MKT 3152: PRODUCT AND BRAND

MANAGEMENT

Leveraging Secondary Brand Associations to Build Brand Equity

Thanuka M. de Silva
DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING
FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND FINANCE
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 Learning Objectives
• Outline the eight main ways to leverage
secondary associations
• Explain the process by which a brand can
leverage secondary associations
• Describe some of the key tactical issues
in leveraging secondary associations from
different entities
 Overview
• Eight main ways to leverage secondary
associations
• Process by which a brand can leverage
secondary associations
• key tactical issues in leveraging
secondary associations from different
entities

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 Leveraging secondary brand
associations
1. Companies (through branding strategies)
2. Countries or other geographic areas (through
identification of product origin)
3. Channels of distribution (through channel strategy)
4. Other brands (through co-branding)
5. Characters (through licensing)
6. Spokespersons (through endorsements)
7. Events (through sponsorship)
8. Other third-party sources (through awards or reviews)

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 Conceptualizing the Leveraging
Process
• Linking the brand to some other entity
may:
– Create a new set of associations from the
brand to the entity
– Affect the existing brand associations

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 Creation of New Brand
Associations
• Secondary brand associations are most
likely to affect evaluations of a new
product when:
– Consumers lack either the motivation or the
ability to judge product-related concerns

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 Effects on Existing Brand
Knowledge
• Cognitive consistency - What is true for
the new association must be true for the
brand
• Factors predicting the extent of leverage
from linking the brand to another entity:
• Awareness and knowledge of the entity.
• Meaningfulness of the knowledge of the
entity.
• Transferability of the knowledge of the entity.
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 To leverage secondary brand
associations marketers must:
• Take into account consumers’ awareness of that
entity, as well as how the associations, judgments, or
feelings for it might become linked to the brand or
affect existing brand associations.
• Choose entities for which consumers have some or
even a great deal of similar associations.
• Design a commonality leveraging strategy when
consumers have associations to another entity that
are congruent with desired brand associations.
• Practice complementarity branding strategies that
can help deliver the desired brand position.

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 Understanding Transfer of Brand
Knowledge
 

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 Company
• Existing brands can be related to a
corporate or family brand
• A corporate or family brand can be a
source of brand equity
• Leveraging a corporate brand may or may
not be useful

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 Country of Origin or Geographic
Location
• Can be linked to the brand to generate
secondary associations
• Consumers choose brands originating in
different countries based on:
– Their beliefs about the quality of certain types
of products from certain countries
– The image that these brands or products
communicate
• Can create strong points-of-difference
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 Channels of Distribution
• Retail stores can indirectly affect brand equity
through an “image transfer” process
• Retailers have their own brand images in
consumers’ minds due to the following
associations
– Product assortment
– Pricing
– Credit policy
– Quality of service
• Customer base can be expanded by tapping into
new channels of distribution
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 Co-branding
• When two or more existing brands are
combined into a joint product or are
marketed together in some fashion
• Example - Betty Crocker paired with
Sunkist Growers to market a lemon
chiffon cake mix

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 Co-branding

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 Ingredient Branding
• Creates brand equity for materials,
components, or parts that are contained
within other branded products
• Branded ingredients are often a signal of
quality
• Uniformity and predictability of ingredient
brands can reduce risks and reassure
consumers
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 Ingredient Branding

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 Ingredient Branding
• Consumers must first perceive that the ingredient
matters to the performance and success of the end
product.
• Consumers must then be convinced that not all
ingredient brands are the same and that the ingredient is
superior.
• A distinctive symbol or logo must be designed to clearly
signal to consumers that the host product contains the
ingredient.
• A coordinated program must be put into place so that
consumers understand the importance and advantages
of the branded ingredient.
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 Licensing
• Creates contractual arrangements whereby
firms can use:
– Names, logos, and characters of other brands
to market their own brands for some fixed fee
• Can also provide legal protection for
trademarks
• Risk - A trademark may become
overexposed if marketers adopt a
saturation policy
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 Corporate trademark licensing
• Licensing of company names, logos, or brands
for use on various, often unrelated products
• Firms may license corporate trademarks to:
– Generate extra revenue and profits
– Protect their trademarks
– Increase their brand exposure
– Enhance their image
• Risk - Product may not live up-to the image
established by the brand

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 Celebrity Endorsement
• Rationale
– A famous person can:
• Draw attention to a brand
• Shape brand perceptions, by virtue of consumers
perceptions of the famous person
• Celebrity endorsers should have:
– A high level of visibility
– A rich set of potentially useful associations, judgments,
and feelings

•  
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 Sporting Cultural or Other
Events
• Have their own set of associations that
may become linked to a sponsoring brand
under certain conditions
• Contribute to brand equity by:
– Becoming associated to the brand and
improving brand awareness
– Adding new associations
– Improving the strength, favourability, and
uniqueness of existing associations
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 Third Party Sources
• Involves linking the brand to various third
party sources
• Example - Grey Goose's eventual
success was a taste-test result from the
Beverage Testing Institute that ranked
Grey Goose as the number-one imported
vodka

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 Summing Up...
• Other entities include:
– The company that makes the product
– Where the product is made
– Where the product is purchased
– Related people, places, or things
• The extent to which an entity can be leveraged
as a source of equity depends on:
– Consumer knowledge of the entity
– How easily the appropriate associations or responses
to the entity transfer to the brand
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 Thank You !

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