2 Literature review
2.1 Brand equity
Brand equity is not only means of monetary value of the brand, but it also includes the value of the company technologies, trademarks, patents, and other intangible assets such as the manufacturing process. A company’s stock price is represents the brand equity but when a company’s brand has a negative impact, the impact of the brand equity can affect the stock price significantly. (Aaker, 1996; Keegan, Moriarty, Duncan, 1995; Kerin, Sethuraman, 1998). According to Barwise (1993) the brand strength can affects the financial value of a brand. Therefore, through investing in advertising and product quality, it can increase the brand’s strength and build long-term brand equity.
Brand equity brings certain strategic benefits to the company such as adding line extension for the company. For example when a product category was entered the decline stage of the product life cycle, the company with strong brand equity can help a brand survive longer compared to its competitors. Besides, in periods of economic downturn, strong brand equity offers a platform that keeps the brand at a profit long after competing products. Brand equity is also what allows branded products or services to charge premium prices. Many customers are willing to pay more for a quality product which they are familiar with or the brand has given them confident or benefits which the brand associated. (Keegan, Moriarty, Duncan, 1995)
2.2 Customer-based brand equity
The basic principle with customer-based brand equity is that the power of a brand lies in the minds of customer and what customer has experienced about the brand over the time. Customer-based brand equity can be defined as three different effects that brand knowledge of con...
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2.5 Brand association
A brand association is any mental connection to the brand. Brand associations may include product attributes, uses life-styles, product classes, customer benefits, countries of origin and etc. The association not only exists but also has a specific level of strength. The brand position is based upon associations and how the specific product or service different itself from the competition. Brand association can affect the processing and recall of information provides a point of differentiation provide a reason to buy create positive attitudes and feelings and serve as the basis of extensions. The associations with a strong brand name that can influence purchase behavior. Even when the associations are not important to brand choices, they can reassure reducing the incentives to try other brands. (Aaker 1991 & 1992)
In every given business, the name itself portrays different meanings. This serves as the reference point and sometimes the basis of customers on what to expect within the company. Since personality affects product image (Langmeyer & Shank, 1994), the presence of brand helps in the realization of this concept. Traditionally, brand is a symbolic manifestation of all the information connected with a company, product, or service (Nilson, 2003; Olin, 2003). A brand is typically composed of a name, logo, and other visual elements such as images, colors, and icons (Gillooley & Varley, 2001; Laforet & Saunders, 1994)). It is believed that a brand puts an impression to the consumer on what to expect to the product or service being offered (Mere, 1995). In other application, brand may be referred as trademark, which is legally appropriate term. The brand is the most powerful weapon in the market (LePla & Parker, 1999). Brands possess personality in which people associate their experience. Oftentimes, they are related to the core values the company executes.
Definition; - “brand equity is the added value endowed on products and services. It may be reflected in the way consumer think, feel, and act with respect to the brand, as well as in the price, market share and profitability the brand commands.”(Kolter and Keller.2012, p265) according to the case study of Holland and Barrett, brand equity refers to high brand value, brand with high value equity means, H&B has the ability to create some sort of positiv...
The term “personal branding” has over the recent past been associated with Tom Peters, a renowned management guru. A brand can be described as the comprehensive, consistent value that a person receives from using a product or service. It conveys a whole set of expectations which can be either negative or positive. A brand is also described simply as a bundle of benefits, attributable to a product or service. Is branding limited to goods and services?
Brand equity is crucial as it implies that the brand itself is an important (financial) asset and can be calculated in financial terms (Barwise, 1993). This is particularly important in the luxury sector as from a behavioural viewpoint, brand equity can differentiate a company or product from other competitors, adding to their competitive advantages based on non-profit competition (Aaker, 2004). The model created by Aaker (1992) states that there are four categories of brand equity; Loyalty, Awareness, Perceived Quality and Associations. Luxury branding relies on a high level of perceived quality, loyalty and associations, although potentially less so for awareness, as it is thought that consumers choose luxury brands based on their exclusivity and as such the more the awareness that surrounds the brand, there is potential for it to become less valuable (Phau and Prendergast,
Kevin Keller’s brand equity model is known as the Customer Based Brand Equity Model (CBBE). This model was first introduced in his book, Strategic Brand Management. According to the model, a company must shape how customers think, feel, and act towards a product in order to build a strong brand. A consumer must have the right type of experience around the brand, which foster positive thoughts, opinions, perceptions, beliefs and feelings. By building strong brand equity, customers will recommend company products and will buy more of them. Moreover, this increases brand loyalty and decreases brand switching to competitors. One’s memory consists of a network of associations and connecting links, and any association ever processed about a brand
The source of the brand features is in a connection between customers and companies that sell services or products. Consumers who choose a specific company fundamentally acknowledge to prefer that brand more than other brands rooted from the recognition of the brand’s worth.
Building and enhancing a strong brand has been found to have profitable rewards in business, it has therefore become a prime priority for many firms. Customer-base brand equity (CBBE) is a model that is being adopted by many organizations in order to build strong brands that can compete with the other ones in the market. The model outlines the four steps that should be followed in building a strong brand. The first step involves the establishment of appropriate brand identity, which includes enhancing customer awareness of the brand.
Companies use a collection of brand equities to represent their products in the market (Voolnes, 2012). Brand equity refers to the commercial value that is derived from the perception of consumers on any given brand name of particular products in the market as opposed to the product itself. Ataman (2003) notes that the effect to the consumer is in the brand name and not the product itself. Companies use logos, trademarks and a collection of other symbols to present this information to the customers. The use of these symbols is meant to try and capture the customer mindset so that they can be thinking about the company products at all times through the items they possess at home (Estes, Gibbert, Guest, & Mazursk, 2012). This can well be explained by use of the customer-based brand equity model that brings together the requirements for a publicly renowned brand in the market.
In conclusion, the customer- based brand equity model is an important platform that may help in building a strong brand. It could assist a company in assessing its progress as well as providing a blueprint for marketing research activities. If properly planned and implemented, it could help the company in achieving its marketing strategies and in the realization of an increased profit margin
Even with commodities, there are quite a few parameters which brands can use to position themselves to capture a place in the consumer’s memory and consequently in their shopping basket. A few of the more widely accepted of them are: Consistency of Product Quality, Customization of the product to the extent possible, Providing a wider range of products, Identifying the most profit generating segments of the market and modifying or adding an offering to cater to their specific needs, Unique packaging, Emotional Branding and even basing branding on building a unique image to the extent of professing to have a brand personality. In fact focusing on getting consumers to build an emotional identification with the brand and its personality has a far longer lasting effect and builds far greater loyalty than focusing on just functional and utility attributes which a competitor would also able to easily match if not surpass.
However, a company must have good brand management to achieve the longevity of the company brand. It is because good brand management can lead the company to become a strong brand and it will improve the customer relationship through the brand management process which control everything about the brand does and says also (Temporal, 2010). Therefore, brand management plays an important role which will influence the longevity of the company and the brand name.
Secondly, some light has been thrown on the previous researches by various authors on the similar topics by providing with a summarised form of the same. It helps in better understanding of the ongoing concepts and perceptions on the concept of brand and its importance.
The term 'branding' in modern marketing is generally originated in the agricultural practices of the medieval age. The farmers 'branded' their animals with the iron and then they were able to identify to whom a particular animal belonged. Artisans 'branded' their products, for example, expensive silver tableware. Smiths 'branded' their swords. The role of the brand is to identify products by the same way as for medieval farmers and for modern corporations as well.
Brand offers superior quality of the service to the customer’s expectation and satisfaction. Furthermore, people are much attached to the branded products, as majority of the people purchase the branded products with the belief that brands show their status and life style in the society. And also because they believe that they are purchasing quality when purchasing branded product. As duration of stay creates impact of brand on consumer behaviour, so verification of brand image, brand loyalty and personality should be considered as the significant factors in this regard. It can also be said that there is need to improve the product of a particular brand so that the impact of brand on consumer behaviour is more effective in comparison to the existing scenario. The study also reflects that the product features are very essential for consumers. Advertising plays a very important role in achieving growth for any product or brand. The right media for advertising products and services should be chosen to gain customer attention.
All humans are exposed to branding and marketing on a daily basis. Commercials, internet ads, t-shirts, television shows. In today’s fast moving society, we’re constantly bombarded by the marketing and branding practices of businesses. As a new business owner, it can be daunting to step from being the observer to a creator of marketing and branding.