INTRODUCTION

After the liberation of Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie I asked the United States, the United
Kingdom, and France to help him to establish an airline as part of his modernization effort.
According to the BBC News it is possible that the Emperor intended the creation of a quality
national airline to help dispel impressions of Ethiopian poverty. In 1945, the Ethiopian
government began negotiations with both Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air
Express (later merged into TWA). On 8 September 1945, TWA signed an agreement with the
American historian and foreign affairs advisor to Ethiopia John H. Spencer to establish a
commercial aviation company in Ethiopia.

The carrier, originally called Ethiopian Air Lines (EAL), was founded on 21 December

1945, with an initial investment of ETB 2,5 million, divided in 25,000 shares that were entirely
held by the government.[24] The company was financed by the Ethiopian government but
managed by TWA. At the beginning, it relied upon American pilots, technicians, administrators
and accountants; even its General Managers were from TWA. Minister of Works and
Communications Fitawrari Tafasse Habte Mikael became EAL's first president and chairman,
whereas H. H. Holloway —who was American— was appointed by TWA as general manager.
The board held the first meeting on 26 December 1945, with a key point of the agenda being the
deposit of E£75,000 in a bank in Cairo for the acquisition of aircraft and spare parts. Shortly
afterwards, the airline negotiated for landing rights with Aden, Egypt, French Somaliland, Saudi
Arabia and Sudan, and five Douglas C-47s were bought; these aircraft were flown to Addis
Ababa in February 1946.

Ethiopian Airlines formerly  (EAL) and often referred to as simply Ethiopian, is Ethiopia's flag

carrier  and is wholly owned by the country's government. EAL was founded on 21 December
1945 and commenced operations on 8 April 1946, expanding to international flights in 1951. The
firm became a share company in 1965 and changed its name from Ethiopian Air
Lines to Ethiopian Airlines. The airline has been a member of the International Air Transport
Association since 1959 and of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) since 1968. Ethiopian
is a Star Alliance member, having joined in December 2011. The company slogan is The New
Spirit of Africa.

Its hub and headquarters are at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa.

The sources of brand equity of Ethiopian air lines

By considering the
above figure let’s see
how Ethiopian airline
use and practice its
brand equity sources.

There are some sources

which Ethiopian
airlines use like

1. Brand
knowledge

Consumer brand
knowledge relates to the cognitive representation of the brand (Peter and Olson 2001). Consumer
brand knowledge can be defined in terms of the personal meaning about a brand stored in
consumer memory, that is, all descriptive and evaluative brand-related information. Researchers
have studied consumer brand knowledge for decades, with different areas receiving greater
emphasis depending on the dominant research paradigm and thrust of the time.2 For example,
reflecting in part a strong methodological interest in information-display boards, researchers
studying the organization of consumer memory at one point debated whether brand-knowledge
structures were organized by attributes or by brands, as well as the effects of different
information-processing factors such as consumer goals, brand familiarity, and so on.

Much of this earlier research concentrated on more tangible, product-related information for
brands. One important thrust in recent branding research is an attempt to understand more of the
abstract, intangible aspects of brand knowledge not related to the actual physical product or
service specifications. For example Ethiopian airlines customers brand knowledge is created
through advertising and also the brand itself logo, image of the company not by the service it
provides.
 ).

These studies and others similar in spirit are noteworthy for their ability to use novel research
methods to uncover overlooked or relatively neglected facets of consumer brand knowledge that
have significant theoretical and managerial implications. Increasingly, much of branding is about
more abstract and intangible considerations, and these streams of research help to illuminate
those aspects of brand knowledge. But other aspects of brand knowledge may also be important.

Multiple Dimensions of Brand Knowledge

The reality that emerges from the varied research activity in branding through the years is that all
different kinds of information may become linked to a brand, including the following:

1. Awareness—category identification and needs satisfied by the brand.

2. Attributes—descriptive features that characterize the brand name product either intrinsically
(e.g., related to product performance) or extrinsically (e.g., related to brand personality or
heritage).
3. Benefits—personal value and meaning that consumers attach to the brand's product
attributes (e.g., functional, symbolic, or experiential consequences from the brand's purchase
or consumption).
4. Images—visual information, either concrete or abstract in nature.
5. Thoughts—personal cognitive responses to any brand-related information.
6. Feelings—personal affective responses to any brand-related information.
7. Attitudes—summary judgments and overall evaluations to any brand-related information.
Let’s look in the case of Ethiopian airlines

For example, consider the effects on knowledge of linking the brand to a cause.
Identification of the brand with a cause (e.g., Avon's Breast Cancer Crusade) could have
multiple effects on brand knowledge. A cause marketing program could build brand
awareness via recall and recognition, enhance brand image in terms of attributes such as
user imagery (e.g., kind and generous) and brand personality (e.g., sincere), evoke brand
feelings (e.g., social approval and self-respect), establish brand attitudes (e.g., credibility
 judgments such as trustworthy and likable), and create experiences (e.g., through a sense
of community and participation in cause-related activities).

A number of issues come into play in terms of understanding how the three factors above might
operate according to the different types of secondary sources of information and the different
dimensions of knowledge potentially involved. Understanding transferability, the third causal
factor in the leveraging model, is especially critical. Congruity models or other attitude models
may be useful, but regardless of which theoretical approach is adopted, a number of different
moderating factors should be explored, such as the perceived similarity of the brand and other
entity, the manner by which the other entity is linked to the brand (e.g., how explicit, temporal,
etc.), the uniqueness of the linkage (e.g., are other entities themselves linked to a few or many
other entities), and so on. These moderating factors have many theoretical and practical
implications. For example, in terms of perceived similarity, leveraging is often designed to
provide complementary brand knowledge in an attempt to shore up a negatively correlated
attribute (e.g., the youthful Tiger Woods's endorsement of the aging Buick brand of
automobiles). Social cognition models of how consumers resolve different types of incongruent
information may be useful to provide the necessary conceptual insight and managerial guidance.

Brand elements

Name

Perhaps the most important element of them all. Your brand name defines everything in one (or a
few) words. It gives consumers the perception of who you are and it is likely the very first
impression they have of your brand.

Logo
A logo is the visual trademark that can arguably be considered the second most important
element. A logo should be just as (or more) recognizable as the brand name, since images are
often remembered easier than words.

This can even mean creating a word mark. A wordmark is the brand name skillfully designed
with branded fonts and colors to be used in place of a designed logo, thus making the brand
name the actual logo.

Brand colors

Color is powerful.

Feeling a certain way when associating with a specific color is a universal trait. Certain colors
mean certain things, that's just how it is.

Think of the color red. The words that typically come to mind are: error, danger, stop, help,
urgency, and so on. Why is this? There is a lot that goes into color psychology in business, but
let’s focus on what that means for your brand.

Coming up with proper color for your business means thoroughly understanding what your brand
portrays and what audience you appeal to. Once you understand that, choosing a color that fits
that profile should be easy.

Slogan

This catchy phrase quickly defines your brand’s position in a handful of words. It should be
memorable, easy to say, and match your brand’s personality. You wouldn't want to create a
funny catchphrase if your business handles money. That would relay a lackadaisical and carefree
message to your customers who expect you to be nothing but professional when handling their
most important assets. 
Slogans like, “Tastes So Good, Cat’s Ask for it By Name” from Meow Mix are clever and state
why their brand is considered the best, while Coca-Cola’s slogan “Open Happiness” portrays the
feelings they want you to have when you purchase and drink their beverage.

The slogan you choose should have the ability to withstand your brand’s evolution throughout
the years, but within reason. You shouldn’t change your slogan every year, because that would
confuse your customers, but you still need to refresh your image and ensure the slogan matches
what you stand for and the way your customers perceive you.

Whether you're using stock images or shooting your photos in-house, the images you choose for
your marketing and advertising efforts should be consistent and possess similar qualities.

If you’re shooting your photos in-house, the editing style must be uniformed. Creating branded
filters and presets is a fantastic way to ensure comparable photos.

The clothing brand Madewell does an excellent job at creating eye-catching and engaging photos
while impressively sticking to brown and orange hues.

Shape

This is where product design comes into play. When in a heavily saturated market, an easy way
to distinguish your product from the rest is by creating a design that’s different than the standard,
generic shape.

By innovative thinking and creating something unlike anyone has ever seen, your brand creates a
“gotta have it” feeling in consumers, thus making your product highly coveted.

Although old news now, we saw this when Apple reinvented the mobile phone by making it one
screen with no fold. The frenzy that ensued when the first iPhone was released was nothing short
of a phenomenon. To this day, Apple continues to innovate within its product categories,
shocking consumers every single time. 

This can also be as simple as Health-Ade’s kombucha bottle design, which takes inspiration from
an old-time medicinal bottle versus the standard long and skinny glass bottle design commonly
used by all types of beverage brands. Health-Ade is the only bottle shaped that way in the
kombucha aisle, or possibly any beverage aisle, creating an intense intrigue with kombucha
customers because it’s so different.

Graphics

This next element is not another logo. Branded graphics are used to supplement the primary
logo, and if done correctly, consumers may recognize them just as much as they do the logo.

Graphics typically show off the entirety of your branded assets. This can be done by utilizing the
full-color pallet or modeling the designs off a specific element of the logo. These graphics are
used on every type of marketing or advertising collateral to enhance the appearance and allow
the abundant creation of new material, without looking redundant and excessively using the logo.

For example, the G2 logo has an arrow, so the graphics used display multiple arrows. They are
shaped differently, pointing in different directions, bearing a myriad of colors, but the graphics
clearly represent the overall brand and reinforces the primary logo.

Typography

The typeface and brand font you use can be inspired by the style of your logo, or it can be
something completely different but still complementary. Ensure that the typography chosen
meshes well with the other elements of your brand, because just like color, fonts can be
associated with a specific feeling or essence that must match your brand’s personality.
Once the font is selected, ensure that it is used on every piece of collateral and material your
brand produces. This can be a small detail, like the font used to send company emails, or as big
as the billboard design next to the highway. 

 Country branding is a multilayered approach which requires cross-cultural branding as

the aim is to brand the country to improve national reputation, increase product value and
enhance the national brand. In the aviation industry, Ethiopian Airlines (ETA) stands as
not only Ethiopia’s brand but also as one of the African Brands that is a symbol of pride
and economic viability. Ethiopian Airlines contenders such as Royal Air Maroc  ( country
branding for Morocco) and Kenya Airways ( Branding Kenya) are also key players due to
their regular routes to Europe, North America and other key destinations, bringing
tourists, trade, and cargo. In this global health crisis, given ETA’s capacity, Ethiopia has
emerged as the hub for Africa‘s medical transport and shipment and a key transit hub for
the shipment of much sought-after medical equipment to Latin America.

Ethiopian Airline’s has a frequent flyer program named as Sheba Miles .It started operation in
1999.This program is unique partly due to Ethiopian’s unrivalled coverage of the African
continent. Those flying within Africa or to any of ET‟s growing number of destinations across
Middle East, Europe, Asia and the USA will accumulate miles quickly and will soon be enjoying
the privileges of membership. The miles earned will entitle passengers to award tickets,
upgrades; check in priority, executive lounge privileges, priority baggage handling, special
baggage allowances and many more benefits. The numbers of destinations extend to over1000
cities worldwide through the star alliance membership of Ethiopian Airlines and the Sheba Miles
FFP. Over 27 carriers in all seven continents of the world recognize Sheba Miles membership
card in earning miles and redeeming award tickets on their flights. Alongside this, members will
also benefit from priority check in, priority boarding, special baggage allowance, priority
baggage handling, worldwide airport lounges and much more at their airports. Sheba Miles is
designed in such a way that the more one fly, the more the benefits he/she receive and it has a
world of opportunity to earn miles from scheduled international and domestic Ethiopian Airlines
passenger flights, from star alliance member carriers on international and domestic flights, from
rent a car mileage, from staying at service partner hotels and from shopping. Sheba Miles makes
possible for members to redeem or spend miles for award tickets or upgrades on international
and domestic Ethiopian Airlines passenger flights and on any star alliance member carriers
international or domestic flights. Currently Ethiopian airline has 9024 Gold member passengers
and 28093 Silver member passengers. A Passenger has to travel more than 50,000 miles to have
a Gold tier membership status and 25,000 miles per year to have a silver member tier level
status. These passengers have a great share in the revenue of the airline. (Ethiopian Airlines,
2016)

Country branding is a multilayered approach which requires cross-cultural branding as the aim is
to brand the country to improve national reputation, increase product value and enhance the
national brand. In the aviation industry, Ethiopian Airlines (ETA) stands as not only Ethiopia’s
brand but also as one of the African Brands that is a symbol of pride and economic viability.
Ethiopian Airlines contenders such as Royal Air Maroc  ( country branding for Morocco) and
Kenya Airways ( Branding Kenya) are also key players due to their regular routes to Europe,
North America and other key destinations, bringing tourists, trade, and cargo. In this global
health crisis, given ETA’s capacity, Ethiopia has emerged as the hub for Africa‘s medical
transport and shipment and a key transit hub for the shipment of much sought-after medical
equipment to Latin America.

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness as the ability of a potential buyer to recognize or recall that a brand is a
member of a certain product category. Brand awareness plays an important role in consumer
decision-making by influencing which brands enter the consideration set, which of these brands
are used as a heuristic, and the perception of quality (Macdonald and Sharp, 2000). During the
decision making process the consumer retrieves, from long term memory, those products and
brands of which they are aware. This small set of brands (the consideration set) is important,
since a brand that is not part of the consideration set is unlikely to be chosen (Mowen and Minor,
2001). Aaker (1996) identifies other higher levels of awareness besides recognition and recall
(Aaker 1991). He includes top of mind, brand dominance, brand knowledge and brand opinion.
Brand knowledge is the full set of brand associations linked to the brand (Keller, 1993).
According to Aaker (1996) for new or niche brands, recognition can be important. For well-
known brands recall and of mind are more sensitive and meaningful. Brand knowledge and
brand opinion can be used in part to enhance the measurement of brand recall. Similar measures
are used by the Y&R and Total Research efforts. Aaker conceptualizes brand awareness must
precede brand associations. That is where a consumer must first be aware of the brand in order to
develop a set of associations (Washburn and Plank 2002). Factors Affecting CBBE: The case of
Gold and Silver members of Ethiopian Airlines

Brand Associations

Anything that is connected to the customer’s memory about the brand is an association.
Customers form associations on the basis of quality perceptions, their interactions with
employees and the organization, advertisements of the brand, price points at which the brand is
sold, product categories that the brand is in, product displays in retail stores, publicity in various
media, offerings of competitors, celebrity associations and from what others tell them about the
brand. And this is not an exhaustive list.

A brand association is the most accepted aspect of brand equity (Aaker 1992). Associations
represent the basis for purchase decision and for brand loyalty (Aaker 1991). Brand associations
consist of all brand-related thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes
(Kotler and Keller 2006, p. 188) and is anything linked in memory to a brand. Other researchers
(Farquhar & Herr 1993, Brown &Dacin 1997, Biel 1992) identify different types of association
that contribute to the brand equity. Chen (2001) categorized two types of brand associations -
product associations and organizational associations. A) Product Associations Product
associations include functional attribute associations and non-functional associations (Chen,
2001). Functional attributes are the tangible features of a product (Keller, 1993). While
evaluating a brand, consumers link the performance of the functional attributes to the brand
(Pitta &Katsanis, 1995). If a brand does not perform the functions for which it is designed, the
brand will has low level of brand equity. Performance is defined as a consumer‟s judgment about
a brand‟s fault-free and long-lasting physical operation and flawlessness in the product‟s
physical construction (Lassar et al., 1995). Non-functional attributes include symbolic attributes
which are the intangible features that meet consumers‟ needs for social approval, personal
expression or self-esteem. These include trustworthiness, perceived value, differentiation and
country of origin of the brand (Keller, 1993). B) Organizational Associations Organizational
associations include corporate-ability associations, which are those associations related to the
company‟s expertise in producing and delivering its outputs and corporate social responsibility
associations, which include organization’s activities with respect to its perceived societal
obligations (Chen 2001). According to Aaker (1996), consumers consider the organization that is
the people, values, and programs that lies behind the brand. Brand-as- Factors Affecting CBBE:
The case of Gold And Silver members of Ethiopian Airlines Page 21 organization can be
particularly helpful when brands are similar with respect to attributes, when the organization is
visible (as in a durable goods or service business), or when a corporate brand is involved.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) must be mentioned as another concept that is influencing
the development of brands nowadays, especially corporate brands as the public wants to know
what, where, and how much brands are giving back to society. Both branding and CSR have
become crucially important now that the organizations have recognized how these strategies can
add or detract from their value (Blumenthal and Bergstrom 2003). CSR can be defined in terms
of legitimate ethics or from an instrumentalist perspective where corporate image is the prime
concern (McAdam and Leonard 2003).

Perceived quality:
Perceived quality is also a brand association, though because of its significance, it is accorded a
distinct status while studying brand equity. Perceived quality is the perception of the customer
about the overall quality of a brand.

In assessing quality, the customer takes into consideration the performance of the brand on
parameters that are important to him, and makes a relative judgment about quality by assessing
competitor’s offerings as well. Therefore, quality is a perceptual entity, and consumer judgments
about quality vary.

Quality perceptions influence pricing decisions of companies. Better quality products can be
charged a price premium. Quality is one of the main reasons for consumer preference for a brand
in any product category. Thus, superior perceived quality can also be used to position the brand.
Overview of Ethiopian Airline’s loyalty program

Ethiopian airlines through these processes which are discussed in the above

Creating a positive brand image takes marketing programs that link strong, favorable and unique
brand associations to the brand in a person’s memory. And when measuring customer based
brand equity it really doesn’t matter how they are formed; all that matters is their favorability,
strength and uniqueness.

It’s important to recognize that consumers can form brand associations in a variety of ways other
than your marketing activities; from direct experience; through information from other
commercial or nonpartisan sources such as Consumer Reports or other media vehicles; word of
mouth; and any assumptions made about the brand itself e.g. its name, logo, identification with
the company, country, channel of distribution, or person, place or event.

Strength of Brand Associations

The more deeply a person thinks about product information and relates it to existing brand
knowledge, the stronger the resulting brand associations will be. Two factors which strengthen
association to any piece of information are its personal relevance and consistency with which it
is presented over time.

Consumers form beliefs about brand attributes in different ways. Brand attributes are those
descriptive features that characterize a product or service. Brand benefits are the personal value
or meaning that customers attach to the product or service attributes.

Favorability of Brand Associations

To choose which favorable and unique associations to link to your brand, you will need to
carefully analyze the consumer and the competition to determine the best positioning for the
brand. You will need to create favorable brand associations by convincing consumers that the
brand possesses relevant attributes and benefits that satisfy their needs and wants, such that they
form positive overall brand judgments.

Thus, favorable associations are those that are desirable to consumers- convenient, reliable,
effective, efficient, and colorful- successfully delivered by the product, and conveyed by the
supporting marketing program. Desirability depends on three factors: how relevant, how
distinctive and how believable consumers find the brand association. Deliverability also depends
on three factors: 1) the actual or potential ability of the product to perform, 2) the current or
future prospects of communicating that performance, and 3) the sustainability of the actual and
communicated performance over time.

Uniqueness of Brand Associations

All brands need a unique selling proposition (USP) which will give consumers a compelling
reason why they should buy it. You may base your USP on product-related or non-product-
related attributes or benefits. In some categories non product-related attributes more easily create
unique associations- for example the idea that Heineken is a suave, cool and popular young
professional in their latest TV ad- The Entrance.

While strong and unique associations are critical to a brands success, unless the brand faces no
competition, it will most likely share some associations with other brands. In actual fact shared
associations can help to establish category membership and define the scope of competition with
other products and services.

Consumers may consider certain attributes or benefits prototypical and essential to all brands
within a category, and a specific brand an exemplar and most representative. For example they
may expect a running shoe to provide support and comfort and to be able to withstand repeated
wearing, and they believe that Asics, New Balance or some other leading brand best represents a
running shoe. Another example is that consumers might expect an online retailer to offer easy
navigation, a variety of offerings, reasonable shipping options, secure purchase procedures,
responsive customer service and strict privacy guidelines, in which case they may. Thus in most
categories varying degrees of isomorphism can occur.
Thus, in almost all cases, some product category associations will be shared with all brands in
the category. Note that the strength of the brand associations to the product category is an
important determinant of brand awareness.

To conclude, to create the differential response which leads to customer based brand equity,
marketers need to make sure that some strongly held brand associations are not only favorable
but also unique and not shared with competing brands. Undoubtedly unique associations help

consumers choose brands.

All the items under consideration in any field of inquiry constitute a population. The target
populations of the study are international Gold and Silver tier member passengers of Ethiopian
Airlines selected from the 91 international flights of the airline, which departed from Bole
International Airport Addis Ababa. Target population was classified in to two segments Gold and
Silver tier members. There are two reasons for choosing the target population; first, international
passengers take the majority from the total of passengers of Ethiopian, which increases the
generalizability of the research findings. Second international passengers specifically with Gold
and Silver tier level due to their exposure, access and frequent travel, have greater chance to
compare Ethiopian Airlines with other competing international airlines. Ethiopian airlines
currently have 9024 Gold and 28093 Silver member passengers globally. The study targeted
Gold and Silver member passengers, which accounted a total of 37117 member passengers
(Ethiopian Airlines, 2016)
 UNITY UNIVESITY
DEPARTMENT OF MARKATING MANAGEMENT

PRODUCT AND BRAND MANAGEMENT GROUP ASSIGNMENT

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES

NAME ID NO

1. Andreas Bahru…………………….uu 75406R

2. Lidiya Legesse…………………….uu 74670R

3. Meklit Tarekegn…………………..uu 74803R

4. Kidus Araya……………………….uu 74773R

5. Eyerusalem Kassa…………………uu 75509R

SUBMITED TO

INS. Nestanet