University of Nairobi

DBS 551
BRAND EQUITY MANAGEMENT
BRAND TRACKING STUDIES

BY
PAUL OLOLA OMOLO D65/68454/2013
paulolola@hotmail.com
16TH March, 2015

What is Brand Tracking?

BRAND TRACKING is a way to
continuously MEASURE the
development of a Brand within
some key Matrices/Variables.
These variables include :

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Awareness
Preference
Usage
Attitudes
Perceptions

Judgment

Authentic Brands dont JUST emerge from marketing cubicles or

advertising. They emanate from everything the company does.
-Howard Schulz-

Why Brand Tracking?

Brand Tracking Studies allow Marketers to :

Monitor the health of a brand to allow for proper

adjustments.
Provide information to facilitate marketers day-to-day
decision making.
Provide insight into the effectiveness of marketing
programs implemented by an organization.
Provide insights into the effects of many marketing actions
on brand equity.
Tracking involves usage and application of Quantitative and
Qualitative Methods of Data collection and Analysis by using
tools like Questionnaires and Interviews which may be
administered online through emails or websites, electronically
or physically.

Whom to Track?

Heavy User.
Light User.
Non-consumers.

When to Track?

Brand tracking studies usually involve collecting quantitative data from

consumers on a regular basis. One way to do it is to continuously collect
information which allow us to control for unusual marketing activities and
provide a more representative picture of how the brand stands in consumers'
mind and against competitors.
When determining the frequency of data collection in brand tracking studies, an
organization should consider:
Frequency of product purchase: for example durable goods with long
purchase cycles can be tracked less frequently.
Marketing activity in the product category: a category where brands are
constantly launching marketing programs and promotions should be monitor
more often.
Level of competition in product category: highly competitive product
categories, where new products and competitors are constantly trying to
break in, should be tracked regularly.
Stability of brand associations: brands with an established image that don't
show appreciable changes over time, can afford a less frequent brand tracking.
Brand tracking studies are often conducted with current customers, but
monitoring non-users of the brand can prove to be valuable to the development
of an acquisition and market penetration strategy in search for business growth.

What to Track

What to Track
Customer Satisfaction
Product performance
Customer Service
Shopping Experience
Future purchase intent
Price as a Barrier

Customer Behavior
Brands Purchased
Purchase Frequency
Purchase Amount
Total Spending
Brand Change Likelihood
Brand Loyalty

Brand Attitudes
Brand Benefits
Functional
Symbolic
Experiential

Strength

Product Attributes
Product features
Product performance/quality

Non-product
Attributes

Quantity of brand information

processing
Quality of the brand
information processing

Price
Brand personality
User Imagery
Feelings/experience

Favorability

Uniqueness

Desirability
Deliverability

Point of differentiation
Shared associations

Brand Experience and Usage ctd..

Assume that APPLE IPHONE 5 is conducting a
short phone interview to gather consumer
opinions about the new Brand.
Interview questions on Brand awareness and
Usage will be :

What brands of hand set are you aware of?

Which brand of hand set you consider using
or buying?

Have you bought any hand set in the last

week? Which ones?

If you need to buy any hand set tomorrow,

which one would you go for?

Have you ever heard of Apple iPhone 5?

[Establish familiarity]

Have you used Apple iPhone? [Establish trial]

Brand Matrices - iPhone 5

Judgement

Performance

Interested in overall opinion of iPhone 5

How favourable is your attitude
towards Apple iPhone 5?
How well does Apple iPhone satisfy
your needs?
How likely would you recommend
iPhone 5 to others?
Is iPhone 5 worth a premium price?
What do you like best about Apple
iPhone 5?
To what extent Apple iPhone 5 is
superior to other brands?

Apple iPhone 5..

Is convenient to use
Has better features
Battery back-up
Offers innovative feature
Has a stylish and attractive look
Varied features
High quality

Apple as a company is.

Innovative b)Trustworthy c)Likable
d)Concerned about their customer
e)Concerned about society as a whole
f)Admirable g)Sophisticated

Brand imagery
To what extent do you admire and

respect people using iPhone 5?

How much do you like people using
iPhone 5?
How well do each of the following
words describe iPhone 5?
Up-to-date, successful, upper
class ,stylish, charming, classy, costly

Brand Matricesctd
BRAND FEELINGS
Does Apple iPhone 5 give you a
feeling of.
Fun
Excitement
Sense of Confidence
Social approval
Self respect
Classy
Stylish

BRAND RESONANCE

I consider myself loyal to Apple

I buy Apple products whenever I
can

I would go out of my way to buy

Apple products

I really love Apple products

iPhone 5 is really special to me
It is more than a product to me
I really like to talk about Apple
products

I am always interested in learning

more about apple products

I like to visit website for Apple

products

Compare to other brands, I follow

news about Apple closely

Model for Brand Tracking

Respondent background information

Attention

Intention

Current
experiences

Brand Awareness
Top of Mind
In Mind
Ad Awareness
Top of Mind
In Mind

Preference
- Top of Mind
- In Mind

Latest purchase
- Main brand
- Other brands

Each variable is identified using a question

Advert Awareness

Which mobile brands have you noticed

any advertisement from over the last
month?

Which mobile brands have

you heard of?

mobile brands have you heard of?

Preference

What mobile brand do

e brand do you own?
you own?

Brand Awareness

Which mobile brand do you prefer?

Which mobile brand do you
What other brands are interesting?

Latest purchase

The answers make out the consideration set

and are split into Top of Mind and In Mind
Top of Mind (ToM)
This is the brand the
consumer puts in
first position. Often,
this means that this
is the most likely
candidate for a later
purchase, which
makes this
position the most
wanted for all
brands.

IPhone i5
Nokia
Sony Experia

Samsung
Black Berry
Wiko

In Mind (IM)
The rest of the
brands mentioned
are included in the
consideration set but
has a lower chance
of being bought in
the end. A brand
that is not included
here virtually does
not exist in the mind
of the consumer.

How to Interpret Brand Tracking Measures

1)

2)

3)

Given the comparative nature of brand tracking studies, brand tracking measures
tend to stay the same over time. However, they should be revised from time to
time to assess their reliability and sensibility. They may be stable over time and
thus reflect stability of brand associations, but they can also be unable to capture
important shifts in the market due to changes in socio-demographic trends,
competitive landscape and economic macro-trends.
Finally, each brand tracking study should be customized to capture the brand
associations that contribute the most to brand equity and the marketing activities
that are effective at strengthening it. The goal is to identify key drivers that have
an impact on consumers' brand choice and purchase behavior and develop
marketing tactics that can lead to brand growth and sustainability.
Another issue with brand tracking measures is defining what constitutes the
desirable level of a particular metric. Is a 40% level awareness good enough? It
depends. It is all relative to the product category and the competitive
environment. In low involvement product categories and those with many
competitors, it may be difficult to get very high levels of awareness and strong
brand associations, so the benchmark for what it is a good level for a metric differs
across industries and product categories.

Where Brand Tracking Studies Fail

1.

2.

Great care should be taken when designing questions. One of the

problems with quantitative surveys is that it asks the respondent
to be deliberative, when purchasing behavior is actually much
more instinctive. Surveys must therefore be created in such a
way as to scratch away the deliberative response that questions
are likely to invoke.
While brand survey data is critical to the success of marketing
efforts, there are many surveys that have been over-engineered
and are not achieving the desired results. There is no consumer
on the planet that can honestly say that they enjoy filling out
surveys. Surveys often ask the same question fifty different
ways and the is low completion rates and inaccurate results.

References

Keller, K.L., (2003). Strategic Brand Management : Building,

measuring and managing brand equity (2nd ed.) New Jersey:
Prentice Hall International Inc.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K.L., (2012). Marketing Management (14th ed.)
New Jersey : Cerebellum Press.
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G., (2012). Principles of Marketing (14th
ed.) New Jersey : Prentice Hall International Inc.
Kruger, R., & Stumpf, A., (2013). Brand Growth Barriers :
Identify, Understand & Overcome them. Berlin : New York :
Springer.

Change your marketing, Care about your business level, Go

multichannel, Be ready for future forward looking company with
innovation technology and avoid being URBERED
Maurice Levy,
C.E.O. Publicis
2014.

Thank You