Creating Customer-based Brand Equity

A case of UK Sports Shoe market

2.0 Literature Review:

Aaked model of brand equity is used in this study which was established in 1991 and used by
numerous researchers for the construction of brand equity (Zavattaro, Adams&Daspit, 2015). In
order to create competitive advantage, companies emphasize brand equity (Bambauer-
Sachse&Mangold, 2011). It is considered as the most precious asset for any company as it
provides value to the customers that generate will in them to pay more (Bianchi, Lings & Pike,
2014). Higher brand equity adds value to the company which enables the consistent revenue and
consistent market share for the market (Mustaffa&Busen, 2014).

As per Zavattaro et al, (2015), there are three dimensions of brand equity those are investigated
and discussed in the marketing field, those are, perspective based on customers, dual/combined
aspect and aspect of finance. But customer based brand equity is being selected for this study as
it is most important and has various dimensions like, consumers’ associations, product
awareness, perceived quality and customers’ loyalty with respect to company (Juan,
Zorrilla&Beristain, 2011). If there is awareness about the brand/product which starts developing
brand equity, only then brand equity can occur (Kim, Ko, Han &Xu, 2012).

Nam et al, (2011) also suggested that, in brand equity, first and foremost aspect or dimension is
brand equity which provides the information and knowledge about the product/brand. As per the
definition of Bianchi et al, (2014), brand awareness is the ability of consumers’ to categorize the
product. Once customer establishes a familiarity with a brand, the process of association will be
initiated (Kuvykaite&Piligrimiene, 2014).

There is an argument by Cheng &liao (2014) that, certain characteristics of the brand is
associated in consumer’s mind that is the brand association he holds in the mind. Brand
association is an image or picture of the brand/ product in consumer’s mind which will be
instantly identified or recalled upon seeing the brand anywhere (Misra& Panda, 2014).
According to Swoboda et al, (2013), brand association is an outcome of high brand awareness
and is positively linked with brand equity.

As per Zavattaro et al, (2015), perceived quality is the perspective or opinion of the customers
about the product but it is not the product’s actual quality. Brand loyalty differs with other
dimensions of brand equity, it is related with high association and experience, brand awareness
and perceived quality.
According to Mangold&Bambauer- Sachse, (2011), brand loyalty can be achieved by a
successful and satisfied series of consumer interactions. Loyalty needs high level of satisfaction
of consumers’ experiences and loyalty is achieved with time. Brand loyalty is referred as brand
patronage that various transactions develop over time, however, consumer’s satisfaction must
remain there.

To build brand equity, it requires marketing efforts (Mustaffa&Busen, 2014). As per Juan,
Zorrilla&Beristain, (2011) to increase brand equity, strategies of product positioning, marketing
tactics series and promotional tools are required. Marketing tactics enable companies to talk
about the differences related to brand (Nam et al, 2011). Tools of marketing also used to create
knowledge among consumers that boosts brand association, brand awareness and the image
about the product’s quality (Kim et al, 2012).

Advertising has a potential to generate quick sale and brand awareness and is considered as one
of the most crucial marketing activities (Juan, Zorrilla&Beristain, 2011). However word-of-
mouth is an effective marketing tool despite of low cost whereas advertising is high cost method
of marketing. Word-of-mouth is linked with quality and experience of a product thus generates a
powerful message in the consumers’ social circle (Namkung& Jang, 2013). Celebrities are also
used by the companies for the endorsement of their products which increases the image of a
product. The brand is associated with the celebrity’s image which tempts the consumers to
purchase the product (Cheng & Liao, 2014).

Another marketing strategy is sales promotions which are used to boost the temporary sales
(Mangold, Bambauer-Sachse, 2011). But Zavattaro et al, (2015) says, over loaded sales
promotions considered as diluting brand equity. Sales promotions are mostly used to create the
product’s trails and once product is known by the consumers, they get associated to it (Bianchi et
al, 2014).

According to Mustaffa&Busen, (2014) brand awareness is created by the events those are
sponsored by the companies and being watched by millions of people. Sportswear manufacturers
sponsor sports events where consumers watch the product being used by their celebrities and
they get tempted to get associated with the brand which is an ultimate increase of brand equity.

2.1 The concept of brand equity:

In brand management, academic research and in business practice, brand equity is one of the
important concept (Kim et al, 2006). Most of the companies emphasize, managing brand equity
as an important issue and brand equity is considered as the valuable intangible asset by most of
the firms (Hao et al, 2007). For many companies, brand equity is a means of competitive
advantage (Tseng and Cheng, 2010). This is the added value which may reveal that how
customers feel, consider and act in terms of brand, market share and profitability, as well as
prices that are commanded by the brand for a company (Keller and Kotler, 2006).
Customer-based brand equity:

Brand equity is investigated through application of different approaches by researchers and

marketers (Keller and Kotler, 2006). There are three perspective classifications of these
approachesi.e., financial perspective, customer-based perspective and combined perspective
(Keller, 1993). Study of brand equity from the perspective of customers is customer-based brand
equity (Chan and Xu, 2010). It can be explained as different brand knowledge like, familiarity,
customers association which affects the reaction of a customer on a brand marketing (Hawley,
2009). When customers are familiar with the brand and have brand images in their memory or
mind and they are able to recall it upon seeing the brand anywhere, it is the customer based
brand equity (Wang et al, 2008).

Financial perspective aims to analyze the market share, sales income and firm’s value. Thus, it
can also be considered as an enterprise’ perspective (Li et al, 2011).

Moreover, the combined brand equity integrates both customer-based and financial

Brand equity. Customers-based brand equity plays an important role for the successful

brand management of a firm. Positive customers-based brand equity can “lead to

greater revenue, lower cost and higher profit” ( Hawley,2009). Therefore, in this research,
customers-based brand equity will be explored and

applied for investigation.