Introduction

What is a Brand?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQLlPC_alT8
Definition of a Brand

American Marketing Association
 “Name, term, sign, symbol, or
design, or a combination of them
intended to identify the goods and
services of one seller or a group of
sellers and to differentiate them
from those of competition.”
Brand Assets & Liabilities

Brand Elements as Assets & Liabilities

 1. Name Awareness
 2. Set of Associations
 3. Brand Loyalty
 4. Perceived Quality
 5. Other Proprietary Brand Assets
 patents, trademarks, channel relationships,
etc.

 Interrelationships among the Elements

Why Do Brands Matter?

Consumers
 1. Identify source
 2. Assign responsibility to product maker
 3. Reduce risk
 functional, physical, financial, social, psychological, time
 4. Reduce search cost
 5. Promise, bond, or pact with product maker
 6. Symbolic device
 7. Signal of quality
 search goods, experience goods, credence goods
Why Do Brands Matter?

Firms
 1. simplify handling or tracing
 2. legally protect unique features
 3. signal quality level to satisfied
customers
 4. endow products with unique
associations
 5. source of competitive advantage
 6. source of financial returns
Difference Between
Product & Brand?

A Brand is a Product…but
 Adds other dimensions to differentiate in some way from other products designed
to satisfy the same need

 Rational & Tangible

 Symbolic, Emotional, & Intangible
Brand & Product Concept

Original Brand
Associations Personality

Country of Symbols
Origin PRODUCT
Scope
Attributes
Quality Brand-Customer
User Uses Relationships
Imagery

Self-Expressive
Benefits Emotional
Benefits
Brands: “Strong” vs. “Weak”

American Express

NOKIA
Interbrand’s Brand Valuation
https://www.interbrand.com/best-global-brands/

7 Components of Brand Strength

 1. Leadership (maximum 25pts)
 2. Stability (maximum 15pts)
 3. Market (maximum 10pts)
 4. Internationality (maximum 25pts)
 5. Trend (maximum 10pts)
 6. Support (maximum 10pts)
 7. Protection (maximum 5pts)

In Practice
 Strong international brands 60 to 90
 Weak international brands 40 to 60
 Strong national brands 40 to 60
 Weak national brands 20 to 40
Branding Fundamentals
 First Task of Branding

 To Define Value Proposition

 What does the Brand bring to the product?

• Attributes?

• Benefits?

• Advantages?

• Purposes?


How Brand transforms the
Product
Branding Fundamentals
 Second Task
 Differentiation: How Distinct is Your Brand?

 Be “Distinct-or-Extinct” Rule

Why? For
Whom?

Against
When?
Whom?
 Brand Awareness

The ability of a potential buyer to recognize or
recall a brand under different conditions

Top of Mind

Brand Recall

Brand Recognition

Unaware of Brand
Value of Brand Awareness
 1. Anchor to Attach Other Associations
 2. Familiarity / Liking
 especially in low-involvement products

 3. Signal Substance / Commitment

 the firm has advertised extensively
 the firm has been in the business a long time
 the firm is widely-distributed
 the brand is successful--others use it

 4. Brands to Consider
Establishing Brand Awareness
 Increase Consumer Brand Experiences
~ seeing it, hearing it, or thinking about it
 Elements: name, symbol, logo, character, packaging, slogan

 Vehicles: advertising, promotion, sponsorship & event

marketing, publicity & P.R., outdoor ads, Internet


Repetition


Elaboration
 Universe of
Potential Brands
and Products

Awareness Set: Unawareness Set:

Known Products Unknown Products
and Brands and Brands

Consideration Set: Inert Set: Inept Set:

Products and Brands Products and Brands Unacceptable
Given Consideration Viewed w/Indifference Products and Brands

Please write any thoughts that come to your mind when you see the
following:

Mofork
Nike
 Brand Associations
 Anything “linked” in Memory to a Brand

Thin Sweet
Young Blue

Diet Diet Taste

Fruit Pepsi
Milk Pepsi tests
Juice
Soft
Drink Red
Tea Coke
Thirsty Cola
Other
flavors
Water Classic USA
Coffee
Sugar Energy Friendly
Beer

Sweet Calorie
 Brand Associations

For instance, McDonald’s is linked to:
 character (clown), segment (kids), feeling (fun),
product characteristics (fast service), symbol
(Golden Arches), life-style (harried), object (car),
activities (go to a movie next to McD’s)

McD

Level of Strength Party Ad Toys
 Strong vs. Weak
Kids
 # of experiences, exposures, and supporting network
Brand Associations
 Brand Image
 A Set of Associations
 usually organized into groups/cluster that have meaning
• i.e., food cluster, kid’s cluster, service cluster


Positioning
 Related to Association/Image Concept
 difference: implies a frame of reference, i.e, the competition
• Well-positioned brand:
– strong associations + competitively attractive position
Sending Media Receiving

Signal Transmitted

DISTRACTIONS
* mimicry
COMPETITION
* opportunism
&
* idealism
NOISE
Value of Brand Associations

1. Help Process & Retrieve Information
 summarize a set of facts/specifications that is difficult for the customer to process/access

 2. Differentiate
 especially in product classes where differentiation is difficult
Value of Brand Associations
 3. Reason to Buy
 product attributes, customer benefits, credibility, and confidence

 4. Create Positive Attitudes

 some associations stimulate positive feelings
 which can be transferred to the brand

 5. Basis for Brand Extension

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja5jhYej8nA
Types of Brand Associations
 1. Product Attributes
 the most commonly used strategy
 find an attribute important to a major segment
which is not already claimed by a competitor
• be careful with using multiple attributes


2. Customer Benefits
 1-to-1 correspondence between product attribute
& customer benefit
 rational benefit: closely linked to a product attribute
 psychological benefit: feeling engendered when buying or
using the brand
Types of Brand Associations
 3. Intangibles
 an “intangible” attribute is harder to counter
 easily overcome product attribute specifications
 consumers do not make decisions on specifications
• technology, health, or nutrition

 4. Relative Price
 evaluation of a brand is often determined by
where it stands in the price level
 there are up to 5 well-developed price levels
• budget, economy, midrange, premium, super premium
Types of Brand Associations

5. Use/Application
 positioning strategy, often to expand the market

 6. User/Customer
 identifying a brand w/ its target segment
 a good match w/ segmentation strategy

 7. Celebrity/Person
 celebrity often has strong associations
 transfer those associations to the brand
Types of Brand Associations
 8. Lifestyles/Personality
 brands are viewed to possess similar traits


9. Product Class
 some need to make positioning decision on
product class associations

 10. Country or Geographic Area

 Types of Brand Associations
 11. Competitors
 in positioning strategies, the frame of reference, whether implicit/explicit, is
the competitor(s)

 competitors may have a well-developed image

• can be used as a reference to help communicate

 sometimes it’s not important how good you are

• important that consumers believe that you are better than (or just as good as) a given competitor
Creating Brand Associations

Identifying & Managing Signals
 what are the key signals of associations that are
formed?
 consumers discount or disbelieve factual information
 consumers usually lack motivation/ability to process

 Understanding Unanticipated Signals

 what unanticipated signals may arise from
brand associations?
Creating Brand Associations

The Role of Promotions
 use promotions to strengthen key associations and
to enhance loyalty, perceived quality, add value
 i.e., Ivory Soap: find one that sinks!

 The Role of Publicity

 paid advertising lacks credibility, interest, &
very expensive
Creating Brand Associations

Involve the Customer
 physically
 product trials, tours
 mentally
 low vs. high involvement
• provide motivation and ability to process information


“Tell me and I will forget,
Show me and I will remember,
Involve me and I will understand!”
Confucius
 Brand Elements

Brand Name 
Memorable • Easily recognize
• Easily recalled
 Logo & Symbol
• Descriptive
 Characters  Meaningful • Persuasive
• Fun and Interesting

Slogans • Rich visual & verbal imagery
 Packaging  Protectable
• Legally
• Competitively
 Adaptable • Flexible
• Updatable


Transferable • Within/across product categori
• Across geographic & cultures
 Name: Is it easy to learn?

Memorability - Important Aspect in a Name
 1. Different/unusual to attract attention, curiosity
 i.e., Apple Computer, Yahoo!, Virgin Airlines
 2. Interesting as in sound, writing, or humor
 i.e., 7-Eleven, Coca-Cola, Toys-R-Us, The Mad Italian
 3. Elicit a mental picture or imagery
 i.e., Jaguar, Apple, Dove vs. Pledge, Bold, Tempo
• if not, then strong emotions: Joy, Caress, Obsession, Bravo
 4. Name is meaningful
 i.e., Palm Pilot, AsiaMail.com, L’eggs
 5. Name is simple (1- or 2-syllable word vs. 3)
 i.e., Coke, Raid, Nike, Dell
 Name Selection Process
 1. Eliminate Unsuitable/Unavailable Candidate
 Will the name support a symbol or slogan?

 2. Customer Research/Test
 Word association
do any undesired association emerge?

 Recall task
 i. list of names; ii. diversion task; iii. recall & write down

 Scaling the brand

 done along important attributes related to the product class and
the brand’s position
 Rating brand preferences
 Desired Name Association

Name Identifying Associations of:
 Brand Attributes
 Budget Rent-a-Car, Mop’n Glow, Head & Shoulders
• NOTE: Strong attribute associations may be limiting: Compaq
 Product Class
 Check-Up (toothpaste), Craftsman (tools)

Word Parts of Letters
 Sounds within a word can imply movement, shape,
gender, age, luminosity
• i.e., “mal” vs. “mil”: larger vs. smaller
• i.e., explosive guttural sound (Cougar) vs. “s”, soft “c”, or
“f” (Caress, Silk-Ease, Finesse): masculine vs. feminine
 Desired Name Associations
 Brand name & Product type Fit
 Hedonic: pleasure-oriented products
• perfumes, jewelry, wine, etc.
 Utilitarian: function-oriented products
• gasoline, tools, machinery, etc.

 English vs. French Pronounciation

 Larient, Randal, Orman, Massin

• HK brand: Goldlion
Name Associations: Undesirable
 Domestically
 United Airlines: Allegis

 Globally
 Nova, a GM car: “does not go” in Spanish
 Citroen, a French car: “lemon” a US slang for junky car
 Chat Box, a telecom product: a cat box in French
 Super Piss, a Finnish product to unfreeze car locks
 Pokari Sweat: failed in US due to misunderstanding
 Diet: reserved for medicinal products that must
conform with the local pharmaceutical laws
 Logos, Symbols & Characters

Key Visual Elements of Brand Equity
 Products/services are difficult to differentiate
 easier to learn visual image
 can be nearly anything
• geometric shapes, things, animals, packages, people,
scene, cartoon characters
 Attribute Association
 Traveler’s Umbrella: protection
 “You’re better off under the Umbrella”
 Prudential’s Rock: strength and stability
 “Get a Piece of the Rock”
 Update or Change
 Changing Brand elements
 Limiting or damaging associations
 Allegheny Airlines to USAir; P&G; Korean Air
 New associations are incompatible w/ old elements
 International Harvesters to Navistar; KFC


J.N.D. (Just Noticeable Difference)
 Updating w/o losing the awareness by consumers
 Small number of changes that stay below the JND
threshold so that consumers do not perceive the
difference
Slogans
 There is a limit to what a single word & symbol
can do
 a slogan can reinforce the name or the symbol
 most effective if specific, to the point, & memorable

 The Ultimate Driving Machine

a. BMW b. Porche c. Mercedes-Benz
 We take the World’s Greatest Pictures
a. Kodak b. Nikon c. Olympus
 The Jewel of Asia
a. Asiana b. Cathy Pacific c. Singapore Airline
 The World’s First Soft Drink
a. 7-Up b. Perrier c. Coca-Cola
Protecting Trademarks

When Trademarks can become Generic
 Owner loses the exclusive right to the mark
 no longer representing the source--but type of goods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idzb40omzVU


Trademarks can become Generic if:
 1. Firm develops a unique new product
 but fails to develop a generic term to go w/ it’s product name:
Escalator brand electric staircase

 2. Company’s mark is shorter/easier to pronounce

 vs. the generic name: Aspirin vs. acetylsalicylic acid
 3. Brand achieves such a high market share
 that it become a category: Kleenex
 Trademarks are Adjectives - not nouns/verbs
 this only applies to your company’s trademark
 does not apply to the corporate name
 YES: Xerox Corporation make Xerox machines
 YES: Xerox’s stock was up this quarter
 NO: Make 40 xeroxes of this document

 In printed materials, use

 the symbol ™ if not registered, ® if registered


Use the word “brand” and a generic term
 Kleenex ® brand facial tissue

 Use a legend
 “Fanta ® is a registered trademark of Coca-Cola®, Inc.”