Brand Management Exam

Brand Audit

A comprehensive analysis of the brand to uncover consumer perceptions and responses that contribute to the equity of the brand and to assess the suitability of current and past marketing actions aimed at building brand equity.

Functional Facet

A key purpose of brands is to facilitate identifying a version of a product based on the features that fit consumers' functional needs. This function relates to the successful performance of the product in doing what it is intended to do. Thus, at the most basic level, a brand is the knowledge that consumers have about a bundle of product features associated with a name that performs a set of specific functions.

Product Introductions

A popular strategy for brand growth and commonly introduces variants of existing products (i.e. line extensions) and/or completely different new products (i.e. brand extensions). This is done under the expectation that knowledge about the brand (i.e. image, attributes, etc.) will make it easier for consumers to accept the new product.

Brand Renewal Matrix

A portfolio management technique that proposes dividing brands into eight groups, according to how they score in terms of their contribution (share of company's profits), traction (market strength), and momentum (future growth potential).

Brand Identity

A statement of how you want consumers, employees, and strategic business partners to think about your brand. Having this is important for several reasons: 1. It serves as a guiding direction for marketing activities supporting the brand. Marketing communications - such as advertising, social media, public relations - need to have a common message to present a clear and consistent story about the brand to customers. 2. This can provide a guideline for the types of new products and services that are launched under the brand name. 3. This serves as a shared vision for employees. 4. Having this provides a direction for measuring the effectiveness of marketing programs. 5. having this be clear and strong leads to having a "strong brand".

Brand Concept Map

A technique that asks consumers to develop their own map of all the brand associations they connect to the brand and how these brand associations are linked to each other. This technique involves three steps: (i) elicitation stage; (ii) mapping stage; (iii) aggregation stage. The first stage is the elicitation stage, where important brand associations are elicited from consumers. The second stage, consumers map these elicited associations to show how they are connected to each other and to the brand, producing a map. In the third stage, researchers aggregate these individual brand maps across all consumers to produce a consensus map of the brand's image.

Brand Architecture

An organizing structure of the brand portfolio that specifies brand roles and the nature of the relationship between brands.

Ideal Point Measures

Another common measurement to capture consumer opinions about a brand is relative to their ideal product or service. This measurement asks consumers to think about their ideal product or service in a category and then rate the brand against this ideal standard. This provides an overall evaluation of a brand but provide different information than a brand attitude measure.

Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique

Another options for producing brand maps from consumer data. This also consists of a multistep procedure, which can be described in the same three stages: (i) elicitation, (ii) mapping, and (iii) aggregation. The main difference between these two techniques is that this is more difficult to administer and more expensive to conduct. Furthermore, this method requires specially trained interviewers and can accommodate larger sample sizes and multiple consumer segments.

Visual Identity

Anything that visually identifies the brand in marketing communications, including name, Web URLs, logos, symbols, characters, slogans, packaging, and signage. There are six key criteria for choosing the right visual elements: memorability, meaningfulness, likability, transferability, adaptability, and protectability.

Brand Hierarchy

As brands increase in complexity of sub brand architecture, the company must adopt a multilevel approach. This is a graphic representation of the arrangement and relationships of brands in a portfolio.

Emotions

Associations with brands that can be positive, negative, or mixed in valence. Although there are many specific types, the following broad-level types are commonly associated with brands and/or consumption experiences: pleasure (e.g. cheerfulness or joy), pride (feeling special or important), arousal (e.g. interest, excitement, or surprise), warmth (calm, affectionate, warm hearted), and domination (e.g. helplessness, sadness, fear, or disgust)

Organizations and Entities

Brands are also connected to the organization that owns it. This common phenomenon for corporations that adopt a branded house or a sub-brand architecture. In these contexts, corporate names develop equity on their own that can be transferred to the brands in their portfolio.

Attributes and benefits

Brands are associated with this because they create an expectation about how well products will perform their intended functions, relative to competing ones. Perceptions of quality are based on product-specific factors such as: (i) attributes and features; (ii) reliability; (iii) durability; (iv) serviceability. Reliability - refers to consistency over time Durability - refers to amount of use one can get from a product before it fails and needs to be replaced Serviceability - refers to the speed, courtesy, competence, and ease of repairing the product if needed.

Family Brands

Brands that apply to a broad and diverse array of products in the portfolio.

Flagship Brand

Brands that enjoy the highest level of awareness and esteem among consumers and hence have the highest level of equity in a brand portfolio.

Modifiers

Brands that identify product variants in terms of specific attributes and/or features, such as horsepower or a more luxurious finish.

Identity Brand

Brands that represent desirable lifestyles, values, or personality traits, which are valuable features for consumers to fulfill their needs for self-expression.

Sleeper Brands

Brands that score high in contribution and traction, but low in momentum on the Brand Renewal Matrix. They have the potential to grow into a power brand with a little fast tracking.

Power Brands

Brands that score high on all dimensions of the Brand Renewal Matrix. These brands should be defended ferociously.

Soldier Brands

Brands that show medium scores in all dimensions and quietly contribute to profit.

Icons

Brands with abstract meanings that are consensually shared in society. Important and enduring symbols.

Brand Awareness

Common measure found in surveys. Important metric for tracking established brands, but especially important for new brands or existing brands going into new consumer markets or new geographic areas. Building this is crucial for driving eventual purchase behavior, as suggested by the purchase funnel. Broken into two measures: aided and unaided.

Top Box Measures

Commonly used calculation to calculate the percentage of consumers who mark the most or two most positive categories.

Protectability

Consists of the ability to legally protect the brand element. Some names and brand symbols cannot be copyrighted.

Establishing a Brand Identity

Consists of three steps: (i) Determine the Brand's Target Audience and Positioning; (ii) Generate Potential Brand Identity Elements; (iii) Select Brand Identity Elements

Brand Ranking

Consumers are asked to rank order a list of brands from most preferred to least preferred. In most cases, the list of brands will include the most popular options in the category.

Iconic Meaning

Consumers buy brands not only for what they do but also for what they mean or symbolize. The symbolism in brands allows consumers to signal the personal importance of aspects of the self that are embodied by brands. However, signaling such personal aspects via brand consumption requires that others agree that the brand stands for such symbolic meaning. Because these reside in consumers' minds, these meanings are created both through personal experiences with products and advertisements as well as through collective processes - such as the adoption by certain groups or the public discourse in pop culture. Personal and shared meanings do not fully overlap. When this happens, the brand is likely to lack clarity and to mean different things to different people.

Product Features

Consumers general knowledge about a brand due to a bundle of factors associated with a name that performs a set of specific functions.

Brand Beliefs

Consumers learn about brands from many sources, such as advertising, social media, friends and family, and personal experience. As a result of these touchpoints, consumers develop specific beliefs about a brand, which this is. It is important to understand these because they often underlie the overall evaluation and preference for the brand. Many of these are about brand attribute and benefits.

Collective Identity

Contextualized descriptions of traits, characteristics, and goals linked to a social group to which the person belongs or aspires to. Brands that symbolize valued characteristics of a social group can become symbols of this, as well as serve as magnets that bring consumers together in a brand community.

Promotional Activities

Continued activities of communicating brand identity that will create intended brand associations in consumers' minds.

Organizational Associations

Corporate brands (e.g. Apple, Nike) and nonprofit brands (e.g. Red Cross) not only describe products and services, but are also the name of the company or organization. As such, consumers may have brand associations that are tied to their perception of the company. These can be identified using similar question format illustrated for personality traits.

Brand Image

Customer's perception of a brand. It contains whatever characteristics consumers associate with the brand - including attributes and benefits, emotional and self-expressive benefits, personality characteristics, cultural meanings, organizational and country of original associations, user imagery, and symbols. Research is important for the following reasons: 1. Identifying the elements that make up this helps managers understand what makes the brand a valuable one from the consumer's perspective. 2. This research can be key in evaluating the impact of long term brand building efforts. 3. This research can help identify opportunities for leveraging the brand.

Targeting

Deciding what segments and consumers to service. This is done after we have a thorough understanding of consumer segments, competitors, and our capabilities.

Brand Love

Defined as the degree of passionate emotional attachment a consumer exhibits toward a brand. This describes a complex set of emotions and relationships that are better understood in terms of seven distinct elements: (i) passion-driven behaviors reflecting brand usage; (ii) self-brand integration; (iii) a sense of positive attachment; (iv) long-term relationship; (v) anticipated separation distress if the brand were to go away; (vi) positive attitude valence; and (vii) attitudes held with high certainty and confidence. Because this captures a deep emotional attachment with a brand, it is often associated with positive behaviors such as word of mouth and loyalty.

Likability

Denotes how appealing the brand element is for target market consumers. Names, logos, and characters can spontaneously elicit favorable (or unfavorable) reactions.

Individual Brands

Different brands that apply to a similar set of products.

Brand Equity

Distinctive associations that elicit unique and favorable consumer responses that create strong brands. One of the strongest correlations that underlies this is having a brand with a clear and consistent brand identity that is well known, well understood, and resonates with consumers.

Brand Preference

Evaluation of brands by comparing it to other available brands in the category. Measures for this include brand ranking, which could be measured through constant sum allocation measure and willingness to pay measures.

Brand Attributes and Benefits

Factors regarding ratings on how well a brand delivers on a specific list of brand specific items using a provided rating scale.

Relationship Partners

Feeling of attachment to the brand and experience a cognitive and emotional connection with it. This connection can develop into a sense of oneness with the brand, causing brand-related thoughts and emotions to be prominent in consumers' minds. By considering the brand a part of the self, the feelings that emerge are not simply triggered by the brand associations, such as emotional responses, but are also rooted in the brand's relationship to the self.

Identity Building Facet

Function of a brand that helps consumers build their personal identities. This function relates to the ability that brands have to embody personal characteristics such as traits and values.

Relational Facet

Function that explains that consumers establish relations with brands that resemble those they have with friends. Beyond the personal relation with a specific brand, consumers can also band together in a brand community, which creates a collective identity with other like-minded consumers.

Symbolic Facet

Function that explains why consuming a brand that embodies certain traits, values, or identities can signal to others the personal alignment with such important aspects of the self. The sharedness of meanings allows consumers to signal such meanings to people who understand them.

Self Brand Connection

How much a brand reflects one's identity. This is typically measured using a Likert-type scale, where consumers agree or disagree with a series of statements.

Extended Brand Image

Includes important associations that support the core brand image or are salient associations to the brand.

Core Brand Image

Includes the most important associations for defining the brand from the consumer's perspective.

Summary Assessment

Information from the brand exploratory and brand inventory is used to prepare this, which is how well the brand is being managed. This information serves as an input for revisiting the strategic planning for the brand. This usually includes the following: gaps in brand associations; leveraging opportunities; needs for brand protection.

Flanker Brand

Introduced to protect flagship brands from attacks from competitors. This is particularly useful when a flagship brand enjoys a premium positioning and is under attack by competitors that adopt a low-price strategy. Instead of lowering the flagship brand's price to fight the competition, which could send a negative signal that the brand is "cheapening", the firm can introduce this to establish a price-parity with competitors.

Brand Inventory

Involves an analysis of past marketing actions as well as those to be implemented in the near future. This information is typically included in the marketing plan for the brand, and should be very comprehensive to cover brand architecture, new product introductions, communication campaigns, special promotions, new channel decisions, pricing actions, and brand protection activities.

Brand Collage

Involves asking consumers to compose a collage of picture and words to describe what the brand means to them. Consumers are typically asked to describe their collages and what their pictures / words mean in terms of their perceptions and feelings about the brand.

Willingness to Pay Measures

Measure of brand preference where strongly preferred brands are valued by consumers, who are willing to pay a price premium to obtain products and services offered by the brand.

Unaided Brand Awareness

Measured by asking consumers general questions regarding a brand. Often brands mentioned will be market leaders or brands owned and liked by a consumer. For durable goods, such as cars, or more specialized goods, this measurement needs to be considered. Consumers often have to know the brand they are looking for so they can find a retail outlet or online seller that stocks the brand.

Aided Brand Awareness

Measured by asking consumers whether they are aware of a brand. Usually, the brand of interest is included in a list of brands that includes competitors in the category. For consumer packaged goods, such as cereal and yogurt, this is often the metric used most frequently. For these types of goods, consumers only need to be aware of the brand to purchase.

Likert Scale

Measurement option for brand attitudes where consumers are asked to agree or disagree with a series of statements regarding their overall feeling about the brand.

Semantic Differential Scale

Measurement option for brand attitudes. This utilizes scale end points that are polar opposites of each other, such as excellent and poor. Consumers mark the spot on the scale that best reflects their opinion.

Brand Purchase Behavior

Measures of current, past, and future brand purchases. These are important for several reasons: 1. They are used to gain understanding of different consumer segments, such as current brand users versus potential future brand users. 2. We can partition data on brand opinions and brand preferences by brand purchase behavior. This can help us diagnose what brand beliefs or brand preferences result in purchasing or not purchasing a brand.

Brand Opinions

Measures related to the beliefs, attitudes, and evaluations of brands constitute the largest category of brand measures. This is broken down by brand beliefs and brand attitudes. Measurements for this metric include semantic differential scales, Likert scales, Top Box scores, and ideal point measures.

Identity Based Measures

Measures that reflect the extent to which the consumer incorporates the brand into the self to building his or her own identity. Consumers use brands to build their identities and to signal important aspects of who they are or who they want to be to other people. This consists of self-brand connections and inclusion of brand in the self.

Brand Exploratory

Part of the brand audit that analyzes the consumer perceptions and responses that contribute to the equity of the brand. The focus is on identifying the value of the brand, both as an asset that generates revenues for the firm, and as a psychological entity capable of eliciting distinctive consumer responses. Thus this typically includes a comprehensive review of: financial performance, consumer perceptions and preferences, and public opinions.

Transferability

Refers to the ability of the brand element to be used in expansions into different product categories and/or geographic expansions into new markets and cultures.

Brand Personality

Refers to the human-like characteristics ascribed to a brand, or to associations with human traits and values. Such meanings emerge directly through the user-imagery or the people associated with the brand. These are described in terms of human traits captured in five dimensions: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness.

Brand Attachment

Refers to the strength of emotional bond that consumers feel they have with a brand. An important aspect of this bond is the emotional connection between the brand and the self or the development of a sense of oneness with the brand. This is often measured using a semantic differential scale.

Adaptability

Relates to how flexible the visual element is and to be updated over time.

Meaningfulness

Relates to how suggestive the brand element is of desirable attributes or features.

Brand Values Scale

Scale utilized to measure the human values embodied by brands.

Extended Brand Identity

Secondary elements of the brand's identity. These elements are usually (i) associations that supplement and support the meanings related to core associations; and (ii) new associations that are secondary in importance.

Segmentation

Stars with an analysis of the people who are current or potential consumers of a product or service. The purpose of the analysis is to understand what factors drive their purchases. In doing so, we hope to uncover groups of consumers that have similar needs, reasons for purchasing, patterns of purchasing, and brand preference.

Line Extension Strategies

Strategy that extends the number of variations or version of an existing product line.

Line Extension

Strategy where a brand is used to launch minor variations of products already sold under the name. These might introduce new flavor, new form, new size, new added ingredient, or a new price point to the existing line.

Brand Extension

Strategy where a brand is used to launch new products into product categories where the brand currently has no presence. Often, the new product will be related to a brand's distinctive attribute or benefit, a brand's manufacturing or technical expertise, a brand's prestige image, or as a companion product to the brand's original products.

Co Brand

Strategy where two or more brands are combined to launch a new or improved product or service offering. A common form of this is ingredient brands, where one brand supplies the basic product with a second brand providing an important ingredient.

Brand Attitudes

Summary evaluations of brands along a dimension ranging from positive to negative. Consumers don't always evaluate all brands due to lack of interest. Therefore, Some brands may be associated with an overall opinion, while other brands might lack evaluative meanings overall.

Positioning

The creation of a selling proposition that differentiates our brand from competitive offerings. When developing a strategy, we need to consider the following: - What drives purchasing for our intended target? - Who is our competition for our targeted consumers? - What can we offer? - How can we differentiate our brand from competitors?

Memorability

The ease which consumers can recall a visual element. This can help to quickly create awareness of the brand and its products.

Purchase Funnel

The idea that there are a number of steps that consumers go through as they progress toward purchasing a brand's products and services. 1. (Brand Awareness) They become aware of the brand, learning its name and what products or services offers. 2. (Brand Opinions) As consumers learn more about the brand, they develop opinions about the brand, such as specific beliefs about a brand's attributes and benefits as well as more general attitudes about the brand. 3. (Brand Preference) They consider the brand as a contender for the purchases they will make in the product category and develop a preference for the brand versus other competitor brands. 4. (Brand Purchase) They purchase the brand.

Core Brand Identity

The most important aspects of the brand's identity. They can frequently be a mix of product attributes and organizational associations.

Cultural Authority

The process with how brands become cultural icons. Once a brand has cultivated a symbolic image (i.e. in terms of personality and values) that is aligned with the values nurtured by a cultural or subcultural group in a society, the brand has to leverage this image in order to reach iconic status.

Channel Strategy

The strategy that a firm adopts for distributing its products and services can have a profound impact on its ability to create brand equity. This strategy contemplates the different organizations and actions involved in the process of making a product or service available to consumers.

Corporate Brand

The use of a company's name to not only identify their products early in their history, but also to add new products to their portfolio underr different names.

Pricing Strategy

This strategy refers to the sum of all the values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service. The pricing that a brand charges serves as a signal to consumers of the intrinsic value of the products it sells.

Iconic Brand

Title reserved for those brands that carry consensus expressions of particular values held dear by some members of society. Because these brands carry such important meanings, they are more likely to be used in the public discourse that reflects popular culture.

Relationship Measures

Try to capture the affective nature of the relationships that consumers establish with brands. Two of the most prominent measures in this category are brand attachment and brand love.

Branded House

Type of architecture in which a single brand name is used to identify all the products in the portfolio. This is the simplest type of architecture, as there is only one brand name applied to the entire portfolio. It can also be a clearer architecture when products in the portfolio are similar to each other along dimensions such as features and benefits, usage situation, target market, and value-expressiveness. Example: Nike

Endorsed Brand

Type of architecture in which an existing brand endorses a new brand. This is similar to a sub brand in that two brands are combined into a single entity. However, whereas in a sub brand the focus stays on the master brand, in an endorsed brand the focus shifts to the new brand.

Sub Brand

Type of architecture that emerges from adding a new brand name to an existing brand (i.e. the master brand) to modify its meanings and associations. In this architecture, the master brand is still the primary frame of reference, but this adds additional meanings that can change the identity of the master brand. This prompts consumers to differentiate the new combined entity from the master brand and result in the blended identity becoming a subtype of the master brand.

House of Brands

Type of architecture utilized for the firm to introduce new products under different brand names. The firm owns a wide array of brands that are distinctively associated with specific products. This strategy is more comprehensive as the company needs to monitor the performance of numerous brand-product pairs. However, consumers ignore the links between the different brand-product pairs in the portfolio, and it is simple and clear to them given a brand stands for a specific bundle of attributes, benefits, and images strongly linked to a specific product.

Quantitative Methods

Use structured survey questions, where consumers are asked to respond to specific questions about the brand using a structured set of response categories.

Constant Sum Allocation Measure

Utilized to understand the intensity of consumer brand preferences. Instead of asking consumers to rank order brands from most to least preferred, we ask consumers to allocate points or money among the brands in a way that reflects their preferences.

Qualitative Methods

Utilizes freedom of response and more opportunity to reflect consumers thoughts about a brand.

Brand Leveraging

Utilizing a current, well-established brand's brand awareness to build a completely new brand. This is composed of three strategies: line extensions, brand extensions, and co brands.

Token Endorsement

When a logo / symbol is used to endorse the focal brand. This still supports the credibility of the endorsed brand while freeing the brand to create the new associations needed to succeed in its market.

Free Association Questions

When consumers are asked to think about the brand and respond with whatever words or images come to mind. Most of the time, responses will be words or phrases, although it may also include visual elements such as a brand logo.

Brand User Images

When consumers associate certain types of people as users of brands. (E.g. Apple iPhone users are often seen as younger and more tech savvy; Blackberry users are often viewed as being older males using the phone for corporate business)

Downward Stretches

When the product line is extended into lower price points, are very popular among brands that normally market products at a high price point. Extending the product line through this allows more consumers to afford the brand's product offerings, which can open up new consumer markets and more distribution outlets.

Upward Stretches

Where the product line is extended into higher price points, are less frequent, but can be successful.