Branding MARK 3015: Dr Margaret Faulkner, Course Coordinator

Topic 5

Brand associations
Types of Brand • Types - the different types of associations, and the roles they play

Associations • Formation of associations - How each type of association is formed, how

marketers can influence these associations.

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 Building Mental Availability Types of brand associations
To build Mental Availability we need marketing
activity that: There are many different suggested ways to classify brand
associations
Reaches Attaches
as many category Has Branding Useful Most are based on the semantic (meaning) qualities of the
that is easily
buyers as possible,
particularly non/very identifiable for all messages attribute or how they are obtained.
category buyers to the brand in
light buyers buyer memory
Can be typologies (trying to be comprehensive) or focus on a
The brand name or
specific type of association (e.g. country of origin
Media strategy Category Entry Points associations)
Distinctive Assets
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Typologies of brand knowledge - e.g., Keller 2003 Typologies of brand knowledge - e.g., Keller 2003

1. Awareness - category identification and needs satisfied by the brand. 5. Thoughts - personal cognitive responses to any brand related information.

2. Attributes - descriptive features that characterise the brand name product 6. Feelings - personal affective responses to any brand related information.
either intrinsically (e.g., related to product performance) or extrinsically (e.g.,
related to brand personality or heritage). 7. Attitudes - summary judgments and overall evaluations to any brand-related
information.
3. Benefits - personal value and meaning that consumers attach to the brand’s
product attributes (e.g., functional, symbolic, or experiential consequences from 8. Experiences - purchase and consumption behaviours and any other brand-
the brand’s purchase or consumption). related episodes
Comprehensive - but how do you know
4. Images - visual information, either concrete or abstract in nature. what to build?
KELLER, K. L. 2003. Brand synthesis: The Should you focus on thoughts, feelings or
multidimensionality of brand knowledge. Journal
of Consumer Research, 29, 595-601.
experience? or all three?
KELLER, K. L. 2003. Brand synthesis: The multidimensionality of brand knowledge. Journal of Consumer Research, 29, 595-601.
 And there are sub-typologies

5 Dimensions of Brand personality (Aaker, 1997)

Sincerity
Just because you can categorise
Excitement associations this way, doesn’t make it
Competence useful.
When was the last time you wanted a ‘sincere’
Sophistication brand?
Ruggedness

AAKER, J. L. 1997. Dimensions of Brand Personality. Journal of Marketing Research, 34, 347-356.

Building useful brand associations

Imagine you are thirsty right
How do we define ‘useful’?
now, what do you do?
-Something a buyer is likely to use in a buying situation 1. You think - I want something to quench my thirst - which acts as a retrieval cue
(your eyes might also scan the environment too)
-So that if we change it, it will positively affect the brand’s 2. You access memory for things to have when you want to quench your thirst,
probability of being bought but this ‘search’ is influenced by where/when you are. So Lipton Iced tea
might be more likely to come up in the morning, than in the evening, and
-ideally in as many people as possible! Corona in the evening rather than the morning.
3. The items retrieved become the ‘consideration’ set at that time

Note: Remember there is not one consideration set, but many, varied, context
specifc evoked set, depending on the cues used.

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Imagine you are thirsty right
now, what do you do?
4. Then if there are multiple options, there is a selection process, which can
involve comparison across brands on specific qualities.
Which is better value? Which is healthiest? Which is the one I like the most? -
usually comparative qualities or strong evaluations designed to pick one brand
over others.
But this selection process via brand associations or attitude only occurs if
there are multiple, viable options and
the buyer does not use heuristics or Physical Availability to make the choice.
The role of heuristics in the ‘Selection’
process
Selection can be based on heuristics or rule of thumb process that is designed
to provide a simple, low effort, solution to a problem.
-the one I like the most
-something new
-the same as last time
These are not associations, but simple rules to make your life easier (e.g., no
coffee after 3pm otherwise it keeps me awake).
Think about the types of heuristics you use to make choices….

‘Selection’ process
Imagine you are thirsty right
It can also be based on perceived or actual
now, what do you do?
Physical Availability - or the ease of buying
-the closest 4. Then if there are multiple options, there is a selection process, which can
-the cheapest involve comparison across brands on specific qualities.
-the easiest to carry But this selection process only occurs if there are multiple, viable options
-the right size and other non-association mechanisms are not used
-the one that stands out from the other
So build these brand associations around comparative or strong evaluations
These are about the brand’s presence, means even if you succeed you probably will be strong too late in the
prominence and portfolio in its shopping process, and not get bought.
environments. More on this in coming weeks. Many perfectly good brands are not bought not because they are not good
enough, but simply because they are not mentally available at the time.
 A consumer-purpose based view of brand associations
Imagine you are thirsty right
now, what do you do? Let’s look at brand associations via a consumer lens
5. You then need to find the brand
Can be on shelf/in fridge, in the store, online, on the street, whatever the What purpose do the associations serve for consumers?
shopping might be.
Consumers have an incentive to build and refresh useful associations.
You can then use brand associations to identify the brand in the shopping
environment. These are brand associations liked to brand identity -
Distinctive Assets. Think about the choice process and how memory plays into this
- what roles do brand associations have at different parts of this
Distinctive Assets - the non-brand name elements that trigger the brand process?
(more on these next week)

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How are associations formed?

3 types of brand associations
Retrieve options Identify the Attention - need to noticeably experience something - consciously
to solve brand or sub-consciously, eg, seeing an advertisement, or a brand on a
Select between
‘problem’ (buy) multiple possible
options if needed e.g., the Yellow shelf.
e.g.,something arches of
refreshing e.g., the healthiest McDonalds Anchoring - co-presentation with something already existing in
memory. e.g., seeing a new brand on the chocolate shelf can
Category Selection Distinctive anchor that new brand in the ‘chocolate’ part of memory.
Entry points associations Assets

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Forming useful associations
Strength & Weakness Analysis
For retrieval - we want to use the association as the anchor and - Useful to avoid ‘frontal’ attack with association strong with a bigger
attach the brand to this (so when someone thinks ‘I want a healthy
lunch’ they retrieve ‘Subway’) brand, e.g. Purple for Cadbury

For selection - we want to use the brand as the anchor and attach
- Identify ‘free’ attributes where you can build more brand associations
the association to this (so when someone thinks Subway, they
retrieve ‘good value’) but remember, sometimes physical - will see usage bias pattern in raw results (Bird & Ehrenberg, 1970)
availability (ie, which is closest) can be used to select or discount
an option out of many. - check relevance/protypicality (Nedungadi & Hutchinson, 1985)

For identification - we want to use the association as the anchor

and attach the brand to this (so someone looks down the street for
the green and yellow logo and knows that is where the Subway is) Romaniuk, J. and B. Sharp (2000). "Using Known Patterns in Image Data to Determine Brand Positioning." International Journal of Market
Research 42(2): 219-230.

Charity Strengths & Weakness in table format Example of chart format - for one brand
Salvation) St)Vincent) Mission) Cancer)
Attributes) World)Vision)
Army) de)Paul) Australia) Council)
Surge of support around
43 25 8 -13 -1
Christmas
Beneficial for local
22 18 0 -4 -18
community
Supports the most
18 16 10 -8 9
vulnerable

Helps&society& -1 14 14 -6 -5

Gets a lot of celebrity

8 -15 -7 9 17
support

Interna0onal&Focus& -14 -16 -6 -16 55

Something&everyone& See handout on course website for Week 5 tutorial question

3 -5 -2 14 -5
supports&
Chart with multiple brand S&W - to interpret
Q1. Analysis - Chart In the coming weeks we will be talking about two of the
most important types of brand associations
A Nudie Juice B C D E
30

20
23

18
14
17
Category Entry Points - cues to retrieve brands
Distinctive Assets - triggers to identify brands
13 12 13
11 11
10 8 8
65 5 6
55
21 3 3
0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1
0
-2 -2 -1 -1 -1 -1 0 -2 -1 -1
-2 -2
-3 -4 -4 -3

As well as Physical Availability

-6 -5 -5 -5 -4 -5 -5
-10 -7 -7
-12
-15 -15
-20
-20
-24
-30 -26
Contains Tastes Australian Something Is better for Good to For when Quenches For Worth
natural great everyone me than have with I'm on the thirst everyday paying
ingredients will like other fruit food go drinking more for
juices or
juice drinks

Summary
• To build Mental Availability we want to build useful brand associations
• Many methods of classifying brand associations focus on the qualities of
the associations rather than how consumers use them.
• To build useful associations, we need to think about the key points in the
choice process where associations matter
• Retrieval - cues used to access the brand, referred to as Category Entry
Points
• Selection - criterial used to select between multiple options, usually
comparative or strong evaluations
• Identification - elements used to trigger the brand, referred to as
Distinctive Assets
• Selection can also take place using heuristics (simple rules of thumb) or
Physical Availability (ease of buying), thereby bypassing brand
associations at this stage.
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