How would you like to be fashionable with simple bracelets? If you want to make kids or many other people happy with simple leather bracelets, you can avail of cheap items at this company online. There are many ways to make people happy. One would be to let them feel your generosity. You can give away leather wristbands which will not cost you much. I wanted to make the kids at an orphanage happy by giving them gift bags even if I was still dealing with some financial problems on my own.

Three months ago, I discovered the company of TheAwristocrat. It is a manufacturer of accessories which can be customized to your needs. It has bracelets, jewelry, backpacks, lanyards, and many other items which are fun, colorful, and fashionable. All these qualities made them ideal gifts to kids who only want to feel that they are still cared for by other people even when they seemed to be left by parents who were supposed to love them. The company holds generous clearance sale for those misprints and overruns that they had from other projects. They would end up with excess items in order to make up for some of their mistakes with the order of some customers. These make the items all the cheaper for you. You can think of many other uses for these items. The kids that benefited from my gift bags were overjoyed with what I gave them. You can also make other people happy with the simple efforts that you can extend. Check out the company to see what they currently have on sale.

Customer Based Brand Equity â?? A Pragmatic Approach

 

Dr.K.Krishnakumar, Lecturer in Commerce, Periyar University, Salem â?? 636 011

 

Introduction

In the new era of a globalized market place, brands are key drivers of economic values of a corporation. In the new emerging business scenario, brands offer the capacity to add value which is perhaps unmatched by any of the assets which once enjoyed honour. Brands are the basis of consumer relationship and brands are becoming the most valuable assets that a business can possess. Markets, which were earlier protected, are now being liberalized. Product commonality is a major headache for marketers. Thus, marketers are left with a challenge: how to achieve differentiation which is valued by the customers. Brands in this context are new business warriors. They connect corporations with customers. Brands are wealth generators of the twenty-first century. As a result, brand management has long since grown into a vital ingredient for success in corporate strategy.

            From the marketerâ??s point of view the brand is a value, the brand name of the product marketed by them should be leads to attain brand equity. From the consumers point of view a brand which comprises of benefits. It means benefits in the sense of utility and service. A brand said to have equity when the consumers are prefer to buy a branded one instead of unbranded commodity. When a consumer who is able to recall the brand name and its attributes for the long period where the brand is having a equity. From that point of view of brand equity, it is the extension of brand loyalty and brand knowledge. So in this critical situation the marketers are supposed to create a value for their brand. But here some questions are raised, What is that value? How can create a value and what are the parameters for creating value to a particular brand? In recent years customer-based brand equity (CBBE) has garnered considerable attention in both academic and non-academic researches. Developing further insights into the measurement of consumer based brand equity is important in the face of prominence of branding. Hence the aim of this paper is to identify various elements and parameters for identifying the value, that is customer based brand equity.

 

 

 

Brand Equity

The concept brand equity has emerged as the central concept in marketing over the past 20 years. Much attention has been devoted recently to the concept of brand equity. The concept of â??brand equityâ? is generally considered to refer to that part of the value of a product that is attributable to the brand name. From a managerial point of view, Farquhar (1989) defines brand equity as the â??added valueâ? with which a brand name endows a product.  Aaker (1991) defines brand equity is a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol, that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firmâ??s customers. For assets or liabilities to underlie brand equity they must be linked to the name and/or symbol of the brand. More generally, it has suggested that brand equity be considered from the perspective of three separate entities: firm, trade and consumer. From the firm perspective, brand equity is incremental cash flow arising from use of the brand name. From the trade perspective, brand equity is leverage (in terms of acceptance and distribution) arising from using the brand name. From the consumer perspective, brand equity is generally considered to be something to do with â??valueâ?.

 

Customer Based Brand Equity

                Customer-Based Brand Equity is formally defined as the differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand. A brand is said to have positive customer-based brand equity when consumers react more favourably to a product and the way it is marketed when the brand is identified than when it is not (e.g., when the product is attributed to a fictitious name or is unnamed). (Kevin Lane Keller 2004).Thus, a brand with positive CBBE equity might result in the consumersâ?? acceptance of a new brand extension, less sensitiveness to price increases and withdrawal of advertising support, or willingness to seek the brand in a new distribution channel. On the other hand, a brand is said to have negative customer-based brand equity if consumers react less favourably to marketing activity for the brand compared with an unnamed or fictitiously named version of the product. The main ingredients of consumer based brand equity are differential effect, brand knowledge, consumer response in marketing.

The followings are the some of the important building blocks identified as the crucial elements of customer based brand equity.

 

Brand Loyalty

This is major component of brand equity. Brand loyalty, a long a central construct in marketing, is a measure of the attachment that a customer has to brand. If the customer continue to purchase one particular brand even in the face of competitors with superior features, price and convenience where we can find the brand loyalty. It reflects how likely a customer will be to switch to another brand, especially when that brand makes a change, either in price or in product features. It is one indicator of brand equity which is demonstrably linked to future profits. Brand loyalty is qualitatively different from the other major dimensions of brand equity in that it is tied more closely to the use of experience. Brand loyalty cannot exist without prior purchase and use experience. It is a basis of brand equity that is created by many factors, chief among them being the use experience. (Aaker 1991) defines loyalty as â??the attachment that a customer has to a brandâ? and consider it to be a primary dimension of brand equity. In contrast, Keller (1993) views loyalty as a consequence of brand equity, i.e. when favourable attributes results in repeated purchase. (Yoo and Donthfu 2001) defines brand loyalty from the attitudinal perspective that â??the tendency to be loyal to a focal brand, which is demonstrated by the intention to buy the brand as a primary choiceâ?Â 

            From the perspective of the CBBE model, brand knowledge is the key to creating brand equity, because it creates the differential effect that drives brand equity. What marketers need, then, is an insightful way to represent how brand knowledge exists in consumer memory. In particular brand knowledge can be characterized in terms of two components: brand awareness and brand image. Brand awareness is related to the strength of the brand node or trace in memory, as reflected by consumersâ?? ability to identify the brand under different conditions (Rossiter, J.R, and Piercy.L (1987). Brand image can be defined as perceptions about a brand as reflected by the brand association held in consumer memory. A positive brand image is created by marketing programmes that link strong, favourable, and unique associations to the brand in memory. The brand knowledge effects through brand awareness and brand association, the benefits of brand are underlined as outcomes. Therefore brand knowledge entails significant activities leading to brand loyalty and equity. In brief brand knowledge encompasses the consumerâ??s ability relating to the awareness of the product, product features, where the product is available, company that makes the product, how the product is used and for what purpose and the specific and distinctive features of the product.

 

Brand Awareness

            Brand awareness refers to the strength of the brand presence in the consumerâ??s mind. It is the ability of a potential buyer to recogn
ize or recall that a brand is a member of a certain product category. This refers to the strength of a brandâ??s presence in consumersâ?? mind. Brand awareness is an important component of brand equity (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993). It is believed that brand awareness is improved to the extent to which brand names are chosen that are simple and easy to pronounce or spell; familiar and meaningful; and different, distinctive and unusual. Brand awareness consists of brand recall and brand recognition. A brand can increase the demand for a product in several ways. Brand awareness makes it easier for consumers to identify products with the well-known brand names (Mary W.Sullivan 1998). Therefore, brands provide information by increasing awareness and serving as a proxy for quality. Brands can also appeal to a consumerâ??s sense of individuality or make consumers feel as if they belong to a particular social group.  Brand awareness can be characterized according the depth and breath. The depth of brand awareness concerns the likelihood that a brand element will come to mind and the ease with which it does so. The breath of brand awareness concerns the range of purchase and usage situations in which the brand element comes to mind. The breath of brand awareness depends to a large extent on the organization of brand and product knowledge in memory.

 

Perceived Quality

        Perceived quality can be defined as the customerâ??s perception of the overall quality or superiority of a product or service with respect to its intended purpose, relative to alternatives (Valarie A.Zeithaml 1988). Perceived quality is, first a perception by customers. Perceived quality is defined relative to an intended purpose and a set of alternatives. Perceived quality is an intangible, overall feeling about a brand. However, it usually will be based on underlying dimensions which included characteristics of the products to which the brand is attached such as reliability and performance. To understand perceived quality, the identification and measurement of the underlying dimension will be useful. Perceived quality is a major determinant of brand strength. Quality helps to increase market share, which results in lower unit costs through scale economies. So it provides a competitive edge over the rivals in securing potential market area by inspiring the customers.

 

Brand Association

To create brand equity, it is important that the brand have some strong, favourable and unique brand association. Creating strong, favourable and unique associations is a real challenge to marketers, but essential in terms of building customer-based brand equity.The favourable brand associations are created by convincing consumers that the brand possesses relevant attributes and benefits that satisfy their needs and wants such that they from positive overall brand judgments. Basically brand associations can be classified into three major categories viz, attributes, benefits and attitudes. Attributes are those descriptive features that characterize a product or service. Attributes are further sub divided into product related and non-product related. Benefits are the personal value consumers attach to the product or service attributes can be further distinguished into three categories i.e. functional benefits, experimental benefits and symbolic benefits. Brand attitudes are consumers overall evaluations of a brand, which is most important one because it is directly associated with the consumers buying behaviour.

 

Purchase Decision

            The core of marketing is exchange. It is the actualization of a transaction between the seller and the seeker of value. In this process the customer must make a choice or decisions with regard to selection of a value provider. A decision involves a choice between two or more alternative actions or behaviours (Henson, Flemming 1976). The customers essentially make two types of decision in the context of marketing. The first type of decisions is directed at the choice of product or service. These decisions are called assortment decisions. The second type decisions concern the choice of specific brands and how to obtain them. These are called market related decisions (Walters,GC 1974).

            After searching and evaluating the alternatives, the consumer must decide whether to buy or not. Thus, the first outcome is the decision to purchase or not to purchase. If the decision is to buy, various decisions are to be taken regarding where and when to make the actual transaction, how to take delivery or possession, the method of payment, and other issues. The buying decision also highly influenced with cultural, social, personal and psychological factors. For consumers, brand equity is the value addition in the product of the brand. Brand equity result in increase in sales through consumerâ??s acceptance.

 

Post Purchase Behaviour

            After purchasing the product, the consumer will experience some level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The consumer will also engage in post purchase action and product uses of interest to the marketer. The consumerâ??s satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product will influence subsequent behaviour, if the consumer is satisfied, then he/she will exhibit a higher probability of purchasing the product on the next occasion. The satisfied consumer will also tend to say good thighs about the product and the company to others. The post purchase behaviour is depending upon the extent of consumersâ?? set of experience stored in memory, how well they select products and stores and the type of feedback they received.

The post purchase evaluation involves comparison between the expectations and actual performance of the product or brand. There are three possibilities at this stage. First, there is no discrepancy between expectations and actual performance. It leaves the consumer with neutral feelings. Second, performance exceeds expectations, in this situation consumer feels satisfied. Third, performance falls below expectations, this leaves the consumer dissatisfied (Cadotte, Ernet R, Robert B Woodruff and Roger L Jenkins 1987). Post purchase behaviour indicates to what extent these purpose have been met and motives achieved. Post purchase activity gives an indication as to whether the customers are going to again patronize a firm in future, and also whether they will be in a mood to recommend a product to potential customers.

 

Conclusion

            So it is concluded that the customer based brand equity discussed by considering the perceptions of brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand knowledge, perceived quality, brand association, purchase decision and post purchase behaviour are the most essential elements for forming customer based brand equity. As a result the manufacturers and marketers should build brand loyalty among the customers. The loyalty will be created by the through brand knowledge which consists of brand image, brand recall etc. So the customers will be aware about the brand what ever they are buying. The quality aspects should be covered with all other kinds of association characteristics which will leads the customers towards purchase decision. Finally the post purchase behaviour of the customers after utilizing a product will reflect the real brand equity of a brand.  

 

 

References:

Cadotte, Ernet R, Robert B Woodruff and Roger L Jenkins, â?? Expectations and Norms in Models of Consumer Satisfaction, Journal of Marketing Research, Aug 1987, pp. 305-14.

David A.Aaker, â??Positioning your Brandâ?, Business Horizons, 25, May/June1982, pp 56-63.

Farquhar, Peter H, â??Managing Brand Equityâ?, Marketing Research, A Magazine of Management and Applications, 198
9, pp. 23-33.

Keller Kevin Lane, â??Conceptualizing, Measuring and Managing Customer Based Brand Equityâ?, Journal of Marketing, Jan 1993, pp. 1-22.

Kevin Lane Keller, Strategic Brand Management, Second Edition , Pearson Education Singapore) Pvt., Ltd., (2004).p.60

Kevin Lane Keller, Susan Heckler and Michael J.Houston, â??The Effects of Brand Name Suggestiveness on Advertising Recallâ?, Journal of Marketing, 62, Jan,1998, pp. 48-5.

Mary W.Sullivan, â??How Brand Names Affect the Demand for Twin Automobiles,â? Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XXXV (May 1998), pp.154-165.

Rossiter, J.R, and Piercy.L (1987), â??Advertising and Promotion Management, McGraw-Hill , New York, NY.

S.P.Raj, â??Striking a Balance Between Brand â??Popularityâ?? and Brand Loyaltyâ?, Journal of Marketing, 49, Winter 1985, pp. 53-59

Valarie A.Zeithaml, â??Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality , and Value: A Means â??End Model and Synthesis of Evidence,â? Journal of Marketing, July 1988, pp.2-22.

 

If you think only big corporate names need to think about things like brand names, think again. Your brand says a lot about you and your business, and that’s as true for a one person home-based operation as it is for a multinational conglomerate. In this article we look at how creating a strong brand for your business can help you set yourself apart from the pack and lay the right foundation for the future growth of your business.WHAT IS A BRAND?Your brand is more than just the logo on your letterhead and business cards or your business name. It is your corporate identity. An effective brand tells the world who you are, what you do and how you do it, while at the same time establishing your relevance to and credibility with your prospective customers. Your brand is also something more ethereal. It is how your business is perceived by its customers. If your brand has a high perceived value, you enjoy many advantages over your competition, especially when it comes to pricing. Why do you think people are prepared to pay stupid money for items of clothing with the initials “CK” on them? Perceived value. Perceived value as a result of very effective brand promotion resulting in very high brand awareness.Now, I’m not saying we all need to rush out and start creating brands that are going to be recognized the world over. Most of us simply don’t have the time or other resources necessary. What I am suggesting, however, is that it is possible for your brand to dominate your niche.WHY DO I NEED TO CREATE MY OWN BRAND?=> DifferentiationWe touched on this in the previous section when we looked at what a brand is and how it can be used to increase the perceived value of your products and services. The main reason for creating your own brand is to differentiate yourself from your competition. New websites are a dime a dozen. So are home-based businesses. You need to constantly be looking for ways to set yourself apart from your competition. Your brand can do that for you.=> More Effective, Efficient MarketingAnother good reason for creating your own brand is to make your sales force (even if that’s a sales force of one – you) more effective and efficient.Imagine if you didn’t have to spend the first 50% of your time with a new prospect explaining who you are, what you do and how you do it. What if your brand had already communicated that for you? You can spend 100% of your time focusing on sales rather than educating your prospects about your businessAnother benefit of branding is that the efforts you expend increasing your brand awareness through promoting and marketing your brand to your target market automatically transfers to your products and services. So, even when you’re advertising your brand, you’re indirectly also marketing your products and services.HOW DO I CREATE MY OWN BRAND?OK, so you’re convinced you need to create your own brand. Where on earth do you start?We saw earlier that your brand needs to say who you are, what you do and how you do it. It needs to do all these things at the same time as establishing your relevance to and building credibilty with your prospective customers. Needless to say, it is absolutely essential, if you are to build your own brand, that *you yourself* have a firm grasp of who you are, what you do and how you do it. If not, you’re going to have the devil’s own time getting that message across to anyone else, let alone establishing your relevance and credibility.=> Write A Mission StatementSo, let’s start by creating a mission statement. What is the mission of your business? Obviously you’re in business to make a profit. But making a profit is a byproduct of a successful business. Focus instead on how you choose to achieve that profit. What are your core values?A good place to begin thinking about your mission is to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Put yourself in their target market. Let’s say your business is web hosting. If you’re in the market for a web host, what things are important to you? Different people will be looking for different benefits but you can bet that they want their website to be accessible to site visitors so reliability will be high on their list. Price is also likely to be high on the list as is 24/7 technical support. What about add-on features such as unlimited email aliases, cgi support and what-not? These things will be highly important to some and less important to others. So focus on the benefits that are likely to be highly relevant to the majority of your target market. Let’s settle for our purposes on reliability, price and technical support.Your mission statement might read something like this: “I strive to earn a fair return on my investment of time and money by providing affordable webhosting with guaranteed 99% uptime and 24/7 telephone technical support”. That’s a pretty general statement and if you decide to focus on a particular niche of the webhosting market, such as small business, you may want to more narrowly focus on that group in your mission statement.Now that you’ve written your mission statement, you can begin thinking about creating a brand that reinforces and supports your mission. So, getting back to the fundamental questions of who you are, what you do and how you do it, you can now begin to think of your business in these terms. You’re a webhosting provider, you host websites of small businesses and you do that by offering cost-effective webhosting solutions, guaranteed 99% uptime and 24/7 telephone technical support.When you create your brand, you need to keep the who, what and how firmly in mind but also use the brand to establish your relevance to your target market and build credibility with that market.Let’s turn now to the nuts and bolts of creating your brand.=> Describe What You Are BrandingList out your business’s key features and characteristics, your competitive advantages and anything else that sets you apart from your competition.Using our webhosting example, you’ll focus primarily on the objectives from your mission statement namely, reliable, cost-effective webhosting solutions supported by 24/7 technical support.=> Identify and Describe Your Target MarketDecide whether you want to target lthe entire webhosting community or only a segment of it such as small business websites. Describe your market.=> List Names that Suggest the Key Elements from Your Mission StatementThe key elements from your mission statement were reliability, cost-effectiveness and customer service. List names that are suggestive of these elements. Let’s use Reliable Webhosting for our example. (I don’t claim to be a creative genius.)Don’t limit yourself to real words, though. A coined name with no obvious meaning is a perfectly legitimate name provided it conveys something about your business. You will find coined names easier to trademark and secure domain names for too – a definite plus!=> List Tag Lines that Reinforce Your Mission StatementWe’ll use: “Outstanding reliability and technical support at a price your small business can afford”. I know, I know. You can do much better, I’m sure.HOW SHOULD I USE MY BRAND?=> Create a Logo for Your BrandYour logo is NOT your brand but your logo should allow your brand to be instantly recognized by those familiar with it. To this extent, your logo helps create and reinforce brand awareness. The logo you create should be able to be used consistently in a variety of different media. It should be suitable for corporate letterhead and business cards, as well as for your website and corporate signage (if any). You do NOT want a confusing mishmash of logos and banners and heaven knows what else. Everything you produce needs to use the same, consistent style of logo so that, over time, your logo becomes synonymous with your brand. Instant recognition is what you’re going for here, so don’t dilute it by using several different logos for different purposes.=> Consistent Usage of Company Name, Logo and Tag LineGoing back to our webhosting example, putting the brand name and tagline together, the physical manifestation of your brand will be: RELIABLE WEBHOSTING Outstanding reliability and technical
support at a price your small business can afford.To establish brand awareness, this branding needs to be used consistently and frequently in everything your produce, whether that be letters to clients, business cards, brochures, quotations, invoices, advertising, promotion, on your website, on the front door of your principal place of business and on your products. And don’t forget to be consistent in your use of color schemes. These can be powerful brand reinforcers.=> Marketing and Promotion of Your BrandOnce you’ve created your brand, you need to market and promote it, in addition to your products and services. This is how you establish your credibility and relevance to your target market. You can hopefully see why your brand needs to be suggestive of your mission statement. If, at the same time as you’re selling your products and services you also push your brand, your brand becomes synonymous with your products and services. And vice versa.A properly descriptive brand and high brand awareness amongst your target market will allow you to more easily introduce a wider range of products and services when they’re developed without having to start by again selling who you are, what you do and how you do it first. Your brand has already presold YOU. Your job then is to sell your products and services.