Branding Flashcards
4 Brand Levers
- Ad impact
- Differentiation (uniqueness)
- Quality (perceived)
- Value (quality and price)
Mental availability
Probability of consumer noticing, recognising, and thinking of your brand in a buying situation (greater MA means brand is easier to access in consumer memory)
Physical availability
How much product you are supplying in different areas at different times - breadth and depth of distribution in time and space
Brand definition
Specific name, symbol or design (or combination of these) that is used to distinguish a particular seller’s product
Distinctive Assets (DAs)
Elements that unconsciously trigger the brand for category buyers (sensory cues):
- Logos, taglines, slogans, characters, ad style, shapes, fonts, music/jungles/sounds, colour…
Importance of DAs
- Decision-making process (considering and filtering brands)
- Build both mental and physical availability through easier branding cut-through
- Make branding easier
- Knowing your DAs helps you know which elements to keep and which to change
DAs to build mental availabiity
- Attaching brand to relevant category entry points (Starbucks = coffee)
- DAs should help us notice both the brand and the message
Benefits of DAs for mental availability
- More variety in branding
- Wider reach of brand to low literacy/other languages
- Better execution of creative messages (advertisement)
- Connect advertising done in various platforms
- Connect campaigns
- Connect brand out-of-store with in-store
DAs to build physical availability
- Retail environments are very cluttered, DAs help stand out
- Helps brand be easy to buy
Do successful brand attract higher loyalty levels?
Do attract very slight loyalty levels
Do different brands appeal to different customers?
Appeal to similar customers because competitors are similar
Are brand-loyal customers more valuable?
No, brand loyal buyers are no attractive marketing targets. These consume only half as much as non-loyal.
Realities of brands and loyalty
- Brands succeed because they’re similar
- Similar brands attract similar levels of loyalty
- Different brands appeal to same consumers
- Brand-loyal buyers tend to be light buyers (of a category)
Why are brands valuable or important?
- Great brands generate added value and higher profits (sell more, charge more, do both)
- Brand guarantees to deliver promise every time (people like consistency, reliability)
- Decision making: allows customers to cut through risks and complex choices
- Offer avenues for further growth (facilitate adoption and awareness of brand/line extensions)
- Virtuous circle of brand building (satisfy - profit (re-invest) - consistency - improve satisfaction)
Brand building blocks
- Essence
- Personality
- Values of users
- Emotional rewards
- Functional benefits
- Physical attributes
Why is niche an attractive strategy?
- limited resources to invest
- no competition from incumbents
- company has special skills/competencies that fit one segment
Line extensions
New products introduced into existing product category and under existing brand name (e.g. Diet Cola, Cherry Cola)
Multi-brands
Brands in same product category, but with different brand identities
Brand extensions (Umbrella branding)
Same brand name, successfully established in one market, to enter others (Soft drink brand producing a line of juices)
Physical Attributes (Brand building blocks)
Rational product features
Functional benefits (Brand building blocks)
Rational expectations as result of use
Emotional rewards (Brand building blocks)
Emotional benefits expected from use
Values of users (Brand building blocks)
What the users of the brand care about the most
Personality (Brand building blocks)
Image of brand, expressed in human characteristics
Essence (Brand building blocks)
Enduring soul of brand, single idea that fuses key emotional and functional roles of the brand (the only element of the brand that persists/doesn’t change)
Strategic challenges of Branding
- Build mental availability
- Build physical availability
End goal: Growing the customer base (people that are not aware of brand and thus screen out the brand during purchase decisions)
Importance of brand consistency
Inconsistency leads to uncertainty, uncertainty hurts trust, lack of trust undermines brand power.
Distinctive assets grid
Brand has a set of DAs…
Each DA ideally needs both fame and uniqueness (ensure that they score 100% in both axes)
