Lecture 1
Kotler (2002): “a brand = a seller’s promise to deliver a specific set of
features, benefits and services consistent to the buyers”
Why brands matter (advantages for consumers)
- Consumers need risk reduction
- Consumers need simplification
- Consumers want to express themselves
Advantages of brands for companies
- Means of identification
- Customer loyalty
- Price premiums
- Predictable demand
- Robust to competitive actions
- Yield licensing opportunities
- Growth potential (e.g., via brand extensions)
Increase revenues & reduce costs → increase value
- Increase communication effectiveness
- Stronger support from supply chain partners
- Stronger support from search engines
Today a brand is
→ “a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of them”
→ intended to identify the products of a seller
→ and to differentiate them from those of competitors
(AMA definition)
,Product
+
‘unique’ name, term, sign, symbol, or design
+
Associations
(cognitive & affective)
= A brand is a perceptual entity
Brands are created in the mind,
While products are created in a factory or by employees
Key theoretical perspectives in the Branding Literature
(Swaminathanet et al, 2020)
- Firm perspective
Views brands as assets and examines the various functions and
roles that brands serve for firms, both strategically and financially
- Consumer perspective
Views brands as signals (economic approach) and mental
knowledge cues (psychological approach)
- Society perspective
Presents brands in societal and cultural contexts, affecting
individual consumers both directly and indirectly through social
forces, structures, and institutions
Branding makes a difference → branding matters
,Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE)
“The differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response
to the marketing of a brand” (Keller, 1993)
→ the value that brands adds to products
Consumer-based brand equity
- Differential effect
- Brand knowledge
- Consumer response to marketing of a brand
Concept of brand equity
- Stresses the importance of the brand in marketing strategies
- Is defined in terms of the marketing effects uniquely
attributable to the brand
Brand equity relates to the fact that:
Different outcomes result in the marketing of a product/service
because of its brand name, as compared to if the same
product/service did NOT have that name
, Associative Network Theory
(How we process information)