2. Literature Review
Recently, brand equity has increasingly been defined in customer-based contexts. It defines brand equity as the value of a brand to the customer (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993) defines brand equity as “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 firms’ customers." Brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality, brand loyalty and other proprietary assets were the five assets of brand equity. Keller (2003) argued that the power of a brand lies in the minds of the customers and what they have experienced and learned about the brand over time. He defines customer-based brand equity as “the differential effect that brand knowledge has on
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It is defined as an individual's ability to recall and recognize a brand (Aaker, 1996; Keller, 2003). Top-of-mind and brand dominance is other levels of awareness included by Aaker (1996) in measuring awareness. Awareness can affect customers’ perceptions, which lead to different brand choice and even loyalty (Aaker, 1996). A brand with strong brand recall (unaided awareness) and top of mind can affect customers’ perceptions, which lead to different customer choice inside a product category (Aaker, 1996).
2.2 Brand loyalty
Aaker (1991) defines brand loyalty as ‘the attachment that a customer has to a brand’. Two different levels of loyalty are classified: behavioural and cognitive loyalty (Keller, 1998). Behavioural loyalty can be indicated by a number of repeated purchases (Keller, 1998). Cognitive loyalty refers to the consumers’ intention to buy the brand as the first choice (Keller, 1998; Yoo and Donthu, 2001). Another indicator of loyalty is the customer’s willingness to pay higher price for a brand in comparison with another brand offering similar benefits (Aaker, 1996).
2.3 Brand
Finally, Shamma (2011) claims that total brand equity consists of product and corporate brand equity which depends on company’s market, social and financial performance. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between company’s corporate brand and socially responsible marketing and total brand equity (Shamma, 2011). Similarly, Grace and King (2011) talks about employee brand equity, which is the result of positive and productive employee brand-related behaviour and is strongly linked with brand’s strength (Grace and King, 2011). In contrast, Kay (2004) argues that corporate branding differs from product and service branding as it is aimed at different target audiences. For instance, corporate branding usually targets company’s shareholders and employees whereas product and service branding is focused on consumers who are not really interested in corporate brand identity (Kay, 2004). However, it is also claimed that some companies, especially those that started as niche businesses that appealed to small segments of socially conscious customers succeeded in creating strong and distinctive corporate brands. Referring to CC and Jim Beam corporation consumers are not that concerned about company’s overall image, however introduction of corporate social responsibility and socially
Brand equity is a consumer-based concept (Elliot 2017) and strategic asset of a company that encompasses the idea of the added value a brand contributes to a product. Influenced by consumer choices, it is the characteristic of a brand that indicates high levels of performance and determines the success of companies.
Brand equity is an important asset for any organization. It is also an assets that offers an organization or a brand a road to success. Brand equity is important because its brand's product is closely associated with its premium price in the market. An organization or a brand with positive brand equity typically have higher quality products and services when compared to similar generic unbranded products. Furthermore, brand equity is important because it helps an organization or a brand to strengthen its competitive edge in the market. It is important to an organization or a brand, the reason are that it help lower the marketing costs and allows a brand to enjoy higher brand awareness and brand loyalty. Therefore, the ultimate goal of a brand
Jaworski (2003), the process of purchase could be divided into three sections: pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase. Authors claim that every part of purchase process is important because it is a complex action. Firstly, when a decision to buy a product is made, personal evaluation of product purchase process begins. Consumer starts collecting information regarding the criteria that determines the choice of the product and the location where the purchase is to be made. The question about loyalty to the brand is raised as well when it comes to utility of the product and service that the customer receives on purchase day. According to D. Schultz (2005), a satisfied customer will demonstrate the loyalty to the brand in a way that shows the willingness to repeat the purchase and provide positive comments to the social groups using word-of-mouth technique. The product brand itself and its importance to the client is included in purchase decision making as well.
Brand equity increases as brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality brand associations, and number of brand-related proprietary assets increase and become stronger and more positive.
Macdonald & Sharp, 2003 states that it is a strong influencer in the buying decision consideration process, as most of the consumers prefer buying brands they are aware and would like to be confident when making the purchase decision. The cost of acquiring customers is a significant expense for most businesses so higher brand awareness will help draw potential customers with little or no costs. Retaining customers is an even harder process than the former so strong brand loyalty among the customers will help sustain the business on a long term basis. Popular brands often use tools like newsletters, promotions, and satisfaction surveys to stay in touch with their existing to pool of customers in order to maintain brand awareness among consumers. Brands should also focus on research related to aided and unaided brand recall as it can help bring down marketing costs significantly while increasing the management’s understanding of the business (Holden, 1993). Aided recall looks at what thoughts/feelings the customer associates with the brand while unaided recall looks at what brands of a specific product category the customer can think of without any prompts. The former helps marketing professionals to focus on building brand awareness to attract new customers whereas the latter focuses on improving the brand image among existing customers. Simply put, the more people are aware of the brand
The intangible value of a product is largely subjective, therefore is linked to private consumers’ perception. Bearing that in mind, the marketers focus their effort on creating a desired image in the shoppers’ minds, surrounding the conventional products with extra benefits in the form of intangibles such as extended consumer service, recognizable design and social features (Thrassou & Vrontis, 2009). A combination of such features form different brands. So, brands represent the intangible “value-added” to the product. According to an empirical research, conducted amongst 472 Australian students the prior knowledge of preferred brands (brand awareness) is an important part of consumers’ decision making process when purchasing a product. Specifically, 85.5% of subjects chose the familiar brand over others available. Additionally, the study has shown that the choice is made substantially faster (9.8 seconds against 15.1 given the experiment conditions) (Macdonald & Sharp, 2000). Clearly, a product’s brand name, being a classical value of an intangible nature appeared to have played a heavy role in a perceived value of the sample group. Though brands facilitated the process of choice, the final purchase decision belonged to the end-buyers.
In modern society, brands play an increasing vital role in marketing. With the fury market competition and the increasing homogeneity of products , brands act as a powerful strategic weapon to win in the market competition. At the same time, brand equity, as one of the
A company (in this case, a coffee shop) needs to establish a clear and consistent brand identity by communicating its brand attributes in a way that can be easily understood by prospective customers. One of the firm’s most valuable assets for improving marketing productivity is the customers’pre-existing knowledge of the brand from the firm’s investment in previous marketing programs (Keller, 1993). According to Keller (1993), the differential effect of brand knowledge upon customers’ response to brand marketing is known as brand equity. Brand equity is related to customer satisfaction and brand loyalty (Nam, Ekinci, and Whyatt, 2011). Customer satisfaction is a mediating variable between brand equity and brand loyalty, while brand loyalty itself is the biased (non-random) behavioral response (purchase) expressed over time by some decision-making unit with respect to one or more particular brands out of a set of brands and is a function of psychological processes (Jacoby, 1971). Considering the importance of brand equity in companies’ efforts to develop positive customer perception and win the tight competition in their industry by achieving customer satisfaction and loyalty, this study aims to investigate
One of the most desirable traits that marketers would like to see in the consumers they are positioning their product towards is loyalty to their brand. Brand loyalty can be defined as “the extent of the faithfulness of consumers to a particular brand, expressed through their repeat purchases, irrespective of the marketing pressure generated by the competing brands.” (Business Dictionary, 2012) An expression of brand loyalty from consumers can help companies to experience significant growth not only through repeat purchases, but also word-of-mouth: brand-loyal consumers who talk among their peers about their purchasing behaviour may talk positively about the brand they like, which allows these consumers to try these
Innovations, trends and fads all create, shape, and add value to a brand. Building a strong brand takes time commitment and hard work. The identity of the brand, from the perspective of the consumers, is the foundation of a good brand-building program. Effective brand management that encompasses brand personality is of major importance in reaching the company goals of satisfaction, loyalty and profitability. Building a powerful brand requires determining the substantial characteristics of the offerings that carry the brand name and the psychological or emotional benefits the customers receives from a company’s products. This can be described, as what “value” means to a typical loyal customer; and what, ultimately, is the
Purpose - The aim of this paper is to examine if there is a correlation between brand equity and brand loyalty. The author will research the sources of brand equity for three international clothing companies: Abercrombie & Fitch, Marks & Spencer, H&M and apply each company to the Loyalty Ladder.
Since the early time, the conception of brand has marked a turning point in business whether it regards as brand identity, brand equity, or brand loyalty (Hart and Murphy, 1998). The brand now
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 favorably 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).
Brand awareness is an important and sometimes undervalued component of brand equity. Awareness can affect perceptions and attitudes. It can make peanut butter taste better and instill confidence in a retailer. In some contexts, it can be a driver of brand choice and even loyalty. Brand awareness reflects the salience of the brand in the customers mind, (CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL 38. NO. 3 SPRING, 1996). There are levels of awareness, of course, which include: