CHAPTER 4:

CHOOSING BRAND ELEMENTS TO BUILD BRAND

EQUITY

Kevin Lane Keller Tuck

Instructor: Imran Khan

Video 6
http://ccw.vcomsats.edu.pk/Home/ViewContent?courseId=48
&lectureId=1385
Video 7
http://ccw.vcomsats.edu.pk/Home/ViewContent?courseId=48
&lectureId=1388
 Objectives
Identify the different types of brand elements.
2. List the general criteria for choosing brand
elements.
3. Describe key tactics in choosing different brand
elements.
4. Explain the rationale for “mixing and matching”
brand elements.
5. Highlight some of the legal issues surrounding
brand elements.
Brand Elements
Brand Elements sometimes called brand identities,
are those trademarkable devices that serve to identify
and differentiate the brand. The main ones are brand
names, URLs, logos, symbols, characters,
spokespeople, slogans, jingles, packages, and
signage.
The customer-based brand equity model suggests
that marketers should choose brand elements to
enhance brand awareness; facilitate the formation of
strong, favorable, and unique brand associations; or
elicit positive brand judgments and feelings.
1. Memorable
Easily recognized
Easily recalled
2. Meaningful
Descriptive
Persuasive
3. Likable
Fun and interesting
Rich visual and verbal imagery
Aesthetically pleasing
4. Transferable
Within and across product categories
Across geographic boundaries and cultures
5. Adaptable
Flexible
Updatable
6. Protectable
Legally
Competitively
• General information about the function of the product or service: Does the brand
element have descriptive meaning and suggest something about the product
category, the needs satisfied or benefits supplied? How likely is it that a consumer
could correctly identify the
• product category for the brand based on any one brand element? Does the brand
element seem credible in the product category?
• Specific information about particular attributes and benefits of the brand:
• Does the brand element have persuasive meaning and suggest something about the
particular kind of product, or its key points-of-difference attributes or benefits?
• Does it suggest something about some aspect of the product performance or the
type of person who might use the brand?
BRAND NAME
The brand name is a fundamentally important choice because it often captures the central
theme or key associations of a product in a very compact and economical fashion. Brand
names can be an extremely effective shorthand means of communication.
Simplicity
Is it difficult to come up with a brand name? Ira Bachrach, a well-known branding consultant, has noted that
although there are 140,000 words in the English vocabulary, the average U.S.adult recognizes only 20,000;
Bachrach’s consulting company, NameLab, sticks to the 7,000 words that make up the vocabulary of most TV
programs and commercials.

Taurus” was the code name given to the car during its design stage because the chief
engineer’s and product manager’s wives were both born under that astrological sign.

Familiarity and Meaningfulness. The brand name should be familiar and meaningful so it can tap into existing
knowledge structures. It can be concrete or abstract in meaning.
Differentiated, Distinctive, and Unique.
Although choosing a simple, easy-to-pronounce, familiar, and meaningful brand name can improve recallability,
to improve brand recognition, on the other hand, brand names should be different, distinctive, and unusual.
Brand Associations
Because the brand name is a compact form of communication, the explicit and implicit meanings consumers
extract from it are important. In naming a new peer-to-peer communication technology, the founders landed
on the descriptive “Sky peer-to-peer” which they decided to shorten to Skyper.
In 2010, cybersquatting cases reached record levels. Cybersquatting or domain
squatting, as defined by government law, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain
name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to