Building Strong Brands

Hiten Sahni

1311408 '5' BBA-C 

Every brand possesses something called brand equity, made up of a series of assets that contribute to the value of that brand. Strong brands leverage those assets better than weak brands.

1. Brand Loyalty
   Firms with products or services that have strong brand loyalty require less marketing investment/cost to attract and retain customers. Their more loyal customer base also gives them more leverage with the trade and retailers as well as affords them time to respond to competitive threats before customers begin to switch.
2. Brand Awareness
   This is important because it signifies the weight of the brand within consumers’ minds. It can be broken into two components: Recall determines to what extent consumers think of a particular brand when they think of a product class/category; recognition is a euphemism for familiarity with a brand and often translates to liking. Strong brands rate high on both elements
3. Perceived Quality
   This brand asset helps a firm differentiate and position their product, provides the consumer with a reason for purchase, and can make demand less elastic enabling price increases. Furthermore, strong perceived quality for a brand can allow for product line extensions.
4. Brand Associations
   Consumers can more ably process and gather information when there are strong brand associations. It also provides a reason to purchase and just as importantly can create positive feelings toward the brand.

 The Saturn story

 The author makes the case that Saturn has grown to become a very strong brand. Keep in mind that this book was written in 1996 at the height of Saturn’s success. 

Perceived Quality

Saturn strove to create a product that was top-notch from the outset and measured up to Japanese imports like Toyota and Honda. They not only met this quality goal with superior JD Power rankings but they also communicated it with a money-back guarantee and their exceptional handling of a brand recall.

Loyalty

Saturn created fiercly loyal and passionate customers by redefining relationships with customers. They also went outside the typical approach of selling cars based on attributes to give the brand an identity based on personality and relationships. They did this by propogating a culture within their dealerships that was very friendly involving no-haggle pricing and servicing events like the Saturn homecoming to interact with customers even after the initial purchase.

Brand Associations

Saturn created very strong brand associations via their marketing communication by “selling the company, not the car“. Instead of touting the product attributes and performance (which weren’t neglected however), they emphasized the company culture and values. They highlighted the Tennessee based manufacturing plant, the positive relationship with employees and team-based approach so that consumers were buying into a philosophy as much as they were buying an actual product – and that only helped to cement the emotional connection to the brand.

Awareness

Lastly, Saturn undertook a different approach to the typical Detroit advertising. They enlisted a West Coast agency to touch all of their communication points to ensure consistency of message. Furthermore, Saturn generated positive PR and maintained buzz and awareness in the wake of lots of competitive noise. Word of mouth inevitably became one of Saturn’s biggest awareness drivers.

Brand Identity

In my opinion,this is one of the most important chapters in the book as Professor Aaker covers off on so many elements of his brand identity framework and really sets up the rest of the book by laying out the roadmap. It all starts with the brand identity system.

Brand identity is one of the key elements behind a brand’s over-arching strategic vision. In chapter 1, Aaker discussed the principle of brand equity as a set of asset categories. Brand identity is related to brand equity in that it is a driving force behind the fourth asset category: brand associations. Brand identity represents the sum total of these associations that generate an overall expression of the brand with “functional, emotional or self-expressive benefits”.

BRAND AS PRODUCT

Product Scope – the associations that relate a product to its class or category. When this association is strong people are more likely to recall your brand at the mention of the category, and that is the ultimate goal. These associations can become an issue and even inhibit a brand when there is an attempt to expand the product scope into new categories.

Product-Related Attributes – these are characteristics of the product that add value (see value proposition) and provide some sort of benefit whether it is tangible (physical) or intangible (emotional). Over emphasizing this element of brand identity however, can lead to the product attribute fixation trapdiscussed above.

Quality/Value – quality can be one of the most important product attributes as it can be a cost of entry for a market (minimum level of quality is required to compete) or a critical factor for success (best quality product assumes market leadership). Value is closely linked to quality but adds the pricing element to the equation.

Associations with Use Occasion – when a brand seeks to associate its product with a particular use or situation as a point of differentiation. Athletes drinking Gatorade during sport or athletic activity.

Association with Users – when a brand seeks to target or associate itself with a particular consumer segment. This can be defined by demographic or psychographic traits.

Link to a Country or Region – certain brands develop and leverage associations with a country or region. Often the country or region is a signal of quality based on a heritage of production of that good or product. French champagne, Italian fashion and Maine Lobsters are all examples of this.

PROVIDING A VALUE PROPOSITION

Aaker stresses the importance of a value proposition and states that it has two primary goals

• forming a connection with the customer
• driving purchases

The value proposition is a function of three types of benefits.

Functional benefits

These benefits are directly tied to the product attributes and they deliver a tangible value utility to the consumer. A large network of ATMs for example could be a functional benefit for a banking product. With functional benefits it is important to meet customers’ requirements while also differentiating the brand from competitors – and of course being able to communicate this benefit to consumers. However, if brands rely too heavily on functional benefits they can fall into the product-attribute fixation trap

Emotional Benefits

The less tangible benefits of a brand that evoke emotions or feelings among customers. Emotional benefits can often provide the strongest brand connection and identity. For example, when moms buy Progresso soup get a sense of satisfaction in knowing that they are making good food choices for their family.

Self-Expressive Benefits

A self-expressive benefit is where the consumer feels that the brand enables them to express a personality trait or validate a feeling about oneself. 

Organizational Associations

There are numerous ways to do this:

Values/Culture: Saturn’s commitment to building a world-class economy car and Body Shop’s focus on concerns like the environment, animal testing, and non-recyclable packaging.

People: employees at both organizations echo and embody these values and interests

Programs: Saturn’s retail programs and “family” gatherings; The Body Shop’s visible campaigns and initiatives to further its causes

Assets and Skills: Ingredient choices and sourcing decisions made by The Body Shop; Unique dealer setup and philosophy focused on customer experience at Saturn.