Updated 201701

BRAND
MANAGEMENT
(BBCT 3033)
LESSON 2
CUSTOMER-BASED EQUITY AND BRAND POSITIONING
Learning Objectives
1. Define customer-based brand equity
2. Outline the sources and outcomes of customer based brand equity
3. Identify the four components of brand positioning
4. Describe the guidelines in developing a good brand positioning
5. Explain brand mantra and how it should be developed
Marketing Advantages of Strong Brands
Brand Knowledge

Key to create brand equity

◦ Creates the differential effect that drives brand equity

Marketers need an insightful way to represent how brand knowledge exists in

consumer memory
Possible Apple Computer Associations
Sources of Brand Equity

Brand Awareness

Brand Image
Brand Awareness
• Brand awareness: Related to the strength of the brand or trace in memory.

• Brand recognition: Consumers’ ability to confirm prior exposure to the brand when given the brand as a
cue.

• Brand recall: Consumers’ ability to retrieve the brand from memory when given the product category,
the needs fulfilled by the category, or a purchase or usage situation as a cue.

• Advantages of brand awareness -

Brand Image - Consumers’ perceptions about a brand
Strength of • More deeply a person thinks about
product information and relates it to
Brand existing brand knowledge, stronger is the
Associations resulting brand association

Favorability of • Is higher when a brand possesses relevant

Brand attributes and benefits that satisfy
Associations consumer needs and wants

Uniqueness of • “Unique selling proposition” of the

product
Brand • Provides brands with sustainable
Associations competitive advantage
 To Sum up...

To create brand equity, marketers should:

◦ Create favorable consumer response i.e. brand awareness
◦ Create positive brand image though brand associations that are strong, favorable,
and unique
Identifying and Establishing Brand Positioning

Basic Concepts

Target Market

Nature of Competition
Points-of-Parity and Points-of-
Difference
Basic Concepts

Brand positioning
◦ Act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and
valued place in the target customers’ minds
◦ Finding the proper “location” in the minds of consumers or market segment
◦ Allows consumers to think about a product or service in the “right” perspective
Target Market
Market segmentation: Divides the market into distinct groups of
homogeneous consumers who have similar needs and consumer behavior
Involves identifying segmentation bases and criteria
◦ Criteria
◦ Identifiability
◦ Size
◦ Accessibility
◦ Responsiveness
Consumer Segmentation Bases
Business-to-Business Segmentation Bases
 Nature of Competition
Competitive analysis
◦ Considers resources, capabilities and likely intentions of other firms.
◦ Allows marketers to choose markets where consumers can be profitably served.

Indirect competition
◦ Even if a brand does not face direct competition in its product category, and thus does not share performance related attributes with other brands,

◦ it can still share more abstract associations and face indirect competition in a more broadly defined product category.

Multiple frames reference

◦ Result of broader category competition or the intended future growth of a brand.
 Points of Parity and Points of Difference

Points-of-difference associations
◦ Attributes or benefits that consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate, and believe that:
◦ They cannot be found to the same extent with a competitive brand.

Points-of-parity associations
◦ Attributes shared with other brands.
◦ Three types of associations are:
◦ Category points- of-parity: Necessary conditions for brand choice.
◦ Competitive points-of-parity: Associations designed to negate competitors’ points-of-difference.
◦ Correlational points-of-parity: Potential negative associations that arise from the existence of other, more positive associations for the brand.
To Sum up…

To appropriately position a brand, marketers should:

◦ Identify their target customers
◦ Analyze the type of competition they might face in the identified market base
◦ Identify product features and associations that are different or similar to their
competitors
Positioning Guidelines
Defining and Communicating the Competitive Frame of
Reference

Choosing Points-of-Difference

Establishing Points-of-Parity and Points-of-Difference

Straddle Positions

Updating Position Overtime

Developing a Good Positioning

To Sum up ...

Brand positioning describes how a brand can effectively compete against a

specified set of competitors
A good product positioning should:
◦ Have a “foot in the present” and a “foot in the future”
◦ Identify all relevant points-of-parity
◦ Reflect a consumer point of view in terms of the benefits that consumers derive
◦ Contain points-of-difference and points-of-parity that appeal both to the “head” and the
“heart”
Brand Mantra

Designing a Brand Mantra

Implementing a Brand Mantra

To Sum up...

A good brand mantra should:

◦ Communicate the category of the business to set the brand boundaries and clarify
what is unique about the brand
◦ Be simple, crisp, and vivid
◦ Stake out ground that is personally meaningful and relevant to as many employees
as possible
Discussion 2
You are required to look for 3 published journals and illustrate about customer-based brand
equity (CBBE) model. Provide an insight of this model and discuss the contribution of this model
based on the 3 journal articles that you have found.

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