What is Brand Equity?

Brand equity is the level of sway a brand name has in the minds of
consumers, and the value of having a brand that is identifiable and well
thought of. Organizations establish brand equity by creating positive
experiences that entice consumers to continue purchasing from them over
competitors who make similar products. Brand equity is typically attained
by generating awareness through campaigns that speak to target-
consumer values, delivering on promises and qualifications when
consumers use the product, and loyalty and retention efforts. 

 Brand Awareness: Can consumers easily identify your brand?

Messaging and imagery surrounding your brand should be cohesive
so consumers can always identify it, even for a new product. What
kinds of values do consumers associate with the brand?  Perhaps
they think of sustainability, quality, or family-friendly qualities.
 Brand Attributes: How have first hand experiences with your brand
gone? This could mean that the product performed the way it was
supposed to, that encounters with brand representatives and
customer service teams have been accommodating and helpful, and
that loyalty programs have been worthwhile.
 Perceived Quality: Elevating perceived value will enhance the
customer experience and increase sales. Perceived quality is when
customers judge the product quality based on the overall brand
experience. The product itself might be good, but if the customer did
not have good past experiences with the brand, they are less likely to
react positively to the product and the brand. 
 Brand Loyalty: Brand loyalty is made up of past and current
experiences with the brand, brand awareness, and the brand’s
attributes. Though brand loyalty is mostly customer preference,
building up these other brand qualities will allow you to increase your
profit margins and gain more control over your customer influence. 

Other proprietary assets:

Other proprietary brand assets refer to patents, trademarks and channel
relationships which can provide strong competitive advantage. A
trademark will protect brand equity from competitors who might want to
confuse customers by using a similar name, symbol or package.
Brand Personality
The development of marketing enabled companies to carefully construct brands.
And what are brands exactly? Well, brands are set of signifiers which
communicate a company’s values, culture, quality of their products and much
more. It is therefore built to portray the way how the company wishes to be
perceived by their target audience and the general population.

Sincerity

Every business wants to be sincere, but brands with sincerity as their

primary attribute are those that are honest, genuine, cheerful, wholesome,
and down-to-earth. Think of things that give you warm-fuzzies: family,
friendship, caregiving, gifting, service, honor, and generosity.

Sincerity is an attribute you’ll see associated with many food, hospitality,

and safety brands. Some favorite examples of sincere brands are: Campbell’s
Soup, Hallmark, Oprah, Pampers, Allstate, and TOMS.
Excitement

Exciting brands are often those that appeal to a younger demographic, with
energetic advertising, high-octane design, and celebrity endorsements.
These brands are daring, spirited, imaginative, cool, unique, contemporary,
and anti-establishment.

Lots of brands across nearly every category can fall under the umbrella of
excitement, including: Monster Energy, Nike, MTV, T-Mobile, Vice, Tik Tok,
and Axe.
Competence

We’ve never done a branding project where the client didn’t object the first
time they saw the word “competence” to claim that they were, of course,
competent. And we don’t deny that the clients we’ve worked with are
qualified leaders in their field, but that is not what we mean when
discussing the brand personality trait of competency. Here we mean brands
whose ethos is reliability, responsibility, trustworthiness, intelligence,
successfulness, and confidence.

Sophistication:Like competence before it, we often hear that the brands we

work with are all sophisticated and complex — but again that is not
definition at work here. Sophistication as a brand personality means
luxurious, glamorous, upper class, and charming.

Ruggedness:Rugged brands are those built to last, the tough and

outdoorsy types that will “take a licking and keep on ticking.” These brands
are hard-working, authentic, strong, muscular, and high-quality.

You may see a lot of rugged brands in the verticals of construction and
hardware, outdoors and sporting, and automotive. Some example brands
include: LL Bean, Otter Box, Milwaukee Tools, Land Rover, Levis, Jack
Daniels, and REI.

What Is Brand Management?

Brand management is a function of marketing that uses techniques to

increase the perceived value of a product line or brand over time. Effective
brand management enables the price of products to go up and builds loyal
customers through positive brand associations and images or a strong
awareness of the brand.

Developing a strategic plan to maintain brand equity or gain brand value

requires a comprehensive understanding of the brand, its target market, and
the company's overall vision.

Meaning: Branding is the process of communicating a unique selling

proposition, or differential, that sets a product or service apart from the
competition. Examples of branding techniques include the use of logos,
taglines, jingles or mascots.

What are Brand Elements

Branding is to be able to choose a name, logo, symbol, package design, or

other attributes that identify a product and distinguishes it from others.

These different components of a brand, which are trademark-able,

identifiable and differentiate-able, can be called “Brand Identity Elements
or Brand elements”. The main brand elements are:

Brand Name

URL’s,Logos,Spokespeople,symbolsCharacters,Slogans,,Jingles,Packaging,S
ignage’s
Branding involves creating mental structures and helping consumers
organize their knowledge about products and services with these visual
branding elements. Branding elements list helps us clarify a brand in
consumers mind & helps their decision making and in the process provides
value to a firm.

The key to branding is that consumers perceive differences among brands in

a product category and marketers can benefit from the increased appeal in a
choice situation.

Common challenges faced by brands

1. Brand Knowledge

A brand to become strong, must establish linkage with the brand node in a
customer’s memory. A brand is a key node having a network of other nodes.
It is a knowledge structure. Brand knowledge consists of a brand node in the
memory to which a variety of associations have been linked. These include
the brand name, the brand’s characteristic advertisement, other
advertisements about the brand, the product category, evaluative reactions
to the brand and advertisements. These associations can make or break a
brand.

2. Brand Value

When a customer responds favorably towards a brand, he adds value. If he

adds negative differential, the brand loses value. A brand manager’s task is
to create awareness so that a brand triggers discriminating customer
response.

3. Enhancing Brand Perception:The essence of brand management is

protecting, preserving and enhancing a brand’s perceptual entity in
consumer’s mind. Some brands which were strong once have become
obsolete, weak or inconsistent.

4. Brand’s Appeal

Some brands ride high on a wave of fortunes. But soon they meet with utter
failure. The problem before the brand manager is that the product should
ensure continual adherence to a brand’s core idea. Where deviations occur,
they will reduce a brand’s appeal and equity advantage.

5. To maintain Brand Consistency

The brand must respond to changing market conditions. It must adopt and
evolve. It must maintain consistency in its focus and positioning.

6. Brand Association

Brand associations are a source of brand equity. These associations must be

protected, maintained and nurtured.
7. To maintain Brand Image

Many brands tend to be symbolic and experiential. Non-product

associations drive the brand’s equity. Brands are imagery based images can
be easily changed by consistent marketing campaign.

8. To maintain Brand Position

Product ingredients must be improved to reinforce its commitment to

customer satisfaction. For example, Cadbury in order to arrest its decline
relaunched Bournvita in 1999. It took care of the daily requirements of
essential vitamins and minerals which growing children need. The company
has even set up a Bournvita Nutrition centre. In terms of positioning, the
brand was earlier positioned as a taste enhancer. Now, it has been
repositioned on a nutritional platform.

Brand mantra:

Brand essence, also known as a brand mantra, is a short statement that

expresses the core of what that brand represents or the image it seeks to
project. A brand essence statement is often just two to three words.
Although formats can vary, the statement's tone is most important.

A brand essence expresses emotional and intangible associations that try to

inspire a connection between the customer and a brand, which can take the
form of the general sentiment that the brand inspires. A company’s tag line
is often its brand essence statement and, as such, integral to brand
recognition.

Criteria for a brand essence statement include:

A single-focused message.

Differentiation of the brand from competitors.

An evocation of customer experience with the brand.

Consistent delivery.

A representation of the reality of what a customer might feel.

Types of brand mantra:Brand mantra is made up of three components:

brand function, descriptive modifier and emotional modifier.

1. Brand function: the term explains what a product or service provides to

consumers i.e. benefits, experiences

2. Descriptive Modifier: the term further describes whom the brand is

basically for i.e. athlete, family

3. Emotional Modifier: the term explains how consumers should feel about
the brand
What Is Keller's Brand Equity Model?

The concept behind the Brand Equity Model is simple: in order to build a
strong brand, you must shape how customers think and feel about your
product. You have to build the right type of experiences around your brand,
so that customers have specific, positive thoughts, feelings, beliefs,
opinions, and perceptions about it.

Step 1: Brand Identity – Who Are You?

First, your goal is to create "brand salience," or awareness – in other

words, you need to make sure that your brand stands out, and that
customers recognize it and are aware of it.

You're not just creating brand identity and awareness here; you're also
trying to ensure that brand perceptions are "correct" at key stages of the
buying process.

Start by getting to know who your customers are. Research your market to
gain a thorough understanding of how your customers see your brand, and
explore whether there are different market segments  with different needs
and different relationships with your brand.

Step 2: Brand Meaning – What Are You?

Identify and communicate what your brand means to your customers, and
what it stands for. Do this by considering your brand in terms of
"performance" and "imagery":

 Performance defines how well your product meets your customers'

needs. According to Keller's model, performance consists of five
categories: primary characteristics and features; product reliability,
durability, and serviceability; service effectiveness, efficiency, and
empathy; style and design; and price.
 Imagery refers to how well your brand meets your customers'
needs on a social and psychological level. Your brand can meet
 these needs directly, from a customer's own experiences with a
product; or indirectly, with targeted marketing, or by word of mouth.

Step 3: Brand Response – What Do I Think, or Feel, About You?

Your customers' responses to your brand will typically fall into two
categories: "judgments" and "feelings."

The judgments they make tend to center around the following four
categories.

 Quality – customers judge a product or brand based on its actual

and perceived quality. Think about what you can do to improve
these two types of quality when it comes to your product or brand.
 Credibility – customers judge credibility using three dimensions:
expertise (which includes innovation), trustworthiness, and
likability. Ask yourself, how you can improve your credibility in
these three areas. For example, could you use research to support
your key messages and promote this research on your brand
packaging or in a marketing campaign?
 Consideration – customers judge how relevant your product is to
their unique needs. Use the consumer research you carried out in
step one to help you to identify your customers' specific needs.
Then, clarify how you are addressing these needs and what your
are doing to communicate how you support them.
 Superiority – customers assess how superior your brand by
comparing you with competitor brands. Ask yourself, honestly, how
well does your brand measure up to your competitors? Is there
anything extra or special that your competitors offer that you don't,
or vice versa? What more could you do?

Step 4: Brand Resonance – How Much of a Connection Would I Like

to Have With You?

Brand "resonance" sits at the top of the brand equity pyramid because it's
the most difficult – and the most desirable – level to reach. You have
achieved brand resonance when your customers feel a deep, psychological
bond with your brand. [2]
Keller breaks resonance down into four categories:

 Behavioral loyalty – this includes regular, repeat purchases.

 Attitudinal attachment – your customers love your brand or your
product, and they see it as a special purchase.
 Sense of community – your customers feel a sense of community
with people associated with the brand, including other consumers
and company representatives.
 Active engagement – this is the strongest example of brand loyalty.
Customers are actively engaged with your brand, even when they
are not purchasing it or consuming it. This could include joining a
club related to the brand; participating in online chats, marketing
rallies, or events; following your brand on social media; or taking
part in other brand-related activities.

What is Brand Positioning?

Put simply, brand positioning is the process of positioning your brand in the mind of your
customers. Brand positioning is also referred to as a positioning strategy, brand strategy, or a
brand positioning statement.