Components of a Strategy Statement
The strategy statement of a firm sets the firm’s long-term strategic direction and broad policy directions. It gives the firm a clear sense of direction and a blueprint for the firm’s activities for the upcoming years. The main constituents of a strategic statement are as follows: Strategic Intent An organization’s strategic intent is the purpose […]
Understanding Social Media Holds Key to Building Online Reputation
Difference between Traditional Advertising and Online Advertising on Social Media When it comes to Advertising in traditional media, the advertisers tend to focus on how to reach the masses at large. However when one looks at the Social Media and plans to design advertising, it becomes important to understand some of the basic differences that […]
Data Collection in Marketing Research
Data Collection in Marketing Research is a detailed process in which a planned search for all relevant data is made by researcher. Types of Data Primary Data- Primary data is the data which is collected first hand specially for the purpose of study. It is collected for addressing the problem at hand. Thus, primary data […]
Projective Techniques
Projective Techniques are indirect and unstructured methods of investigation which have been developed by the psychologists and use projection of respondents for inferring about underline motives, urges or intentions which cannot be secure through direct questioning as the respondent either resists to reveal them or is unable to figure out himself. These techniques are useful […]
Sales Skills for Consultative Selling
Consultative selling has gained global acceptance as the most effective sales process and has now been adopted by all industries and organizations from insurance to hotels, from airlines to hospitals including industrial, retain and all other sectors of business. Organizations have realized the need to be customer centric and build customer relationship to be centric […]
Imagine walking in aisle of a typical super market (Shaw’s, Costco etc) to purchase salt, there are many offerings but choice is “Morton”. It is a simple example but a great situation to understand brand and brand equity. Companies already know that identity of product created over period of time through strategic marketing is brand, but now what is “Brand Equity”.
From customer’s point of view, association created which results in favorable and positive action towards a brand, in context with other product can be referred as brand equity. If that action is in favor of any brand than is positive brand equity and that action is not favorable than its negative brand equity. Therefore in the above example, action of consumer in purchasing “Morton” is suggesting positive brand equity. And since this brand equity is from customer’s perspective, Customer Based Brand Equity.
Brand equity is a good barometer to understand past action and future course of action for marketers, who are active in formulating strategies for a given brand. If in present, customer has developed favorable attitude towards the brand then it is a clear indication that past investment (time, money, etc) have found there mark. The present also leads the way how marketers should plan future course, as to achieve desired results. But one aspect is absolutely clear that brand knowledge is a key factor in establishing brand equity.
To further stress point of brand knowledge, an experiment was conducted by Larry Percy with respect to brand equity using Beer as product. Aim was to understand consumer response for the same brands under two different set ups. The first set up was where consumer had no knowledge about the brand and in the second next set up, brand name was not disclosed. Result showed that consumer were highly critical of preferred beer when they were not aware of brand. A favorable response was recorded after brand disclosure, leading to conclusion that brand knowledge contributes a lot in understanding customer based brand equity.
Brand knowledge which is crucial in evolution of brand equity consists of brand awareness and brand image. Here brand awareness means the ability created by brand with which consumer can recall and recognize in any given environment.
On the other hand brand image are visuals, logo, style etc with which brand is associated. Customer based brand equity results in creation of strong brand and this is achieved when brand awareness and image are at high level. But how to create a strong brand based brand equity ?
A thing to understand here is that brand equity resides in the mind of the customer, so conviction has to be brought in strategy as to permanently occupy consumer mind space. The process is like climbing a ladder, one step at a time. And at each step an objective is achieved creating leading to a strong brand.
A classic example here would be of “Google” and “Apple”. Both these brands have become synonymous with search engine and entertainment in mind of customers.
When brand is able to achieve sense of oneness with its consumer then it can be said that strong brand has been created.
Companies tend to benefit a lot, in terms loyalty as consumer will stick to the brand no matter what price premium they have to shell out. These consumers become sort of brand ambassador and recommending usage of brand. There by creating consumer based brand equity.
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