UNIT II – BRAND STRATEGIES

Strategic Brand Management process – Building a strong brand – Brand positioning –

Establishing Brand values – Brand vision – Brand Elements – Branding for Global Markets
–Competing with foreign brands.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS
Strategic brand management involves the design and implementation of marketing programs and
activities to build, measure, and manage brand equity. The strategic brand management process is
defined as involving four main steps.
1. Identifying and establishing brand positioning and values
2. Planning and implementing brand marketing programs
3. Measuring and interpreting brand performance
4. Growing and sustaining brand equity
Identi1ying and Establishing Brand Positioning and Values:
The strategic brand management process starts with a clear understanding as to what the brand is
to represent and how it should be positioned with respect to competitors. Kotler defines brand
positioning as the “act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct
and valued place in the target customer’s mind.” The goal is to locate the brand in the minds of
consumers such that the potential benefit to the firm is maximized.
Strategic Brand Management Process
STEPS KEY CONCEPTS
Mental maps
1. Identify and Establish Competitive frame of reference
Brand Positioning and Values Points-of-parity and points-of-difference
Core brand values
2. Plan and Implement brand Mixing and matching of brand elements
marketing Integrating brand marketing activities
Leveraging of secondary associations
Brand Value Chain
3. Measure and Interpret Brand Brand audits
Performance Brand tracking
Brand equity management system
Brand-product matrix
4. Grow and Sustain Brand Equity Brand portfolios and hierarchies
Brand expansion strategies
Brand reinforcement and revitalization

Competitive brand positioning is all about creating brand superiority in the minds of
consumers. Fundamentally, positioning involves convincing consumers of the advantages of a
brand vis-à-vis competitors, while at the same time alleviating concerns about any possible
disadvantages. Positioning often involves a specification of the appropriate core brand values and
brand mantra. Core brand values are those set of abstract associations (attributes and benefits) that
characterize a brand. To provide further focus as to what a brand represents, it is often useful to
define a brand mantra, also known as a brand essence or core brand promise. A brand mantra is a
short three- to five-word expression of the most important aspects of a brand and its core brand
values. It can be seen as the enduring “brand DNA”—the most important aspects of the brand to
the consumer and the company. Core brand values and a brand mantra are thus an articulation of
the heart and soul of the brand.
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 Determining or evaluating a brand’s positioning often benefits from a brand audit. A brand
audit is a comprehensive examination of a brand, involving activities to assess the health of the
brand, uncover its sources of equity, and suggest ways to improve and leverage that equity. A
brand audit requires understanding sources of brand equity from the perspective of both the firm
and the consumer.
Planning and Implementing Brand Marketing Programs:

Building brand equity requires creating a brand that consumers are sufficiently aware of
and with which they have strong, favorable, and unique brand associations- In general, this
knowledge-building process will depend on three factors:
1. The initial choices for the brand elements or identities making up the brand
2. The marketing activities and supporting marketing program and the manner by which the brand
is integrated into them
3. Other associations indirectly transferred to the brand by linking it to some other entity (e.g., the
company, country of origin, channel of distribution, or another brand)
Choosing Brand Elements:

A number of options exist, and a number of criteria are relevant for choosing brand
elements. As noted earlier, a brand element is visual or verbal information that serves to identify
and differentiate a product. The most common brand elements are brand names, logos, symbols,
characters, packaging, and slogans. Brand elements can be chosen to enhance brand awareness or
facilitate the formation of strong, favorable, and unique brand associations. The best test of the
brand-building contribution of brand elements is what consumers would think about the product or
service if they knew only its brand name, associated logo, and so forth. Because different elements
have different advantages, a subset or even all of the possible brand elements are often employed.
Integrating the brand into marketing activities and the supportive marketing programs:
Although the judicious choice of brand elements can make some contribution to building
brand equity. The primary input comes from the marketing activities related to brand. Strong,
favorable, and unique brand associations can be created in a variety of different ways by
marketing programs.
Leveraging secondary associations:
The third and final way to build brand equity is to leverage secondary associations. brand
associations may themselves be linked to other entities that have their own associations, creating
secondary brand associations. In other words, a brand association may be created by linking the
brand to another node or information in memory that conveys meaning to consumers.
For example, the brand may be linked to certain source factors, such as the company (through
branding strategies), countries or other geographic regions (through identification of product
origin), and channels of distribution rough channel strategy), as well as to other brands (through
ingredients or co-branding), characters (through licensing), spokespeople (through endorsements),
Sporting or cultural events (through sponsorship), or some other third-party sources rough awards
or reviews).
Because the brand becomes identified with another entity, even though this entity may not
directly relate to the product or service performance, consumers may infer that the brand shares
associations with that entity, thus producing indirect or secondary associations for the brand. In
essence, the marketer is borrowing or leveraging some other associations for the brand to create
some associations of the brand’s own and thus to build its brand equity.

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Measuring and Interpreting Brand Performance
To understand the effects of brand marketing programs, it is important to measure and
interpret brand performance. A useful tool in that regard is the brand value chain. The brand value
chain is a means to trace the value creation process for brands to better understand the financial
impact of brand marketing expenditures and investments.

The brand value chain helps to direct marketing research efforts. Profitable brand
management requires successfully designing and implementing a brand equity measurement
system. A brand equity measurement system is a set of research procedures designed provide
timely, accurate, and actionable information for marketers so that they can make the best possible
tactical decisions in the short run and the best strategic decisions he long run.
Measuring customer based brand equity
Brand inventory
Brand Audit
Brand Exploratory
Brand equity sources
Brand value chain Brand equity outcomes
Brand equity charter
Brand equity management system Brand equity report
Brand equity responsibilities

Growing and Sustaining Brand Equity:

Through the skillful design and implementation of marketing programs that capitalise on a
well-conceived brand positioning, strong brand leadership positions can be obtained. Maintaining
and expanding on that brand equity, however, can be quite challenging. Brand equity management
concerns those activities that take a broader and more diverse perspective of the brand’s equity—
understanding how branding strategies should reflect corporate concerns and be adjusted, if at all,
over time or over geographic boundaries or market segments. Managing brand equity involves
managing brands within the context of other brands, as well as managing brands over multiple
categories, over time, and across multiple market segments.
Defining the Branding Strategy:
The branding strategy of the firm provides the general guidelines as to which brand elements a
firm chooses to apply across the products it offers. Two main tools in defining the corporate
branding strategy are the brand—product matrix and the brand hierarchy. The brand—product
matrix is a graphical representation of all the brands and products sold by the firm. The brand
hierarchy reveals an explicit ordering of brands by displaying the number and nature of common
and distinctive brand components across the firm’s products. By capturing the potential branding
relationships among the different products sold by the firm, a brand hierarchy is a useful means to
graphically portray a firm’s branding strategy.
Managing brand over time:
Effective brand management requires taking a long-term view of marketing decisions. Because
consumers’ responses to marketing activity depend on what they know and remember about a
brand, short-term marketing mix actions, by changing brand knowledge, necessarily increase or
decrease the success of future marketing actions. A long-term perspective of brand management
recognizes that any changes in the supporting marketing program for a brand may. by changing
consumer knowledge, affect the success of future marketing programs. Additionally, a long-term
view results in proactive strategies designed to maintain and enhance customer-based brand equity
over time in the face of external changes in the marketing environment and internal changes in a
firm’s marketing goals and programs.
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Managing brand equity and geographic boundaries, culture and market segments:
An important consideration in managing brand equity is recognizing and accounting for different
types of consumers in developing branding and marketing programs. International issues and
global branding strategies are particularly important in these decisions. In expanding a brand in
this way, it is critical that equity is built by careful positioning and design and implementation of
marketing programs that reflect the specific knowledge and behaviors of those market segments.
BUILDING A STRONG BRAND: THE FOUR STEPS OF BRAND BUILDING
Building a strong brand, according to the Customer based brand equity (CBBE model), can be
thought of in terms of a sequence of steps, in which each step is dependent on successfully
achieving the previous step. All the steps involve completing certain objectives with customers-
both existing and potential. The steps are as follows:
1. Ensure identification of the brand with customers and an association of the brand in customers’
minds with a specific product class or customer need.
2. Firmly establish the totality of brand meaning in the minds of customers by strategically linking
a host of tangible and intangible brand associations with certain properties.
3. Elicit the proper customer responses to this brand identification and brand meaning.
4. Convert brand response to create an intense, active loyalty relationship between customers and
the brand.

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These four steps represent a set of fundamental questions that customers invariably ask about
brands—at least implicitly if not even explicitly—as follows (with corresponding brand steps in
parentheses).
1. Who are you? (Brand identity)
2. What are you? (Brand meaning)
3. What about you? What do I think or feel about you? (Brand responses) ‘
4. What about you and me? What kind of association and how much of a connect like to

1. BRAND IDENTITY
The outward expression of a brand, including its name, trademark, communications, and visual
appearance. Because the identity is assembled by the brand owner, it reflects how the owner wants
the consumer to perceive the brand - and by extension the branded company, organization, product
or service. This is in contrast to the brand image, which is a customer's mental picture of a brand.
The brand owner will seek to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity.
Effective brand names build a connection between the brand personalities as it is perceived by the
target audience and the actual product/service. The brand name should be conceptually on target
with the product/service (what the company stands for). Furthermore, the brand name should be on
target with the brand demographic. Typically, sustainable brand names are easy to remember,
transcend trends and have positive connotations. Brand identity is fundamental to consumer
recognition and symbolizes the brand's differentiation from competitors.
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Brand identity is what the owner wants to communicate to its potential consumers. However, over
time, a product's brand identity may acquire (evolve), gaining new attributes from consumer
perspective but not necessarily from the marketing communications an owner percolates to
targeted consumers. Therefore, brand associations become handy to check the consumer's
perception of the brand.
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 Dettol - Antiseptic, protection Johnson & Johnson - Trust and
women 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.
Visual brand identity
The visual brand identity manual for Mobil Oil (developed by Chermayeff & Geismar), one of the
first visual identities to integrate logotype, icon, alphabet, color palette, and station architecture to
create a comprehensive consumer brand experience.
The recognition and perception of a brand is highly influenced by its visual presentation. A brand’s
visual identity is the overall look of its communications. Effective visual brand identity is
achieved by the consistent use of particular visual elements to create distinction, such as specific
fonts, colors, and graphic elements.
2. BRAND: MEANING
 Brand as a product
 Brand as an organization
 Brand as a person
 Brand as a symbol
BRAND AS PRODUCT
Core element of a brand’s identity is usually its product thrust,
which will affect the type of associations that are desirable and
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feasible. A strong link to a product class means that the brand will be recalled when the product
class is cued. A dominant brand will often be the only brand recalled.
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.Similarly, 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 AN 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:
 It is much easier to copy a product than to copy an organization with unique people,
cultures and programs.
 Organizational attributes usually apply to a set of product classes and a competitor in only
one product class may find difficult to compete.
 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 PERSON
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.
Hrithik rosan for PROVOGUE - in this case you would associate Sharuk
Khan with someone who is cool, trendy, from the
upper class, fun loving. With Hrithik rosan
endorsing for provogue people’s perception about
provogue clothes does also cool, trendy, for people who are fun love.
A brand personality can help create a stronger brand in many ways:
 It can help create a self-expressive benefit that becomes a vehicle
for the customer top express his or her personality. E.g. an Apple user
might consider himself to be casual, anti corporate and creative.
 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.
 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.
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BRAND AS 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.
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.
3. BRAND RESPONSES:
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.
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 factors 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
Fevi Stik - adhesive
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 ads 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.

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Coca Cola experienced a tremendous increase in brand following post ad campaigns with Hrithik
Roshan and “Kaho Na Pyaar Hai”.

Source: Hentry.D – “Road to Brand Management”

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.
Reliance India Mobile’s Monsoon Hungama offer, wherein they offered their WLL services at an
affordable price.
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.

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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 J.W.Marriot has been boosted by the page 3
mentions in the Bombay Times supplement of the Times of India.
Direct Selling: - Some of the companies use direct selling as a platform to create brand
awareness.
Eureka Forbes water filters “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.
When opting for cellular network services (irrespective of
prepaid or billing), most people generally go by the
opinions of their friends and colleagues.
Recall of Ads: - In some cases the brand awareness is
also high due to specific ad recall, which is very high.
Amaron battery advertisement 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.
4. BRAND RELATIONSHIP
BRAND ASSOCIATION:
Brand is not just a name, but also a carrier of marketer’s commitment along with it. Brand
association in all includes attributes, symbols and images attached with the brand. Marketing
challenge is to link right association to the brand so that the customers develop required image that
leads to loyalty and perceived quality of the product features. Brand association depends upon
proper product positioning strategy.
Colgate Brand is associated with SURAKSHA CHAKRA, which gives a feeling of protection
from all dental problems to the customers. 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.

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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.

PERCEIVED QUALITY
Perceived quality has always been a deceptively difficult area for marketers. As it is an
important asset for a brand, it became a major component of brand equity. It has tremendous
power to affect all other elements of brand equity—brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand
association. Marketers’ task of right identity of the product in the target market is possible only
through perceived quality.

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Manufacturers’ quality is different from perceived quality. Suppose, the improved quality of the
product is not perceived by the customer, then there are no tangible or intangible benefits to
marketers. For example the entrants of Indian consumer durable industry, Samsung, LG, Akai, and
Sansui succeeded due to Indian consumers’ perception of their high quality.

BRAND IMAGE:
Consumers vary as to which brand attributes they see as most relevant and the importance they
attach to each attribute (brand association). 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:
 It establishes the product’s character and value proposition. It conveys this character in a
distinctive way so as not to confuse it with the competitor’s image.
 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.
Brands 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 the 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.
2. Brands benefit associations
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.
Mercedes has the functional benefit of sophisticated and ultra modern technology.
Experiential: these accrue to the user in the form of feelings.
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For Mercedes the experiential benefits will be the feeling of a smooth and comfortable ride.
Symbolic: These are non intrinsic to the product and correspond to non-product related
benefits.
For Mercedes it will be the prestige of being a part of a select group.
3. Brands attitude associations
Attitudes determine buying decisions. They refer to overall evaluation of a concept like person,
product, object or a brand.
BRAND LOYALTY:
The brand loyalty of the customer base is often the core of brand equity, if customers are
indifferent to the brand and buy with respect to features, price, and convenience with little concern
to the brand name, there is likely little equity. On the other hand, if they continue to purchase the
brand even in the face of competitors with superior features, price and convenience, substantial
value exists in the brand and various elements like its symbol and slogans.
In any business, gaining new customers is quite difficult and expensive, and requires lot of
marketing effort with uncertainty. Whereas to retain the current customers and maintain customer
base is relatively easy and inexpensive. Loyal customers are price insensitive by nature, which
reduce the vulnerability of any competitive action. It also reduces the intensity and nature of
competitive rivalry in the industry.
For example retail chain Shopper’s Stop has 40,000 loyal customers in their FCC (First Citizen
Club) which contributes tol5% of the turnover and 40% of regular customers per day.
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 uses 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? 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 mindsets:

 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:
 Non customers: 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. ( these guys sit on the
fence and watch - not bothered )
 The committed: those who are committed to our brands. (Hard Core Loyal Customers!
These guys are brands Asset! :)

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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.
BRAND BUILDING BLOCKS
Performing the four steps to create the right brand identity, brand meaning, brand responses, and
brand relationship is a complicated and difficult process. To provide some structure, it is useful to
think of sequentially establishing six “brand building blocks” with customers. To connote the
sequencing involved, these brand building blocks can be assembled in terms of a brand pyramid.
Creating significant brand equity involves reaching the pinnacle of the CBBE brand pyramid and
will only occur if the right building blocks are put into place. The corresponding brand steps
represent different levels of the CBBE brand pyramid. This brand-building process is illustrated in
the Figure and each of these steps and corresponding brand building blocks and their sub
dimensions are examined below.
Figure: Customer based brand equity pyramid

Brand salience relates to aspects of the awareness of the brand, for example, how often and
easily the brand is evoked under various situations or circumstances.

Brand Meaning is made up of two major categories of brand associations that exist in customers’
minds related to performance and imagery, with a set of specific subcategories within each. These
brand associations can be formed directly (from a customer’s own experiences and contact with
the brand) or indirectly (through the depiction of the brand in advertising or by some other source
of information, such as word of mouth). These associations serve as the basis for the positioning of
the brand and its points-of-parity and points-of-difference.

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Creating strong, favorable, and unique associations and the desired points-of-parity and points-of
difference can be difficult for marketers, but essential in terms of building brand resonance. Strong
brands typically have firmly established favorable and unique brand associations with consumers.

Brand responses refers to how customers respond to the brand and all its marketing activity and
other sources of information—that is, what customers think or feel about the brand. Brand
responses can be distinguished according to brand judgments and brand feelings, that is, in terms
of whether they arise from the “head” or from the “heart.”
Brand judgments focus on customers’ personal opinions and evaluations with regard to the
brand. Brand judgments involve how customers put together all the different performance and
imagery associations of the brand to form different kinds of opinions.
Brand feelings are customers’ emotional responses and reactions with respect to the brand.
Brand feelings also relate to the feelings that are evoked by the marketing program for the brand
or by other means?
Brand resonance refers to the nature of this relationship and the extent to which customers feel
that they connect with a brand and feel “in sync” with it. With true brand resonance, customers
have a high degree of loyalty marked by a close relationship with the brand such that customers
actively seek means to interact with the brand and share their experiences with others. Examples
of brands which have had high resonance include Harley-Davidson, Apple, and eBay.

The first level of the pyramid deals with establishing the identity of the brand. Keller
suggests a single building block for this phase and terms it brand salience. In building a highly
salient brand, he argues that it is important that awareness campaigns not only build depth
(ensuring that a brand will be remembered and the ease with which it is) but also breadth (the
range of situations in which the brand comes to mind as something that should be purchased or
used).
Richard Branson’s Virgin brand has achieved depth of awareness and is easily recognized
and recalled in South Africa. The challenge facing the brand is to make consumers aware about its
breadth and diversity of offerings including air travel, game lodges, finance, health clubs, drinks,
and mobile communication. Follow the Virgin brand around the globe, and that challenge stretches
to books, trains, cosmetics, jewellery, wines, radio, and even space flights in the next few years.

15
 The second layer of the pyramid deals with giving meaning to the brand and here Keller
presents two building blocks: brand performance and brand imagery. Brand performance is the
way the product or service attempts to meet the consumer’s functional needs. Brand performance
also has a major influence on how consumers experience a brand as well as what the brand owner
and others say about the brand.
Delivering a product or service that meets and, hopefully, exceeds consumer needs and
wants is a prerequisite for successful brand building. In communicating brand performance, Keller
identifies five areas that need to be communicated: primary ingredients and supplementary
features; product reliability, durability and serviceability; service effectiveness, efficiency and
empathy; style and design; and price

Brand imagery deals with the way in which the brand attempts to meet customers’
psychological and social needs. Brand imagery is the intangible aspects of a brand that consumers
pick up because it fits their demographic profile (such as age or income) or has psychological
appeal in that it matches their outlook on life (conservative, traditional, liberal, creativeness).
Brand imagery is also formed by associations of usage (at work or home) or via personality traits
(honest, lively, competent, rugged, etc).
It is in this building block that advertising plays a major role in shaping the image of the brand,
although word-of-mouth recommendations and a consumer’s own experience are equally
important. However brand imagery is built, it is important that brand managers and strategists craft
strong, favourable and unique associations for a brand.
Luxury cars, BMW in particular, are brands that work hard to communicate brand
performance and imagery. Sales people, brochures, Internet sites and car journal reviews will all
tell you about the performance of a BMW. The delivery of this type of communication has largely
remained consistent, only being updated at regular intervals to reflect the specifications of new
models. What has changed is the imagery used to communicate the brand from the power-
impregnated advertisements of a BMW outrunning a land speed rocket car to the more esoteric
imagery of innovative kinetic sculptures being powered by the wind. The change in advertising
imagery reflects a shift by the German automaker away from targeting the affluent automobile
enthusiast to targeting the “ideas class”, a market segment which comprises up-market buyers
more interested in design and innovation than brute performance.
Having dealt with brand identity and meaning, we move upwards to the third tier of the
pyramid to develop a consumer response to the brand. Keller proposes two building blocks for this
tier, namely brand judgments and brand feelings. Judgments about a brand emerge from a
consumer pulling together different performance and imagery associations. These judgments
combine into a consumer’s opinion of a brand and whilst there are multiple judgments that an
individual can make, Keller believes there are four that companies must pay attention to in their
brand-building efforts. They are the perceived quality of the brand; brand credibility (the extent to
which the brand is perceived as having expertise, being trustworthy and likable); brand
consideration (the brand must be relevant to the consumer so that they are likely to purchase or use
it); and brand superiority (the extent to which consumers view the brand as being unique and
better than other brands).
Maintaining brand judgment is particularly important when a company embarks on brand
extension as what counted as quality, credibility, consideration and superiority in one market can
evaporate as the brand extends its product line and/or market reach. Baby food manufacturer
Gerber tried to enter the adult food market in the 1970s by producing small helpings of fruits,
vegetables, desserts, etc in the same jars it used for infant food. Unable to garner credibility (adult
food is very different to baby food), consideration (how many adults would think about buying
food for themselves that is packaged in a well-established baby-food jar) and superiority (many
16
other brands specialize in adult food) for its new product range, Gerber quickly ditched which was
widely regarded as a spectacular failure.
Whereas brand judgments can be fairly logical, brand feelings are consumers’ emotional
responses to the brand. Keller identifies six brand-building feelings that he regards as important
emotions that a consumer can have towards a brand, namely warmth, fun, excitement, security,
social approval and self-respect.
The first three are experiential and immediate and increase in the level of intensity whilst
the latter three are private and enduring and increase in the level of gravity. These responses are
likely to come together in different combinations for individual consumers and the distinct brands
they are relating to. What is important for the brand manager and strategist is that responses are
positive and come to mind when a consumer thinks about the brand.

Telecommunication companies often depict the emotional rewards of

making a call such as a child bringing joy to his or her geographically-
distant grandparents by speaking to them on the phone. EX: Hutch,
Vodafone and Air tel ads.

Vodafone’s a series of fun ads

The final tier of the pyramid deals with the consumer’s relationship with the brand and
here Keller introduces the sixth building block which he calls brand resonance. Resonance is
characterized by the intensity of the psychological bond that customers have with the brand and
their level of engagement with the brand. The challenge for the brand manager and strategist is to
develop the bond and increase the number of interactions (repeat purchases of a product or
service) through the development of marketing programmes that fully satisfy all the customers’
needs, provides them with a sense of community built around the brand and even empowers them
to act as brand champions.
Along with Apple, Harley-Davidson is a brand that succeeds in creating a strong and
lasting bond with its customers. The motorcycle manufacturer’s primary vehicle for achieving this
is the global Harley Owners Group, known affectionately as HOG, which organizes regular events
for its more than 600,000 members. Executive from the company often join these rides, which can
17
number up to 25,000 riders, which successfully reinforce the brand’s message of freedom,
individualism, self-expression, etc as well as building the sense of community that the brand
creates.
Harley-Davidson customers are famously loyal with over 45
percent of owners having previously owned one of the brand’s
distinctive motorcycles.
In wrapping up this review of the pyramid model, it is useful
to pay attention to Keller’s advice not to take shortcuts: “The
length of time to build a strong brand will therefore be directly
proportional to the amount of time it takes to create sufficient
awareness and understanding so that firmly held and felt beliefs and attitudes about the brand are
formed that can serve as the foundation for brand equity.”
WHY IS BUILDING STRONG BRANDS SO DIFFICULT?
It is difficult to build a strong brand in today's environment. The brand builder can be inhibited by
substantial pressures and barriers, both internal and external. There are 8 different factors that
make it difficult to build brands:
1. Complex branding strategies and brand relationships
2. The temptation to change identity/executions, organizational
3. Pressure to invest elsewhere
4. Pressures for short-term results.
One key to successful brand building is to understand how to develop brand identities, to know
what the brand stands for, and how to most effectively express that identity.
PRESSURE TO COMPETE ON PRICE
There are enormous pressures on all firms to compete on price. Price competition is at
center stage, driven by powers of strong retailers, value sensitive customers, reduced capacity
growth and overcapacity. Retailers have become stronger and use their powers to put pressures on
prices. Whereas a year ago information was largely controlled by the manufacturer retailers are
now collecting vast amounts of information and developing models to use it. As a result there is an
increasing focus on margins and efficient use of space.
Orange versus BPL mobile services - What these cellular service providers are doing is to compete
with each other mainly on the basis of price. If Orange is cutting its deposit amount, or reducing
the general rent or tariff or airtime charges, BPL has to follow the suit. Also the cola companies
like Coca Cola and Pepsi are continuously engaged in a price war.
PROLIFERATION OF COMPETITORS
New, vigorous competitors come from a variety of sources. Additional competitors not
only contribute to price pressures and brand complexity, but also make it harder to gain and hold a
position. They leave fewer holes in the market to exploit and fewer implementation vehicles to
own. Each brand tends to be positioned more narrowly, the target market becomes smaller and no
target market becomes larger.
There are innumerous players in various product categories. One of these is toothpaste. With
products ranging from gel, tooth powder, herbal pastes and striped paste – the market is quite
clustered. The market is so much saturated with different players in these markets that they keep
competing on the positioning of their brands, which has to be different from the rest and thus cater
to a particular segment of the population. Like Close-up toothpaste which is positioned on the fact
that it has mouthwash for fresh breath and Colgate which stresses on its calcium content for
stronger teeth.
FRAGMENTATION MARKETS AND MEDIA
At one time being consistent across media and markets was easy as there were a limited
number of media options and only a few national media vehicles. However the bewildering array
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of media options today includes interactive television, advertising on the internet, direct
marketing, event sponsorship and more are being invented daily. Coordinating messages across
these media without weakening a brand is a major challenge. Coordination is all the more difficult
because different brand support activities are often handled by different organizations and
individuals with varying perspectives and goals. In addition companies are dividing the population
into smaller and more refined target markets, often reaching them with specialized media and
distribution channels. Although it is tempting to develop separate brand identity for each of these
target segments it presents problems for both the brand and the customer. Since media audiences
invariably overlap, customers are likely to be exposed to more than one identity relating to the
same brand.

Aamir Khan is targeted at Aishwarya Rai is targeted at Aishwarya Rai is targeted at

the customers in the rural the urban consumers (AD- 1) the urban consumers (AD- 2)
market
COMPLEX BRANDING STRATEGIES AND RELATIONSHIPS
Different identities of brands and their extensions make both brand building
and managing it difficult. In addition to knowing its identity each brand
needs to understand its role in each context in which it is involved. There is a
tendency to use established brands in different contexts and roles because
establishing a totally new brand is very expensive. The resulting new levels
of complexity often are not anticipated or even acknowledged until there is a
substantial problem.
Henko Compact and Henko Stain Champion both belong to the German
firm Henkal. Although this is a line extension finding difference between
both these products is not easy. A number of questions like “Does the name
‘stain champion’ mean Henko Compact does not remove stains? Or does it mean that Stain
Champion is a technologically inferior product?” often cross the consumers mind when they
consider these brands for purchase. This is because the line extension and the relationship of one
product with another in this strategy are not considered.
BIAS TOWARDS CHANGING STRATEGIES
There are sometimes overwhelming internal pressures to change a brand identity and/or its
execution while it is still effective or even before it achieves its potential. The resulting changes
can undercut brand equity or prevent it from being established. Promise toothpaste tried to change
its well set positioning and went in to emphasize the freshness aspect of its paste rather than the
well-established clove oil aspect. As a result its sales went down.

BIAS AGAINST INNOVATION

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Companies managing a established brand can be so pleased with past and current success, and so
preoccupied with day to day problems, that they become blind to competitive situations. By
ignoring or minimizing fundamental changes in the competitive situation or potential
breakthroughs, managers leave their brands vulnerable and risk missing opportunities. A new
competitor is thus often the source and beneficiary of true innovation.

Moov

Iodex

Iodex became blinded and redundant after achieving the position of market leader and preferred to
rest on its laurels rather than go in for product innovations and line extensions. As a result its
leadership position was lost to Moov, which positioned itself as a remedy for backache and
converted all the weaknesses of Iodex into its strengths.

Also Bata was the market leader for footwear but they did not adapt with
the changing times. As a result their sales went down.

Currently Liberty Footwear is the market leader.

PRESSURE TO INVEST ELSEWHERE

When a brand is strong there is a temptation to reduce investment in the core business area
in order to improve short-term performance or to fund new business diversifications. There is an
often mistaken belief that the brand will not be damaged by sharp reductions in support and that
the other investment opportunities are more attractive. Ironically the diversification that attracts
these resources is often flawed because an acquired business was overvalued or because the
organization’s ability to manage a different business area was overestimated.
SHORT-TERM PRESSURES
Pressures for short-term results generally undermine investments in brands. There are
several reasons for this:
1. There is wide acceptance that maximization of stockholder value should be the overriding
objective of the firm.
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2. Management style itself is dominated by a short-term orientation. Annual budgeting
systems usually emphasize short-term sales, costs and profits. As a result brand-building programs
are often sacrificed in order to meet those targets.
3. Short-term focus is created by performance measures available. Measurements of
intangible assets such as brand equity, information technology or people are elusive at best. Also
long term value of activities that will enhance or erode brand equity is difficult to demonstrate
whereas short-term performances like impact of promotions can be tabulated easily. This results in
debilitating bias towards short-term results.
It is true that that building brands is difficult. But it is doable as is evident by those who have done
so. The greatest examples of this are brands like Titan, Coca Cola, Cadbury’s etc. We can thus see
that it is possible to build strong brands by building, managing and maintaining the four assets that
underlie brand equity-awareness, perceived quality, brand loyalty and brand association.
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
 Woodland: Tough Shoes
 Dettol: Antiseptic
 Captain cook: Free Flow Salt
Brand 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.

21
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)
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 Hindustan Lever’s Surf to become a success.
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.
Parle Bisleri – “Bada Bisleri, same price” ad campaign.
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.
Surf Excel is positioned as stain remover ‘Surf Excel hena!’
Clinic All Clear – “Dare to wear Black”.
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. Motography Motorola Mobile Ad. In this ad the persona of the user of the product is
been positioned.

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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.

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. “neighbour’s Envy, Owners Pride”.
7. POSITIONING BY CULTURAL SYMBOLS
An additional positioning strategy where in the cultural symbols are used to differentiate the
brands. Examples would be Humara Bajaj, Tata Tea, Ronald McDonald. Each of these symbols
has successfully differentiated the product it represents from competitors.
BRAND POSITIONING GUIDELINES:
1. Point of difference (POD) is a term used for an outcome of product differentiation. In business
economics, differentiation is seen as an important strategic move for companies to make. Because
of an overwhelming variety of products and services on the market, those that stand out in some
manner are better noticed by consumers. There are various (positive and negative) ways of being
different compared to competitors in the same market. Differentiation is the term given to the
positive way in which a company's product differs from its competitors. Points of difference
(PODs) describe the individual factors of differentiation.

The key points of difference of a company are synonymous with its unique selling proposition
(USP), and are critical in defining its competitive advantage and branding strategy. They must be
attributes or benefits that consumers strongly, uniquely, and positively associate with the
company's brand; and not with any competing brand. Once points of difference have been clearly
communicated to consumers, the company and its brand are set apart from its competitors. Brand
loyalty depends upon the ability of the company to establish and maintain clarity of
communication with the consumer regarding their brand; and to maintain and expand the points of
difference that defines the brand.
2. Points-of-parity (POP) are driven by the needs of category membership to create category of
POPs and the necessity of negating competitors’ Points of Difference (POD) to create competitive
POPs. In choosing points-of-difference, two important considerations are that consumers find the
POD desirable and that the firm has the capabilities to deliver on the POD.
There are three key consumer desirability criteria for PODs,
1. Relevance:
Target consumers must find the POD personally relevant and important. The Westin Stamford
hotel in Singapore advertised that it was the world’s tallest hotel, but a hotel’s height is not
important to many tourists.
2. Distinctiveness:
Target consumers must find the POD distinctive and superior. When entering a category where
there are established brands, the challenge is to find a viable basis for differentiation. Splenda
sugar substitute overtook Equal and Sweet ‘n Low to become the leader in its category in 2003 by
differentiating itself on its authenticity as a product derived from sugar, without any of the
associated drawbacks. Eg: TATA slat – iodide salt
3. Believability:
Target consumers must find the POD believable and credible. A brand must offer a compelling
reason for choosing it over the other options. Mountain Dew may argue that it is more energizing

23
than other soft drinks and support this claim by noting that it has a higher level of caffeine. AXE
perfume may claim to be the best perfume and support this claim by noting the long association
between belief and haute coutre.
There are three key deliverability criteria.
1. Feasibility:
2. Communicability:
3. Sustainability:
Marketers must decide at which level (s) to anchor the brand’s points–of-differences. At the lowest
level are brand attributes, at the next level are the brand’s benefits, and at the top are the brand’s
values.
Thus marketers of Dove soap can talk about its attribute of one-quarter
cleansing cream; or its benefit of softer skin; or its value, being more
attractive. Attributes are typically the least desirable level to position.
First, the buyer is more interested in benefits. Second, competitors can
easily copy attributes. Third, the current attributes may become less
desirable.
Research has shown, however, that brands can sometimes be successfully
differentiated on seemingly irrelevant attributes if consumers infer the
proper benefit. Procter & Gamble differentiates its Folger’s instant coffee
by its “flaked coffee crystals, “created through a “unique patented process.
In reality, the shape of the coffee particles is irrelevant because the crystals
immediately dissolve in the hot water. Saying that a brand of coffee is
“mountain grown is irrelevant because most coffee is mountain grown.
3. Laddering:
Pantene shampoo was a minor brand in the early 1990s when it was
acquired by Procter & Gamble. Pantene’s ingredient, ProV, served as a
basis for claiming that the brand would offer shiny hair, which implied
that it would ensure healthy hair. Within several years, this positioning
propelled Pantene to the leading share brand in the category. The Pantene strategy illustrates the
effective use of another fortifying strategy called laddering. One way to ladder is to give multiple
reasons to believe a brand’s functional benefits. Pantene’s position as providing the healthiest hair
was supported not only by its ProV ingredient, but also by the fact that it had different shampoos
to make hair softer or feel thicker. Thus, laddering down can serve as a means of sustaining a
brand’s position by presenting additional reasons to believe the brand’s functional benefit.

Pantene not only laddered down by supporting its shiny hair benefit in terms of the Pro-V and
other reasons to believe, but it also used shiny hair to imply a more abstract emotional benefit,
healthy hair. In turn, healthy hair might be used to imply a feeling of self-confidence among
Pantene users.Thus, a ladder is established with tangible features at the bottom that offer a reason
to believe the functional benefit, which indicates what the brand does for the consumer. In turn,
the functional benefit provides a basis for inferring emotional benefits, which describe how the
functional benefit makes the consumer feel. Laddering up from a tangible feature to a functional
benefit to an emotional benefit provides a means of sustaining a brand’s position.

BRAND VALUE
People are willing to pay more for a brand than a product. Brand value is the extra money a
company can make from its products solely because of its brand name.
Example:
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How much more is a consumer willing to pay for a coffee at Starbucks as opposed to a coffee at a
fast-food restaurant?
 Given a set of tangible product features, what is the price premium a consumer is willing to
pay for my brand compared to a competitor' brand or an unbranded product?
 What are the intangible product attributes and image features that lead to consumer
willingness to pay a premium price?
 Who are the customers that are willing to pay that premium for my brand?
 Who are the customers that are willing to pay that premium for the competitive brand?
 How do they differ from each other?
 With regard to these attributes and features, how does my brand compare to the
competition?
 What is the added value of combining brands into "super brands"?
 Which activities will increase (or decrease) my brand's equity?
 What activities of my competitors will cause/have caused their brand equity to increase or
decrease?
 Does the equity of my brand carry over to other products and services? If yes, what are
these products and services to which equity of my brand extends?
 How does the equity of my brand(s) develop over time?
 How do consumers in my product category segment?
 What is the proportion of "brand loyal", "price sensitive", or "feature sensitive"
consumers?
The measurement and management of brand value has become a major issue for marketers
and marketing researchers over the last several years. The concept of brand value and brand
equity goes well beyond the legal concept of a trademark or the accounting concept of goodwill.
Brand equity encompasses a gestalt of intrinsic values, or equities that adds to the tangible,
measurable benefits delivered by a particular product or service. These intrinsic equities may
include such things as the image imparted to the purchaser, advertising quality, advertising
quantity and trust, long term reputation for reliability, customer support, social responsibility, and
so forth.

As an example, two "unbranded" credit cards may deliver the exact same set of features in
terms of fees structures, APR, acceptance, credit lines, etc. As long as these two products remain
unbranded, they will be undifferentiated and therefore equivalent to the user/purchaser. But, if we
label one of those cards "American Express" and the other "Acme", most users/purchasers will
attribute additional, intrinsic, value to the American Express product. The two branded credit cards
are no longer undifferentiated. The same concept applies to service industries such as
telecommunications.
The key challenges in Brand Value/Brand Equity measurement are now to:
1. measure the importance of "brand" in the consumers product selection process
2. to dissect that measure of "brand" and determine its key contributing components
Consumers see a particular brand name as a contract. A brand's name may reduce
consumers' sense of uncertainty, allowing them to purchase uncertainty reduction, or trust, thus
improving their sense of value. Promotion of a brand can address either price/costs, tangible brand
attributes or intrinsic brand attributes (equities). Brand equity is communicated using consistent
visual cues and consistent messages, allowing the consumer to quickly and efficiently distinguish
between brands and their intrinsic product attributes. As a purchaser considers the tangible product
features in concert with brand equity (and price), they arrive at a set of products in a category
which they will consider for purchase (i.e. their consideration set). Thus, a brand's equity is
25
dependent on effective communications to the target market(s) and brand equity can be improved
to some extent with improved effectiveness of communications.

A brand's equity therefore becomes part of the tradeoff a consumer considers as they first
select their consideration set, and then decide which product or service to purchase. That is,
purchasers actively trade off both the perceived tangible benefits and the perceived intrinsic
benefits delivered by products in their consideration set, against price, to arrive at their value
hierarchy, and ultimately their purchase decision.

Brands that have high perceived value are always included in a purchaser's consideration
set. If a brand's combined tangible and intrinsic equities are consistently higher than any other
brand in the category, that brand will have the highest customer loyalty in terms of purchase,
repurchase, and recommendation. Competing brands can only improve their loyalty against the
brand equity leader by lowering price in the short term, improving their product's tangible features
in the mid term, or improving their brand's intrinsic benefits, or equity, in the long term.

Brand equity can be addressed at either the corporate level or the category level and can
also be addressed using internal data or external data. At the corporate level, brand equity can be
assessed using internal financial data from the firm's accounting system, or it can be assessed
using comparative financial performance data from similar firms (i.e. external). At the category
level, a firm can address brand equity using unit profit margins in comparison to unit marketing
costs, and in comparison to the costs of other products in the category. Alternatively, the firm can
use consumer surveys to measure the perceived value of the product/brand compared to other
products/brands in a category.
These alternatives are shown in the following table

Internal External
P & L statements Financial Comparatives
Corporate Level
Balance Sheets Industry norms
Unit margins
Category Level Customer Surveys
Unit profitability
Brand’s value is directly related to customer loyalty. That is, if a particular brand maintains a
significantly higher perception of value to a consumer than any other brand in the category, that
consumer will consistently purchase that brand and consistently recommend that brand to others.
Conversely, as brands in a category become less differentiated in terms of both tangible and
intrinsic features, price becomes the major differentiator of value, and thus, there is little loyalty.

Brand equity Loyalty

Product features Brand Value Purchase/ Repurchase

Price Recommend

BRAND VALUE CHAIN

The brand value chain is a structured approach to assessing the sources and outcomes of brand
equity and the manner by which marketing activities create brand value.
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The brand value chain has several basic premises. Fundamentally, it assumes that the value of a
brand ultimately resides with customers. Based on this insight, the model next assumes that the
brand value creation process begins when the firm invests in a marketing program targeting actual
or potential customers. The marketing activity associated with the program then affects the
customer mindset with respect to the brand. This mindset, across a broad group of customers, then
results in certain outcomes for the brand in terms of how it performs in the marketplace.

Finally, the investment community considers this market performance and other factors such as
replacement cost and purchase price in acquisitions to arrive at an assessment of shareholder value
in general and a value of the brand in particular.
The model also assumes that a number of linking factors intervene between these stages. These
linking factors determine the extent to which value created at one stage transfers or “multiplies” to
the next stage.
Marketing Program Investment

The ability of a marketing program investment to transfer or multiply farther down the
chain will thus depend on qualitative aspects of the marketing program via the program quality
multiplier.
Program Quality Multiplier
To illustrate, four particularly important factors are as follows:
1. Clarity: How understandable is the marketing program?
2. Relevance: How meaningful is the marketing program to customers?
3. Distinctiveness: How unique is the marketing program from those offered by competitors?
How creative or differentiating is the marketing program?
4. Consistency: How cohesive and well integrated is the marketing program?
Not surprisingly, a well-integrated marketing program that has been carefully designed and
implemented to be highly relevant and unique to customers is likely to achieve a greater return on
investment from marketing program expenditures.

Marketplace Conditions Multiplier.

The extent to which value created in the minds of customers affects market performance
depends on various contextual factors external to the customer. Three such factors are as follows:
1. Competitive superiority: How effective are the quantity and quality of the marketing investment
of other competing brands.
2. Channel and other intermediary support: How much brand reinforcement and selling effort is
being put forth by various marketing partners.
3. Customer size and profile: How many and what types of customers (e.g., profitable or not) are
attracted to the brand.
Investor Sentiment Multiplier:
The extent to which the value engendered by the market performance of a brand is
manifested in shareholder value depends on various contextual factors external to the brand itself.
Financial analysts and investors consider a host of factors in arriving at their brand valuations and
investment decisions. Among these considerations are the following:
1. Market dynamics: What are the dynamics of the financial markets as a whole (e.g., interest
rates, investor sentiment, or supply of capital)?
2. Growth potential: What are the growths potential or prospects for the brand and the industry in
which it operates? For example, how helpful are the facilitating factors and how inhibiting are the

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hindering external factors that make up the firm’s economic, social, physical, and legal
environment?
3. Risk profile: What is the risk profile for the brand? How vulnerable is the brand likely to be to
those facilitating and inhibiting factors?
4. Brand contribution: How important is the brand as part of the firm’s brand portfolio and all the
brands it has?
BRAND VISION
It is all about where you want to see your brand at the end of a certain period of your
definition. In very simple words, vision is the journey from here (present) to there (future).
Being the brand manager, you are responsible for the destination planning of your brand in
terms of its future movements relating, for example:
• The volume
• Share of the market
• Markets to serve
• Distribution improvements
• Quality parameters and benchmarks
• Overtaking competition
• Product innovation or extension, to name a few
With the vision in place about your brand’s movement, the next step for you is to take top
management into confidence. The top management is extremely interested in the planned
brand’s movements as envisioned by you and your department.
If the top management has an overall vision, then the brand vision should automatically fit into
that. The brand vision, therefore, is an extension of the overall business vision. It flows out of the
latter.
Brand vision tells us about a brand’s growth and future direction. It is the most important
statement before we undertake the strategic management process. It tells us how our brand is
going to help the company achieve its goals – financial and strategic.
Before going any further, it is important that we learn how the strategic management process
(SMP) works! An understanding of the basics of the process will allow us to easily fit the vision
into it and then see how to proceed with every successive strategic step of importance.
Consisting of five steps, the SMP can be explained easily with the help of the following figure:

Figure: Strategic Management Process

The figure being self-explanatory, it explains that forming the vision is number one task, followed
by setting objectives (both financial and strategic), crafting the right strategies to achieve
designated objectives, implementing the crafted strategies, and evaluating performance for any
corrective actions or adjustments anywhere along the sequential process.
Very early in the strategy making process, managers ask themselves the question:
• What is our vision for the company?
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• Where is the company headed?
• What kind of enterprise we want to build?
• What should be the company’s future make-up?
A careful analysis of and answers to the questions lead them to conclude:
• Where the company stands today and where should it reach in say 5 to 10 years?
This addresses the question of reaching from here to there!
• What businesses they should be handling? This relates whether they should extend their brand
into similar products, or diversify into unrelated areas.
• What customers should they serve? Decision about extension or diversification will pinpoint the
target customers.
• Do they need more brands to serve more businesses? This indicates whether they should be
keeping their existing brand name or go for new ones.
• What capabilities and resources they need to have to achieve all that they envision? A very
careful analysis of what is it in terms of financial, human, and technological resources that they
need to succeed is required here.
Purpose of brand vision:
To earn the right level of profitability, you have to leverage your brand rightly. It is here
that we start treating brand as an asset and manage that asset by having a vision.
Vision fulfills three basic purposes
• Consensus among management
• Commits company to research
• Mandates telling all stakeholders
Consensus among management:
A bottom-up approach, it extracts understanding and consensus from management about
brand’s contribution. All concerned with the brand give their input regarding brand’s potential and
an effort is made to have all of them committed to the respective tasks they are to perform toward
brand’s contribution.
Brand vision brings management to a platform from where they all have to agree what
level of growth the brand will generate to fulfill company’s objectives. It is not a function limited
to the boundaries of marketing management; it is an objective for total management to agree on
one point – brand’s reason for being (why it exists?) and its potential toward profitability.

The question of why the brand exists entails detailed discussion on many exciting areas of
marketing, which will be touched upon from time to time in their proper perspective throughout
the course? What it essentially means is the “fulfillment of a particular need” of customers.
Identifying the right need and then committing yourselves to fulfill that with the right product
takes you on the journey of starting with a vision to complete development of the brand.
Commits Company to research:
Consensus leads management to initiate research on so many vital research projects. Because of
the commitment, no one wants to make decisions without any solid basis. The tendency to make
assumptions on the ground that we know the market well and therefore there is no need for
research should be avoided. Only research provides the company with grounds like:
 Customer attitudes and usage
 Brand attributes to maintain and change
 Segmental changes; multi-segment brands
 Geographical changes; new categories etc.
The list is not exhaustive. It can be much longer depending on the needs of the company at
any given point in time. Knowing customers’ attitudes offers insights into product build-up,
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service requirements, and any other fulfillment of customers’ requirements. Maintaining or
changing product attributes relate responding to changing needs, preferences, and competitive
pressures that exist and the ones that are anticipated.

You can also determine the differences among different offerings of the brand as perceived
by your consumers in different segments of the market. You can make decisions about which
segments are more attractive and which are less attractive. That may also take you into what
geographic areas to be emphasized more in relation to strength of different offerings. Brand
strength may lead the management to start considering introducing its brand across categories.
What is it that took Nestle from milk to yogurt to juices to chocolates? This is a good example of
going across categories.

Management can either stick to its vision and plans or change it according to the findings
of Market research. As you go along the learning path you will realize that almost at every step
you can undertake a research project. Research does not have to be tedious, cumbersome, and
expensive. Small and simple research designs can lead you to verify your hypotheses as the need
emerges.

The present day’s competitive pressures have made the day-to-day management very fast
paced and, hence, prone to dynamic changes and adjustments. Information on past performance,
recent trends, and research findings present a strong case for the brand plan and vision. Having
support from all stakeholders toward your brand objectives makes the job of management less
difficult. It also keeps the blame game and finger pointing from taking place if things go wrong.
Going right strengthens management’s confidence.

Let us now try to develop hypothetical vision and mission statements of a fast food
company that is planning to enter the category of fast food. The exercise is intended to take you
through a case that offers an opportunity of developing a practical understanding of the concepts.
After you feel comfortable with the learning process, you may like to develop similar statements
of any business you may envision yourself handling or heading.
BRAND MANTRAS
To provide further focus as to the intent of the brand positioning and how firms would like
consumers to think about the brand, it is often useful to define a brand mantra. A brand mantra is
highly related to branding concepts such as “brand essence” or “core brand promise.” A brand
mantra is an articulation of the “heart and soul” of the brand. Brand mantras are short, three- to
five-word phrases that capture the irrefutable essence or spirit of the brand positioning.

Brand mantras are powerful devices. They can provide guidance as to what products to
introduce under the brand, what ad campaigns to run, where and how the brand should be sold and
so on. The influence of brand mantras, however, can extend beyond these tactical concerns. Brand
mantras may even guide the most seemingly unrelated or mundane decisions, such as the look of a
reception area, the way phones are answered, and so on. In effect, brand mantras are designed to
create a mental alter to screen out brand-inappropriate marketing activities or actions of any type
that may have a negative bearing on customers’ impressions of a brand.

Brand mantras are important for a number of reasons. First, any time a consumer or
customer encounters a brand – in any way, shape, or form – his or her knowledge about that brand
may change, and as a result, the equity of the brand is affected. Given that a vast number
of employees, either directly or indirectly, come into contact with consumers in a way that may
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affect consumer knowledge about the brand, it is important that employee words and actions
consistently reinforce and support the brand meaning. Many employees or marketing partners
(e.g., ad agency members) who potentially could help or hurt brand equity may be far removed
from the marketing strategy formulation and may not even recognize their role in influencing
equity. The existence and communication of a brand mantra signals the importance of the brand to
the organization and an understanding of its meaning as well as the crucial role of employees and
marketing partners in its management.

Their purpose is to ensure that all employees within the organization and all external
marketing partners understand what the brand most fundamentally is to represent with consumers
so that they can adjust their actions accordingly.

McDonald’s brand philosophy of “Food, Folks, and Fun” captures their brand essence and
core brand promise. Brand mantras must economically communicate what the brand is and what
the brand is not. Two high-profile and successful examples for Nike and Disney, show the power
and utility of having a well-designed brand mantra. They also help to suggest what might
characterize a good brand mantra.

Nike’s brand mantra has had profound implications for its marketing. In the words of ex-
Nike marketing gurus Scott Bedbury and Jerome Conlon, the brand mantra provided the
“intellectual guard rails” to keep the brand moving in the right direction and to make sure it did
not get of track somehow. From a product development standpoint, Nike’s brand mantra has
affected where it has taken the brand. Over the years, Nike has expanded its brand meaning from
“running shoes” to “athletic shoes” to “athletic shoes and apparel” to “all things associated with
athletics (including equipment).”

Each step of the way, however, it has been guided by its “authentic athletic performance”
brand mantra. For example, as Nike rolled out its successful apparel line, one important hurdle for
the products was that they could be made innovative enough through its material, cut, or design to
truly benefit top athletes. At the same time, the company has been careful to avoid using the Nike
name to brand products that do not fit with the brand mantra (e.g., causal” brown” shoes).When
Nike has experienced problems with its marketing program, it has often been a result of its failure
to figure out how to translate their brand mantra to the marketing challenge at hand. For example,
in going to Europe, Nike experienced several false starts until realizing that “authentic athletic
performance” has a different meaning over there and, in particular, has to involve soccer in a
major way, among other things. Similarly, Nike stumbled in developing their All Conditions Gear
(ACG) outdoors shoes and clothing sub-brand in translating their brand mantra into a less
competitive arena. In short…..
Nike’s brand mantra put a particular emphasis on maintaining authenticity, by which we
also meant integrity and purity, front and center… All products and activities associated with Nike
likewise had to be athletic, not leisurely… Finally, every Nike product had to exude world-class
performance and meet the demands of the world’s finest athletes, even though such athletes
represented a microscopic piece of Nike’s total business… “Authentic Athletic Performance” was
a simple idea, but like so many simple ideas, its execution and implementation could be complex,
not to mention challenging, daunting, — and even painful, when it came down to forgoing
revenue-generating activities because they violated these accepted core values.
Example: Disney’s Brand Mantra
Disney’s development of its brand mantra was in response to its incredible growth through
licensing and product development during the mid-1980s. In the late1980s, Disney became
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concerned that some of its characters (Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, etc.) were being used
inappropriately and becoming over exposed. To investigate the severity of the problem, Disney
undertook an extensive brand audit. As part of a brand inventory, it first compiled a list of all
Disney products that were available (licensed and company manufactured) and all third-
party promotions (complete with point-of-purchase displays and relevant merchandising) from
stores across the country and all over the world.

At the same time, Disney launched a major consumer research study – a brand exploratory
– to investigate how consumers felt about the Disney brand results of the brand inventory revealed
some potentially serious problems: Disney characters were on so many products and marketed in
so many ways that in some cases it was difficult to discern what could have been the rationale
behind the deal to start with. Te consumer study only heightened Disney’s concerns. Because of
the broad exposure of the characters in the marketplace, many consumers had begun to feel that
Disney was exploiting its name. In some cases, consumer’s feel that the characters added little
value to products and, worse yet, involved children in purchase decisions that they would typically
ignore. Because of their aggressive marketing efforts, Disney had written contracts with many of
the “park participants” for co-promotions or licensing arrangements. Disney characters were
selling everything from diapers to cars to McDonald’s hamburgers.

Disney learned in the consumer study, however, that consumers did not differentiate
between all of the product endorsements. “Disney was Disney” to consumers, whether they saw
the characters in films, records, theme parks, or consumer products. Consequently, all products
and services that used the Disney name or characters had an impact on Disney’s brand equity.
Consumers reported that they resented some of these endorsements because they felt that they had
a special, personal relationship with the characters and with Disney that should not be handled so
carelessly.

As a result of their brand audit, Disney moved quickly to establish a brand equity team to
better manages the brand franchise and more carefully evaluate licensing and other third-party
promotional opportunities. One of the mandates of this team was to ensure that a consistent image
for Disney – reinforcing its key brand associations – was conveyed by all third-party products and
services. To facilitate this supervision, Disney adopted an internal brand mantra of “fun family
entertainment” to serve as a screen for proposed ventures. Opportunities that were presented that
were not consistent with the brand mantra – no matter how appealing – were rejected.

For example, Disney was approached to co-brand a mutual fund in Europe that was
designed for families as a way for parents to save for the college expenses of their children. Te
opportunity was declined despite the consistent “family” association because Disney believed that
a connection with the financial community or banking suggested other associations that were
inconsistent with their brand image (mutual funds are rarely intended to be entertaining). To
provide further distinctiveness, the Disney mantra could have even added the word “magical.”
Designing a Brand Mantra
Brand mantras don’t necessarily have to follow the same structure as Nike and Disney’s,
but whatever structure is adopted, it must be the case that the brand mantra clearly delineates what
the brand is supposed to represent and therefore, at least implicitly, what it is not. Several
additional points about brand mantras are worth noting.
First, brand mantras are designed with internal purposes in mind. A brand slogan is an external
translation that attempts to creatively engage consumers. So although Nike’s internal mantra was
“authentic athletic performance,” its external slogan was “Just Do It.”
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Here are the three key criteria for a brand mantra.
• Communicate: A good brand mantra should define the category (or categories) of business for
the brand and set the brand boundaries. It should also clarify what is unique about the brand.
• Simplify: An effective brand mantra should be memorable. As a result, it should be short,
Crisp, and vivid in meaning.
• Inspire: Ideally, the brand mantra would also stake out ground that is personally meaningful and
relevant to as many employees as possible.
Second, brand mantras typically are designed to capture the brand’s points-of-difference, that is,
what is unique about the brand. Other aspects of the brand positioning – especially the brand’s
Points-of-parity – may also be important and may need to be reinforced in other ways. Third, for
brands facing rapid growth, it is helpful to done the product or benefit space in which the brand
would like to compete as with Nike and “athletic performance” and Disney with “family
entertainment.” Including a word or words that describes the nature of the product or service or the
type of experiences or benefits that the brand provides can be critical to provide guidance’s to
appropriate and inappropriate categories into which to extend.

For brands in more stable categories where extensions into more distinct categories are less
likely to occur, the brand mantra may focus more exclusively on points-of-difference. Finally,
brand mantras derive their power and usefulness from their collective meaning. Other brands may
be strong on one, or perhaps even a few, of the brand associations making up the brand mantra.
For the brand mantra to be effective, no other brand should singularly excel on all dimensions.
Part of the key to both Nike’s and Disney’s success is that for years, no other competitor could
really deliver on the promise suggested by their brand mantras as well as those brands.

ELEMENTS OF A BRAND
Brand elements are those trademarkable devices that identify and differentiate the brand.
Most strong brands employ multiple brand elements. Nike has the distinctive "swoosh" logo, the
empowering "Just Do It" slogan, and the "Nike" name based on the winged goddess of victory.
Marketers should choose brand elements to build as much brand equity as possible. The test of the
brand-building ability of these elements is what consumers would think or feel about the product
ifthe brand element were all they knew. A brand element that provides a positive contribution to
brand equity, for example, conveys certain valued associations or responses. Based on its name
alone, a consumer might expect Revlon lipsticks to be long lasting and ‘Lays’ to be healthful
snack foods.
BRAND ELEMENT CHOICE CRITERIA:
There are six main criteria for choosing brand elements. The first three-memorable,
meaningful, and likable-are "brand building." The latter three-transferable, adaptable, and
protectable-are "defensive" and deal with how to leverage and preserve the equity in a brand
element in the face of opportunities and constraints.

Memorable-How easily is the brand element recalled and recognized? Is this true at both purchase
and consumption? Short names such as Tide, Crest, and Puffs are memorable brand elements.

Meaningful-Is the brand element credible and suggestive of the corresponding category? Does it
suggest something about a product ingredient or the type of person who might use the brand?

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Consider the inherent meaning in names Such as Diehard auto batteries, Mop & Glow floor wax,
and Lean Cuisine low-calorie frozen entrees.

Likable-How aesthetically appealing is the brand element? Is it likable visually, verbally, and in
other ways? Concrete brand names such as Sunkist, Spic and Span, and Thunderbird evoke much
imagery.

Transferable-Can the brand element be used to introduce new products in the same or different
categories? Does it add to brand equity across geographic boundaries and market segments?
Although initially an online book seller, Amazon.com was smart enough not to call itself "Books
'R' Us." The Amazon is famous as the world's biggest river, and the name suggests the wide
variety of goods that could be shipped, an important descriptor of the diverse range of products the
company now sells.

Adaptable-How adaptable and updatable is the brand element? The face of Betty Crocker has
received more than eight makeovers over her 75 years and she doesn't look a day over 35!

Protectable-How legally protectible is the brand element? How competitively protectable? Names
that become synonymous with product categories-such as Kleenex, Kitty Litter, Jell-a, Scotch
Tape, Xerox, and Fiberglass-should retain their trademark rights and not become generic.

DEVELOPING BRAND ELEMENTS:

Brand elements can play a number of brand-building roles. If consumers don't examine
much information in making their product decisions, brand elements should be easy to recognize
and recall and inherently descriptive and persuasive. The likability and appeal of brand elements
may also playa critical role in awareness and associations leading to brand equity.
Brand names aren't the only important brand element. Often, the less concrete brand benefits are,
the more important it is that brand elements capture intangible characteristics. Many insurance
firms have used symbols of strength (the Rock of Gibraltar for Prudential and the stag for Hart
ford), security (the "good hands" of Allstate, Traveller's umbrella, and the hard hat of Fireman's
Fund), or some combination of the two (the castle for Fortis). Like brand names, slogans are an
extremely efficient means to build brand equity. They can function as useful "hooks" or "handles"
to help consumers grasp what the brand is and what makes it special
Brand elements:
1. Brand name:
Certain factors to be considered before selecting a brand name:
· distinguish the product from competitive brands
· Memorable and easy to pronounce
· Easy to say, spell and pronounce
· It should allude to the product’s uses, benefits, or special characteristics in a positive way
· Negative or offensive references should be avoided.
· evoke positive mental image
· evoke positive emotional reaction
· suggest product function or benefits
· Simple
· sound appropriate
· be registrable (unique)
· Possibly, translate well in other languages too.

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2. Logo
The company logo is the cornerstone of the firm's branding elements. For many firms the logo is
the visual reminder of everything that the firm stands for. While a great logo won't necessarily
build the firm, it plays a vital role in representing it. Conversely, a weak or confusing logo can
detract from the value that the firm brings.
Elements of a Good Logo
 It has a lasting value - trendy logos don't hold up over time.
 It is distinct - some amount of uniqueness, as long as it doesn't confuse, is valuable.
 Appeals to your target market - if your target market is partial to blue then it doesn't
matter that you're not.
 Supports your USP - If you are trying to communicate your low low prices then your
logo should support that image
 Legible - This seems pretty obvious but many people use typefaces and images that can't
be printed or carried to a large sign. Your logo should clearly identify your company and it can't do
that if people don't understand it.
3. Slogans, Jingles, Characters, and Packaging
 Recognize the benefits of an effective jingle, slogan, character, and package design for a
brand.
 Use a slogan or jingle that ie. edible to the hear and one which is hummable. For example,
Doodh Doodh Ad.
 examine a hypothetical brand character to determine its effectiveness in enhancing brand
awareness.(celebrity)

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