WHAT IS BRAND EQUITY?
Before looking at the various methods of brand building it is essential to know what brand equity is because strong brand equity is the basis of brand building.
Keller defines brand equity as “Brand equity is defined in terms of the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brands -- for example, when certain outcomes result from the marketing of a product or service because of its brand name that would not occur if the same product or service did not have that name.”
David Aaker defines brand equity as “A set of assets and liabilities linked to a brand’s name and symbol that adds to or subtracts from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or that firm’s customers.” The major asset categories are:
- Brand name awareness
- Brand loyalty
- Perceived quality
- Brand associations
Several aspects of this definition require elaboration. First, brand equity is a set of assets. Thus the management of brand equity involves investment to create and enhance these assets. Second such brand equity asset creates value in a variety of very different ways. In order to manage brand equity effectively and to make informed decisions about brand building activities it is important to be sensitive to ways in which strong brands create value. Third brand equity creates value for the customer as well as the firm. The word customer refers to both end users and those at the infrastructural level. Finally for assets or liabilities to underlie brand equity they must be linked to the name or symbol of the brand. If the brand’s name or symbol should change, some or all of the assets or liabilities could be affected or even lost, although some might be shifted to the new symbol or name.
BRAND LOYALTY
Brand loyalty is the ultimate goal a company sets for a branded product. A company’s main question in relation to selling their products or services use do be: “How do I get people to buy my product?” Nowadays companies still greatly appreciate the answer to this question but they have also realized that getting customers is not the only thing they need to do. In today’s rapidly moving world consumers don’t stick with products for life. Advertisements and an increased feeling of independence have created consumers that will switch brands or products as soon as the feel the need to do so. What company’s look for in this consumer environment is creating a so-called brand loyalty.
Brand loyalty is a consumer’s preference to buy a particular brand in a product category. It occurs because consumers perceive that the brand offers the right product features, images, or level of quality at the right price. This perception becomes the foundation for a new buying habit. Consumers initially will make a trial purchase of the brand and, after satisfaction, tend to form habits and continue purchasing the same brand because the product is safe and familiar.
Brand loyalists have the following mindset:
• “I am committed to this brand.”
• “I am willing to pay a higher price for this brand over other brands.”
• “I will recommend this brand to others.”
LOYALTY SEGMENTATION
Loyalty segmentation helps in building strong brands. A market can usually be divided into the following groups:
Noncustomers: Those who use the competitor’s brand or are not product class users.
Price switchers: Those who are price switchers.
The passively loyal: Those who buy out of habit rather than reason.
Fence sitters: those who are indifferent between two or more brands.
The committed: those who are committed to our brands.
The challenges to improve the brand’s loyalty profile are to increase the number of customers who are not price switchers, to strengthen the fence sitters and committed ties to the brand and to increase the number who would pay more to use the brand or service. Two segments where the companies generally under invest are passively loyal and the committed customers. The passively loyal customers are often taken for granted. At the other end of the spectrum are the highly loyal or committed customers. Firms also tend to take this group for granted. Yet there may be significant potential to increase business from the very loyal.
For e.g. the loyal Marriott customer might be encouraged to select even more than often with a improved portfolio of business support services such as fax machines in rooms.
Further there is a risk that loyal customers can be enticed away by a competitor if the performance of the product or service is not improved. For these reasons firms should avoid diverting resources from the loyal core to the non-customers and price switchers. One approach to enhancing the loyalty of fence sitters and the committed is to develop or strengthen their relationship with the brand. Brand awareness, perceived quality, and an effective, clear brand identity can contribute to this goal.
BRAND AWARENESS
Awareness refers to the strength of a brand’s presence in the consumer’s mind. Awareness is measured according to the different ways in which consumers remember a brand, ranging from recognition to recall to top of the mind.
Recognitions reflect familiarity gained from past exposure. Recognition does not necessarily involve remembering where the brand was encountered before why it differs from other brands or even what the brands product class is. It is simply remembering that there was a past exposure to the brand. When consumers see a brand and remember that they have seen it before they realize that the company is spending money to support the brand. Since it is generally believed that companies will not spend money on products consumers take their recognition as a signal that the brand is good.
Many companies, especially while introducing a new product in the market find that sales cannot be sustained without constant advertising. Sales charts always show a meteoric rise post-advertising burst. Companies often rerun advertisement on different channels over the year to sustain the brand awareness and ensure that the consumers are exposed to the brand.
Complan repeats the same TV commercials for different target markets over a period of time to ensure brand recall and visibility.
Awareness for Dandi Salt is higher than Saffola Salt (despite the fact that Saffola has been in the market for longer) due to constant advertising ensured by Dandi.
BRAND PYRAMID
At the top of the pyramid is the brand that exists at the top of the customer’s mind. This is the happy and the most desired condition that any marketer seeks. The next level is of all the other brands that are recalled by the customer in an unaided form.(brand awareness) The customer is asked to recall as many brands as he or she is able to whenever one thinks of a product.
Brand recognition is the third level and perhaps the lowest level. And also known as brand recall. Here customers are aided in recalling or recognizing brands or associating brands with a product class. This is important at the point of purchase.
The contribution of awareness to building up an equity for the brand can be gauged by the fact that high awareness creates associations in the customer’s mind. He or she is able to associate different images with the brand and this in turn can help generate a customer’s liking for it. It can also lead to a large base of committed customers, and all these benefits in turn will help the firm have more leverage in the market place.
FACTORS AFFECTING BRAND AWARENESS
Brand Awareness refers to the strength of a brand’s presence in the consumer’s mind.
Awareness is measured according to the different ways in which consumers remember a brand, ranging from recognition to recall to top of the mind. Some of the major factors affecting brand awareness are:-
¨ BRAND NAME:- One of the most important factor affecting brand awareness is the brand name. Brand name plays an important part in creating awareness for a brand. Also whether the name is really very meaningful or completely baseless they both affect brand awareness.
Bacardi Breezers - flavoured aerated vodka based drink
Hp Ghoda Lal diesel engine oil
Centre Shock chewing gum.
¨ ADVERTISING: - Advertising also helps to create Brand awareness in a big way. Take any brand name Fevicol, Vicks, Pepsi all have used ad’s for creating awareness among their consumers.
¨ CELEBRITY:- Another important factor affecting Brand awareness is the celebrities endorsing the Brand. Whenever you see a celebrity you love endorsing a brand you tend to propagate the Brand.
Coca Cola experienced a tremendous increase in brand following post ad campaigns with Hrithik Roshan and ”Kaho Na Pyaar Hai”.
¨ PARENT COMPANY:- To a large extent the parent company helps in promoting a brand. The parent company in many cases is so popular that its brand automatically become popular and people become aware about the product.
TATA always promotes it brand with its name along with the brand such as TATA INDICA, TATA INDIGO, TATA SALT.
¨ SALES PROMOTIONS AND OFFERS: - It also helps in making the consumers aware of the brand. Some of the sales promotion activities that companies carry out help them in a big way to make their target aware of the brand.
BAJAJ Chetak campaign of Rs.999 and you could buy a scooter.
¨ 1st MOVER ADVANTAGE: - Usually the company that enters a product category first has good awareness about its brand. Usually people tend to remember the first player to enter the market.
Parle products “BISLERI” in the packaged water segment.
¨ PUBLIC RELATIONS: - The coverage that the fourth estate and magazines provide a brand also helps in building awareness about a brand.
The popularity of local restaurants such as Olive and Athena has been boosted by the page 3 mentions in
¨ DIRECT SELLING:- Some of the companies use direct selling as an platform to create brand awareness.
Eureka Forbes water filter “AQUA GUARD”.
¨ PEER GROUP OPINION:- Peer group opinion also plays an important part in the whole brand awareness exercise. Usually people tend to discuss a lot about the brand and tend to share their experiences or some recent ad’s they have seen which in turn increases brand awareness of their peers.
A large number of chat boards on the Internet or a group of friends from same education field.
¨ RECALL OF AD’S:- In some cases the brand awareness is also high due to specific ad recall which is very high.
Amaron battery ad of race between tortoise and rabbit with the tagline “LAST LONG REALLY LONG”
BRAND RECALL
A brand (Bisleri) is said to have recall if it comes to consumers’ minds when its product class (mineral water) is mentioned. It indicates stronger brand position in the mind. Still at a higher level is the top of the mind recall; it is the brand, which comes first to the mind. The top of mind awareness indicates a relative superiority a brand enjoys above others. Sometimes a brand becomes so dominant that it becomes the only recalled brand in the product category. Very few brands are able to achieve dominance. The cases may include Johnson&Johnson baby powder, Dettol antiseptic, Band Aid.
BRAND NAME DOMINANCE
The ultimate awareness level is brand name dominance where in a recall task most customers can only provide the name of a single product.e.g. Mediker, Amul Pizza, Amul Cheese spread. In order to avoid losing a trademark a firm should begin protecting it early in its life, starting with the selection of the name itself. Descriptive names such as pepper should not be used because they become harder to distinguish from the generic product and thus harder to protect. Sometimes it is helpful and even necessary to create a generic name so that the brand does not become one; the generic name copier helped Xerox protect its brand.
PERCEIVED QUALITY
Perceived quality is a brand association that is elevated to the status of a brand asset for several reasons:
Among all brand associations only perceived quality is known to drive financial performances.
Perceived quality is often a major (if not the principal) strategic thrust of business.
Perceived quality is linked to and often drives other aspects of a brand is perceived.
Achieving perceptions of quality is usually impossible unless the quality claim has substance. Perceived quality may differ from actual quality for a variety of reasons.
☛ Customers may be overly influenced by a previous image of poor quality. Because of this they may not believe in new claims may not be willing to take time to verify them. Thus it is critical to protect a brand from gaining a shoddy quality from which recovery is difficult and sometimes impossible.
☛ The company may achieve quality on an aspect, which the consumers do not consider important.
☛ Customers rarely have all the information necessary to make a rational and objective judgment on quality-even if they do have the information they lack the motivation and the time to process it. Thus it is important to understand the little things that consumers use as a basis for making a judgment about the quality. E.g. if the customer kicks the tires to test the sturdiness of a car the tires have to be sturdy.
☛ As customers may not know how best to judge quality they might be looking at the wrong cues. A metaphor or a visual image can help consumers see the context in the right way. Jewellery stores that cater to first time diamond buyers must educate buyers that quality is not necessarily reflected in price tags or carat claims.
BRAND ASSOCIATIONS
The association’s consumers make with brand support brand equity. These associations may include product attributes, a celebrity spokesperson or a symbol. Brand associations are driven by brand identity-what the organization wants the brand to stand for in the consumers mind. A key to brand building then is to develop and implement brand identity.
One key to successful brand building is to develop a brand identity- to know what the brand stands for and to effectively express that identity.
Hyundai Santro has clearly positioned itself as the “sunshine” car and endorsed Preity Zinta known for her bubbly personality to match their positioning statement.
Invariably all brands come to acquire a meaning in the mind of the customer. Customers associate different dimensions of the product including its use and use situations to the brands. Brand association, therefore, is anything linked to the memory of a brand. Thus a jingle like “Happy days are here again” has been associated in the customer’s mind with Thumps Up. Surf is linked with the economy-minded middle class housewife- “Lalitaji” – in the advertisements.
The name Tata is associated with quality. It is important to know how strong this association is and for a family name like this, which are the products with which this association is the strongest.
BRAND IDENTITY
Brand identity is a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers from the organization members. Brand identity should establish a relationship between the brand and the customer by generating a value proposition involving functional, emotional or self-expressive benefits.
Brand identity consists of a core identity and an extended identity. The core identity represents the timeless essence of a brand .It is central to both the meaning and success of the brand. It indicates the reasons why the brand as been brought into existence. It contains the associations that are most likely to remain constant as the brand travels to new markets and products. The elements of the core identity remain more resistant to change than the elements of the extended identity. Thus the core identity is timeless while the brand position or the communication strategies might change. It is generally the first word that people behind the brand may utter when asked what the brand stands for:
Lux 
Beauty bar for young women
Dettol Antiseptic, protection
Johnson&Johnson Trust and quality a baby needs
The extended brand identity includes elements that provide texture and completeness. The core identity usually does not possess enough detail to perform all of the functions of a brand identity. In particular, a brand identity should help a company decide which program or communication is effective and which be damaging or off the target. Even a well-thought-out and on-target core identity may ultimately be too ambiguous or incomplete for this task. A brand personality does not often become a part of the core identity. However it can be exactly the right vehicle to add the needed texture and completeness by being a part of the extended identity. It provides the strategist with the opportunity to add full detail to complete the picture.
Brand identity consists of twelve dimensions organized around four perspectives:
Brand as a product
Brand as an organization
Brand as a person
Brand as a symbol
Band Aid in adhesive bandages i.e. whenever we think of bandages Band Aid is the first thing that comes to our mind. And many a times the consumers use the word Band Aid instead of bandage.
Bisleri is the word almost synonymous with the mineral water. Whenever one thinks of mineral water Bisleri is the first name that comes to their mind. (Now the leader in this segment is Kinley)
Brand as organization: The brand as organization perspective focuses on attributes of the organization rather than those of the product or service. The people, culture, values and programs of the company create such organization attributes as innovation, a drive for quality and concern for the environment. Some brand aspects can be described as product attributes in some contexts and organizational attributes in other contexts. Quality or innovation, for instance could be a product-related attribute if it is based on the design and features of a specific product offering while if it is based on the organizational cultures values and programs it would be an organizational-related attribute. In some cases there can be a combination of the two perspectives. However organizational attributes are more enduring and more resistant to competitive claims than are product attributes because:
1. It is much easier to copy a product than to copy an organization with unique people, cultures and programs.
2. Organizational attributes usually apply to a set of product classes and a competitor in only one product class may find difficult to compete.
3. Organizational attributes such as being innovative are hard to communicate and evaluate it is difficult for competitors to demonstrate that they have overcome any perceived gap.
Brand as a person-BRAND PERSONALITY: Brand personality is an important area of study for at least two reasons. First, research has shown that a strong brand personality may justify a higher price premium. Moreover, brand personality can play a key role in differentiating a brand in a product category where there is actually little or no difference between products. Prior research indicates that the greater the similarity between a consumer’s personality characteristics and the characteristics that they believe comprise the brand, the greater the preference for that brand. Brand-as-person perspective suggests a brand identity that is richer and more interesting than one based on product attributes. Like a person, a brand can be perceived as being upscale, competent, impressive, trustworthy, fun, active, humorous, casual, formal, youthful or intellectual.
FARDEEN KHAN for PROVOGUE
In this case you would associate Fardeen Khan with someone who is cool, trendy, from the upper class, fun loving. With Fardeen khan endorsing for provogue people’s perception about Provogue clothes is also cool, trendy, for people who are fun loving.
A brand personality can help create a stronger brand in many ways:
1. It can help create a self-expressive benefit that becomes a vehicle for the customer top express his or her personality. For e.g. an Apple user might consider himself to be casual, anti corporate and creative.
2. Just as human personalities affect relationship between people, brand personality can be the basis of a relationship between the customer and the brand. E.g. Mercedes Benz might be perceived as a upscale, admired person.
3. It might help communicate a product attribute and thus contribute to a functional benefit. E.g. The strong, energetic personality of the Ambuja man suggests that Ambuja cement is also strong and energetic.
The brand as a symbol: A strong symbol can provide cohesion and structure to an identity and make it much easy to gain recognition and recall. Its presence can be a key ingredient of brand development and its absence can be substantial handicap. Elevating symbols to the status of being part of the brand identity reflects their potential power. Anything that represents a brand can be a symbol including programs such as the Ronald McDonald house. Symbols involving visual imagery can be memorable and powerful such as the Nike’s “Swoosh” symbol and the McDonald’s golden arches. Each strong visual image captures much of its respective brand’s identity because connections between the symbol and the identity elements have been built up over time. It just takes a glance to be reminded of the brand.
BRAND ESSENCE
Brand essence is a compact summary of what the brand stands for.
Brand identity structure includes core identity, extended identity and a brand essence. Typically the brand identity will require 6 to 12 dimensions in order to adequately describe the brand’s aspirations. Because such a large set is unwieldy, it is helpful to provide focus by identifying the core identity i.e. the most important elements of the brand identity. All dimensions of the core identity should strategy and values of the organisation and at least one association should differentiate the brand and resonate with the customers. The core identity is most likely to remain constant as the brand travels to new markets and products. The core identity creates a focus both for the customer and the organisation. The extended identity includes all of the brand identity elements that are not in the core . brand personality is an element of extended identity.
Core identity has 2 to 4 dimensions that compactly summarize the brand vision. Brand essence provides further focus by giving a single thought that captures the soul of the brand. The brand essence can be viewed as the glue that holds the core identity elements together.
Characteristics of brand essence
- Should resonate with customers
- Drive the value proposition
- Should be own able
- Provide differentiation persisting through time.
- Should be compelling enough to energize and inspire employees and partners of the organization.
BRAND ESSENCE VS. TAG LINE
Brand essence represents the identity while tag line represents the brand position. The function of essence is to communicate and energize those inside the organization while tag line’s function is to communicate with the external audience. Brand essence is timeless or for a long period of time while the tag line has a limited life. Brand essence is relevant across markets and products whereas the tag line is more likely to have a confined arena.
BRAND IMAGE
Consumers vary as to which brand attributes they see as most relevant and the importance they attach to each attribute. They will pay the most attention to the attributes that deliver the sought benefits. The market for a product can often be segmented according to the attributes that are salient to different consumer groups. The consumer develops a set of beliefs about where each brand stands on each attribute. These set of beliefs about the brand make up brand image. Brand identity and brand image need to be distinguished. Identity comprises the ways that a company aims to identify or position itself or its product. Image is the way the public perceives the company or its products. Image is affected by many factors beyond the company’s control. An effective image does three things,
1) It establishes the product’s character and value proposition.
2) It conveys this character in a distinctive way so as not to confuse it with the competitor’s image.
3) It delivers emotional power beyond a mental image.
The image of a brand may contain different types of associations in memory: attributes benefits and attitudes.
Attribute associations: these are descriptive features, which are used to characterize a product or service. The attributes could be distinguished on the basis of how directly they are related to product or service performance. The product related attributes are ingredients necessary for the products performance. On product related attributes are packaging, user imagery, usage imagery and price.
In case of Woodland shoes the product related attributes would be: leather that weathers, unique sole, water resistant etc. The non-product related attributes would be: price -1500+; package-green box; user-young, rugged, tough; usage-outdoors, trekking.
Benefit associations: Benefit associations are of 3 types:
Functional: These are the outcome of the functions performed by a product of service. These are the intrinsic benefits of consuming a product or service. E.g.: for Ferrari functional benefits will be speed and power.
Experiential: these accrue to the user in the form of feelings. E.g.: for Ferrari Experiential benefits will be thrill of driving.
Symbolic: These are non intrinsic to the product and correspond to non-product related benefits. For Ferrari it will be the prestige of being a part of a select group.
Attitude associations: Attitudes determine buying decisions. They refer to overall evaluation of a concept like person, product, object or a brand.
BRAND POSITIONING
A brand position is the part of the brand identity and value proposition that is to be actively communicated to the target audience and that demonstrates an advantage over competing brands. Positioning is a concept, which is commonly seen in marketing. “Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offerings and image to occupy a distinctive place in the target market’s mind. The essence of brand positioning is achievement of valued distinction/differentiation in a consumers mind.”
The perceived differentiation takes care of the competitive angle and the value aspect takes care of customer motivation e.g. Perk is positioned as a substitute for a snack, which can be, had anywhere, anytime. A brand must create an association and cling on to it. The bottom line for a position is that it must be valuable, credible, distinctive and suitable for the product in question.
The strategy to differentiate the brand or product is to place it in an appropriate cell of the human mind so that whenever the customer recalls the product, the firm’s brand is the first to be recalled. This strategy is called ‘Positioning’.
‘Positioning is not what you do to a product. But what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect’.
Whether a brand owns a position or not could easily be found by a simple word association or word which immediately springs to mind as and when the brand is thought for when the word is thought of, the brand is recalled immediately.
Some of the well-positioned brands are:
Raymonds: The Complete Man
Fair and lovely: Fairness
Dettol: Antiseptic
Captain cook: Free Flow Salt
What is Lux? Is it a soap? The interpretation of it as a soap entirely misses the point if it is a soap. How is it different from others in the category? What does Lux manifest- it is beauty. The brand reveals hidden intentions. Without a compelling marketing mission, a brand probably cannot take birth. A Lux customer buys it for its promised delivery of beauty. The Lux brand seeks to satisfy the beauty aspirations in a select target group. It is a loud and clear promise of what it has to offer. Soap is only one way of delivering beauty. A number of products have been discovered with the legitimate territory of Lux.
The positioning essentially deals with a competitive frame of reference. The position differs from the older term image in that it implies a frame of reference the reference point usually being the competition. That is how a brand is to be perceived vis-à-vis others in the category. For instance, ICICI positions itself as a ‘friendly bank’.
In short the relation between brand image, identity and positioning can be summarized as follows:
Brand Identity, Image and Positioning
| BRAND IMAGE | BRAND IDENTITY | BRAND POSITION |
| How the brand is now perceived | How strategists want the brand to be perceived | The part of the brand identity and value proposition to be actively communicated to a target audience |
POSITIONING STRATEGIES
A product can be positioned based on 2 main platforms: The Consumer and The Competitor. When the positioning is on the basis of CONSUMER, the campaigns and messages are always targeted to the consumer himself (the user of the product)
Peter England always campaigns their product concentrating on the consumer, the user of its product.
Louis Philip also concentrates on this kind of campaigns.
The other kind of positioning is on basis of COMPETITION. These campaigns are targeted towards competing with other players in the market.
Dettol television commercials always concentrate on advertisements, which show that this product would give you more protection, then the others.
A number of positioning strategies might be employed in developing a promotional program. The 7 such strategies are discussed below:
1. Positioning by Product Attributes and Benefits
Associating a product with an attribute, a product feature or a consumer feature. Sometimes a product can be positioned in terms of two or more attributes simultaneously. The price/ quality attribute dimension is commonly used for positioning the products.
A common approach is setting the brand apart from competitors on the basis of the specific characteristics or benefits offered. Sometimes a product may be positioned on more than one product benefit. Marketers attempt to identify salient attributes (those that are important to consumers and are the basis for making a purchase decision)
For e.g.
· Consider the example of Ariel that offers a specific benefit of cleaning even the dirtiest of clothes because of the micro cleaning system in the product.
· Colgate offers benefits of preventing cavity and fresh breath.
· Promise, Balsara’s toothpaste, could break Colgate’s stronghold by being the first to claim that it contained clove, which differentiated it from the leader.
· Nirma offered the benefit of low price over
· Maruti Suzuki offers benefits of maximum fuel efficiency and safety over its competitors. This strategy helped it to get 60% of the Indian automobile market.
2. Positioning by Price/ Quality:
Marketers often use price/ quality characteristics to position their brands. One way they do it is with ads that reflect the image of a high-quality brand where cost, while not irrelevant, is considered secondary to the quality benefits derived from using the brand. Premium brands positioned at the high end of the market use this approach to positioning.
Another way to use price/ quality characteristics for positioning is to focus on the quality or value offered by the brand at a very competitive price. Although price is an important consideration, the product quality must be comparable to, or even better than, competing brands for the positioning strategy to be effective.
For e.g. the ICICI prudential ad and also the wheel detergent or Rin soap which always focuses on the value addition and price.
3. Positioning by use or application:
Another way is to communicate a specific image or position for a brand is to associate it with a specific use or application.
For.e.g. Surf Excel is positioned as stain remover ‘ Surf Excel hena!’
4. Positioning by product class:
Often the competition for a particular product comes from outside the product class. For example, airlines know that while they compete with other airlines, trains and buses are also viable alternatives. Manufacturers of music CDs must compete with the cassettes industry. The product is positioned against others that, while not exactly the same, provide the same class of benefits.
5. Positioning by product user:
Positioning a product by associating it with a particular user or group of users is yet another approach.
Misticmoto Motorola
In this ad the persona of the user of the product is been positioned.
6. Positioning by Competitor:
Competitors may be as important to positioning strategy as a firm’s own product or services. In today’s market, an effective positioning strategy for a product or brand may focus on specific competitors. This approach is similar to positioning by product class, although in this case the competition is within the same product category.
For e.g. Onida was positioned against the giants in the television industry through this strategy, ONIDA colour TV was launched with the message that all others were clones and only Onida was the leader.
7. Positioning by cultural symbols:
An additional positioning strategy where in the cultural symbols are used to differntiate the brands. Examples would be Humara Bajaj, Tata Tea, Ronald McDonald. Each of these symbols has successfully differentiated the product it represents from competitors.
“Every advertisement must be considered as a contribution to complex symbol which is a brand image”- Comment.
To understand this statement it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the term BRAND IMAGE. Consumers vary as to which brand attributes they see as most relevant and the importance they attach to each attribute. They will pay the most attention to the attributes that deliver the sought benefits. The market for a product can often be segmented according to the attributes that are salient to different consumer groups. The consumer develops a set of beliefs about where each brand stands on each attribute. These set of beliefs about the brand make up brand image.
Brand identity and brand image need to be distinguished. Identity comprises the ways that company aims to identify or position itself or its product. Image is the way the public perceives the company or its products. Image is affected by many factors beyond the company’s control.
A brand in its simplest form is a summation of the product as well as the perception that the consumers form about the product.
BRAND = PRODUCT + PERCEPTION
Each ad that a company does for a product has an impact on the perception that the consumer has about the product. At the initial stages when the product is launched all the ad’s that a company does is to create an image of the product among its consumers. Over a period of time being exposed to the product, its ad’s, word of mouth publicity the consumers develop a perception with respect to a specific brand.
Fevicol ad’s initially just told the consumers that it was an adhesive which when used would assure that things remained stuck. As and when the people got exposed to its ad’s they developed the perception that Fevicol was the ultimate adhesive.
Now once the perception about the brand is build then the companies usually advertise just to reinforce the image created by it.
Pepsi ad’s about THE GENERATION NEXT created a perception among the consumer that the brand Pepsi stood for the dynamic people of the next generation.
Also one important aspect is that the process of building Brand image it’s a continuous process. As long as the brand exists the process of brand image keeps going on and the image gets modified in many cases.
Brand image for a brand is created over a period of time. Not only that all the things that you want to communicate about the brand cannot be done in a single ad. All the ad’s that company does for a particular brand contributes to the whole process of building a brand. Usually in case of all brands the initial ad’s that a company does is only to introduce the product and give out its functional benefits. Once the consumers are aware of the brand then the companies focus on the image they want to create.
Now each ad that a company does for a particular brand influences the consumer perception in some way or other. The influence may be positive or negative. Ads help companies strengthen or weaken the brand
Coke’s ad’s of “THANDA MATLAB COCA COLA” is just to strengthen the brand image of coke.
In many cases just one single ad erodes the Brand image which is created for a brand over the years. Sometimes companies get carried away and forget the basic image they want to portray.
Bisleri’s ad campaign of “PLAY SAFE” had such a huge impact on the brand that once synonymous with mineral water and market leader brand ran into all sorts of trouble. Its sales were affected drastically and it lost its leadership to Kinley (COCO-COLA) in the packaged water category. The campaign weakened the Brand completely and now it has got its focus back on track.
Lastly one important fact is that over a period of time with change in the business scenario it is necessary for companies to modify its brand image to target the consumers and their changing demand.
No comments:
Post a Comment