5/20/2021 IGN ITOR Student

a whopping 76.7 percent. Even for carrots, which is not a McDonald's menu item, 54.1 percent Marketing
considered the sampled carrot better tasting when it was served in a McDonald's package Communications
versus the 23.0 percent who preferred the carrot when served in a plain-white package. WE“
These results convincingly indicate brand equity in action. Simply placing products in
NOTES
well-identified McDonald‘s packaging led children to regard these items to be superior tast-
ing in comparison to identical items in plain-white packages. Moreover, additional analyses
revealed that preference for the McDonald's (versus plain-white) version of the food/ drink
items was especially strong among those children who lived in homes with more television
sets and who more frequently ate food from McDonald's. As will be indicated in the fol-
lowing section on consumer—based brand equity, these results demonstrate the role that the
speak-for-itself and message-driven approaches play in enhancing a brand's equity.

A Customer-Based Perspective on Brand Equity

From the perspective of the customer—whether a 323 customer or a 32C consumer—a brand
possesses equity to the extent that people are familiar with the brand and have stored in
memory favorable, strong, and unique brand associations.g Associations (or, more technically,
mental associations) are the particular thoughts and feelings that consumers have linked in
memory with a particular brand, much in the same fashion that we hold in memory thoughts
and feelings about other people. For example, what thoughts/ feelings come immediately to
mind when you think of your best friend? You undoubtedly associate your friend with cer-
tain features, strengths, and perhaps frailties. Likewise, brands are linked in our memories
with specific thought-and-feeling associations.“
Another way of thinking about brand equity is that it consists of two forms of brand-
related knowledge: brand awareness and brand image. Subsequent coverage of customer-based
brand equity describes in detail each of these two aspects of brand knowledge and builds the
discussion around Figure 2.1. It will be useful before leading on to thoroughly examine this
figure.

Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is an issue of whether a brand name comes to mind when consumers think
about a particular product category and the ease with which the name is evoked. Stop read-
ing for a moment and consider all the brands of toothpaste that come immediately to your
mind.
For students in the United States, Crest and Colgate probably came to mind immediately,
because these brands are the market share leaders among American brands of toothpaste.
Perhaps you also thought of Aquafresh, Mentadent, and Arm & Hammer insofar as these
brands also obtain a large share of toothpaste purchases. But did you consider Close-Up,
Pepsodent, or Aim? Maybe so; probably not. These brands are not as widely known or fre-
quently purchased as are their more successful counterparts. As such, they have lower levels
of awareness than, say, Colgate and Crest. Now repeat the same exercise for brands of athletic
footwear. Your short list probably contains Nike, Reebok, Adidas, and maybe New Balance.
What about K—Swiss, Vans, Converse, Puma, and Asics? Again, these latter brands possess
lower levels of awareness for most people and, as such, have less equity vis-à-vis a brand
such as Nike.
Brand awareness is the basic dimension of brand equity. From the vantage point of an in-
dividual consumer, a brand has no equity unless the consumer is at least aware of the brand.
Achieving brand awareness is the initial challenge for new brands. Maintaining high levels of
brand awareness is the task faced by all established brands.
Figure 2.1 shows two levels of awareness: brand recognition and recall. Brand recognition
reflects a relatively superficial level of awareness, whereas brand recali indicates a deeper form.
Consumers may be able to identify a brand if it is presented to them on a list or if hints/cues
are provided. However, fewer consumers are able to retrieve a brand name from memory
without any reminders. It is this deeper level of awareness—brand recall—to which market- Self-Im…
ers aspire. Through effective and consistent marcom efforts, some brands are so well known Mama! 2-5

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