Managing Brand Equity

• Managing brand equity concerns those

activities that take a broader and more
diverse perspective of a brand’s equity
– Understanding how branding strategies should
reflect corporate concerns and be adjusted, if
at all, over time or over geographical
boundaries or market segments

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• The choice of branding strategy depends upon a number
of different factors, including corporate objectives and
capabilities, consumer behavior, and competitive
approaches. Consequently, strategies differ significantly
between firms and even across products within firms. In
addition to designating the optimal hierarchy, a
company must also design marketing support programs
that create the desired awareness and associations at
each level. In general, associations for a higher-level
brand should be relevant to as many brands below it as
possible, while brands at the same level should be as
differentiated as possible.

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• Chevrolet initially used its "bowtie" logo in the year 1913. It is
asserted to have been intended from wallpaper Durant once
saw in the French hotel. One more theory is that it is the
stylized version of the shape of Switzerland or cross on flag of
Switzerland, Louis Chevrolet's origin. In the year 1915, Durant
was in process of creating Chevrolet manufacture facilities in
Canada. Later that year, in a luncheon gathering in New York
along with "Colonel Sam" McLaughlin, whose McLaughlin Car
Company produced McLaughlin-Buick cars, it was decided that
Chevrolets with McLaughlin-designed bodies will be added to
Canadian company's manufactured line. 3 years later, the 2
Canadian operations were purchased by GM to turn out to be
GM’s of Canada Limited.
•  

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 Branding Strategies

• The branding strategy for a firm reflects

the number and nature of common or
distinctive brand elements applied to the
different products sold by the firm
– Which brand elements can be applied to which
products and the nature of new and existing
brand elements to be applied to new products

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 Brand Hierarchy Levels

– A brand hierarchy can involve multiple levels:

Corporate Brand

Family Brand

Individual Brand

Individual Item or Model (Modifier)

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 Brand Hierarchy Decisions
• In creating the hierarchy, it is important to
decide:
– The number of levels of the hierarchy to use in
general
– How brand elements from different levels of
the hierarchy are combined, if at all, for any
one particular product
– How any one brand element is linked, if at all,
to multiple products
– Desired brand awareness and image at each
level
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Designing the Brand Hierarchy

– Decide on the number of levels

• Principle of simplicity: Employ as few levels as
possible
• Principle of clarity: Logic and relationship of all
brand elements employed must be obvious and
transparent.
– Decide on the levels of awareness and types of
associations to be created at each level
• Principle of relevance: Create global associations
that are relevant across as many individual items as
possible
• Principle of differentiation: Differentiate
individual items and brands 7
Designing the Brand Hierarchy

– Decide on how to link brands from different

levels for a product
• Principle of prominence: The relative
prominence of brand elements affects perceptions
of product distance and the type of image created
for new products

– Decide on how to link a brand across products

• Principle of commonality: The more common
elements shared by products, the stronger the
linkages
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 Brand-Product Matrix
Products
1 2 3 4
A
Brands B
C

• Must define . . .
– Brand-Product Relationships (ROWS)
• Line & Category Extensions
– Product-Brand Relationships (COLUMNS)
• Brand Portfolio
breadth, refers to the number and nature of products that bear the same brand name,
depth, refers to the number and nature of brands in the same product category. 9
• Breadth: the number and nature of products that
bear the same brand name.
• Dove-soap,shampoo-different types,deo-spray
etc.
• Depth: the number and nature of brands in the
same product category.
• Dove, Sun silk,Halo,Head & Shoulders,

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 Managing Brand Portfolios
• Multiple brands are often employed in a category
for market coverage
– Target different market segments
• Basic principle of brand portfolios…
– Maximize coverage
– Minimize overlap
• Basic economics guideline ...
– A portfolio is too big if profits can be increased by
dropping brands.
– A portfolio is not big enough if profits can be increased
by adding brands

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 Brand Consolidation & Focus

• Number of factors are driving this trend

– Movement from transactions to
relationships with consumers
– Value of strong “power” brands
– Difficulty of brand management
• Cost
• Need for efficiencies
– Importance of “top-down” brand
management

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 CIA3
• select a brand with a multiple-level brand
hierarchy and analyze the supporting marketing
communications program to determine how the
upper- and lower-level names are linked and
differentiated.
•  Conduct a review of ---------brand portfiolio.
How successful have they been at
reducing/increasing the number of brands?
What lessons are to be learned from their
strategies?

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