Bahir Dar University

Ethiopian Institute of Textile

and Fashion Technology

CASE STUDY INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

MSC IN FASHION TECHNOLOGY

ETHIOPIAN INSTITUTE OF TEXTILE AND FASHION

TECHNOLOGY
BAHIR DAR UNIVERSITY

COURSE MANAGER: ASST. PROF. SEID MOHAMMED

SUBMITTED BY: TEMESGEN AGAZHIE,

YEAR 2020
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction (consumer buying decision-model) ............................................................... 1
1.1. Simple model of consumer decision making (Schiffman and Kunak 1997)............... 1
1.2. Consumer decision model (the Engel-Blackwell-Miniard model) ............................. 3
1.3. Cognitive Consumer Behavior Models ....................................................................... 3
1.4. Multi attribute models: ................................................................................................ 5
1.5. Strategic planning models ........................................................................................... 6
1.6. Brand image value models .......................................................................................... 8
1.7. Service quality models ................................................................................................ 9
1.8. Bettman's Information Processing Model of Consumer Choice (1979) ................... 12
1.9. Engel, Blackwell and Kollat‘s Model: ...................................................................... 15
1.10. Holistic model of impulsive buying behaviour ..................................................... 17
1.11. The Elaboration likelihood (ELM) ........................................................................ 19
1.12. The response hierarchy model ............................................................................... 21
1.12.1. AIDA MODEL............................................................................................... 21
1.12.2. HIERARCHY-OF-EFFECTS MODEL ......................................................... 22
1.12.3. INNOVATION-ADOPTION MODEL.......................................................... 24
1.12.4. INFORMATION-PROCESSING MODEL ................................................... 25
1.12.5. OPERATIONAL MODEL ............................................................................. 26
1.13. Advertising model ................................................................................................. 27
1.14. Brand resonance model ......................................................................................... 28
1.15. Keller‘s brand equity model/ customers-based brand equity (CBBE) model ....... 31
1.16. Brand equity model ............................................................................................... 33
2. Introduction (the eras of Marketing 3.0) .......................................................................... 39
2.1. Marketing 3.0 ............................................................................................................ 39
2.1.1. The age of participation and collaborative marketing ....................................... 41
2.1.2. The age of globalization paradox and cultural marketing ................................. 41
2.1.3. The age of creative society and human spirit marketing ................................... 42
3. Introducing PAR and BAR .............................................................................................. 43
4. Introduction to content marketing .................................................................................... 47
4.1. The eight major steps of content marketing .............................................................. 48
4.2. Plan to execute your content marketing strategy ...................................................... 55
Reference ................................................................................................................................. 57

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LIST OF TABLE
Table 1 Classic Response Hierarchy Models........................................................................... 27
Table 2 the comparison of Marketing 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 from comprehensive ......................... 40
Table 3 PAR Really Means...................................................................................................... 44
Table 4 What BAR Really Means ........................................................................................... 45

LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1. Simple model of consumer decision models .............................................................. 2
Figure 2 The Engel-Blackwell-Miniard Model ......................................................................... 3
Figure 3 stimulus-organism-response model of decision making ............................................. 4
Figure 4 cognitive consumer behavior model ............................................................................ 4
Figure 5 here are three parts to any good strategic planning model .......................................... 7
Figure 6 Aaker brand value model............................................................................................. 9
Figure 7 The Bettman Information-Processing Model of Consumer Choice .......................... 14
Figure 8 Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (Engel-Blackwell-Miniard) Model of consumer Behavior 17
Figure 9 FRAMEWORK OF SELF-CONTROL PROCESS .................................................. 19
Figure 10 AIDA model ............................................................................................................ 22
Figure 11 HIERARCHY-OF-EFFECTS MODEL .................................................................. 23
Figure 12 INNOVATION-ADOPTION MODEL ................................................................... 24
Figure 13 AASAL Model of Resonance Pyramid or Sub-dimensions of Building Blocks.... 30
Figure 14 keller's brand equity model-CBBE model ............................................................... 32
Figure 15 components Aaker model: ....................................................................................... 34
Figure 16 Keller‘s model ......................................................................................................... 35
Figure 17 components of brand equity .................................................................................... 36
Figure 18 Brand Equity Model ................................................................................................ 37
Figure 19 Three Changes that Lead to Marketing 3.0 ............................................................. 40
Figure 20 What PAR Really Means......................................................................................... 44
Figure 21 What BAR Really Means ........................................................................................ 45

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9. Buyer behaviour models have addressed the question of how a buyer goes about gathering
information making a decision, how he makes a decision, and finally how the decision affects
his attitudes and hence future decisions. These buyer behaviour models are usually stated in
terms of a flowchart. Discuss each of the following models and respective applications of
scientific studies by downloading and analysing the articles using the articles analysis
guideline. A simple model of consumer decision making (schiffman and kanuk(1997),
consumer decision model (the Engle-blackwell-miniard model): cognitive models of
consumer behaviour; the multi attribute models: the Bettman‘s information processing
model; the Engel, kollat and Blackwell model (the EKB model); Holistic model of
impulsive buying behaviour; the Elaboration likelihood model (ELM); the Response
hierarchy models; Advertising Model; service quality models; brand resonance model;
keller‘s brand equity model is also known as the customer-based brand equity (EBBE)
model; brand equity model; brand image value models and strategic planning models.

1. INTRODUCTION (CONSUMER BUYING DECISION-MODEL)

Most of the theories of consumer buying decision-making assume that the consumer's
purchase decision process consists of several steps. However, it may vary from product to
services but all the customers pass through similar process. The marketers may improve their
marketing strategies by understanding issues which are most common in the different
consumer decision model developed by earlier researchers and scholars of marketing
management. Consumers are final users of finished products; they could be industrial,
institutional, government, intermediate, or households. Consumer behavior is an aspect of
human behavior. Human behavior itself considered as a total process where an individual
interacts with his environment. When people act or react in certain ways e.g. laughter,
happiness, sadness etc, such people are responding to human behavior patterns, in relation to
their environment.

There are different models developed for understanding the buyer behaviors such models
explained in flow chat.

1.1. Simple model of consumer decision making (Schiffman and Kunak 1997)
The process of simple model of consumer decision making can viewed as three different but
interlocking stages, those stages are input stage, the process stage, and the output stage
(Schiffman et al., 2010).

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 Figure 1. Simple model of consumer decision models
A. Input Stage

The input stage influences the consumer‘s recognition of a product need and consists of two
major sources of information: the company‘s marketing efforts (the product itself, its price,
its promotion and where it is sold) and the external sociological influences on the consumer
(family, friends, neighbours, other informal and non-commercial sources, social class, and
cultural and subcultural memberships).

B. Process Stage

The process stage of the model focuses on how consumer makes decisions. The
psychological factors inherent in each individual (motivation, perception, learning,
personality, and attitudes) affect how the external inputs from input stage influence the
customer‘s recognition of a need, pre-purchase search for information, evaluation of
alternatives. At this stage, the act of making a consumer decision also consists of three stages:
(1) need recognition, (2) pre-purchase search, and (3) evaluation of alternatives. The
experience gained through evaluation of alternatives, in turn, affects the consumer‘s existing
psychological attributes.

C. Output Stage

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The output stage of the consumer decision-making model consists of two related post-
decision activities such as purchase behavior and post-purchase evaluation. The objective of
both activities is to increase the consumer‘s satisfaction with his or her purchase. Before
making a good decision, one should attain every accurate and ‗up-to-date‘ informatios
regarding the product that is out here, and understand the basic significance of those data.

1.2. Consumer decision model (the Engel-Blackwell-Miniard model)

The Consumer Decision Model (also known as the Engel-Blackwell-Miniard Model) was
originally developed in 1968 by Engel, Kollat, and Blackwell and has gone through
numerous revisions. This model called the consumer decision model. The model is
―structured around a seven-point decision process: need recognition followed by a search of
information both internally and externally, the evaluation of alternatives, purchase, post-
purchase reflection, and finally, divestment (Solomon et al., 2012). A consumer identifies a
need before proceeding to carry out a search based on the complexity of the issue at hand.

Figure 2 The Engel-Blackwell-Miniard Model

1.3. Cognitive Consumer Behavior Models
The Cognitive approach can be divided into two models, Analytical and Prescriptive. This
demonstrated on the diagram below, Analytical models are said to provide framework or
elements that can be factored into consumer decision making. Prescriptive models are smaller
and more to do with preconceptions or beliefs. The cognitive consumer behavior models can

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be broken down into two sections, analytical and prescriptive. Prescriptive models can be
used to provide a guideline to help structure the behavior and determine how consumer
decisions can be predicted by the outcome of factors such as attitude and beliefs. Analytical
models can be used to explain the behavior of consumers and shows the relationship between
the influencing factors and the decision made, as they tend to follow the traditional five-step
classification of buyer behavior: attaining problem recognition, information search,
alternative evaluation, and choice and outcome evaluation as they key stages of the decision
process.

Figure 3 stimulus-organism-response model of decision making

Figure 4 cognitive consumer behavior model

The consumer decision model also has a feedback option, which could be useful for future
searches. The Buyer Behavior model shows five various outputs which seems to be a more
detailed version of the response output shown in the Cognitive approach model, I believe this
function is helpful as it shows the different types of response which can lead to the purchase
rather than just stating there is an output. A disadvantage of the models could be that the way

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in which people recognize a need in order to choose and purchase products has changed
which could affect the result given by following the process. For example, because of the
celebrity culture and social media, other people‘s views on certain products may count for
more than they would have previously which ultimately affects the purchasing decision.

1.4. Multi attribute models:

In multi-attribute model, all firms, when making strategic decisions, must choose between
alternative courses they could pursue. In doing so, they make appropriate trade-offs, which
they believe will best position them for future success. Part of this requires understanding
what they are and what they are not, what they can and cannot do. This is true for how firms
orient themselves, meaning the markets they enter, the products they make, the consumers
they target, their marketing investments and more. The result for the consumer is that we
might encounter some products or brands or firms that are consistent with your needs, but not
all. Thus, shoppers regard them as a collection of characteristics or attributes that must be
evaluated.

According to Svensson and Sjöberg (2012), the concept of the multi attribute model has its
origins in social psychology with the theory that people make rational decisions before they
act in a certain manner. The models are made as to try and predict the behavior based on the
attitudes that an individual holds versus an object or organization, e.g. a product or brand.
The model is based on giving different attributes a numerical value as to weigh what
attributes are most sought after in the object or organization. This numerical value can be
examined by identifying different attributes and let individuals such as customers rank them
between a scale of 1-10, where 1 is least desirable and 10 being the highest. By giving the
attributes a numerical value it also enables a possibility as to compare if the consumers values
and beliefs correlate with what a brand or product want to represent, e.g. in market
differentiation.

According to Lin (2004), multi attribute models conceptualization been created a number of
different variations of the model, some of the models are: the attitude-toward-object model,
attitude-toward-behavior model and the theory-of-reasoned-action model.

A. Attitude-Toward-Object Model:

The attitude-toward-object model is especially effective for measuring attitudes toward a

service (or product) or toward an organization, such as a brand. The theory of the model is

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that consumer‘s attitude toward a product or brand is a function of the existence of or lack of
certain favorable attributes or beliefs, (Fishbein 1963). Furthermore, brands or products that
possess the desired attributes are seen as positive while those who lack are seen as negative
and are usually rejected, (Schiffman & Kanuk 2004).

B. Attitude-Toward-Behavior Model

In comparison to the attitude-toward-object model the attitude-toward-behavior model

measures the consumer‘s attitude toward behaving in accordance to the object rather than the
attitude towards it, which in turn increases the possibility to predict the behavior of the
consumer. E.g. a consumer might have a positive attitude toward the brand Mercedes, but a
negative attitude towards purchasing expensive products such as a Mercedes, (Schiffman & 9
Kanuk 2004). Therefore, it is arguably more beneficial knowing the attitudes towards a
behavior than the object when researching the probability of purchasing behavior.

C. Theory-of-Reasoned-Action Model

In the model of reasoned-action, the three aspects of attitudes are present with cognitive,
affective, and conative components. It measures the intention to make a purchase by
identifying the customer‘s subjective norm. In the reasoned action‘s case this is done by
assessing the feelings from what relevant others (family, friends, and co-workers) to what the
consumer thinks about the researched action, (Sheppard et al. 1988). So for research to
understand and predict the behavior of the customer, it is necessary to understand what
feelings the relevant others would have, as well as the customer‘s motivation as to comply to
the relevant others. E.g. my parents would view the purchase of a new apartment as an
unnecessary expense, but my friends would love it, (Schiffman & Kanuk 2004; Ajzen &
Fishbein 1980).

1.5. Strategic planning models

A strategic planning model is actually a collective term for a number of elements that
contribute to the strategic planning process. Strategic planning models exist as blue prints
which we can follow when tackling the process of creating a strategic plan.

The core components of a strategic planning model typically include:

 A templated structure for creating goals.

 Frameworks for helping you to actually decide what you want to work on.
 A loose structure of governance to help you manage and track your strategy.

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 Figure 5 here are three parts to any good strategic planning model

I. Structure: refers to the different components of your strategic plan and how they all
fit together. For example your structure may start with a Vision Statement, then flow
into Values, Focus Areas and any number of Goal levels.
II. Frameworks: are essentially methodologies that you can apply to help you come up
with your goals, as well as categorize your goals to ensure they're balanced and will
meet your needs. You can check out our guide to some of the more popular strategic
frameworks here.
III. Governance: refers to how you'll go about actually tracking and reporting on the goal
elements of your strategy.
The benefits of having a strategic planning model are manifold. For one, it provides a clear
path that the organization uses and shares with everyone on its staff. Having all departments
work together for a common goal is powerful. The opposite is disastrous. We can‘t hit our
target, whether it‘s a year or five or 10 years in the future, if everyone doesn‘t know what it is
and how you plan to get there.
Another positive from having a strategic planning model is that it improves your knowledge
of what works best in the organization. You know your strengths and weaknesses, as well as

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getting a clear picture of where you are in the marketplace. It even helps you get a clear idea
of who your competition is and how you can differentiate yourself from them.

1.6. Brand image value models

Brand awareness can be a prerequisite for buying product. The high quality of the product or
Service encourages consumers to buy, and this means additional profit for the manufacturer.
The brand associations are a typical consumer attitude to the brand. Other brand values are
the legal and institutional benefits the state can afford to offer a brand and thus protect its
value. Generally according to Westre, M. (2016), Branding is now more than a list of
attributes from an Organization; it is a promise to the customer. Brand marketing generally
used to promise a unique benefit to customers. Brand image creates value in a variety of
ways, helping consumers to process information, differentiating the brand, generating reasons
to buy, giving positive feelings, and providing a basis for extensions (Aaker 1991).
It known as capital market oriented brand value model. According to Černikovaitė et al.
(2012), stated that capital market oriented brand value models evaluate y that any one brand
is as much as possible worth as much as the consumer is willing to buy. The market value-
driven model states that the brand value is calculated based on similar trademarks at market
prices. Cost-oriented brand value the measurement model based on the concept of net asset
value, which often used by corporations in the field of evaluation. Aaker's brand value
model, As stated Černikovaitė (2011) Aaker's brand value model is one of the most popular
brand value models to highlight the factors that create the product brand value for the
consumer. Brand value is understood as a value and liability related to the brand, its name
and symbol, which is an integral part or part of the consumer's receipt of the product or
service. Aaker separates five brand value factors - brand loyalty, brand understanding,
perceived quality, brand associations, and other related values with the brand.

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 Figure 6 Aaker brand value model

The Inter-brand Brand Assessment Methodology seeks to provide you with a rich and
insightful analysis of your brand by clearly showing how your brand contributes to business
growth today, along with an action plan for tomorrow's improvement in growth. In order to
be included in Best Global Brands, the brand must be truly global, well beyond the
geographical and cultural boundaries. It has expanded through established centers of the
world economy and entered the main growth markets. From a meaningful point of view, this
requires that:
 At least 30% revenue must be from the trademark location.
 The trademark must be firmly established in Asia, Europe and North America,
and has a large geographic scope for emerging markets.
 There must be enough publicly available trademark financial results.
 Profit will be expected to be positive for a long time and profits will exceed
the brand's capital costs.
 The trademark must be publicly known and known in all major world
economies.
These requirements - for a brand to be global, visible, growing and relatively transparent,
based on financial results, it is explained that there are no well-known brands that may appear
in the rating.
1.7. Service quality models
As stated at (https://ceopedia.org/index.php/Service_quality_modelservice). Quality model
describes how to achieve desired quality in services. Achievement of desired quality in
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services differs from tangible products, because the evaluation is based on expectations and
attitudes more than data about reliability. There are multiple service quality models. The most
popular are
 SERVQUAL model on managing service quality,
 SERVPERF model,
 RATER model,
 Grönroos model,
 Gummesson model, and
 Importance-Performance model (Martilla & James).
I. SERVQUAL model on managing service quality
SERVQUAL is a method to identify and solve problems related to quality of services. It was
presented by A. Parasuraman, V. Zeithaml and L. Berry in 1988. The main idea is based on 5
gaps, which result in lower than expected quality of services. The method was one of the first
tools created to evaluate and improve quality of services. Therefore, is become popular very
soon.
The 5 gaps are:
1. Expected service vs. management perception
2. Management perception vs. Service design
3. Service design vs. Service delivery
4. Service delivery vs. Communication
5. Expected vs. perceived service
II. SERVPERF model
SERVPERF (Service Performance) was created on basis of critique of SERVQUAL by J.J.
Cronin and S.A. Taylor in 1994. They claimed that Parasuraman's study of relations between
expected and experienced quality is not proper approach to quality assessment. The
SERVPERF measures quality as an attitude, not satisfaction. However it uses an idea of
perceived service quality leading to satisfaction. But it goes further, and connects satisfaction
with further purchase intentions. The SERVPERF is a modification of SERVQUAL, and thus
uses the same categories to assess service quality (RATER model).
III. RATER model
RATER model is an evolution of SERVQUAL method presented by A. Parasuraman, V.
Zeithaml and L. Berry in 1988. The main idea is based on 5 gaps, which result in lower than

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expected quality of services. The authors proposed that the difference between expected and
perceived quality should be evaluated in 5 dimensions:
 Reliability
 Assurance
 Tangibles
 Empathy
 Responsiveness
IV. Grönroos model
Grönroos identified three dimensions of service quality: technical, functional and image.
 Technical quality - what customer receives as a result of interaction with
the company, and which is important for him/her to evaluate the quality of service.
 Functional quality - how the customer gets the technical outcome, which includes:
communication, competence, staff, etc.
 Image - builds up through technical and functional perfection.
The model is a good measurement tool for quality of services assessment. However the
relationship between perceived quality and customer satisfaction and above mentioned
dimensions is not clear.
V. Gummesson model
Gummesson proposed a model in which quality of service consists of perceived quality and
satisfaction. Based on Grönroos model he described four dimensions of quality:
 Designed quality
 Product quality
 Delivery quality
 Relational quality
VI. Importance-Performance model (Martilla & James)
Importance-performance analysis has been proposed by Martilla and James in 1977. The
model shows results of quality evaluation on grid where one axis is Performance and the
other - Importance. The evaluation depends on the quadrant in which the elements of the
service will be shown. There are four possibilities:
 Quadrant 1. high performance, high importance - keep up the good work
 Quadrant 2. high performance, low importance - possible overkill
 Quadrant 3. low performance, low importance - low priority
 Quadrant 4. low performance, high importance - concentrate here

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1.8. Bettman's Information Processing Model of Consumer Choice (1979)
Bettman, in the 1970s introduced a consumer behavior model that bases itself on the
information processing that takes place within a consumer. According to him, the consumer
is central to a host of information processing activities. He receives a large amount of
information externally from the marketer, competitors, and the environment. He also has a
large store of information within him as a database that he builds over time from his learning,
experiences, social influences etc.

The consumer information process depicted through several flowcharts, which depict the
various components of the model and the interrelationships between them. The main
components of the model are processing capacity, motivation, attention, information
acquisition and evaluation, decision process, consumption and learning processes.

A. Processing capacity:

Bettman assumes that while the information processing capacity varies across people, it is
limited for each one of us. Every person has a limited capacity to process information; thus,
consumers are not interested in extensive information processing, and select strategies that
make product selection an easy process. They try to bypass their limits by being selective
towards information receptivity, ignoring certain information that they consider irrelevant or
in comprehendible, prioritizing information that is required and is in use etc. The marketer
needs to understand the information processing capacities of individual consumers while
delivering marketing information; this would provide invaluable insights to marketers for
design of their marketing communication strategies.

B. Motivation:

The decision making choice process within a consumer is provided strength, intensity, and
direction through motivation. There exists a hierarchy of goals‘ mechanism that provides
different sub-goals to simplify the choice selections. Depending upon the goal heirachy
(priority of goals), this component acts as the powerful and imposing component that controls
directly not only the subsequent processes of attention, information acquisition and
evaluation, decision processes and the consumption and learning processes, but also controls
indirectly the various subprocesses in the model via the main process components. The
continuation and suspension of various sub-processes and their interrelationship with the

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main processes are all impacted by motivation. This component also converts the non-action
or passive inputs in the consumers into action outputs or active behavior.

C. Attention and Perceptual Encoding:

According to Bettman, attention could be voluntary as well as involuntary in nature. When a

consumer actively consciously seeks attention to achieve his goals, it is referred to as a
voluntary attention. It is the conscious allocation of processing capacity to current goals.
Non-voluntary or involuntary attention is the short term attention that he provides before
deciding whether he should process the information that he has been exposed to and as to
whether he should provide a voluntary attention. It is an automatic response to disruptive
events. Non-voluntary attention could also occur when the consumer exposed to conflicting
information about the product and needs to resolve between this conflicting information.
Perceptual encoding occurs when the person integrates the information that he has processes
into his already existing perceptual network or database. Based on perceptual encoding and
the database, the consumer decides on the need and the quantum of marketing information
that he needs to process.

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 Figure 7 The Bettman Information-Processing Model of Consumer Choice

This leads to the scanner and interrupt mechanisms and the resultant responses. The scanner
and interrupt mechanisms act like on and off switches for a consumer. When the consumer
realizes that he does not have adequate and appropriate information in his database
(memory), he searches for information; he gives attention to and becomes receptive to
information. On the other hand, if he feels that he has sufficient information, the information
search process is interrupted.

D. Information acquisition and evaluation:

The consumer decides on the kind of information as well as the quantum of information
required for the choice decision. Based on heuristics, he assesses the importance and
availability of information. If he has the necessary information in a sufficient quantum in his
memory, he goes ahead with the next stage. Memory is the source for the internal search for

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information. If he feels that the information that he has in his memory is insufficient, when it
is found to be insufficient, he acquires more information through external search. At this
stage too the consumer again experiences the switch on and off modes through scanner and
interrupt mechanisms. When the consumer realizes that he has adequate and appropriate
information in his database (memory), he does not search for more information and the
information search process gets interrupted; else he does search for more information. After
acquiring information, the consumer evaluates the information for utility and sufficiency, and
then moves on to make decision choices.

E. Decision Process:

After information search and evaluation, the consumer takes a decision; the final decision of
the brand is based not only on the acquired and evaluated information, but also his personal
characteristics, demographics, psychographics (motivation, learning and experiences,
attitude, personality, perception, etc), social influences and situational factors. This stage is
also affected by the scanner and interrupt mechanisms. If the purchase is a routine purchase,
the decision making is faster and often repeat; in other cases, it may take time.

F. Consumption and learning processes:

After the consumer buys decides on a choice, he purchases the brand. The experience that he
gains through the decision making and the consumption of the product in terms of
satisfaction/dissatisfaction gets stored in his memory. This learning affects subsequent
decision making for similar product categories, and affects the future heuristics for consumer
decision making. It provides the consumer with information to be applied to similar choice
situation in future.

1.9. Engel, Blackwell and Kollat’s Model:

Engel-Blackwell-Miniard Model of Consumer Behavior: The Engel, Kollat and Blackwell
Model, also referred to as the EKB model proposed to organize and describe the growing
body of knowledge/research concerning consumer behavior. A comprehensive model, it
shows the various components of consumer decision making and the
relationships/interactions among them. The model went through many revisions and
modifications, with attempts to elaborate upon the interrelationship between the various
components and sub-components; and, finally another model proposed in the 1990s, which
came to be known as the Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard Model (EBM).

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The model consists of five parts, viz. information input, information processing, decision
process stage, decision process variables, and external influences.

A. Information input:

The information input includes all kinds of stimuli that a consumer is exposed to and triggers
a kind of behavior. The consumer is exposed to a large number of stimuli both marketing
(advertising, publicity, personal selling, demonstrations, store display, point of purchase
stimuli) as well as non-marketing sources (family, friends, peers); thus the various stimuli
compete for consumer‘s attention. These stimuli provide information to the consumer and
trigger off the decision making process.

B. Information processing:

Stimuli received in the first stage provide information; the information is processed into
meaningful information. The stage comprises consumer‘s exposure, attention,
perception/comprehension, acceptance, and retention of information. The consumer is
exposed to stimuli (and the accompanying information); attention determines which of the
stimuli he will focus upon; thereafter he would interpret and comprehend it, accepts it in his
short term memory and retains it by transferring the input to long-term memory.

C. Decision-process stage:

At any time during the information processing, the consumer could enter into this stage. The
model focuses on the five basic decision process stages, viz., problem recognition, search,
alternative evaluation, choice, and outcomes (post-purchase evaluation and behavior). There
is problem recognition; this is followed by a search for information, which may be internal
based on memory. The search of information is also impacted by environmental influences.
Thereafter, the consumer evaluates the various alternatives; while evaluation, belief lead to
the formation of attitudes, which in turn affect the purchase intention. The next stage is the
choice and purchase, which gets impacted by individual differences. Finally there is an
outcome, in the form of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This outcome acts as a feedback on
the input and impacts the cycle again. Environmental influences, individual differences and
social influences, directly and indirectly influence each of the stages of the decision process.
However, EKB proposed that it is not necessary for every consumer to go through all the five
stages; it would depend on whether the problem is an extensive or a routine problem-solving
behavior.

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 D. Decision process variables:

The model proposes individual influences that affect the various stages of the decision
making process. Individual characteristics include constructs like demographics, motives,
beliefs, attitude, personality, values, lifestyle, normative compliance, etc.

E. External influences:

The model also proposes certain environmental and situational influences that affect the
decision making process. The environmental influences include ―Circles of Social Influence,‖
like culture, sub-culture, social class, reference groups, family and other normative
influences; situational influences include consumer‘s financial condition.

Figure 8 Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (Engel-Blackwell-Miniard) Model of consumer Behavior

1.10. Holistic model of impulsive buying behaviour

Impulsive buying is recognized as the sudden and hedonically complex purchases which
require instant ownership of an item.

Impulse buying has been defined as a ―sudden and immediate purchase with no pre-shopping
intentions. The behavior occurs after experiencing an urge to buy, and it tends to be
spontaneous and without a lot of reflection.

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According to Moayery et al. (2019), Impulse buying defined as a ―sudden and immediate
purchase with no pre-shopping intentions. The behavior occurs after experiencing an urge to
buy, and it tends to be spontaneous and without a lot of reflection (i.e., it is ―impulsive‖).
Because of this reason, impulsive buying behavior is the conceptualized impulse buying as a
battle between desire and self-control. In essence, even the most impulsive buyers also may
experience a need to resist making an impulsive purchase (Rook and Fisher, 1995). They also
said that it is essential to identify which factors systematically diminish the strength of self-
control. According to (Baumeister et al., 2007), self-control is an important key to success in
life referring to the self‘s capacity to alter its own states and responses.
Based on (Baumeister et al., 2007), there have been two main approaches for exploring the
influence of self-control on impulse buying:
 Following the logic of the strength model, one stream of research investigated the
impact of self-regulatory resource depletion on impulsive buying behavior. This body
of knowledge argued that depleting consumers of their self-regulatory resources by
having them engage in an initial self-control task subsequently leaves people less able
to resist the impulses to buy.
Another stream of research emphasized that although all individuals are vulnerable to state
depletion of self-control resources, individuals proposed to differ in their overall self-control
capacity. According to Hofmann et al. (2012), impulse formation is the starting point of
several self-control models.

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 Figure 9 FRAMEWORK OF SELF-CONTROL PROCESS

Impulses driven by internal context (personality, homeostatic dysregulations and habit) and
external stimuli (Vohs, 2006).

I. Personality: Some people are more susceptible to impulse buying, and hence they do
it whenever an opportunity arises. Personality has a strong influence on the desire
strength. Personality factors influencing the desire strength are impulsivity trait, trait
self-control, and perfectionism.
II. Homeostatic dysregulations: ―Deprivation of a basic need calls for a rapid reversal
of the situation and thus a more specific disposition to act. The perceptual inputs in
close interaction with homeostatic dysregulation.
III. Habit: There is a lack of knowledge regarding habit as a central determinant of self-
control. The habit can strengthen the impulsive system, which means that when a
motor schema is triggered more often by exposure to a certain stimulus, it is more
likely to be elicited in the future.‖
IV. External stimuli: The reference point shift (resulting from physical proximity and
temporal proximity) can increase consumer‘s desire for non-purchased objects. In
other words, reference-point shifts cause the consumer to adopt the notion of
possessing or consuming the product. They also might experience a feeling of
deprivation because of failing to consume or purchase the objects.

1.11. The Elaboration likelihood (ELM)

The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion is a dual process theory describing the
change of attitudes. According to Lien (2001), elaboration likelihood model of persuasion is a
theory about the processes responsible for yielding to a persuasive communication and the
strength of the attitudes that result from those processes. In ELM, the term ―elaboration‖
refers to the extent to which people think about issue-relevant arguments contained in
persuasive messages. Elaboration likelihood, was introduced, much of the work in consumer
research has focused on processing antecedents or factors that can influence the motivation
and ability to process a messages. In addition to those identified by ELM (e.g., message
repetition, prior knowledge etc.), factors that are specific to an advertising context (e.g.,
media type) and the effects of combining factors have been explored.

A. Message Repetition:

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One of the most important variables influencing a person‘s ability to process issue-relevant
arguments is message repetition. Moderate message repetition provides more opportunities
for argument scrutiny, which will lead to a favorable brand attitude as long as the arguments
are strong and tedium is not induced.

B. Prior Knowledge:

It has been well documented that people become more able to think about issue-relevant
information when they have more prior knowledge. Knowledge is only effective, however,
when it is accessible. Knowledge is only effective, however, when it is accessible, and when
it is low or inaccessible, people relies on simple cues. Knowledge may also interact with the
mode of information presentation. Knowledgeable consumers, the attraction effect decreases
when information is presented numerically but increases when information is presented
verbally, and Prior knowledge can also influence the way people process information.

C. Self-Referencing:

Consumers have greater elaboration on information when they relate the information to
themselves and to their own experience. Self-referencing leads to an increase in self-related
thoughts, provides linkage between product information and memory, and thus facilitates
elaboration of product information. Self-related thoughts about the past can enhance brand
attitudes and intentions when ads contain little information, while self-thoughts about the
future enhances brand attitude when ads provide detailed information. The elaboration effect
of self-referencing is also moderated by consumer‘s motivation to attend to the ad. When ad
recipients‘ motivation is low, self-referencing has no effect on elaboration or persuasion.

D. Arousal:

There is ample evidence that arousal, regardless of its antecedents, impairs working memory
capacity. All things being equal, arousal, by reducing processing capacity, increases the
influence of peripheral cues and decreases the influence of central arguments. Arousal could
also lead consumers to focus on information which is least demanding but most diagnostic,
i.e., to rely on central arguments for making product evaluations.

E. Media Type:

There is a difference on message processing among alternative advertising media. Print ads
have limited opportunity to influence uninvolved or passive audience members because

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reading print ads is a relatively demanding cognitive task. In broadcast advertising (i.e., radio
and TV advertising), however, verbal information is spoken or presented in multiple sensory
modes and, thus, can influence consumers who are not actively seeking exposure to the ad
message.

F. Combining Variables:

There is improvement evidence that confluence of factor that determines the nature of
information processing. For example, the use of rhetorical questions can increase message
thinking when motivation to process the message is low, but will disrupt normal processing
when motivation increases.

1.12. The response hierarchy model

As stated at https://studiousguy.com/response-hierarchy-models/ Response Hierarchy Models
explains the consumer responses and behavior to the advertising process. The Models provide
a complete understanding of the responses of a customer through all stages of his path from
unaware of the product to the purchase action. The five Response Hierarchy Models are
AIDA Model, Hierarchy-of-Effects Model, Innovation-Adoption Model, Information
Processing Model and, and Operational Model across three awareness stages- Cognitive
Stage, Affective Stage and Behavioral Stage.

1.12.1. AIDA MODEL

The phrase AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. The AIDA model is uses
in advertising to define the stages that exist from the time when the consumer first becomes
aware of the product or the brand to when the consumer purchases a product. The AIDA
model is one of the most established models amongst all the Response Hierarchy Models.
The organizations employ the AIDA Model to obtain the necessary response from the
targeted consumers through advertisements. This model can operate successfully to stimulate
the different emotions of the customers.
I. ATTENTION: This is the awareness stage of the model where the consumer
becomes aware of a brand or a product mostly through advertisements.
II. INTEREST: This is the stage when the consumer shows some interest in the product
after understanding its benefits and learns how well the product actually fits into his
lifestyle.
III. DESIRE: This is the third stage of the AIDA model when the consumer desires to
own the product. He develops a favourable disposition towards the product.

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IV. ACTION: This is the final step of the model where the consumer finally takes
favorable to satiate his desire. In this stage, he takes a purchase decision and buys the
product that is being advertised.
Generally in the AIDA model, the awareness of a brand or a product takes place in the
Cognitive stage, the potential consumers develop an interest and desire to purchase the
product in the Affective stage, and the purchase action actually materializes in the last stage
called the Behavior stage.

Figure 10 AIDA model

1.12.2. HIERARCHY-OF-EFFECTS MODEL

Hierarchy of effects model designed by Robert J Lavidge and Gary A Steiner in 1961. This
advertising communication model describes that there are 6 phases from the phase where the
customer views the product to the purchase phase. The job of an advertisement is to prompt
the customer to endure all the six stages of the Hierarchy-of-Effects Model, namely
the Awareness, Knowledge, Liking, Preference, Conviction, and Purchase.

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 Figure 11 HIERARCHY-OF-EFFECTS MODEL

I. AWARENESS: This is the elementary stage of the model when the customer
becomes aware of the product or a brand. This is a very crucial step, as there is no
surety about the customer‘s viewership or the awareness of the product. Consumers
may view various advertisements, but the chance of a customer registering the
advertisement in his mind depends upon the intensity and the impact your
advertisement made on the target consumers.
II. KNOWLEDGE: The customer starts collecting the required information about the
product in this phase. He slowly tries to understand the benefits associated with the
product through the internet, retail advisors or through people who have already used
the product. Consumers may easily switch to the competitors brand when they are
unable to collect the required information. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the
advertiser to make sure that the product information is easily available.
III. LIKING: This is a stage when the customer develops a liking for the product. Here
the advertiser‘s responsibility is to highlight the product features to further promote
the brand or a product.
IV. PREFERENCE: This is the fourth phase of the Hierarchy-of-Effects Model. During
this phase, the customer is clear about the product qualifications and he is sure about
his brand choices. Here the advertisers need to constantly reinforce the positive
aspects of their brand.

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 V. CONVICTION: In this stage, the customer would have made up his mind to buy the
product. The advertiser‘s responsibility here is to guide the customers to choose their
brand.
VI. PURCHASE: This is the last stage of the hierarchy of effects model in which the
actual purchase of the product takes place. In the Hierarchy-of-Effects model, the
awareness and the knowledge phases fall under the Cognitive stage. Evaluation of the
customer liking, preference, and conviction fall under the Affective stage and the
actual purchase behavior takes place in the Behavioral stage.

1.12.3. INNOVATION-ADOPTION MODEL

Rogers developed Innovation-Adoption Model in 1995. He postulated various stages in
which a target customer sails through from the stage of incognizance to purchase. The 5
stages of the Innovation-Adoption Model are Awareness, Interest, Evaluation, Trial,
and Adoption.

Figure 12 INNOVATION-ADOPTION MODEL

I. AWARENESS: This is the primary stage of Innovation-Adoption Model. Takes

action is the awareness stage of the model where the consumer becomes aware of a
brand or a product mostly through advertisements.
II. INTEREST: This is the second phase of the Innovation-Adoption Model. in this
stage the information about the brand or a product multiplies in the market and

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 triggers the interest of the potential buyers of the product to gain more knowledge and
information about the product.
III. EVALUATION: Evaluation is the third stage of the Innovation-Adoption Model that
supplements the necessary information regarding the product to the consumers. In this
stage, the consumers evaluate and try to gain a deeper understanding of the product
that stimulated interest in them.
IV. TRIAL: In this stage, the customers try the product before making the final choice to
purchase the product.
V. ADOPTION: Adoption is the final stage of the Innovation-Evaluation Model. In this
stage, the customer accepts the product, makes a purchase decision, and finally
purchases the product. In the Innovation-Evaluation Model, the Awareness happens at
the Cognitive Stage, developing an interest and evaluation phases fall under the
conviction phase, and the trial of the product and the actual adoption fall in the
Behavioral phase.

1.12.4. INFORMATION-PROCESSING MODEL

The Information-Processing Model is a structure used by cognitive psychologists to define
the mental processes. This model links the human thought process to the computer functions.
It signifies that the human mind, like the computer takes in information, organizes, and stores
the information repossessed later. It claims that just as the computer possesses an input
device, a processing unit, a storage unit, and an output device, the human mind also has a
parallel framework. Information Processing Model comprises of 6 stages namely
the Presentation, Attention, Comprehension, Yielding, Retention and the Behavioral stage.
I. PRESENTATION: The presentation is the fundamental stage in the Information-
Processing Model. This is the awareness phase where the consumer becomes aware of
his needs and seeks a product to satiate his needs.
II. ATTENTION: This is the second stage of the Information-Processing Model, where
the product seizes the attention of the potential customers.
III. COMPREHENSION: In this stage of the Information-Processing Model, the
consumer compares and evaluates various products of different brands accessible in
the market to ascertain the product that actually meets his requirement.
IV. YIELDING: This is a stage in which the customer figures out what exactly he wants
and the brand and its product that balances his needs to its specifications.

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 V. RETENTION: This is the fifth stage in the Information-Processing Model. This is
the stage in which the customer remembers the key features and attributes, the
benefits and all the positive aspects of the products that he is seeking to purchase.
VI. BEHAVIOR: This is the last stage of the Information-Processing Model in which the
purchase action of a product of a particular band takes place. In the Information-
Processing Model, the Presentation, Attention, and Comprehension take place in the
Cognitive stage, Yielding and Retention of information fall under the Affective stage,
and the final Behavioral action takes place in the Behavioral stage.

1.12.5. OPERATIONAL MODEL

Operational Model is a strategic framework that works by three activities namely the Non-
Evaluative Thinking, Evaluative Thinking, and Action.

I. NON-EVALUATIVE THINKING: This is the first stage of the Operational Model.

In this stage, the consumers exposed to the different brands and the multiple products
that they offer. This is the awareness stage, which creates awareness among the
potential consumers.
II. EVALUATIVE THINKING: Evaluative thinking is the second stage of the
operational model. This is an evaluation phase wherein the potential customers
evaluate different products and juggle the same with similar products of various
brands to make that one choice amongst the various alternatives available.
III. ACTION: The action is the last stage in the Operational Model. This is a stage
wherein a consumer makes the final purchase decision and purchases the product.

In the Operational Model, Non-Evaluative thinking takes place in the Cognitive Stage,
Evaluative Thinking falls under the Affective Stage, and the Action falls under the
Behavioral Stage.

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 Table 1 Classic Response Hierarchy Models

1.13. Advertising model

According to Nan and Faber (2004), advertising can be viewed as a variable field created by
the merged interests of communication and marketing. Variable fields grow or fade based on
changing interests and concerns in society. An advertising model is the strategic use of
an advertising medium, with the goal of reaching a specific target audience.
Advertising medium is a type of media or vehicle the advertising placed on.
Marketers refer to advertising models to evaluate the effectiveness of their content before
launching an ad campaign. Advertising models relate product sales to advertising spending
for a market as a whole. Although many models have built, they frequently contradict each
other and considerable doubt exists as to which models best represent advertising processes.
The unique elements of advertising crossing the areas that represent the different functions of
communication with its structural elements we can get a better idea of how the functional
areas of communication differ and what may make advertising different from these other
disciplines.
Understanding the target market helps to create an effective message and helps to determine
the appropriate advertising medium.
Print, the most traditional use of advertising is found in newspapers and magazines.
Newspapers and magazines are highly targeted to a specific audience, thereby making your
advertising efforts more effective.

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Broadcast: Broadcast advertising models allow you to reach your target market via
television and radio. These mediums focus on audiences that have an interest in the shows
and programing offered.
Direct Mail: the direct-mail advertising model includes all promotional materials sent
through the mail. It usually targets its readers through purchasing or acquiring a list of ideal
customers.
Directory: service providers depended upon the use of Yellow Pages directories for
advertising their business for decades.
Earned and Paid Digital Media: advertising through earned media requires a strong content
building program and social media outlets to share that content.

1.14. Brand resonance model

Brand resonance is how well a customer relates to a branded element, such as a retail product.
It is how someone perceives a brand and their values or goals. Brand resonance models are
used to help build relationships with customers. A brand resonance model details each
necessary branding step required in order to reach resonance. It offers a way for branding
planning to take an illustrative effect, giving visual directions to reach important goals.

According to Latif et al. (2014), building a brand driven marketing background creates
important results that include greater consumer satisfaction, reduced price sensitivity, fewer
consumer defections, and a greater share of consumers‘ wallets, more referrals, and also a
higher percentage of reiterate business. Consumers value their relationships with their
branded ownerships and with marketing agents and institutions that own and control the
brand. Brand resonance focuses on points of differentiation and points of identification that
propose sustainable competitive advantage to the company and business enterprise.

According to Aaker (1991), brand defined as a differentiating name and/or symbol (such as
logo, sign, trademark, or package design) intended to identify the goods or services of either
one seller or a group of sellers, and to distinguish those goods or services from those of
rivals. A brand therefore signals to the consumer the source of the product, and protects both
the consumer and the producer from rivals who would challenge to provide products that
come out to be identical.

According to Fan and diplomacy (2010), brand resonance depends on a systematic

understanding of the company‘s consumers, competitors, and marketing environment. Brand
resonance is based on appropriate identity that needs to reflect the marketing strategy and the

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firm‘s willingness to invest in the programs needed for the brand to live up to its promise as
well as commitment to consumers. Brand resonance depends on a systematic understanding
of the company‘s consumers, competitors, and marketing environment. Brand resonance is
based on appropriate identity that needs to reflect the marketing strategy and the firm‘s
willingness to invest in the programs needed for the brand to live up to its promise as well as
commitment to consumers. Strong brands take pleasure in consumer loyalty, the possibility to
charge premium prices, and extensive brand power to hold up new product and service
launches. Consumer brand-knowledge defined in terms of the personal meaning based on
identity about a brand accumulated in consumer memory, that is, all explanatory and
evaluative brands related information. Different sources and levels of knowledge such as
consciousness, attributes, benefits, images, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and experiences get
connected with a brand and its understanding by the consumer. The brand, in a sense, acts as
a credible as well as transparent guarantee for any product or service, allowing the consumer
visibly to identify and denote products that actually offer added value, and benefit. Brand
resonance underlies to the final relationship that consumers apprehend told a brand as well as
the spread to which the consumer feels in sync with a certain brand (Keller et al., 2011).
According to Keller (2003), with proper brand resonance, consumers articulate a high degree
of loyalty to the brand like that they enthusiastically quest means to intermingle with the
brand and allocate their experiences with others. Companies that are able to establish brand
resonance should harvest a host of benefits or values, for instance, greater price premiums
and more efficient and effective marketing programs. Basically brand resonance is the
ultimate as well as final relationship between a brand and a consumer where loyalty can play
key role (Keller et al., 2011).

According to the brand pyramid model presented by (Baldauf et al., 2009, Keller et al.,
2011), the resonance can be established as a pyramid diagram that is called resonance
pyramid model. However, brand resonance pyramid called sub-dimension of brand building
blocks, which listed in below.

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 Figure 13 AASAL Model of Resonance Pyramid or Sub-dimensions of Building Blocks

Brand resonance expresses how to build strong and active loyal relationships with consumers.
It categorized into four types, which each captures a number of diverse aspects of brand
loyalty.
According to Latif et al. (2014), conceptual Model for Building Brands five elements this
model, are awareness of the brand, association of the brand, superiority of the brand,
affection of the brand and loyalty.
I. Awareness of the Brand:
Awareness related with creating the positive perception of a brand in the consumer‘s mind
and of achieving brand knowledge that make a positive as well as comprehensive awareness
about a brand. Brand marketer‘s major objective should be to create the desired perception in
the target consumer‘s mind. It that holds brand recognition and brand recall performance. In
cooperation, both are important components in sustaining brand equity whose main aim to
achieve a strong brand resonance with long term relationship.
II. Association of the Brand:
A set of brand associations facilitate a brand to enlarge as well as clear a way to build strong
brand resonance. While some consumers may attach greater significance to functional
benefits, emotional value assists the brand stand above others. Building brand associations

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involves a company to understand its brand as well as rivals‘ brands by consumer research.
Consumer research should study existing and prospective consumers, former consumers,
industry experts, and intermediaries. Brand strengths connected with beliefs and values are
the most powerful and most complicated to imitate.
III. Superiority of the Brand:
Brand attitudes and brand superiority are extremely correlated each other and generate in that
while they both communicate with the consumer‘s aggregate cognitive evaluation of a target
brand. The major difference lies in the conflicting operationalization of each construct or
builds from a measurement perspective. Brand superiority measures the consumer‘s
aggregate cognitive evaluation of the brand in next of kin to competing brands. The brand
superiority captures the uniqueness and differentiation that consumers perceive when they
appraise a brand in relation to its competitors.
IV. Affection of the Brand:
Consumer‘s affective reaction to advertisements, to the consumption of goods, use of
services, and in connection with consumer satisfaction has been examined. Affective
responses may take place because of brand associations, not essentially in response to the
cognitive evaluations of brand associations with attribute.
V. Loyalty of the Brand:

Brand loyalty as symbolized a productive mind-set on the part of a brand that leading to
constant purchasing of the brand over time. Brand loyalty is the core of a brand‘s value.

1.15. Keller’s brand equity model/ customers-based brand equity (CBBE) model
Keller's Brand Equity Model is also known as the Customer-Based Brand Equity. The
concept behind the Brand Equity Model is simple: in order to build a strong brand, you must
shape how customers think and feel about your product.

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 Figure 14 keller's brand equity model-CBBE model

The way up to the resonance level affords a brand opportunity to recognize and capitalize on
its customers‘ loyalties and attitudes – both positive and negative. By dividing CBBE into
Keller‘s four levels, marketers can understand what their customers want and need before
they have even bought the product, or maybe even before they know they want it.
The 4 levels of Keller’s CBBE model
Level 1: Brand identity (who are you?)
This is how customers look at your brand and distinguish it from others. It explores the words
and images buyers associate with when they hear a particular brand name. It‘s the most
important level and must be strong to support the rest of the pyramid above it. Brand identity
quantifies the breadth and depth of customer awareness of a brand. Start to build it when
customers are unaware of your products and values, attracting them with ad campaigns and
targeted marketing.
Level 2: Brand meaning (what are you?)
Once customers become aware of your brand, they will want to know more about your
product. They will question its features, looks and style, reliability, durability, customer
experience and value for money, to find its brand meaning. For the purposes of brand
reputation, Level 2 split into two categories:
Brand performance: This covers product functionality, reliability, durability, and price as
well as customer service and satisfaction. It‘s ‗it does what it says on the tin‘ territory and
when it performs well, customer opinion will be positive.
Brand imagery: different, but equally important, imagery meets the customers‘ social and
psychological needs. What does the brand appear to be to customers? Volvo appears Scandi-

32
chic, family-orientated, safe and eco-responsible; Cushelle soft, homely and cozy. This
messaging can come out in targeted marketing and word of mouth.
Level 3: Brand response (what are the feelings for the brand? )
On this level of Keller‘s model, judgment and feelings can be hard to separate and are
intensely personal for each individual customer. One customer may judge the brand irrelevant
to them, whereas another will find it completely relevant. Another may make their own value
comparison against another product, harshly or fairly. In addition, add to the mix actual
interaction and perceived reputation and you can see how hard it can be to quantify how
customers feel about a brand and how much they trust it. Companies need to respond to
judgments and build positive feelings about the brand once they know what they are.
The apex of Keller‘s CBBE model is resonance: when a customer is loyal to a brand,
considers it superior, will buy no other, and advocates its merits to others. Many things
resonate with customers: lifetime experience, customer service, products, and value. Keller‘s
model is deceptively beautiful in its simplicity; building customer-based brand equity is, in
reality, a long and hard road.

1.16. Brand equity model

Based on the various brand equity models, it is evident that brand equity is controlled by
different components such as quality, performance, brand awareness, and loyalty. Brand
equity is nothing but the value of a brand. However, the concept of attaching a value to a
brand is very interesting and has a deeper meaning to it. In general terms, good brand equity
is believed to give better pricing and thereby a better revenue to a company. However, the
brand value calculated in numerous ways. Numerous ways and extensive studies conducted
to understand the concept of brand value. Brand equity models designed to establish the way
in which brand value created for a brand. Each of the brand equity models offers a deep
insight into the brand value concept and the ways to evaluate it. Brand equity models used to
design marketing strategies at various stages. Some of the significant actions that can be
taken by using these brand equity models are to improve the perception of a product, to get
more loyal customers, to get a competitive edge.

Types of Brand Equity Models

1. Aaker Model

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David Aaker has defined brand equity in his Aaker Model. He defines brand equity as a
group of assets and liabilities that can be directly associated with the brand and that which
adds value to the product.

Aaker model consists of 5 components:

Figure 15 components Aaker model:

A. Brand Loyalty: This explains the level of loyalty that a customer shows towards a
brand
B. Brand Awareness: This is the extent to which the brand is popular in the market.
C. Perceived Quality: The image of a product and its quality in the eyes of the
customers.
D. Brand Associations: The level of recognition that a brand has in its product category.
E. Proprietary Assets: The number of patents, intellectual property rights, trademarks,
etc. that a brand owns.

These components of the Aaker model help to influence the customer‘s choice. A customer
will be willing to associate with a brand that offers higher quality and satisfaction.

2. Keller’s Model
Kevin Keller has made a signification contribution to the branding theory and has rolled out
the concept of customer-based brand equity. Keller defines brand as an effect that emerges
out of a favorable association with a brand.
Keller‘s model seeks to get answers to 4 questions:

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 Figure 16 Keller‘s model

A. Who are you? The first step is to create awareness about the brand and build a strong
identity. When people have not heard or seen a product, it is difficult to sell the
product. It is important to know your customers and what they expect from a brand.
When you start building a brand identity, it becomes easier to catch the attention of
the consumers. You should ensure that your brand stands out, and customers are
aware of your brand can recognize your brand.
B. What are you? The next step is to communicate to the users about what your brand
means and what does it do. You should explain the performance of your product,
which means that your brand should be reliable, should offer good service, it should
be durable, should have service effectiveness, good style, and design and reasonable
price. It is important to explain how your brand is able to meet the needs of the
customers and connect with them on a social and psychological level. This can be
done using a variety of marketing strategies such as direct promotion, by sharing
customer experiences or by using social proof.
C. What do I think about you? In this stage, the brand response is obtained. The brand
response can be either a feeling or a judgment about a product. Consumers always
have a feeling or judgment about a product. When a product meets the expectations of
users, it evokes a positive feeling about your brand. A product has to be attractive,
satisfy the needs of the consumers, and should be unique when compared to the
competitor products.

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 D. What is the association with you? In this step, the relationship between the brand
and the customer is strengthened. The brand response that came from the earlier stage
is now converted into an intense and emotional bond between the brand and the
customer. This is the final stage and the most difficult to achieve. When the customer
is in a good relationship with the brand, they often make repeated purchases and
become loyal customers. These steps in Keller‘s brand equity model provides
direction to build and measure brand equity.
3. Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) Model

BAV is a brand equity model that gives the brand equity value of many brands and helps to
compare brand equity across many brands. As per the BAV model, collecting consumer
insights will help to improve brand health and the future of a brand.

The four key components of brand equity are:

Figure 17 components of brand equity

A. Differentiation: This is the extent to which the brand is different from another
brand. A brand should be unique and stand apart from its competitors.

36
 B. Relevance: This is a measure of how relevant your brand is for consumers. It is
important to know if your brand is relevant to consumers in terms of its cost,
needs, and convenience.
C. Esteem: This is a measure of how well a brand is perceived and respected for its
quality and performance. This depicts the response of the consumers to the
growing popularity of the brand or the decline of the brand.
D. Knowledge: This measures the level of understanding of the consumers relating
to identifying the brand. Knowledge can be built by brand building exercise. The
BAV model tries to ascertain how the differentiation, relevance, esteem, and
knowledge are related to each other for the determination of the brand strength.
E. Brandz Model
Brandz model was developed by the marketing research consultants, Millward Brown and
WPP. BRANDZ is a tool that is used to diagnose and predict brand equity. In this model, data
is collected with the help of interviews and publicly available data. Consumers of different
brands are asked questions about the brand that they know.
This model is developed based on five steps that are in sequential order. Each of the steps in
this model is a continuity of the previous steps and should be conducted in the same order.

Figure 18 Brand Equity Model

A. Presence: This is a stage of building familiarity with the product based on past trials
and brand promise.
B. Relevance: Once people know about a product, the next step is the question about
relevance.

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C. Performance: When the product is found to be relevant to consumers, the next step is
to check if the product delivers what it promises. Is the product performance as
expected or as promised?
D. Advantages: Once the product is known to deliver what it has promised, the next step
is to check if the product has any special bonding or preference over all the other
similar products in the market.
E. Bonding: This is the last step where the product has proved to be excellent and has
built a strong bond with the user. This will eliminate all other competing products as
the customer is now emotionally and psychologically bonded with the product and is
not ready to compromise with any other product.

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12. The eras of marketing 3.0 is the era where marketing practices are very much influenced
by changes in consumer behaviour and attitude. It is the more sophisticated form of consumer
centric era where the consumer demands more collaborative, cultural, and spiritual marketing
approaches. Discuss the three changes that lead to Marketing 3.0?

2. INTRODUCTION (THE ERAS OF MARKETING 3.0)

Over the years, marketing has evolved through three stages that we call Marketing 1.0, 2.0,
and 3.0. Many of today‘s marketers still practice Marketing 1.0, some practice Marketing 2.0,
and a few are moving into Marketing 3.0. The greatest opportunities will come to marketers
practicing 3.0. To understand Marketing 3.0 better, let us examine the rise of three major
forces that shape the business landscape toward Marketing 3.0: the age of participation, the
age of globalization paradox, and the age of creative society.

While Customer Marketing most certainly isn‘t the only marketing function taking businesses
by storm, it is playing a pivotal role in changing the focus of marketing today. In just a few
years, it has gone from a tactical play often staffed with the most junior people in the
marketing organization or by interns and contractors to a strategic function led by talented,
senior-level professionals. Once mired in its own silo and subservient to virtually all other
organizational functions, Customer Marketing suddenly emerged as a means for
organizations to engage with their customers, turn them into advocates, showcase them as
thought leaders, and recognize (reward) them for their loyalty.

2.1. Marketing 3.0

We are witnessing the rise of Marketing 3.0 or the values-driven era. Instead of treating
people simply as consumers, marketers approach them as whole human beings with minds,
hearts, and spirits. Increasingly, consumers are looking for solutions to their anxieties about
making the globalized world a better place. In a world full of confusion, they search for
companies that address their deepest needs for social, economic, and environmental justice in
their mission, vision, and values. They look for not only functional and emotional fulfillment
but also human spirit fulfillment in the products and services they choose.

Like consumer-oriented Marketing 2.0, Marketing 3.0 also aims to satisfy the consumer.
However, companies practicing Marketing 3.0 have bigger missions, visions, and values to
contribute to the world; they aim to provide solutions to address problems in the society.
Marketing 3.0 lifts the concept of marketing into the arena of human aspirations, values, and
spirit. Marketing 3.0 believes that consumers are complete human beings whose other needs

39
and hopes should never be neglected. Therefore, Marketing 3.0 complements emotional
marketing with human spirit marketing.

It is the more sophisticated form of the consumer-centric era where the consumer demands
more collaborative, cultural, and spiritual marketing approaches.

Figure 19 Three Changes that Lead to Marketing 3.0

In times of global economic crisis, Marketing 3.0 gains more relevance to the lives of the
consumers as they are impacted more by rapid social, economic, and environmental change
and turbulence. Diseases become pandemics, poverty increases, and environmental
destruction is under way. Companies practicing Marketing 3.0 provide answers and hope to
people confronting such issues and, therefore, touch consumers at a higher level. In
Marketing 3.0, companies differentiate themselves by their values. In turbulent times, this
differentiation is arguably a strong one.

Table 2 the comparison of Marketing 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 from comprehensive

40
To understand Marketing 3.0 better, let us examine the rise of three major forces that shape
the business landscape toward Marketing 3.0: the age of participation, the age of
globalization paradox, and the age of creative society. Observe how these three major forces
transform consumers to be more collaborative, cultural, and human spirit-driven.
Understanding this transformation will lead to a better understanding of Marketing 3.0 as a
nexus of collaborative, cultural, and spiritual marketing.

2.1.1. The age of participation and collaborative marketing

Marketing 3.0 is collaborative, with the advancement of technology, social networking and
collaboration platforms emerged. These allowed individuals and groups to connect and
interact with each other. Now, social media users can create and spread news. Social media
proved to be even more significant when consumers began to influence other consumers with
their own experience and opinions. In a world of collaboration, the secret is to really
understand what the consumer expects. What are their attitudes that can foster collaborate
with the brand? For this, some companies have used online communities. It allows consumers
and businesses connect and cooperate with each other, plus the acquisition of insights. In
addition to simply listen to opinions and make decisions that create the right, some
companies also launched co-creation programs. Products and services can be modified
according to the requirements and needs of customers.

2.1.2. The age of globalization paradox and cultural marketing

Marketing 3.0 is cultural, in a world dominated by large global companies understanding
the profile of local consumers can be a key strategy. Despite globalization, consumers are
increasingly divided into groups and niches. Local culture or a specific group can dictate how

41
companies use marketing tools. Audience segmentation and identify specific cultural patterns
is one of the main determinant‘s factors for organizations in the new world of advertising.

Some companies have partner with digital influencers in order to promote their products and
associate it with a particular culture niche. They can position the brand within that group.

2.1.3. The age of creative society and human spirit marketing

Marketing 3.0 is spiritual; People today are looking increasingly positive experiences and
values in all possible aspects. The current lifestyle, full of anguish and guilt, makes people
search positive meanings between companies and the products they consume. In this
perspective, this effect is even more important that the usefulness of the product itself.
Therefore, companies should try to improve themselves beyond the normal physical effects
of the product. There has to be a lifestyle, a philosophy. So, when the product is consumed,
consumers feel they are part of something bigger. Many companies support social causes or
make products that do not harm the environment. That shows care about issues that are not
just financial. That is, it has a real interest in building a better world because they have a
certain authority within it.

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39. In line with five A‘s customer path, a set of new metrics comprising of purchase action
ratio and brand advocacy ratio which allow marketers to measure the productivity of their
marketing activities. How can your business adopt the new metrics of purchase action ratio
and brand advocacy ratio to measure marketing productivity? How your business can triggers
favourable customer conversions?

3. INTRODUCING PAR AND BAR

New set of marketing metrics is introduced to measure awareness and advocacy based on
marketing investments on brands. This is in line with the principle of 5A‘s of customer path
i.e. aware, appeal, ask, act and advocacy. Two-fold metrics are: (1) Purchase Action Ratio
(PAR) and Brand Advocacy Ratio (BAR). Purchase Action Ratio (PAR) and Brand
Advocacy Ratio (BAR) are the main metrics that are needs to be tracked these days. Far from
the usual social media metrics and digital channel metrics, this gives a broader sense of how
well companies convert in terms of Sales and Positive influence. BAR focuses on Advocacy
while PAR on purchases.

How can your business adopt the new metrics of PAR and BAR to measure marketing
productivity?

PAR is heavily linked to the financial health of the company by giving metrics that is relation
to actual sales or bookings. Both PAR and BAR are measures of productivity of spending
and brand awareness. It is logical to say that it is impossible to have bookings without
awareness of the brand first. PAR is a purchase action measurement while BAR tracks
advocacy that results to sales growth (http://www.pamastillero.com/2017/08/11/6-marketing-
productivity-metrics/).

PAR measures how well companies convert brand awareness into brand purchase. Purchase
action directly translates to sales from company perspective (Setiawan et al., 2016). Formula
as follows:

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 Figure 20 What PAR Really Means

PAR = Act/Total Market Share + Aware/Total market or Customer/Total Market Share /

Aware / Total market or simply Market Share/Brand Awareness. With PAR, market Share is
always half % of brand awareness and this is a determinant on how marketers should be
careful in spending.

Table 3 PAR Really Means

Low conversion rate Means

aware to appeal Poor customer attraction and low brand

positioning due to poor marketing
implementation. Attraction level is close to 1.

appeal to ask Low customer curiosity, customers are not

compelled to ask questions

Too high means brand message is unclear.

Curiosity level should not be closer to 1.

ask to act Low commitment, people talks about the

brand but do not buy, guests might find the
service to be disappointing.

act to advocate Low affinity, experience at the resort was not

44
 great and not worth sharing or
recommending. Goal is to increase
compassion level.

BAR, however, measures how well companies convert brand awareness into brand advocacy.
Advocacy translates to sales growth from company perspective. Formula as follows:

BAR = (Appeal / Awareness) (Ask/Appeal) (Act/Ask) (Advocates/Affinity)

Figure 21 What BAR Really Means

With Bar shows the outcome, the ideal bar score is 1. The goal is to go through the entire
5A‘s without dropping out.

Table 4 What BAR Really Means

BAR Means LOYALITY IMPROVE ON

APPEAL Poor customer attraction and ATTRACTIO  Repositioning

AWARENESS low brand positioning due to N  Marketing
poor marketing Communication
implementation. Attraction
level is close to 1.

ASK Low customer curiosity, CURIOSITY  Community

APPEAL customers are not compelled Marketing
to ask questions.  Content

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 Too high means brand Marketing
message is unclear. Curiosity
level should not be closer to
1.

ACT Low commitment, people COMMITME  Channel

ASK talks about the brand but do NT  Management
not buy, guests might find the Sales Force
service to be disappointing.

ADVOCATE Low affinity, experience at AFFINITY  Loyalty

AFFINITY the resort was not great and  Program
not worth sharing or Customer Care
recommending. Goal is to
increase compassion level.

How can your business trigger favourable customer conversations?

The biggest benefit of connectivity in the customer path is the opportunity to increase
awareness by triggering a conversation among customers. A customer who was not aware of
a brand may end up knowing about the brand after listening to a conversation. Leaving a
positive impression from the beginning, from the time they called to inquire would be an
advantage, not to sales pitch but to make them feel at home. Talking like you are a member of
the family or group of friends is a way on how they can spread good news about your
company. They would say that you are approachable, nice, helpful and friendly is a good trait
that not all customer service representative has. Not sounding like robots or information hub.
This is what you should always remind your staff. Be a part of the outing. Be there when they
need ideas, be there, meet the person behind the phone, meet and greet everyone, make them
feel important, give additional perks that they did not expect. Have the initiative to reach out
and picture the scenario based on expectation and reality without exaggeration. Telling the
truth and the downside of some things is also practicing honesty and customer will appreciate
it. The awareness will be from “word of mouth” and this is free.

46
32. More and more marketers are making the shift from advertising to content marketing. A
mind-set shift is required. Instead of delivering value propositions messages, marketers
should be distributing content that is useful and valuable for the customers. In developing
content marketing, marketers often focus on content production and content distribution.
However, good content marketing also requires proper pre-production and post-distributions
activities. Discuss the eight major steps of content marketing that marketers should follow in
order to initiate customer conversations. How do you plan to execute your content marketing
strategy?

4. INTRODUCTION TO CONTENT MARKETING

Technology has changed everything. Communication now takes place digitally more than
face to face. Traditional methods of marketing have become ineffective as consumers can
easily filter and tune out sales and marketing messages. Instead, information that is important
to consumers is sought after on their terms and more reliance is placed on peers and
community input in decision making.

This means that marketers can no longer repeat the tactics that were successful in the past,
but rather must adapt new marketing methods using a content strategy that is able to reach
and engage customers in this new era of socially connected consumers and buyers.

Content marketing is a marketing approach that involves creating, curating, distributing, and
amplifying content that is interesting, relevant, and useful to a clearly defined audience group
in order to create conversations about the content. Content marketing is also considered to be
another form of brand journalism and brand publishing that creates deeper connections
between brands and customers. Brands that are implementing good content marketing
provide customers access to high-quality original content while telling interesting stories
about their brands in the process. Content marketing shifts the role of marketers from brand
promoters to storytellers.

Content marketing has been a buzzword in recent years, and it is being touted as the future of
advertising in the digital economy. The transparency brought by the internet has indeed given
birth to the idea of content marketing. Internet connectivity allows customers to converse and
discover the truth about brands. Marketers today face a major hurdle when trying to reach
customers with traditional advertising because customers do not always trust it. They prefer

47
to ask friends and family for honest opinions about brands. When they hear claims made by
brands, customers clarify the claims by talking to trustworthy peers in their community. A
good content marketing system will help you generate more targeted traffic from search and
social media, build trust with visitors, strengthen existing customer relationships and loyalty,
and drive quality leads and sales (https://silo.tips/download/8-steps-to-an-effective-content-
marketing-system).

Discuss the eight major steps of content marketing that marketers should follow in
order to initiate customer conversations.

4.1. The eight major steps of content marketing

An effective content-marketing campaign requires marketers to create original content in-
house or to curate it from external sources. Content marketers should also distribute the
content through the best mix of channels. However, the most common drawback of a content-
marketing strategy is to jump right away into content production and distribution without
proper pre-production and post-distribution activities. In order to overcome these types of
issues the following eight major steps of content marketing that marketers should follow are
listed. In each stage marketers are should follow or must check all the right boxes before
moving on to the next (Setiawan et al., 2016).

Step 1: Goal Setting

Before embarking on a content-marketing journey, marketers should define their goals

clearly. Without proper objectives in place, marketers might become lost when they dive
deep into content creation and distribution. Their goals should be aligned with their overall
business objectives and translated into key metrics, against which the content marketing will
be evaluated.

Content-marketing goals can be classified into two major categories. The first category is
sales related goals; these include lead generation, sales closing, cross-sell, up-sell, and sales
referral. The second category is brand-related goals; these include brand awareness, brand
association, and brand loyalty/advocacy. Most content marketers have more than one
objective in both categories.

Defining their goals helps marketers to better design a content-marketing strategy. If the
objectives fall into the sales-related category, marketers need to make sure that the content
distribution channels are well aligned with the sales channels. For example, Birch box, an

48
online beauty product subscription service, offers tips for maintaining healthier hair in a
video. Since one of the goals is sales, a ―Shop This Story‖ pane is placed next to the video
pane, allowing audience members to click and buy the products featured in the content
directly if they so desire.

On the other hand, if the objectives are more focused on brand metrics, marketers need to
make sure that the content is always consistent with the brand's character. An example is
Colgate; the ―Oral Care Center‖ content helps build Colgate's brand association as the oral
expert. In India, Colgate's Oral Care Center app helps connect dentists to prospective
patients, which helps to build a strong brand image in both audience groups.
Step 2: Audience Mapping

Once the objectives have been clearly defined, marketers should determine the audiences
they want to focus on. Marketers cannot simply define the audiences in broad terms such as
―our customers,‖ ―youth in general,‖ or ―decision makers.‖ Defining a specific audience
subset will help marketers create sharper and deeper content, which in turn contributes to the
brand's effective storytelling.

As with traditional segmentation, the audience perimeters can be geographic, demographic,

psychographic, and behavioral. The ultimate perimeter is often behavioral. Douglas Holt
suggests that content marketers focus on the topics that interest certain subcultures (such as
home-schooling, 3-D printing, bird-watching, and body-building) that have the tendency to
gather in communities and distribute relevant content among themselves. Since most
subcultures are attracted by novel, nonmainstream themes that bind them together, content
marketers might find non-generic content ideas when observing them. Moreover, most
subculture activists are influencers who will help amplify the content.

After marketers have set their audience boundaries, they need to profile the audiences and
describe their personas, which will help them imagine what the audience actually looks like
in real life.

Through proper research, they also need to discover their anxieties and desires—or pain
points and aspirations—which will define their need for specific content. Marketers should
then aim to provide content that helps them to relieve their anxieties and achieve their desires.

Airbnb, for instance, focuses on travelers who want to experience their destinations as locals
who actually live there, not as tourists. Thus, Airbnb publishes ―The Local List‖ for major

49
destinations. This PDF booklet is a map guide that describes what locals will do and the
favorite places they go to in a specific city. It is essentially a travel guide but takes the point
of view of a local not of a tourist. The clearly defined audience segment helps Airbnb
develop content that is relevant and compelling.

Step 3: Content Ideation and Planning

The next step is to find ideas about what content to create and to perform proper planning. A
combination of relevant themes, suitable formats, and solid narratives ensures a successful
content marketing campaign.

In finding the right theme, marketers should consider two things. First, great content has clear
relevance to customers' lives. With all the information clutter, content must mean something
to the audience to avoid being dismissed. It must relieve their anxieties and help them pursue
their desires. Second, effective content has stories that reflect the brand's characters and
codes. This means that content must become the bridge that connects the brand's stories to
customers' anxieties and desires. Content can be the means for brands to make a difference
and leave a legacy—the ultimate goal of Marketing 3.0. This requires marketers to think
deeply about their brand mission: what they stand for beyond the value propositions. General
Electric (GE), for example, taps into the interests of technology enthusiasts and futurists with
its online magazine Txchnologist. At the same time, it tries to create futuristic technology
stories around the GE brand.

Marketers should also explore the content formats. Content can be presented in written
formats: press releases, articles, newsletters, white papers, case studies, and even books.
Content can also have a more visual form: infographics, comics, interactive graphics,
presentation slides, games, videos, short films, and even feature films. The Content
Marketing Institute reported that over 80 percent of B2C companies use illustrations and
photos, e-newsletter, videos, and website articles whereas over 80 percent of B2C companies
use case studies, blogs, e-newsletters, and in-person events.

Given the trend toward multi-screen content marketing—90 percent of all media interactions
today appear on some kind of a screen according to Google—marketers need to consider
multiple formats that ensure content visibility and accessibility.

Another element that marketers need to explore at the ideation and planning stage is the
overall content-marketing narrative. Content marketing is often episodic, with different small

50
story arcs that support the overall story line. While it is true that content marketing is most
effective early in the customer path (especially in building attraction and curiosity at the
appeal and ask stages), the content should be distributed across the entire customer path. The
key is often building the right format mix and sequence.

Step 4: Content Creation

All the activities that we have discussed lead to the most important step, which is the content
creation itself. Successful content marketers know that content creation is not a part-time job
that can be done half-heartedly. Content creation requires enormous commitment in terms of
time and budget. If content is not high quality, original, and rich, a content-marketing
campaign becomes a waste of time and sometimes backfires.

Some brands choose to create the content themselves. American Express Publishing, for
example, managed to publish high-quality editorial content for affluent segments, which
include titles such as Travel + Leisure and Food & Wine . The publishing group was finally
sold to Time Inc. when banking regulations limited its ability to grow.

Content creation can indeed be a separate business by itself. It demands marketers to act like
publishers with strong writers and editors. Good in-house content producers should uphold
high standards of journalism and editorial integrity. They should not be biased toward the
brand they work for. They should also learn from great Hollywood producers how to create
entertaining and compelling stories.

Content creation has no start and end dates. It is a continuous process that requires
consistency. Therefore, marketers need to be sure that they have the in-house capability to
deliver content over the long term. If they are not so capable, they should consider acquiring
the content from external sources. The easiest way is to outsource content creation to
professional content producers: journalists, scriptwriters, animators, and videographers.

Another alternative is to sponsor content produced by third-party sources. Consider this

surprising fact revealed by the New York Times : readers are actually spending roughly the
same amount of time on sponsored posts as on news stories. An example of sponsored posts
is an article titled ―The

Surprising Cost of Not Taking a Vacation‖ by MasterCard that discusses in detail the
economic implications of having no vacations. Another possibility is to curate user-generated
content. An example of this is Heineken's Ideas Brewery, in which Heineken invited

51
customers to create and share videos and images to redefine how draft beer should be served
and drunk in the future.

Step 5: Content Distribution

High-quality content is useless unless it reaches its intended audience. In a sea of content, it is
easy for a particular content to get lost in transmission. Marketers need to ensure that their
content can be discovered by audiences through proper content distribution. It is true that
content marketing was born in the digital era. Contrary to popular belief, however, content
marketing is not always performed through digital-media channels. Some content formats and
distribution channels are non-digital. Even digital natives use non-digital content marketing.
Examples include corporate book publications such as Delivering Happiness by Zappos and
The Everything Store by Amazon. Moreover, B2B and B2C marketers in North America
agree that in-person events provide the most effective content-marketing approach, according
to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute. In-person events allow the more meaningful
human-to-human interactions that digital content marketing lacks.

There are three major categories of media channels that content marketers can use: owned,
paid, and earned media. A brand's owned media consist of the channel assets that the brand
owns and which are fully under its control. A brand can distribute content to its owned media
channels anytime it wants. Owned media include corporate publications, corporate events,
websites, blogs, company-managed online communities, email newsletters, social media
accounts, mobile phone notifications, and mobile applications that belong to the brand. These
are highly targeted media whose reach is typically limited to the brand's existing customers.
Even though owned media are free, building and managing them requires significant internal
resources.

A brand's paid media, on the other hand, are the channels that the brand pays to distribute its
content. They include traditional advertising media such as electronic media, print media, and
out-of-home media, along with digital media. In the digital space, the most common paid
media channels include display banners, affiliate networks of publishers, search engine
listings, paid social media placements, and mobile advertising media. A brand typically pays
based on the number of impressions (the number of times the content is shown) or based on
the number of actions (the number of times the audience actually follows through with
actions such as clicks, registrations, or purchases). Paid media are typically used to reach and
acquire new prospective audiences in an effort to build brand awareness and drive traffic to

52
owned media channels. A brand's earned media include the coverage and exposure gained by
the brand due to word of mouthor advocacy. When the quality of the content is very high, the
audience often feels compelled to make them viral through social media and communities—
hence the organic word of mouth. Earned media exposure can also be a result of a strong
public and media relations effort, creating what is known as amplified word of mouth. Earned
media typically do not stand alone; they require owned and paid media to generate the free
coverage.
Step 6: Content Amplification
The key to a strong earned media distribution is a content amplification strategy. Not all
audiences are created equal. When the content reaches key influencers in the intended
audience group, that content is more likely to go viral. The first step marketers should do is to
identify these influencers. They are respected figures in their communities who have a sizable
group of engaged followers and audiences. They are often content creators themselves who
have built their reputation over time with great viral content. They are considered experts in
their communities.

For these influencers to endorse and spread branded content, the quality of the content is
often not sufficient. The rule of reciprocity applies. The key is to build and nurture a win/win
relationship with the influencers. Marketers need to make sure that the influencers find it
useful for improving their reputations when they spread the content. Some influencers are
also keen on expanding their reach, and marketers can help them do that by providing them
with access to a larger audience group.

Once the content has been amplified, marketers need to follow through by engaging in
conversations. Marketers should listen to the conversations taking place about their content.
This can be overwhelming at times considering the magnitude of the conversations and the
number of media involved. Thus, marketers must carefully select the conversations in which
they want to participate.
Step 7: Content Marketing Evaluation

Evaluation of content marketing success is an important post-distribution step. It involves

both the strategic and the tactical performance measurements. Strategically, marketers should
evaluate whether the content-marketing strategy achieves the sales-related and the brand-
related goals set in Step 1. Since the goals are aligned with the overall business objectives,

53
the evaluation is straightforward and can be integrated with the brand's overall performance
measurement.

Tactically, marketers should also evaluate the key content-marketing metrics, which really
depend on the choice of formats and media channels. In essence, marketers need to track
content performance across the customer path with the help of social listening and analytic
tools. There are five categories of metrics that measure whether the content is visible (aware),
relatable (appeal), searchable (ask), actionable (act), and shareable (advocate).

Visibility metrics are about measuring reach and awareness. Most common metrics include
impressions (how many times the content is viewed), unique viewers (how many people
actually see the content), and brand recall (what percent are able to recall the brand name).
Relatability, on the other hand, measures how well the content attracts interest. Metrics
include page views per visitor (the number of pages people visit while on a content website),
bounce rate (the percentage of people who leave after visiting just one page), and time on site
(the duration of the visit), among others. Search metrics typically measure how discoverable
content is by using search engines. Important metrics include search-engine positions
(content positions on a search engine when looked up through certain keywords) and search
engine referrals (how many visits to the company website come from search engine results).

Action metrics are perhaps one of the most important things to track. They essentially
measure whether content successfully drives customer to act. Typical metrics include click-
through-rate (ratio between the number of clicks and the number of impressions) and other
call-to-action conversion rates (percentage of audiences who complete certain actions such as
registering and purchasing). Ultimately, marketers need to track how well their content is
being shared, which is a proxy for advocacy. Share metrics include share ratio (ratio between
the number of shares and the number of impressions) and engagement rate (on Twitter, for
example, it is measured by dividing total followers by share actions such as retweets,
favorites, replies, and mentions).
Step 8: Content Marketing Improvement

The key advantage of content marketing over traditional marketing is that it is highly
accountable; we can track performance by content theme, content format, and distribution
channel. Performance tracking is very useful for analyzing and identifying opportunities for
improvement at a very granular level. This also means that content marketers can easily
experiments with new content themes, formats, and distribution channels.

54
Since content is very dynamic, periodic improvements of content marketing is essential.
Marketers should determine their evaluation and improvement horizons and decide when it is
time to change the content-marketing approach. However, it is important to note that content
marketing often requires time to have its impact and therefore requires a certain degree of
persistence as well consistency in implementation.

How do you plan to execute your content marketing strategy?

4.2. Plan to execute your content marketing strategy

When you develop a content strategy, there are a few questions to answer. Let's dive into
those, now (https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-marketing-plan).

1. Who will be reading your content?

Who's the target audience for your content? For how many audiences are you creating
content? Just as your business might have more than one type of customer, your content
strategy can cater to more than one type of reader or viewer.

Using a variety of content types and channels will help you deliver different content to each
type of audience you have in mind and engage everyone your company does business with.

2. What problem will you be solving for your audience(s)?

Ideally, your product or service solves a problem you know your audience has. By the same
token, your content coaches and educates your audience through this problem as they begin
to identify and address it.

A sound content strategy supports people on both sides of your product: those who are still
figuring out what their main challenges are, and those who are already using your product to
overcome these challenges. Your content reinforces the solution(s) you're offering and makes
your customers more qualified users of your product.

3. What makes you unique?

Your competitors likely have a similar product as yours, which means your potential
customers need to know what makes yours better or, at least, different. This is where content
comes in.

In order to prove why you're worth buying from, you need to prove why you're worth
listening to.

55
4. What content formats will you focus on?

What forms will your content take? Infographics? Videos? Blog posts? Having identified the
topics you want to take a position on, you'll need to determine which formats to budget for so
you can best express that position.

5. What channels will you publish on?

Just as you can create content in different formats, you'll also have different channels you can
publish to. Channels can include owned properties, such as your website and blog; and social
media properties, such as Facebook and Twitter. We'll talk more about social media content
strategy in the step-by-step guide later in this article.

6. How will you manage content creation and publication?

Figuring out how you'll create and publish all your content can be a daunting task. It's
important for a content strategy to know who's creating what, where it's being published, and
when it's going live.

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