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Global Branding
Unit 2c: Brand Associations
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Brand Associations 1
• Definition: Brand associations are images and symbols
associated with a brand or a brand benefit.
• Brand associations are not “reason-to-buy” but provide
acquaintance and differentiation that’s not replicable.
• Brand associations are key factors that drive development
of brand relationship because brand associations produce
brand loyalty.

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Brand Associations 2
• Brand association is anything that is deep-seated in
customer’s mind about the brand.
• Positive brand associations are developed if the product
the brand depicts is durable, marketable, and desirable.
• Positive brand association helps an organization to gain
goodwill, and obstructs the competitor’s entry into the
market.

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Brand Associations 3
• An association can affect the processing and recall of
information, provide a point of differentiation, provide a
reason to buy, and create positive attitudes and feelings.
• Brand associations may include product attributes,
customer benefits, uses, lifestyles, product classes,
competitors and countries of origin.
• Brands with the highest levels of awareness and most
favourable and unique associations are considered high-
equity brands.
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 Brand Associations as a component
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of Aaker’s Brand Equity Model

Brand Associations, including Perceived Quality

• Help communicate information

• Differentiation/Position
• Reason-to-buy
• Create positive attitudes/feelings
• Basis for brand extensions
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 Brand Associations are formed on the
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basis of… (1)

• Customer contact with organization and its employees

• Advertisements

• Word-of-mouth publicity

• Price at which the brand is sold

• Celebrity or big-entity association

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 Brand Associations are formed on the
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basis of… (2)

• Quality of the product

• Products and schemes offered by competitors

• Product class/category to which the brand belongs

• Point-of-purchase displays

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5 Dimensions
of Brand
Associations

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What Brand Associations really are?

• “It is not the brand as such that creates associations – it is
a meaning creation process involving the brand as
information, a given mind, a collateral experience of the
mind. These elements together can create associations:
the information outside the mind causes mental images
inside the mind, prior knowledge or memory connects the
outside with the inside – the connection is the association.”
– Thellefsen, T. & Sorensen, B. (2015)

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Discovering Brand Associations 1

1. Surveys and focus groups can help discover associations

from general consumers and loyal customers.

2. The website brandtags.com shows a brand logo and asks

visitors to type the first word they associate with that
brand. Once you have entered 5 words, you can look at
the results. See next slide.
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Discovering Brand Associations 2

• Go to: brandtags.com to see what associations people

have with brands.

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Discovering Brand Associations 3

3. Associations can be unearthed by analysing search-

engine searches that happen in the same session.

4. Social intelligence can uncover brand associations

through natural conversations. It provides a mix of
qualitative and quantitative data.

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Value of Brand Associations

Help buyers to remember brand Differentiate brand from Provide reasons to buy your
for its unique qualities. competitors product

Create positive attitudes or Form the basis for brand

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feelings towards a brand/product. extensions
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Examples of Brand Associations

Singer
Family
Equality Entertainer
Cartoons Magic

Mega
Shock
makeu
factor
p
Disney Lady
American Disney World Gaga
Mega Pop
costumes star

Mickey Princes
Mouse ses Meat Outrageous
dress
Castles Glamorous
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Secondary Brand
Associations
Associations related to entities not directly linked
to the judged product.
By making a connection between the brand and
another entity, consumers may form a mental
association from the brand to this order entity and,
consequently, to any or all associations,
judgements, feelings, and the like linked to that
entity.
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•
•
Company (through branding strategies)
Country of origin (through identification
of product origin)
• Channels of distribution (through
channel strategy)
• Other brands (through co-branding)
• Characters (through licensing)
• Celebrity spokesperson (through
endorsement advertising)
• Events (through sponsorship)
• Other third-party sources (through
awards and reviews)
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Key Takeaways 1
• Brand Associations comprise one of the components of
Aaker’s Brand-Equity Model.
• Brand Associations are in the mind of the beholder, but
marketers can influence positive associations.
• Marketers can also deploy secondary associations,
attaching brands to various entities.

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Key Takeaways 2
• Brand Associations provide a reason to buy, differentiation,
positive feelings, memorable qualities, and motivation for
brand extensions.
• Several techniques exist for marketers to discover what
associations consumers have with their brands.

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