The paradigmatic concept of a brand is a name standing for a "virtual individual". Within this traditional approach, a multi-brand product carrying more than one brand is an antinomy, standing against the idea that a loyal consumer can trust the brand without further investigation of the product. All the same, multi-brand products exist. In many cases a "guest" brand is featured on a "host" brand in order to communicate specific aspects or in order to support a brand extension. Whenever a manufacturer considers using a "guest" brand on one of his products, an objective and mutually agreed assessment of a brand's value gets pivotal. This paper suggest to use Conjoint Analysis as a "lean" and straightforward approach to estimate the value of a "guest" brand relative to the "host" brand and to a price premium. The methodology is put forward using a research project on the NutraSweet logo in the French table top sweetener market.
Traditionally, attitude research has been done by surveys rather than experiments. In part, this is a function of management regarding experiments as risky; they want certainty. This is unfortunate because experiments permit direct observation of cause and effect relationships, while surveys only permit correlations. Our definition of brand equity is the incremental price that a customer will pay for a brand versus a comparable product without the brand name on it. The mechanics of measurement involve randomly dividing customers into different cells and then exposing them to the test brand in the context of one or more competitors. The price of the test brand is manipulated from cell to cell in such a way that the consumer has no knowledge what the test brand is nor that price is a variable. While the basic design is elegantly simple, well thought through decisions are required regarding customers, competition, price levels, frequency of measurement, sample size, and units of measurement. In selecting customers it is critical to select those who are responsible for generating the greatest profits for the brand. In selecting competitors, one has to consider not just those within the category, but, often, those outside the category. In selecting price levels, the further apart the price points, the easier it is to discriminate. However, too large an increase may shift the brand into a different category. In determining the frequency of measurement, it is necessary to consider the dynamics of the category and how long it takes for management to respond to a problem, i.e., the deterioration of brand equity. Similarly, sample size should be partially determined by how quickly a response can be developed if a problem is identified. While typically the units of measurement will be dollars, for some categories time and distance may be appropriate surrogates. The output of brand equity research based on experimental design can help in making pricing decisions, assessing the effectiveness of a promotional campaign and of an advertising campaign, and in determining if a brand is strong enough to support line extensions.
This paper is divided into two parts. The first part will outline some elements of a semiotic theory of the brand. In the definition of the brand identity, a crucial point is an identification of basic values and the distinction of these from a more superficial brand's elements. This distinction is particularly relevant in order to pilot the brand evolution over time. A precise approach for spotting the brand's basic values will be described in this part. In the second part a specific methodology, called "Brand Audit" will be presented. The Brand Audit is a research procedure designed to help the strategic marketing of a given brand. It is based on five types of information. The brand communication universe, the company's culture and objectives, the socio-cultural trends, the market data, and the consumers' responses are investigated and put together, in order to collect several different versions of the identity of the studied brand. These five types of information are in constant interaction and evolution and must be apprehended within a unique theoretical and methodological framework.
The so called Image and the relevance for buying behaviour imputed to it gains importance for planning of marketing communications - talking about brand- and corprorate images. This inclination is confronted by a lack of theoretical and conceptional development of the definition of image, of image-models and the factual importance of image for the purchase-process. Firstly the paper discusses the mostly ignored epistemological background, the defintion of terms and the history of image research. This discussion is followed by a summary of the most popular image-models. The reanalysis of this field of research leads to the conclusion: The central idea of the most popular image-models is that the distance between an ideal image-object (that might be hypothetical) and the real image-object(s) determines the preference of die object(s). These models (that are used daily in the world of market research) have their base in the social-psychological attitude- behaviour-research, but do not consider the results of this field consequently. The next part of the paper is therefore a review of relevant findings in the contemporary attitude-behaviour-research. These findings support the central hypothesis of this paper: The rarely doubted distance-premise is not valid at all in the assumed way because a) the attitude-behaviour-consistency basically is systematically determined by social influence and b) by variables in the personality, such as knowledge about the object, status, behavioral control and self-confidence. Data is also presented to provide evidence for the resulting hypotheses that the distance-premise is only valid for objects with the same "starting-position" and the starting-position can be measured by the perceived social importance of the image- object. Image is more that which "the others" seem to think than, an individual structure of expectation. You might just call it perceived importance or - power. In the context of marketing this fact might have a lot to do with the "longer and broader effects of advertising". The paper closes with notes about the meaning of the findings presented for marketing and future image-research.
Based on a survey of 210 pan-European brand managers, this paper presents an empirical assessment of the state of the art in so-called "global branding. Among the main conclusions, it is shown that the "global brand is a myth: some facets of such brands are standardized but not all. In addition, a brand strength index is computed. The strongest brands are not those that globalize all the facets of brand management, but those that make country-by-country or zone-by-zone fine-tuning possible. The stage of development towards standardization also differs widely among product categories and brandsâ countries of origin.
This paper develops and extends the authorâs previous work on a theory of Brand Relationships. Based on the definition of a Brand Relationship as the interaction of the consumer's attitudes with those of the brand, an analytical framework for understanding and building corporate brands is developed and illustrated. It is argued that the articulation of an appropriate set of "attitudes" for the corporate brand is just as important as developing a corporate brand "personality". The paper examines a number of common issues in corporate positioning - creating customer satisfaction, developing trust in the corporate brand, and achieving corporate leadership - all from a Brand Relationship perspective. In each case, it is shown how the Brand Relationship is a function of two distinct constructs - the brand's personality and the brand's attitudes. Brand Relationship Mapping, a device for illustrating the interaction of brand personalities and brands' attitudes, is introduced. Relationships with the major corporate brands in three different industries are analyzed, using Brand Relationship Maps. The analysis of relationships with corporate brands leads to an understanding of the influence of consumers'â perceptions of risk, and how this can affect their brand choice behavior. In establishing the correct emphasis between corporate branding and individual product or service branding, the paper shows how a strong positive relationship between the consumer and the corporate brand can act as both a launchpad and a safety net for individual brands while, in the opposite situation, relationships with individual product brands may be adversely affected by too close an association with the parent corporate brand. Case histories in the paper cover a number of corporate sectors, including Automobiles, Computers, Insurance, and Telecommunications.
We intend to show how CONOT a new tool aiming to measure connotations be usefully applied to brand evaluation and strategy. We currently wonder which words, concepts, feelings would be evoked in peopleâs minds by a stimulus - a word, group of words, image... -? For instance, tradition is connected in the mind with various words and concepts. When using "tradition" as a stimulus, these connected words will be retrieved, by activation of the associative pattern. This associative set is the word's connotative meaning. Although this meaning is far more relevant, in daily life, than the denotative one, it is ignored by dictionaries! Words connotations, or evocations in people's minds, are a central concept in consumer research' they tell us how a word is inserted in the associative network, which constitutes the consumer's MFR (mental frame of reference). This insight is a key to efficient communication, concepts and words evaluation, brand strategy. Despite the importance of the connotation concept, its use is currently limited to qualitative research. CONOT intends to fill the gap. It has been created as a quantitative tool, which measures connotations of a word or other stimulus, in order to introduce the wealth, sensitivity and relevance of the connotation concept into the range of measurement tools. As such not only it provides an insight into consumers' mind, but it allows to compare, to set precise objectives, to track over time. CONOT is not a method, but a tool which may be used in a variety of situations, for checking connotations of words and concepts, across languages and countries for an international advertising campaign. In the context of this seminar, we will focus here upon another main application of this tool: brand evaluation.
This paper starts by discussing the nature of brands. Brands appear to have human-like characteristics. This is now reasonably well-known and accepted by professionals, and the authors briefly refer to earlier work adapting and applying concepts exploring the human-like brand from academic and other sources, and developing new measurements. The concept of a 'toolkit' for measuring brands, christened BrandWorks©, is then described, with its concentration on different facets of brand perception. After examining data interpretation issues - particularly the need for several stages of analysis and a holistic approach to the data - and data collection, where the ideal of replicating respondents' own mental processes and expressivity is stressed, the authors list and describe the most important facets of brand perception. Case studies are interspersed. The paper ends with a review of further areas for enquiry in progress, and in emphasising the practical applications of the approach in building brand communication and marketing programmes.
We have a problem: Due to the shortening average lives of products and the fast growing variety of products in the marketplace, the cash flow from an increasing number of (manufacturer-owned), branded products is no longer able to either cover their current marketing cost or to recoup the front-end investment in them. The solution for brand owners is to reverse the relationship between their brands and their products: No longer should a brand be a function of a product, rather, products must now be managed as functions of a brand. What makes this solution realisable is that with a brand you can do anything you like. Almost.
The paper is divided into 3 parts. The first part asserts that value creation for both the consumer and the share holder is the overriding objective of commercial organisations and that brand value is a critical bench mark in measuring a company's successful exploitation and development of its brands. Increasing competition and recession in many markets has put marketing departments under severe pressure to become more performance accountable for their activities and to demonstrate the very worth of the marketing department itself. Whilst the various stakeholders in the value creation process, from share holders through to the advertising agency, all share the common goal of maximising brand value, each have their own individual objectives. There exist many organisational and personal constraints to prevent companies from maximising the free flow of information across functional boundaries to enable the organisation to fully understand how to maximise brand value. The second part of the paper traces the growing acceptability of brand valuation in the financial world. The process of undertaking brand valuation is described and shows how the key components of brand value, called the brand drivers, are precisely those factors which the marketing department and advertising agencies seek to manage. These range from brand positioning through to pricing and assessments of the risk of current and future brand strategies. The final part of the paper describes the transition from brand valuation to brand evaluation and calls for a strong cross functional approach, primarily between marketing and finance, to identify key brand attributes and understand the inter relationships between the strengths of these and the activities that drive the brand's operating costs. The bland evaluation process is described, starting with the valuation of the current brand portfolio and moving through a number of phases. A change in organisational behaviour is required to ensure that objectives, performance measures and ultimately personal reward all become related to the creation of brand value.
The purpose of this paper is to outline an approach for identifying the equity inherent in a brand. It will suggest an approach for estimating brand equity as an economic quantity using a combination of easily measured customer dynamics. It will also suggest ways in which this measurement process can contribute to the effective management of brand equity. The approach outlined here has been used to evaluate over 400 brands and brand extensions over the past two years. It reflects a corporate perspective that we at Yankelovich have developed in our quarter century of working on brands and branding. As such, it marries an accounting viewpoint on the valuation of brands with a customer measurement process.