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Building
Building brand equity: the genetic brand equity
coding of Mediterranean brands
Maria Teresa Cuomo and Gerardo Metallo
Department of Business Studies, Faculty of Economics, 237
University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
Debora Tortora and Mario Testa
Department of Business Studies, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy, and
Philip J. Kitchen
University of Hull, Hull, UK and
ESC Rennes, Rennes, France

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to stimulate reflection on the concept of Mediterranean
brands, to map and qualify their specific genetic make up and their influence on brand equity.
Design/methodology/approach – From an overview of the available literature and using the
brand genetics model, conceptual dimensions inherent to the Mediterranean brand are identified, so as
to evaluate their contribution in the building and transfer of brand value.
Findings – This paper shows how the properties of Mediterranean elements are reconciled with
branding models and more in general, with sustainable business.
Originality/value – The paper highlights the generating drivers of value from a Mediterranean
marketing perspective. Management has to govern these strategically in order to retain lasting
competitive advantage.
Keywords Brands, Brand equity, Culture
Paper type Conceptual paper

1. Introduction
There is no doubt that the survival of a firm is tied to its capacity to constantly
generate economic value which is fundamental to client value and customer
satisfaction. However, since customer satisfaction is measured in terms of sales,
behaviour or results obtained, it is the expression of a system of monitoring and
mapping consumers which is extremely limited. Human satisfaction is a far wider
construct which requires that firms look for customer satisfaction in three other
interacting spheres of the psyche: emotion, reason and ethics as each of these strongly
affect the areas of trust and loyalty.
In line with many marketplace changes, firms with their brands and their offers
have become not just the foundation, but rather with the support of dyadic relations
activated between consumers and brands, around the value of genuineness, becomes
the route to affective loyalty. Evidently, reference is to the use of the brand in terms of: EuroMed Journal of Business
Vol. 4 No. 3, 2009
[. . .] a relational resource, potential and driver for the creation and the building up of a pp. 237-253
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
patrimony of trust under the profile of extension and quality of the relations with the context 1450-2194
(Golinelli, 2003). DOI 10.1108/14502190910992675
EMJB This requires on the one hand, non-opportunist business behaviour and on the other,
4,3 assimilation of an adequate risk culture, linked to the complexity of the context in
which relations take place. Consequently, the function of support, expectations and
compensation of the brand in consumer minds has to be re-defined in order to fully
accomplish its purpose.
Therefore, besides the necessity of management to reconsider the role of the brand,
238 changing from fiduciary monopolist – unique driver of customer buying processes – to
relational “facilitator”, in partnership with the more general system of offer/firm, an
essential condition is that the brand exhibits genotypes capable of producing/
sustaining mass sensitivity and forms of collaboration within a shared reality.
Moving from a meridian marketing way of thinking, as a “potential” context for the
emerging of non artificial bonds between brands and consumers, the purpose of
the present study is to define identifying and cultural components linked to the
“Mediterranean brand”.
Within this conceptual framework, consequently, the main goal of the paper is to
underline the presence of a specific genetic make up that distinguishes Mediterranean
brands from global brands. Moreover, the overall make up of the Mediterranean brand
can positively influence customer loyalty and, consequently, brand equity.
According to this aim, it is necessary to describe brand desoxyribose nucleic acid
(DNA) composition, stressing the characteristics of Mediterranean brands, in order to
analyse their effects on customer-based brand equity.
Through the critical analysis of the literature, the authors intend to:
.
assess returns in terms of involvement of specific targets, by concentrating on
the empathy element stimulated in the consumer; and
.
identify various dimensions of the aspects that determine, build and make up
brand equity.

2. Genotype, phenotype and ecotype features of the brand system

It is by now evident that the routine experience of any individual has gradually been
“occupied”, almost “colonised” by consumer goods (brands), constituting a form of
identity and cultural expression (Dalli and Romani, 2003; Cuomo, 2006). On the other
hand, it goes without saying that included in the elements that make up the brand in
conceptual terms, a significant contribution derives from the value consumers place in
or weave around the concept, often including these in a particular life plan (Buratti,
2004). Interaction with the brand, in effect, enables both the building and transmitting
of identity of the subject beneficiary, thus contributing to defining its salient features
and to expropriating the offer, that consequently may seem to be part of the subject’s
personality.
The end of the myth of the infinite socio-economic progress, contingent with the
fragmentation of the individual, seems to establish a deeper relationship between
brand and consumer. How?
In the context of a “trusted friend” the brand can or does become part of the
customers’ affective and emotional network; yet, if the efficacious involvement of
consumers is the predominant objective pursued by strategists of branding, in other
words, providing consumers with sensations and emotions evoked by the atmosphere;
thus may be necessarily different as concerns the consumer-individual as is the ground
on which the emotional connection is construed (Traini, 2005). On the other hand, if:
 [. . .] the mere functionality of a brand can lead to semantic usury if it is not constantly Building
supported by sensorial experience, thus becoming an ingredient vested with sense, capable of
producing discourses and emotions (Fabris, 2003). brand equity
The outcome of which is a shared emotional link, then the brand has to be freed above
all, from the weight attributed to it of “conveyor of value” and find its strength in its
capacity of “relational facilitator:
239
If just a few years ago the greatest aspirations of a brand consisted in becoming a “love
mark”, an icon of values enjoyed by faithful customers, nowadays they have to become the
“utilities”, the facilitators of relations and daily life. Working on the concept of “Utility Brand”
implies the transition from a communication that prospects an ideal world to a narration of a
real context in which people use the products (Morace, 2007).
Irrespective of nomenclature, the brand is seen as a vector of relations, aided by its
physical components – a set of salient features, objectively perceivable – and in
sensorial terms, best able to satisfy this dialogic relation with the consumer system to
the extent of facilitating marketing and brand management to support actions
addressed to increasing brand value and consolidating brand experience as the
primary aim of communication through which the link with the marketplace takes
place. The direct experience of the credentials transmitted by the brand, i.e. brand
identity, consequently assumes greater relevance in that it attributes trust within the
interactive relationship of brand/consumer, due to the deep rooted psychological limit
negotiated with the client – brand resonance – in the context of a common cognitive
and symbolic ground. For a point of encounter between individual attributes to occur, a
business organisation has to extrapolate fundamental features, in terms both of
character and specificity constituting the style and the personality of the brand, or in
other words, the (small) universe to be shared with consumers.
The underpinning theoretical reference is that of construing the brand as a
vital/living entity, able to survive on the basis of the built reputation, but above all, for
management to identify, plan and strategise its character and to define the processes
and the strategies of the business organisation it represents (Scarcella, 2008; Nesurini,
2007). Through this metaphor the management can face the challenge of new markets,
in order to keep the brand fresh, alive, and relevant, in each of its markets.
Observed in comparison to a living entity, we can, consequently, affirm that the
brand has can have its own genetic code, which ensures stability of fundamental
dispositions, attributing internal and external coherence to all the expressions and
manifestations of the brand (Figure 1).
On the basis of our interpretative model[1], accordingly, we can pinpoint and
identify in the brand:
.
Genotype features. Genotypes – indicate the combination of hereditary traits, i.e.
the components (e.g. brand promise, reason why, and personality) a brand can

Personality Identity Promise Reputation

Brand genetics Figure 1.

The brands genetic code
Core principles Product spirit Atmosphere Culture values
EMJB transmit to its offspring (or descendants) which do not always correspond to its
4,3 visible/external attributes.
.
Phenotype features. Phenotypes – are secondary physical attributes (e.g. the
selling proposition or in the brand design the lettering or tone of voice of the
brand) determined both by its genetic patrimony and by environmental
influence, consequently adaptable to the extent that needs for adaptability are
240 context-driven.

Of the two, the former represent the predominant features of the brand – permanent
and unchanging – reflecting its genetic structure (Table I).
The core/nucleus of the brand, constantly fuelled by its progenitor (which having
given origin to the species is now its most representative product) lies however in the
essence that determines its distinction. The feature or features that distinguish it from
others, locus of brand value transferable over time, constitute its personality or more
specifically, its character, in terms of permanent (or set of) traits.
The essence presents an original and congenital structure not modifiable by the
choice of brand. Essence in effect, refers to how the brand functions in consumer
scenarios and determines manifestations of personality, conferring continuity to
market experience. In addition: in its evolutionary process, the brand’s uniqueness
ends up representing a kind of objective limit, intrinsic and insurmountable save for
the modification of its essential nature. However, during the process, by means of its
genotype attributes/features the progenitor can transfer its own meanings and values,
i.e. the brand essence, to all the other products of the same species, thus enabling them
to “capitalise” on the world of values this represents.

Brand genetic profile

Genotype Repesentation Examples

Heritage Progenitor Product or service that has Canvas sport shoes for
generated the species Superga
Domain Hunting ground Target context The aperitive ritual for
Aperol
The sports dimension for
Nike
Plumage Representative The most representative product Nutella for Ferrero
Maggiolino for Volkswagen
501 for Levi’s
Identifiers Key tangible elements, by means The colour green for
of which the brand is immediately Heineken
identified Form of the Coca-Cola bottle
Advertising Personality and The verbal expression of the “Drink Coca-Cola”
equity language personality “Have a break, have a Kit-
Kat”
Essence Uniqueness The distinctive element of the “Spirit” for Bacardi Family
Table I. brand ties for Barilla
Genotype features
of the brand Source: Gallucci (2005, p. 161)
On the contrary, phenotype attributes of a recessive nature mainly have a temporary Building
value; their essence is less stable and their structure precarious and transitory, brand equity
responding fundamentally as they do, to a need which is essentially contingent and
socio-cultural. Examples of phenotype attributes are slogans or jingles accompanying
the communications that characterise brands in the eyes/minds of the buyer, making
them readily identifiable, engendering affection and contributing to brand recall;
however, in the long-term they are subject to semantic usury, and need restyling to 241
update them to current taste and appeal. Phenotypes therefore, make up the elements
of brand which, in an evolutionary phase can yield as a consequence of predetermined
demands.
To correspond to or to support the capacity of adaptability of these recessive features,
the dispositions of which in conceptual terms are “semi external” as regards brand DNA,
the ecotype attributes – ecotypes[2] – come into play. These aspects of the brand depend
essentially on the different environments of development (e.g. the adaptation of
packaging on the basis of different intercultural interpretations or, the selection of
testimonials or personality icons that contribute to the representation of the brand).
To treat the brand as an ecotype means to take into consideration attributes
(essentially transitory) that emerge by virtue of their adaptation to the external
environment and whose permanence remains functional while the brand relates to a
specific community of consumers, ceasing their charge when interaction with the
context ceases. Of the categories of attributes present, the ecotype features are those
with less cognitive and affective persistence, in terms of “attitudes” in brands of
practical utility for capturing/entertaining their clients. The stylistics used in the
communication of a brand is illustrative, especially when the adapting process in
genetic terms is limited to a specific environment. Often, in effect, the support of brands
in electronic channels utilises tools that require adapting of the discourse level (i.e.
advergames, exploiting the interactive capacity of the network, promoting the direct
involvement of the consumer by means of a game formula) (Villa, 2008), while the
axiological and narrative levels remain unchanged. Another case in point are pop up
stores, which occupy a sales point for a limited period of time, where the provisional
condition of the set up (use of materials left behind, often even without changing the
sign) corresponds to the duration of the event, while the emotional feedback
reverberates more widely on the brand genetics. If durable brands inscribe the “secret”
of their long life in the capacity of adapting to environmental conditions – the market –
intervening with a mechanism of natural selection determines the survival of the brand
– a species – the stronger it is, the sooner it will be ready to react and respond to the
changes and challenges of the world outside.
In conclusion to this section, to fully understand the relevance of identifying brand
characteristics, differences should be distinguished, since the consequences of action on
one or the other could have contrasting effects. The ideal evolution of a brand should
take place guaranteeing preservation of its genotypes, in other words, by reinforcing the
identity which has determined and decreed its success, and modifying where necessary
both phenotypes and ecotypes, to ensure modernity and coherence with the context[3].

3. From competence to affinity: dimensions of Mediterranean brands

On the basis of the above, in the brand genetic model a cause and effect relationship can
be evinced between firm performance (cause) and brand vitality (brand energy – effect)
EMJB which has incisive effects in real time on marketing decision making and
4,3 communication in any organization (Institut für Markentechnik, 2003, 2004).
However, although upholding this cause and effect relationship, this issue should
also be considered from an inverse perspective since the vital energy of the brand, the
product of its genetic makeup[4] and its capacity for “adaptation” to external
influences, clearly lends itself to interpretation as the key element of organizational
242 performance, including that of redefining customer relations in terms of assimilating
pertinent or relative consumer values. In effect, if a client intends to frame a personal,
intelligible universe in a concomitant relation to goods purchased and as a brand has to
play its part in attributing order to chaotic daily events, then naturally it has to be
present in the context in which the customer moves. Consequently, so that this does not
mean invading but rather sharing the customer’s vital space, the function has to be
ascribed to the DNA of the brand. The aim of our paper is to affirm that “the specific
genetic make up that distinguishes Mediterranean brands from global brands”.
However, before arriving at a definition of the genetic profile of Mediterranean brands,
it might be opportune to consider where their relationship with the marketplace is
placed.
In general, terms, the result of the process of humanizing brands is that:
[. . .] the consumer increasingly tends to consider a brand not simply as a subject towards
which s/he has to relate, but rather as a subject that, like a human being, nurtures a specific
opinion about the customer on the basis of which s/he (the consumer), formulates more or less
“reliable” hypotheses (Codeluppi, 2000).
The critical success factor for achieving this mainly emotional feeling between brand
and consumer the so-called “P factor” (passion) seen as a new communicational client
approach, produces its effects internally and externally to the brand, since the
development of a passion-related brand is explicated essentially in the leap (conceptual
and performance-wise) of customer satisfaction, generated from zero defect solutions to
customer delight and classified in terms of zero defection[5]. Achieving absolute
satisfaction – the ultimate aim – consequently implies brand commitment to generate
constantly improving performance so as to provide socially relevant competitive
advantage, pursuant to understanding a customer’s intimate needs, inside a “magnetic
camp” of enthusiasm, energy and conviction, due to the input of decisive factors of
human nature (Tortora, 2007).
The dimensions which strongly influence the relevance of the brand-consumer
relationship can be classified as:
.
Competence. The result of experience in terms of the qualitative superiority or
excellence of the brand, where the customer’s income potential (share of wallet) is
in direct reference to his/her link with the offer, as occurs typically for symbolic
brands.
.
Protagonism. In terms of perceived success and expected capacity by means of
which the brand communicates through a sort of institutional promise capable of
prevaricating the fame of its relative products.
.
Affinity. Summed up in terms of brand personality and consonance with the
customer’s lifestyle, which abandons a purely commercial dimension of the
relation and consequently, governs the relevant desires and emotional
implications (Vercelloni, 2001).
So, brand affinity is the resounding capacity of the brand engendered by the Building
symbolic-cultural system of the “tribe” to which it belongs and its own scenarios of brand equity
reference (Cova et al., 2007). By analyzing consumption as a way of constructing a
personal world and shared cultural categories, the brand embodies and adheres to
rather than generates, shared meanings which are at the basis of consumption; a
pervasive, non-invasive status in which the brand sustains values that are pre-existent
to it, in a passion-related perspective in consumer terms. 243
In conclusion, the sum of these dimensions, i.e. the expression of ideological affinity
established with the customer, guarantees the brand a consolidated and above all
lasting place in terms of income (Figure 2).
An example of passion-related brand, soundly in harmony with its community of
consumers is without doubt, the so-called “Mediterranean brand”, where the idea of its
Mediterranean nature is more in the mind than in the geographical sense of locus.
The Mediterranean brand suggests a Mediterranean approach to marketing as a
guide in branding strategies, or in other words, a multidimensional approach in
representational terms of the consumer and the market, in the sense of keeping
diversity separate, in other words, not mixing differences but associating them without
depriving them of their significance. A brand which incorporates the soul or the
essence of Mediterranean culture the boundaries of which are always blurred and lack
the anxiety and the pressure deriving from extreme rationality. A culture where
everything is possible and nothing is irreparable. Life, pleasure, well being, welcoming
acceptance and tolerance are at the core of the community. This approach coherently
reflects the real roots of the Mediterranean soul, which are to be found not in any
specific place but rather, in the system of values proposed, such as the rejection of
absolutism and fundamentalism; in other words, freedom, creativity and the
abandoning of an individualist viewpoint; these qualities are present and at the same
time, reflect, a firm’s effective strategies (e.g. of branding), even in different territorial
contexts. The Mediterranean essence thus represented has to be rethought of as a mind
category, structured in terms of polycentrism and pluralism, bereft of any
geo-anthropological identification (Cuomo et al., 2006).

Competence+
Protagonism+
Affinity:
Passion related
Competence+ brand
Share of mind

Protagonism:
institutional brands

Competence:
antonomastic brands

Figure 2.
Share of wallet The three evolutionary
phases of branding
Source: Adapted from Vercelloni (2001, p. 5)
EMJB Owing to a combination of tradition (i.e. innate cultural knowledge handed down to
4,3 new generations over the centuries) and localism, some brands incorporate popular
knowhow, albeit in an updated key, that ensures experience and pre-eminence
(the competence dimension); the capacity to herald an institutional promise insofar as it
adheres to a corpus of values deeply rooted in the community (community re-centering)
is also inscribed in the brand genetic code (protagonist dimension); finally, some
244 brands claim a much more evident affective/emotional focus in their relationship with
the consumer;, i.e. receptors of values in which the consumer believes and thus
develops “the degree of passionate emotional attachment a satisfied consumer has for
a particular brand name” (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006) by virtue of the participation in a
project involving the consumer’s lifestyle (affinity dimension).
This is because:
[. . .] on a par with the importance in terms of cultural contribution, consumers prefer the
brands of firms that demonstrate the ability to satisfy their civic expectations, i.e. behave as if
they were members of the Local Community, on a par with traditional tradesmen in whom
consumers place their trust (Carù and Cova, 2006).
The latter – a concept peculiar to Mediterranean marketing – claims that business
organizations should behave like citizens of a community, first collocating their
supplies and brands within a social context and then on to the marketplace (Cova,
2003). The theoretical synthesis of this trend converges in the so-called meridian
philosophy, the ambition of which, bereft of any desire to prevaricate or other form of
hegemony, reflects on the patrimony of Mediterranean capacity to compose or in other
words, resolve the dialectics between modernity (the physical incarnation of which is
represented by the lands of the North) and tradition (geographically speaking, the
Countries of the South, in the specific context of the analysis conducted here; the
Mediterranean Basin), where the value of identity becomes subject and object of this
philosophy[6]. The lens of Mediterranean culture through which to grasp and describe
the sense of community and belonging of a brand in terms of a system of shared
values, as per the approach of the present paper, consequently, enables discernment of
the authenticity of the brand compared to artifacts the meridian profile of which needs
constructing seeing that it is not an integral part of the brand’s DNA.
It follows, consequently, that the authenticity of a brand is measured in terms of the
aspects in its genetic make up that reflect the meridian philosophy.
The most relevant are (Visconti, 2006):
.
its relation with others, in the sense of openness towards others, towards
diversity and towards pluralism;
. joy and pleasure, in the sense of relishing free time and interrupting
commitments to enjoy the pleasures of culture;
.
resistance to the concept of progress for its own sake;
.
slowing down the pace of daily life, finding time to think, to meditate and to
listen to others;
.
sense of balance, a midway point between the identity anorexia of modernity and
the identity bulimia of post-modernity; and
. authenticity and tradition, in the sense of celebration of the past and respect for
the genuineness of experience.
When such values constitute the genotypes of the brand, we can affirm that the brand Building
is authentically Mediterranean and genuinely close to the community of consumers[7] brand equity
(Table II).
Finally, the search for a new form of authentic interaction or in other words, of less
aggressive strategies implemented in terms of the consumer, as well as accompanying
consumers in a process of exchange, rather than bombarding them indiscriminately,
leads to a rejecting of an individualist and isolated view and is the threshold to a 245
reading of consumption embedded in a dynamic network of relations (Giordano and
Pallera, 2006).
The significance of such dynamics, from the point of view of businesses, can be read
in the process of creating a system of branding, the fruition of which responds
substantially to a need for completion of an individual’s identity or more broadly, of a
community, in terms of difference compared to the description and acknowledgement
of specifics relative to one’s peers.

4. Defining the equity of a Mediterranean brand

Using a Mediterranean approach in branding strategies recovers a cognitive and
affective relation of proximity with the consumer; the substantial change of a
conceptual, prior to a strategic nature is evidenced in the transition from “branding” to
“being branded”, offering the marketplace a brand essence that finds its origins in the
marketplace itself. In other words a virtuous circle is generated, because the
Mediterranean brand enriches with its presence and permanence (in symbiosis with
the consumer) a system of values that exists within a shared reality (with the
consumer).
Evidently, besides considerations of a social nature, in sharing advantages of
identification and certainties with the consumer, the brand complies with its principal
function of differentiation of the firm’s offer. The strategy, in effect, rewards the
“value” or excellence that customers perceive relative to branded offers (Pastore and
Vernuccio, 2008) and is strictly connected to how much a business manages to include
in its brand value.
The value (equity) of the brand depends, therefore, on its capacity to render the offer
it represents exclusive, generating competitive asymmetry in the arena, due to its

Mediterranean genetic profile

Genotype Representation Meridian philosophy

Heritage Progenitor Genuineness and tradition

Domain Hunting ground Resistance towards the conception of progress
Deep roots
Plumage Representative Joie de vivre and pleasure
Identifiers Quality of lifestyle, sociality, down measuring of
time
Advertising equity Personality and language Sense of balance
Essence Uniqueness Acceptance of others, renouncing ethnocentrism, Table II.
tempered relativism Convergence between
genotype features and
Source: Gallucci meridian philosophy
EMJB capacity for accruing, materializing and consolidating the trust originated in the
4,3 relations between brand (and firm) and marketplace (Guatri et al., 1999; Peter and
Donnelly, 1999). Such drivers of competitive advantage guarantee business
organizations sufficient margins of movement in the management of demand,
advantaged as they are by strategies of simplified buying processes, by virtue of trust
(Bagozzi, 2001). As confirmation of this claim, brand alliance is a case in point, where it
246 is sufficient to evaluate in tangible terms how the fiduciary value of a well-known
brand capable of governing market segments with stability, reverberates all its
potential onto the lesser known partner brands. In effect:
A brand alliance provides a way to leverage the equity of an established brand name, thereby
improving the chances of commercial success. [. . .] That is, empirical studies in
brand-alliance research suggest that when exposed to a brand alliance, consumers will
evaluate an unknown brand higher than the same brand without an ally (Gammoh et al.,
2006).
This claim however, is just one of many possible examples of the importance of
keeping a check on brand value, the constituent elements of the brand that portray the
existence of a continuing relationship, a cognitive and emotional bridge with the
consumer (Peter and Donnelly, 1999).
In short, in recent years much research has focused on the concept of value
attributed to the brand from diverse perspectives of analysis:
.
in financial terms to quantify monetary denominated value (price of the brand,
including intangible aspects); and
.
for accounting purposes, shutdowns, etc.

From a functional perspective, it is possible to determine the premium price that a

product underpinned by branding policies can obtain compared to a similar unbranded
offer. In this respect a well-known example of the estimated intangible aspects that
constitute the value of a brand through known equivalents is provided by the so-called
Hirose method. Customer equity would appear to constitute the premise for
financial equity, a significant element in the capacity of the firm to create value
(Metallo, 2007).
For determining brand equity, however, numerous tracking studies are available.
These, consisting in descriptive research on brands (the aims of which are illustrated
above) have intrigued and involved both the academic and scientific world and
marketing operators tout court. Among the different diagnostic tools worthy of note, is
the model patented by the Agency Young&Rubicam, known as Brand Asset Valuator,
which, based on a survey of 230,000 interviewees in 44 countries, measures the state of
well being and the value of 450 global brands and more than 8,000 local brands. The
model, implementing four macro-factors, identifies the genetic patrimony of the brands
in: differentiation (i.e. uniqueness or capacity of the brand to distinguish itself from
competitors), relevance (i.e. the importance real and perceived of the brand in the minds
of wide segments of consumers), esteem (in the sense of perceived quality and the
perception of popularity of the brand), culture (i.e. awareness and comprehension of
identity on the part of the target, in other words, intimacy shared with the brand)
(Comotti, 2007). In the model the first two factors (differentiation and relevance)
encapsulate the vitality of the brand, i.e. its potential for expansion, while the
remaining two: esteem and awareness, indicate its stature, in other words, the effective Building
power attributed to the brand. brand equity
An increase in brand value, obviously has far reaching strategic implications.
A consolidated brand can reverberate positive effects on the entire firm’s product
portfolio: in terms of decisions on brand extensions, increased awareness of the market
enables firms to allocate synergic investments in communication over a wider range of
offers and enables clients to reduce purchasing risks. This competitive capacity can be 247
monitored annually and a classification of the 100 major brands in the world
indicating: global presence, leadership, identity, satisfaction of deep felt needs and the
image of unwavering trust (Interbrand and BusinessWeek, 2007).
From a consumer perspective, however, the value attributed to a brand is in global
terms where the brand is elevated to driver of performance of the firm. From this point
of view brand equity is at one and the same time, an assessment tool for measuring the
efficacy of marketing strategies and a guideline for further planning.
Taking into account that “the power of a brand lies in what customers have learned,
felt, seen, and heard about the brand over time” (Keller, 2001a), a model has been
developed, defined customer-based-brand-equity (CBBE), whose focus for the
generating of differential effect on the basis of value, is traced in the awareness of
the brand on the part of consumers:
Using the model of associative memory, brand awareness is conceived as the presence in the
memory of a link – the brand – and the multiple associations connected with it, which
constitute two dimensions: notoriety (brand awareness) linked to the strength of the ties the
brand has in a consumer’s mind which reflects his/her ability to identify the brand in
different conditions, and the image (brand image) connected on the contrary, to the
perceptions about a brand present in a consumer’s mind and reflected in associations of a
various kind, embracing the significance of the brand for the consumer (Sambri and Pegan,
2006)[8].
The model proposed suggests that the strength of a brand is constituted by means of a
series of consecutive steps, starting from the definition of the brand’s identity based on
an ad hoc survey to ascertain the consumer’s opinion and awareness of brand identity
(Figure 3).
This is followed by the constitution of brand meaning, based on the performance of
the brand (main characteristics and supplementary features – product reliability,

C.
brand 4. Relationships = Intense, active
resonance What about you and me? relationships

Consumer Consumer 3. Responses = Positive, accessible

judgments feelings What about you? responses

Brand Brand 2. Meaning = Strong, favourable,

performance imagery What are you? unique associations

Brand salience
1. Identity = Deep, broad brand Figure 3.
Who are you? awareness Customer-based brand
equity pyramid
Source: Keller (2001b, p.10)
EMJB durability and serviceability – service effectiveness, efficiency and empathy – style
4,3 and design – price) and on its imagery (user profiles – purchase and usage situations –
personality and values – history, heritage and experiences); subsequently a cognitive
response has to be stimulated (judgments, through: quality – credibility –
consideration – superiority) and affective factors on the consumer’s part (feelings,
through: warmth – fun – excitement – security – social approval – self-respect); the
248 last step focuses instead, on the definition of the fiduciary and affective relation with
the client (behavioral loyalty – attitudinal attachment – sense of community – active
engagement).
The nucleus of power lies as is illustrated, in the brand’s capacity for resonance in
the sense of communion of intentions and sentiments, with the consumer system; this
concept is assimilated to that of brand loyalty, which is based in effect, on a positive
interpretation not just of the monadic value, i.e. referred to the client but also in terms
of the dyadic value, i.e. the congruity of the reasons for exchange that concern the
history of the relationship of the dyad firm-client. The assessments of equity
determined in favor of keeping up the relationship convince the client of the honesty of
the brand and make it the depositary of proactive loyalty of a cooperative kind, based
on affinity and maintaining mutual relations, even in the presence of stimulus that
aims to eventually cause the dissolution of the relationship.
Given this perspective accordingly, brand loyalty associated to an evolved form of
fidelity fits neatly into a dynamic perspective, as an aggregate construct, i.e. made up
in a longitudinal sense, of the fundamental dimensions of trust, mind loyalty and
perception of equity (totally rejecting a static conception of loyalty as a latent
construct) in terms of an element common to intentions of buying again,
recommendations by word of mouth, cooperative action and finding satisfactory
accomplishment in brand identification.
In short, the customer-based approach emphasizes the effective dependence of
brand equity on brand loyalty. Hence, “the overall make up of the Mediterranean brand
positively influences customer loyalty and, consequently, brand equity”.
At this stage, value – attached strictly speaking to the brand – in terms of an
original cultural/value system, adheres to the definition of a project of consumer
identity or rather, to the community of consumers and participates at the same time in
the construction of scenarios within which they move (Cova et al., 2007).
However, as a preliminary to the present discussion and as will be clarified in the
analysis of strategies of branding of the case study proposed; brands which are truly
Mediterranean find their logical positioning at the pinnacle of the pyramid of the CBBE
model, or in other words, in the group of consumer brand resonance, sharing by
birthright the world of their community of reference (Figure 4).
Accordingly, the relation of trust, both cognitive and affective, is asserted right from
the initial experiences in terms of dyadic value, that constitutes in some respects, the
same premise regarding the relationship between brand and community, the brand
behaving as a good member of the community should, with consequent repercussions
on brand equity, as has been amply illustrated.

5. Discussion and conclusions

“Companies that are driven by deep insight into the needs of their target customers
have the best opportunity for profitable, sustainable competitive advantages”
 Building
brand equity
Essence
(Resonance)

Advertising equity
( Judgments) ( Feelings) 249
Plumage Heritage Figure 4.
( Performance) (Imagery) Confluence between the
customer-based brand
Domain equity pyramid and
genotype values
(Salience)

(Schieffer and Leininger, 2008). These comprise the value of the brand, the elaboration
of which is substantiated in the search for consonance in the first analysis and
resonance in the last, in synergy with the consumer system.
Creating the right brand identity, i.e. attributing to the brand appropriate
significance, transferable in terms of distinctive image and positioning on the market,
so as to solicit positive reactions in consumers, is the first step in the realization of
fiduciary relations which enables the pinnacle of the pyramid to be reached. However,
this governance is possible only if the appropriate blocks combining emotion, reason
and ethics are properly assembled and the areas of trust and loyalty not neglected.
A Mediterranean perspective – a place of the mind, rather than geographical space –
suggests a model of existence which is solemn, sacred, magic, ritual, joyful and
impregnated with cultural authenticity. A more equilibrated approach towards life
constitutes its essence, the basis for a reputation which is robust and worthy of defending,
capable of providing a social response to its many interlocutors. In this context, a relation
is generated – between “brand” and consumer – of a high dyadic value.
In conclusion, the construction of a strong Mediterranean brand is achieved by
generating affinity with the consumer, as an active subject of demand who becomes on
the basis of what has been claimed, its principal strategic asset, impacting directly on
the value of the brand (Martesen and Grønholdt, 2004).
It should be noted how the complexity of the problem under investigation – the
positive correlation between the genetic composition of the brand and the value that
can be capitalised by the consumer – suggests to carry out in the next future an
empirical research, in order to test, in a Mediterranean perspective of brand
management, the elements for creating value on a customer based scale.

Notes
1. The original theoretical approach, known as brand genetics, was first developed by Young
and Rubicam. In the present paper a new interpretation is proposed which associates to the
predominant and recessive characteristics of the brand, a third category: that of ecotype
features to underline the importance of interaction with the environment.
2. Apart from the biological definition, an eco-type concerns the particular and varied aspects a
brand can present with reference to the environment of development.
EMJB 3. On an international scale the capacity to change on the part of the brand is correlated to the
demand for adaptation on the part of the context, thus attributing the definition “global” to
4,3 brands having the capacity to change in the context of different national markets simply by
adapting their phenotypes, on the contrary, local brands are characterized by modifying,
where necessary, their main features, i.e. their brand genotypes (Marino, 2005).
4. This is the product of strategic decision making on the part of business organizations and
250 consequently, impacts on results achieved.
5. The philosophy underpinning passion-related branding claims that any point of contact
between the passions and desires of the consumer constitutes for the firm an occasion of
competitive advantage and differentiation, and a slot for constructing the mosaic of
sustainable loyalty. The P factor constitutes, furthermore, the inspiring motive of ethical
communication by means of which: “businesses in front of their customers relegate their
commercial intentions to the background and throw on their minstrels’ costumes”; this factor
that not only deeply involves but also informs, involves and not only communicates, could
be monitored and measured in a dynamic and relational key.
6. We are indebted to the sociologist Franco Cassano who, inspired by Camus, theorized the
meridian philosophy, the so-called Coast theory. In contrast with immobility, i.e. the tradition
of the earth, but also with mobility, in the sense of the wild spaces of modernity typical of
oceanic spaces, it possesses at one and the same time, the capacity to preserve and unite
differences. The simile with the Mediterranean Sea expresses in physical but even more in
symbolic terms, this division-union deriving from the overlapping of land-sea proper to the
basin of mare nostrum.
7. To best illustrate the gap between a Mediterranean brand and a global brand attempting to
take on the characteristics of the meridian philosophy, consider the difference between
Camper, a firm in Mallorca inspired by a poetic relationship between the consumer and its
products, in which the enhancement of the Mediterranean constitutes the basic factor of
brand image, and Nike, which with the initiative “Considered”, in 2005 manufactured a line
of eco-compatible shoes, in response to the increased environment awareness on the part of
consumers. While appreciating the efforts on the part of the latter, the sense of
restraint/moderation and the re-evaluation of traditions are values that do not belong to the
American firm, which remains in the perception of the market a global brand.
8. The marketing strategy of a business has to be directed at promoting in their reference
target an elevated brand recognition and recall, together with a positive image, capable of
soliciting exclusive associations.

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About the authors

Maria Teresa Cuomo is a tenured Assistant Professor and teaches Marketing and Systems
of Market Analysis at the University of Salerno. Her numerous research interests range from
marketing and market research to international management and finance. She has published
several articles as well as numerous studies. She regularly participates at national and
international conferences and is member of the business school’s PhD’s Joint Teaching
Committee. Besides her commitment to academic and scientific research she is also widely
engaged in applied research and consultancy. Maria Teresa Cuomo is the corresponding author
and can be contacted at: mcuomo@unisa.it
Gerardo Metallo is Full Professor of Management and Business Development at the Faculty
of Economics of the University of Salerno. His research interests range widely from business and
finance issues, where he has published numerous works and more general management, where
he has published several articles in international journals and numerous other studies. Besides
his commitment to academic and scientific research, he is also widely engaged in applied
research and business consultancy.
Debora Tortora is currently a research fellow in Marketing at University of Salerno. Her
research interests are focused on consumer behavior, brand management and corporate
reputation, as shown by several articles published on Italian and International Reviews and
Conference Proceedings. In 2007, she also published a book about experience marketing. In
addition to this she carries out consulting activity for local companies.
Mario Testa is currently research fellow at University of Salerno. He carries out consulting
activity for companies and he is UNI EN ISO 9000 auditor. He took part at some international
conferences and furthermore he published several articles on Italian reviews and a book about Building
corporate social responsibility in 2007.
Philip J. Kitchen is a Director of the Research Centre for Marketing, Communications, and brand equity
International Strategy; Chair of Strategic Marketing at Hull University Business School;
Affiliated Professor at School of Business, University of Rennes; visiting Professor of University
of Malaya, Malaysia; and Editor of Journal of Marketing Communications. Has published 12
books and over 100 papers in leading journals around the world. Listed as one of the “The Top 50
Gurus who have influenced the Future of Marketing”, Marketing Business, December 2003, 253
pp. 12-6 he is also fellow of CIM, RSA, HEA and Member of the ALCS, Institute of Marketing
Science, Institute of Directors (UK).

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