6 – Measuring Sources of Brand Equity

Question 1

Qualitative Research

Answer 1

To gain an understanding of psychological reasons/ motivations. Small number of non-representative cases. Unstructured, non statistical and to develop an initial understanding
Free association, projective techniques, etc.
To measure brand equity, one must understand what consumers think about the brand.

Question 2

Free Associations

Answer 2

What comes to a consumer’s mind when thinking of a brand? Consumers can answer in any form. Indicative of brand associations and its strength.
Tell me about Nike
To measure brand knowledge (awareness, image). Strong, favourable, unique associations. Brand salience and imagery. Brand elements, IMC, leveraging secondary associations

Question 3

Projective Techniques

Answer 3

Presents consumers with ambiguous stimulus and asks them to make sense of it. Consumers are asked to project their thoughts, feelings and emotions off the stimuli. They aim to uncover the true feelings and opinions of consumers when they are unwilling/unable to express themselves on these matters. Useful with deeply rooted personal motivations/personally/socially sensitive subjects
Inkblot test
Understanding consumer feelings to understand levels of brand equity obtained from consumers.

Question 4

Completion and Interpretation Task

Answer 4

Respondent is shown a picture and is asked to provide dialogue/ thoughts/ feelings of people in picture
Bubble task
Understanding consumer feelings to understand levels of brand equity obtained from consumers. Brand imagery. Brand elements.

Question 5

Comparison task

Answer 5

Comparing a brand to another entity i.e. person, animal, object. Trying to understand personality/user imagery/ brand associations.
If Coca-Cola was a person?
Understanding consumer feelings to understand levels of brand equity obtained from consumers. Personality, user imagery and brand associations to measure level of brand imagery. Brand elements.

Question 6

Archetypes

Answer 6

When we are children we experience imprinting moments that are fundamental psychological associations shared by members of culture with a given object. These moments impact our decisions subconsciously. Every concept and word that we know of, there is a point in time that an impression of that object is formed in our minds.
Coffee – smell. Big cars – domination.
Understanding consumer feelings to understand levels of brand equity obtained from consumers. Understanding brand imagery, brand awareness. Brand elements, IMC.

Question 7

Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique

Answer 7

Based on the belief that consumers often have subconscious motives for their purchasing behaviour. Participants asked to collect at least 12 images that represent thoughts/ feelings about a topic that doesn’t contain the brand. In depth interviews and explore hidden meaning behind images. Interviewees then form a story using images. Key themes and constructs are identified. Understanding the person and how they see the brand.
Picture of grandparents associated with Coca Cola
Measuring consumer feelings, brand imagery to allow brands to move up the pyramid. Strong, favourable, unique associations. Brand awareness. Brand elements, IMC.

Question 8

Neural Marketing

Answer 8

The study of how the brain responds to marketing stimuli, including brands. People activate different regions of the brain in assessing the personality traits of people than they do when assessing brands.
Cheetos
Measuring consumer responses, feelings to build brand equity. Strong, favourable. Unique associations. Brand knowledge. Brand personality and imagery. Brand awareness. Brand elements, IMC, leveraging secondary associations.

Question 9

Brand Personality and Value

Answer 9

Liking the brand to a person/personality. It can capture the consumer’s point of view. 
Apple as a person?
Brand imagery (personality, user imagery), consumer feelings

Question 10

Aaker’s Big Brand Personality Types

Answer 10

Each brand can be measured in these types. Brands usually have one dominant personality and poorly on others. A scale measures this. Some brands have:
• Sincerity (down to earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful)
• Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, up to date)
• Competence (reliable, intelligent, successful)
• Sophistication (upper class, charming)
• Ruggedness (outdoorsy, rough)
Dove, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Rolex
and Land Rover
Brand imagery (personality, user imagery), consumer feelings. Strong, favourable, unique associations. Brand elements, IMC and leveraging secondary associations.

Question 11

Ethnographic and Experiential Methods

Answer 11

Research in consumer’s natural environment i.e. home, workplace, shops. Researcher participates in day to day living/ consumption experience to observe what consumers experience
Burton Snowboards
Understanding usage and purchase situations of brands, brand imagery. Brand awareness. Brand elements.

Question 12

Quantitative Methods

Answer 12

To quantify data and generalise results from sample to population of interest. Large number of representative cases. Structured, statistical and recommend a final course of action. Employs various types of scale questions from which researchers can draw numerical representations and summaries.
Brand awareness, brand image etc.
To measure brand equity, one must understand how many consumers think of a brand and their level of engagement. Measures levels of the pyramid. Brand portfolio.

Question 13

Brand Recognition

Answer 13

Show stimuli and ask whether it has been recognised.
Show stimuli and fill in blanks
Brand elements, IMC, leveraging secondary associations. Understanding to build brand equity through brand awareness, and imagery.

Question 14

Brand Recall

Answer 14

• Free recall: asking for all brands that consumers remember
• Aided recall: giving a narrow search, prime consumer to think of particular brand category
Brands in beverage category
Brand elements. Building brand equity by understanding brand awareness.

Question 15

Brand Image

Answer 15

Measuring strength, uniqueness, and favourability to uncover consumer’s brand beliefs in terms of brand functional attributes/ benefits or brand’s symbolic, experiential benefits. Use qualitative associations to design survey (quantitative) to understand strength, uniqueness and favourability of brands.
Market research of Qantas
Brand knowledge (awareness + image). Strong, favourable, unique. Brand elements, IMC, leveraging secondary associations.

Question 16

Brand attitudes

Answer 16

Understanding the responses that the third level of the pyramid by collecting:
• Cognitive: judgements about brand, rational evaluations
• Affective: feelings towards brand, emotional evaluations
• Conative: behavioural tendency towards brand, purchase intentions
Apple
Understanding brand equity through consumer judgements and feelings. Rational and emotional aspects.

Question 17

Likelihood to recommend

Answer 17

How like you would recommend a brand. Whether people detract from brand/ indifferent/ promoters of the brand. Net Promoter Score determines and % of promoters minus % of detractors.
Apps in App store
Understanding consumer judgements and feelings towards the brand. Whether there are customers that can move up to brand resonance.

Question 18

Behavioural Loyalty

Answer 18

Asking consumers what brand is currently used, duration of relationship, last time it was used, and brands considered, which brand next time. How much is spent on a brand. Measuring through recentcy, frequency and monetary to understand behavioural loyalty.
Dove
Brand resonance – whether the consumer has a relationship with the brand. How loyal the consumer is to the brand and how many loyal consumers are there.

Question 19

Attitudinal Attachment

Answer 19

• Brand love scale of consumer through passion, duration of relationship, self congruity, dreams, memories, pleasure, attraction, uniqueness, beauty, trust and declaration
• Brand self connections: whether the brand is connected to you and part of who you are
• Brand prominence: automatic and natural connection with brand
BMW
Brand resonance – whether consumer is attached to the brand. How attached is it, and how many consumers feel the same. Strong, favourable, unique.

Question 20

Sense of Community

Answer 20

• Conversation: customers proactively talk about a brand
• Advocacy: customers willing to tell others about a brand/ recommend it further
• Information: the more info customers have about a brand the more likely they are to develop preferences for it
• Affiliation: value of brand is closely related to sense of community it creates among other like minded people
• Utility: social exchange with others involving a brand is an integral part of people’s lives
• Identity: customers develop a strong sense of identity and ability to express themselves to others by using a brand
Nike
Brand resonance – whether the brand can build a community around those who use and love the brand. IMC. Leveraging secondary associations. Brand knowledge.

Question 21

Active Engagement

Answer 21

The extent to which consumers are willing to invest their resources of time, energy and money on the brand beyond those resources expended during purchase/consumption:
• Collecting brand information
• Participating in brand marketing activities
• Interacting with other people
Sephora
Creates brand resonance when the brand has consumers that are actively engaging with its marketing campaigns. IMC. Leveraging secondary associations.

Question 22

Brand Asset Valuator

Answer 22

Technique to measure bottom line. Metrics that link to soft measures (associations, imagery responses etc.) to hard measures (costs, margins). It determines the value of the brand. It explains how brands, grow, get into trouble and recover. Measured through brand strength and brand stature.
Gillette
Understanding the pyramid through salience, performance, imagery, judgements, feelings and resonance in relation to how much it costs to climb the pyramid.

Question 23

Energised Differentiation

Answer 23

Brand POD. The basis for consumer choice, essence of the brand, source of margin and pricing power. It is an attraction to something different. The degree to which a brand is seen as different from others and captures brand direction and momentum.
Ikea
Positioning, PODs. Brand performance, consumer judgements. Brand strength. Margin. If energised differentiation is greater than relevance, brand captured attention & has power to build relevance.

Question 24

Relevance

Answer 24

How appropriate brand is to consumers. Drives usage and measures what is personally appropriate to consumers. Measures the appropriateness of the brand to consumers and overall size of a brand’s potential franchise/ penetration
Disney
Brand positioning. Brand imagery – user profiles, usage information. Strong, favourable, unique. Brand strength. Consideration and trial. If relevance is higher than energised differentiation, uniqueness has faded. Price or convenience has become dominant reason to buy. It has become a commodity.

Question 25

Esteem

Answer 25

How well brand is regarded, consumer respect, regard, reputation and fulfilment of brand’s promise.
Apple
Brand loyalty. Brand performance, and consumer judgements. Superiority, credibility. Brand stature. If esteem is greater than knowledge, brand is better liked than known, desire to find out more.

Question 26

Knowledge

Answer 26

Intimate understanding of brand. Culmination of brand building efforts and outcome of brand development through consumer’s relationship with the brand. Inversely related to brand potential.
Volkswagen
Brand knowledge, awareness and image. Recognition and recall. Strong, favourable, unique. Brand salience. If knowledge is greater esteem, brand is better known than liked, looking for better options. Bad place to be for brands, as it not trusted, but well known for bad reasons. Trustworthiness, credibility, and brand crisis management.

Question 27

BAV Power Grid

Answer 27

• Brand starts out in bottom left quadrant with new, unfocused or unknown.
• Then they move to upper left quadrant with curiosity, niche or unrealistic potential.
• Some stay here but others can move to leadership on the top right quadrant with high volume and margin.
• This goes down to mass market with high volume and competitive margin.
• End of life cycle shows fatigue where commodity is eroded with high volume and low margin.
Athlete’s Foot, Sephora, Apple, Puma, American Airlines
Product life cycle. Building brand equity by moving up the pyramid as a product matures. Brand knowledge, awareness and image. Brand positioning, target market, competitors, POPs and PODs.