The DART Model

According to Holt (2004), a brand can be defined as a term, name or a design that distinguishes product or service of one manufacturer from others. Brands are normally utilized in advertising, business and marketing. In accounting terms, brand is an intangible asset which is present within every organization. It is most valuable asset that is outlined in the balance sheet of a company. Brands owners need to effectively manage their brands in order to enhance shareholder value. Brand valuation is an important technique that associates money with a brand. Effective branding often results into high sales volumes of a particular product. A customer who prefers a brand is more likely to choose other products which are offered by the same brand. Brand can be stated as a personality that facilitates identification of a company, product or service. It even encompasses relation with other constituents like customers, partners, investors, staff, etc. Individuals distinguish psychological aspect of a brand from experimental

A brand is an organisation, product or service which has created an emotional connection with their consumers in order for them to favour their brand over their competitors. It is incredibly important for brands to keep up their image and one little thing could change the global perception of a business. It takes a lot to maintain a brand image that has been built up over a long period of time and even more to regain it if that reputation is lost. Brands are created through various different aspects such as their visuals, tone of voice, advertising, actions and reputation. The combination of these will leave their consumers with long lasting emotions and perceptions of a particular brand and will effect whether they support a business or not and whether they would favour or avoid it. When a brand looses their image it can cost a lot of money and time to rebrand to prevent complete failure of the product or service.

One thing that can make or break a company is its brand equity. Brand equity is the value that comes with the familiarity with a company’s branding and the feelings consumers have towards that brand (Brand Equity, n.d.). A company with strong brand equity usually gives consumers a sense of reliability and value; causing a higher inclination to purchase its products. It usually takes

First of all, a strong brand can be seen as the condition for organisations to expand products, offer more service, and introduce new products (Chernatony and McDonald, 2003). Secondly, a strong brand can lead to growth marketing communication effectiveness (Keller, 2009). ‘To build a strong brand, the right knowledge structures must exist in the minds of actual or prospective customers so that they respond positively to marketing activities and programs in these different ways.’(Keller, 2003, p. 140) Furthermore, Kay (2005) asserted that the strong brand can be seen as a resource of management, which make brand extension easier and useful to build distribution network. Companies are not treated by the intermediaries (Chernatony and McDonald, 2003). Moreover, companies are comparatively easier to change price if they have strong brands. As Henderson, et al (2003) said, a strong brand can allow for premium pricing even still remain loyalty customers, which help companies to survive in the intensive competitive market.

Customer value essentially is the perceived benefits concluded by the customer, derived from obtaining the product held up against the sacrifices being made to acquire the product (Weinstein, 2012). Organisations creating value, furthermore customer value is progressively being seen as a fresh and up to date source of competitive advantage (Woodruff, 1997). Because of this, the creation of customer value is an incredibly significant central concept within marketing (Patterson & Spreng, 1997). However there is not one single agreed upon definition that may be used for customer value, as well as no distinct definitive theory or framework used to emphasize customer value (Weinstein, 2012). Adopting the way in which organisations are able to create value, Smith and Colgate (2007), have developed an innovative framework where four types of value created merely by the organisation are acknowledged - these being functional/instrumental value, experiential/hedonic value, symbolic/expressive value and cost/sacrifice value.

Regarding the issue of consumer behaviour, organisations could improve their perceived quality of their brands (Keller 2001) whilst adjusting their marketing strategies to enhance the brand image (Simmons 2007)

The value given to the brand by the consumer is the brand’s equity. The brand obtains its

Within the context of evaluating marketing opportunities, brand value relates to the intangible aspects of a company that act as a major source of competitive advantage and benefit for both consumers and sellers. For example, a strong brand value allows for a faster purchase decision process for consumers as information can be gathered quickly, and alternatives will often not be considered with equal weighting. Healy confirms this stating that “Good brands create shortcuts in product choice” (p. 136).

Perceived value is a subjective evaluation. In addition, an affective attachment to a brand can influence cognitive evaluation. The essence of brand identification includes affective attachment with the brand, thus customers are more likely to evaluate the value of the brand in a favourable way if the customer has a strong brand identification. Furthermore, He et al. (2012) found that, although not dealing with brand identification, research shows that relationship quality and intangible assets such as reputation relates to perceived value. At the same time, brand identification involves a deep and meaningful relationship between consumer and brand as well as the fact that brand identification is to a great extent related to corporate reputation. Thus brand identification influences perceived value. However, it is important to note that perceived value affects both customer satisfaction and brand trust in a way that leads to brand loyalty. In other words, perceived value can have a direct effect on brand loyalty but also an indirect effect on brand loyalty through customer satisfaction and brand trust (He et al.

In the modern era of marketing, brand management has proved its importance by being a widely discussed topic. While brand value was primarily connected with customers only, its importance into non-customer areas has been acknowledged. Brand equity and brand value are argued on their relation with relevant stakeholders. In this assignment I am reflecting on the importance of managing these stakeholder relationships.

Brand awareness is a fundamental attribute of customer brand equity. It tends to be an underestimated component of brand equity (Tong & Hawley, 2009). Brand awareness includes two elements which are brand recall and brand recognition. According to Aaker (1996) there is a positive relationship between trust, value and brand equity. Trust is the faith put into a brand with regard to its quality, consistency, etc. Value is created by providing a solution to consumers’ needs and wants in a way that the cost to the consumer is fair considering the benefits gained (Aaker,

The brand loyalty of the customer base is often the core of a brand's equity. If customers are indifferent to the brand and, in fact, buy with respect to features, price, and convenience with little concern to the brand name, there is likely little equity. If, on the other hand, they continue to purchase the brand even in the face of competitors

The strategy of a successful organization lies in attracting the right customers by differentiating themselves from competition. Customer value proposition (CVP) is the essence of that strategy (Noreen, Brewer, & Garrison, 2014) which helps the company to deliver value aligned with the organizations strategy to its targeted customers. Customers therefore infer that product as high value while purchasing and perceives that this value creates a reason for him or her to choose it over a competitor in the industry. Customer Value proposition states the reasons a customer may want to purchase a particular product or use a particular service, i.e. it emphasizes on the added value a particular brand has got that fulfills customer’s needs better. The “value” is the benefits that the company delivers to its customers through their product and service. Top level do not base their value proposition based on the promise to “deliver all the benefits” to its target customers the reason being that delivering too much benefits can dilute genuine points of difference (Anderson, A.Narus, &Rossum, 2006). Therefore successful companies have fewer elements (benefits) in their value proposition those of which that matter the most to their targeted customers.

One of the most valuable assets for any firm is the intangible asset represented by its brands. Therefore, it’s important to properly manage brands to maximize their value—or brand equity—to the firm (Keller & Lehmann, 2003).

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a model for values-based service brands grounded in values-based service management. In undertaking this task, the paper addresses two research questions: “What is the role of values in creating customer value and corporate identity?” and “How can values and corporate identity be communicated to customers and thus contribute to customer-perceived