Module 4 Flashcards
Brand elements
sometimes called brand identities, are those trademarkable devices that serve to identify and differentiate the brand.
The main brand elements are
brand names, URLs, logos, symbols, characters, spokespeople, slogans, jingles, packages, and signage.
Criteria for Choosing Brand Elements
Memorability Meaningfulness Likeability Transferability Adaptability Protectability
Memorability
Easily recognized
Easily recalled
Meaningfulness
Descriptive
Persuasive
Likeability
Fun and interesting
Rich visual and verbal imagery
Aesthetically pleasing
Transferability
Within and across product categories
Across geographic boundaries and cultures
Adaptability
Flexible
Updatable
Protectability
Legally
Competitively
Marketer’s offensive strategy
and build brand equity
Memorability
Meaningfulness
Likeability
Defensive role for leveraging
and maintaining brand equity
Transferability
Adaptability
Protectability
A necessary condition for building brand equity is
achieving a high level of brand awareness.
Brand elements that promote that goal of achieving a high level of band awareness are inherently
memorable and attention-getting and therefore facilitate recall or recognition in purchase or consumption settings.
Blue Rhino Example
A brand of propane gas cylinders named Blue Rhino featuring a powder-blue animal mascot with a distinctive yellow flame is likely to stick in the minds of consumers.
Brand elements may take on all kinds of meaning, with either descriptive or persuasive content. Two particularly important criteria are how well the brand element conveys the following:
General Information
Specific information
General Information about the nature of the product category:
Does the brand element have descriptive meaning and suggest something about the product category? How likely is it that a consumer could correctly identify the product category for the brand based on any one brand element? Does the brand element seem credible in the product category?
Specific information about particular attributes and benefits of the brand:
Does the brand element have persuasive meaning and suggest something about the particular kind of product, or its key attributes or benefits? Does it suggest something about a product ingredient or the type of person who might use the brand?
The first dimension is an important determinant of
brand awareness and salience; the second, of brand image and positioning.
Likeability Dimentions
Do customers find the brand element aesthetically appealing?
Is it likeable visually, verbally, and in other ways?
Brand elements can be rich in imagery and inherently fun and interesting, even if not always directly related to the product.
Brand Design and Aesthetics
Marketing aesthetics
Aesthetics strategy
Style
Themes
Marketing aesthetics:
the marketing of sensory experiences in corporate or brand output that contributes to the organization’s or brand’s identity.
Aesthetics strategy:
the strategic planning and implementation of identity elements that provide sensory experience and aesthetic gratification to the organization’s multiple constituents.
Style:
a distinctive quality or form, a manner of expression.
Themes:
the content, meaning, and projected image of an identity that provide customers with mental anchors and reference points to put an organization in a wider context and to distinguish its position.
A memorable, meaningful, and likable set of brand elements offers many advantages because
consumers often do not examine much information in making product decisions.
Descriptive and persuasive elements reduce
the burden on marketing communications to build awareness and link brand associations and equity, especially when few other product-related associations exist.
Transferability measures
the extent to which the brand element adds to the brand equity of new products for the brand.
How useful is the brand element for line or category extensions? In general, the less specific the name, the more easily it can be transferred across categories (eg: Amazon, vs Books “R” Us)
(ii) to what extent does the brand element add to brand equity across geographic boundaries and market segments?
To a large extent this depends on the cultural content and linguistic qualities of the brand element (eg: Exxon)
One of the main advantages of non-meaningful names like Exxon is that
they transfer well into other languages.
The more adaptable and flexible the brand element, the easier it is to
update it. For example, logos and characters can be given a new look or a new design to make them appear more modern and relevant.
To what extent is the brand element protectable – both in a legal and
a competitive sense?
Marketers should:
i) Choose brand elements that can be legally protected internationally.
ii) Formally register chosen brand elements with the appropriate legal
bodies.
(iii) Vigorously defend trademarks from unauthorized competitive
infringement.
The brand name is a fundamentally important choice because it often captures
the central theme or key associations of a product in a very compact and economical fashion.
It is an effective shorthand means of communication.
Is it difficult to come up with a brand name?
Ira Bachrach, a well-known branding consultant, notes that although there are 140,000 words in the English vocabulary, the average American recognizes only 20,000; his consulting company, ‘NameLab’, sticks to the 7,000 words that make up the vocabulary of most TV programs and commercials.
Naming Guidelines
BRAND AWARENESS
Simplicity and Ease of Pronounciation and Spelling
Familiarity and Meaningfulness
Differentiated, Distinctive, and Unique
BRAND AWARENESS:
Brand names that are simple and easy to pronounce or spell, familiar and meaning, and different, distinctive, and unusual can obviously improve brand awareness.
Simplicity and Ease of Pronounciation and Spelling
Simplicity reduces the effort consumers have to make to comprehend and process the brand name. Short names often facilitate recall because they are easy to encode and store in memory. (Hyundai, Fruzen Gladje are hard to pronounce and may not be used by consumers). Marketers can shorten longer names to make them easier to recall. Chevy, Bud, Coke, etc.
Familiarity and Meaningfulness
The brand name should be familiar and meaningful so it can tap into existing knowledge structures. It can be concrete or abstract in meaning. To help create strong brand-category link and aid brand recall, the brand name may also suggest the product or service category. Neon, UHaul, etc.
Differentiated, Distinctive, and Unique
Although choosing a simple, easy to pronounce, familiar, and meaningful brand name can improve recallability, to improve brand recognition, on the other hand, brand names should be different, distinctive, and unusual.
Apple, Exxon, WD-40, etc.
BRAND ASSOCIATIONS:
Because the brand name is a compact form of communication, the explicit and implicit meanings consumers extract from it are important. In particular, the brand name can reinforce an important attribute or benefit association that makes up its product positioning.
Besides performance-related considerations, brand names can also communicate more
abstract considerations as do names like Joy dishwashing liquid, Caress soap, and Obsession perfume.
A descriptive brand name makes it easier to link the
reinforced attribute or benefit. Consumers will find it easier to believe that a laundry detergent “adds fresh scent” to clothes if it has a name like “Blossom” than if it’s called something neutral like “Circle”.
Marketers generally devise made-up brand names systematically, basing words on
combinations of morphemes.
A morpheme is
the smallest linguistic unit having meaning. For example, Nissan’s Sentra automobile is a combination of two morphemes suggesting “central” and “sentry”. By constructing carefully chosen morphemes, marketers can construct brand names that actually have some relatively easily inferred or implicit meaning.
Brand Naming Procedures
Define objectives Generate names Screen initial candidates Study candidate names Research the final candidates Select the final name
Define objectives
First define the branding objectives in terms of the six general criteria we noted earlier, and in particular define the ideal meaning the brand should convey.
Generate names
With branding strategy in place, next generate as many names and concepts as possible. Any potential sources of name are valid: company management and employees; existing or potential customers; ad agencies, professional name consultants, and specialized computer-based naming companies.
Screen initial candidates
Screen all the names against the branding objectives and marketing considerations. Identified in step1, as well as applying the test of common sense, to produce a more manageable list.
Study candidate names
Collect more extensive information about each of the final 5 to 10 names. Before spending large amounts of money on consumer research, it is usually advisable to do an extensive international legal search.
Research the final candidates
Next, conduct consumer research to confirm management expectations about the memorability and meaningfulness of the remaining names.
Select the final name
Based on all the information collected from the previous step, management should choose the name that maximizes the firm’s branding and marketing objectives and then formally register it.
URLs (Uniform resource Locators)
specify locations of pages on the Web and are also commonly referred to as domain names. Anyone wishing to own a specific URL must register and pay for the name with a service such as Register.com.
In recent years, as companies clamored for space on the Web, the number of registered URLs has increased dramatically.
Another issue facing companies with regard to URLs is protecting their brands from
unauthorized use in other domain names.
A company can either sue the current owner of the URL for copyright infringement, buy the name from the current owner, or register all conceivable variations of its brand as domain names ahead of time.
Brand recall is critical for URLs because at least initially,
consumers must remember the URL to be able to get to the site.
Many firms adopted names that started with a lowercase e or I and ended in “net”, “system”, or, especially, “com”.
Most of these names became liabilities after the internet bubble burst, forcing firms to revert to more conventional names.
Although the brand name typically is the central element of the brand, __ __ typically also play a critical role in building brand equity and especially brand awareness.
visual elements
