CHAPTER 4:

CHOOSING BRAND ELEMENTS TO BUILD

BRAND EQUITY
-Brand Elements, sometimes called brand identities
are those trademark devices that serve to identify
and differentiate the brand.
-Their main function is to
*inherently enhance brand awareness or
*facilitate the formation of strong, favorable, and
unique brand associations or
*elicit positive brand judgment or feelings.
4.1
Criteria for Choosing Brand Elements
In general, there are six criteria for brand elements.
FIGURE 4-1 Criteria for Choosing Brand Elements

1. Memorable
Easily recognized
Easily recalled
2. Meaningful
Descriptive
Persuasive
3. Likable
Fun and interesting
Rich visual and verbal imagery
Aesthetically pleasing 3.2
4. Transferable
Within and across product categories
Across geographic boundaries and cultures
5. Adaptable
Flexible
Updatable
6. Protectable
Legally
Competitively

3.3
 Memorability
 Brand elements should inherently be
memorable and attention-getting, and therefore
facilitate recall or recognition.
 For example, a brand of propane gas cylinders
named Blue Rhino featuring a powder-blue
animal mascot (luck bringer) with a distinctive
yellow flame(bright light) is likely to stick in the
minds of consumers.

4.4
 Meaningfulness
 Brand elements may take on all kinds of
meaning, with either descriptive or persuasive
content.
 Two particularly important criteria are how well
the brand element conveys
 General information about the nature of the
product category
 Specific information about particular
attributes and benefits of the brand
 The first dimension is an important
determinant of brand awareness and salience ;
4.5
 Likability
 Do customers find the brand element
aesthetically appealing?
 Is it likeable visually, verbally, and in other ways?
 Brand elements can be rich in imagery and
inherently fun and interesting.
 Descriptive and persuasive elements reduce
the burden on marketing communications to
build awareness.

4.6
 Transferability

 Transferability measures the extent to which

the brand elements adds to the brand equity of
new products for the brand.

 How useful is the brand element for line or

category extensions?

4.7
 Adaptability
 The more adaptable and flexible the brand
element, the easier it is to update it to changes
in consumer values and opinions.
 For example, logos and characters can be given
a new look or a new design to make them
appear more modern and relevant.

4.8
 Protectability
 It is the extent to which the brand
element is protectable—both in a legal
and a competitive sense.
 Marketers should

(1)choose brand elements that can be

legally protected internationally,
(2) formally register them with the
appropriate legal bodies, and
(3) Vigorously/ strongly defend trademarks
from unauthorized competitive infringement
(violation). 4.9
 Brand Elements
 A variety of brand elements can be chosen that
inherently enhance brand awareness or
facilitate the formation of strong, favorable, and
unique brand associations.
 Brand names

 URLs

 Logos and symbols

 Characters

 Slogans

 Packaging

4.10
 Tactics for Brand Elements
Let’s look at the major considerations for each
type of brand element.
Brand Names
 Like any brand element, brand names
must be chosen with the six general
criteria of memorability, meaningfulness,
likability, transferability, adaptability, and
protectability in mind.

4.11
 Brand Naming Guidelines
 Brand awareness 
 Simplicity and ease of pronunciation and
spelling
 Familiarity and meaningfulness

 Differentiated, distinctive, and uniqueness

 Brand associations
 The brand name can reinforce an important
attribute or benefit association that makes up
its product positioning.

Head & Shoulders Close-up

4.12
 Brand Naming Procedures
 Define objectives
-in terms of the six general criteria,
-define the ideal meaning the brand should convey
 Generate names
- as many names and concepts as possible
 Screen initial candidates:
-Screen all the names against the branding objectives and
marketing considerations identified in step 1
 Study candidate names
- Collect more extensive information about each of the
final 5–10 names.
4.13
 Brand Naming Procedures
 Research the final candidates
-conduct consumer research to confirm management
expectations about the memorability and
meaningfulness of the remaining names.
 Select the final name
-management should choose the name that maximizes
the firm’s branding and marketing objectives and then
formally register it.

3.14
 URLs

 URLs (uniform resource locators) specify

locations of pages on the web and are also
commonly referred to as domain( field, area)
names.
 A typical URL might look like:

http://en.example.org/wiki/Main_Page
 A company can either sue (petition, charge) the
current owner of the URL for copyright
infringement, buy the name from the current
owner, or register all conceivable variations of
4.15
-Uniform Resource Locator (URL) it is the global address
of documents and other resources on the World Wide
Web.
-The first part of the URL is called a protocol identifier
and it indicates what protocol to use, and the second
part is called a resource name and it specifies the IP
address the domain name where the resource is located.
-The protocol identifier and the resource name are
separated by a colon and two forward slashes.
For example, the two URLs below point to two different
files at the domain pcwebopedia.com.
-The first specifies an executable file that should be
fetched using the FTP protocol;
-the second specifies a Web page that should be fetched
using the HTTP protocol :
ftp://www.pcwebopedia.com/stuff.exe 3.16
 Logos and Symbols
 Play a critical role in building brand equity and
especially brand awareness
 Logos is a rhetorical/abstract device that includes any
content in an argument that is meant to appeal to logic.
 Logos range from corporate names or trademarks
(word marks with text only) written in a distinctive
form, to entirely abstract designs that may be
completely unrelated to the word mark, corporate
name, or corporate activities
 Examples of brands with strong word marks and no
accompanying logo separate from the name include
Coca-Cola, Dunhill, and Kit Kat. Examples of abstract
logos include the Mercedes star, Rolex crown, CBS eye,
Nike swoosh, and Olympic rings. These non–word4.17
3.18
 Characters
 A special type of brand symbol—one that
takes on human or real-life characteristics
 Some are animated like Pillsbury’s Poppin’
Fresh Doughboy(bread),
 Others are live-action figures like Juan
Valdez (Colombian coffee), the Maytag
repairman, and Ronald McDonald.

4.19
3.20
3.21
3.22
 Slogans
 Slogans are short phrases that communicate
descriptive or persuasive information about the
brand.
 Slogans are powerful branding devices
because, like brand names, they are an
extremely efficient, shorthand means to build
brand equity
Because I’m worth it ______________________

Just do it ______________________

4.23
 Classic Slogans
 “It’s the coolest one” ___________________
 “Yeh hai right choice baby” ____________
 “Taste the thunder” ___________________
 “Daag Achhe Hain” ___________________
 “Har Ghar Kuchh Kehta Hai” ____________
 “Simplyfly” _________________________
 “The complete man” ___________________
 “Born tough” _________________________
 “Neighbor’s envy/ jealousy, Owner’s pride” _____
4.24
 Jingles
 Jingles /tune are musical messages written
around the brand. Typically composed by
professional songwriters, they often have
enough catchy/ appealing hooks and choruses
to become almost permanently registered in
the minds of listeners—sometimes whether
they want them to or not!
 Jingles are perhaps most valuable in
enhancing brand awareness.
Fresh N Juicy ___________
Healthy Oil for Healthy People ___________________
Doodh si safedi __________________________
4.25
3.26
 Packaging
 Packaging is the activities of designing and
producing containers or wrappers for a product.
 From the perspective of both the firm and consumers,
packaging must achieve a number of objectives:
 Identify the brand
 Convey descriptive and persuasive
information
 Facilitate product transportation and
protection
 Assist at-home storage

 Aid product consumption

4.27
Packaging Can Influence Taste
 Our sense of taste and touch is very
suggestible, and what we see on a
package can lead us to taste what we
think we are going to taste.

4.28
Packaging Can Influence Value
 Long after we have bought a product, a
package can still lead us to believe we
bought it because it was a good value.

4.29
Packaging Can Influence Consumption

 Studies of 48 different types of foods and

personal care products have shown that people
consume between 18% and 32% more of a
product as the size of the container doubles.

4.30
Packaging Can Influence How a Person
Uses a Product
 One strategy to increase use of mature
products has been to encourage people to
use the brand in new situations, like soup
for breakfast.
 An analysis of 26 products and 402
consumers showed that twice as many
people learned about the new use from
the package than from television ads.

4.31
 Putting It All Together
 The entire set of brand elements makes up the
brand identity, the contribution of all brand
elements to awareness and image.
 The cohesiveness of the brand identity
depends on the extent to which the brand
elements are consistent.

4.32