on the satisfaction a customer

will have.

Kit Kat had a lack of brand experience because there is no in-

store or extended periods with the product. The one area the

brand has invested in with JWT the creative agency is online with

the use of social media platforms. With competitions where

customers who have bought a chocolate bar have a chance to win

a free phone. (See Appendix 10) This is good because it drives

interaction within the brand and the community. If they win they

share with the their friends on twitter further adding different

emotional stimuli associated with the brand.

Conclusion

Overall Kit Kat is a small biscuit chocolate bar, but still has a range

of interesting dynamics to the brand. Key finding are each

individual has a say, communities drive change and it up to the

brand to use this data to improve and adapt. Identity is key within

a crowded marketplace; going back to the core product function is

key. The brand architecture needs to incorporate cross brand

integration to use the core values of each brand. People believe

people so brand personality can be used to add value, good

example is the use if twitter and interacting with other brands and

people. Kit Kat is using the emotional aspects, for example

escapism from everyday life; this shows they understand the

modern person. The partnership with Google has given Kit Kat the

opportunity to change its brand meaning with its new tech savvy

consumers. It also lets the brand build new associations with

android that will have strong long connections even when a new

update is released. Loyalty is low because of economic times,

however by adding extra value to a chocolate bar away from price

incentives, this can build an overall better brand experience. Kit

Kat has started its journey towards new media ventures, the only

issue is that the focus is off the chocolate and towards using the

Google platform. Have Google got the better end of the deal.

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Appendixes

Appendix 1

(de Chernatony 1999)

Appendix 4

(Petromilli et al. 2002)

Appendix 5

(Kapferer 1992, 1998)

Appendix 6

Appendix 7

(Brakus et al. 2009)

Appendix 8

(Aaker, 1996 )

Appendix 9

Appendix 10

(KitKat, 2013)