CHAPTER
Choosing brand elements to build
brand equity
MK321 by Wittaya C.Sopon
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Preview
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Brand elements are those trademarkable
devices that serve to identify and differentiate
the brand.
The brand elements are brand names, URLs,
Logos, symbol, characters, spokespeople,
slogans, jingles, packages, and signage.
Brand elements can be chosen to enhance
brand awareness; facilitate the formation of
strong, favorable, and unique brand
associations; or elicit positive brand judgments
and feelings.
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Criteria for choosing brand elements (1)
There are six criteria in choosing brand elements:
1.Memorability :
A necessary condition for building brand equity is achieving
a high level of brand awareness.Toward that goal, brand
elements can be chosen that are inherently memorable and
therefore facilitate recall or recognition in purchase or
consumption settings.
2.Meaningfulness:
Besides choosing brand elements to build awareness, brand
elements can also be chosen whose inherent meaning
enhances the formation of brand associations.Brand
elements may take all kind of meaning, varying in
descriptive, as well as persuasive, content.
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Criteria for choosing brand elements (2)
3.Linkability :
The associations suggested by a brand element may
not always be related to the product.Thus, brand
elements can be chosen that are rich in visual and
verbal imagery and inherently fun and interesting.
Because consumers often do not examine much
information in making product decisions, it is often
desirable that brand elements be easily recognized
and recalled and inherently descriptive and
persuasive.
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Criteria for choosing brand elements (3)
4.Transferability
( in both a product category and geographic sense)
First,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.
Second,to what extend 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.
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Criteria for choosing brand elements (4)
5.Adaptability
Because of changes in consumer values and opinions, or
simply because of a need to remain contemporary, brand
elements often must be updated over time.
6.Protectability
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Choose brand elements that can be legally protected on an
international basis.
Formally register them with the appropriate legal bodies
Vigorously defend trademarks from unauthorized competitive
infringement.
It is important to reduce the likelihood that competitors can
imitate the brand by creating a derivative based on salient
prefixes or suffixes of the name.
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Brand Names (1)
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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.Brand names can be an extremely
effective shorthand means of communication.
In general, it is believed that brand awareness is
improved 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.
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Brand Names (2)
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To enhance brand recall, it is desirable for the brand
name to be simple and easy to pronounce or
spell.Short names often facilitate recall because they
are easy to encode and store in memory.
Easy of pronunciation is critical to obtain valuable
repeated word-of-mouth exposure that helps to build
strong memory links.
Ideally, the brand name should have a clear,
understandable, and unambiguous pronunciation and
meaning.
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Brand Names (3)
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To enhance brand recall, it is desirable for the brand
name to be simple and easy to pronounce or
spell.Short names often facilitate recall because they
are easy to encode and store in memory.
Easy of pronunciation is critical to obtain valuable
repeated word-of-mouth exposure that helps to build
strong memory links.
Ideally, the brand name should have a clear,
understandable, and unambiguous pronunciation and
meaning.
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Brand Names (4)
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To improve pronouncability and recallability, many
marketers seek a desirable cadence and pleasant
sound in their brand names.
To enhance brand recall, brand name should be
familiar and meaningful so that it is able to tap into
existing knowledge structures.
Hypothetical brand names showed that “highimagery” brand names,(e.g. ocean,frog,plant) were
significantly more memorable across a variety of
recall and recognition measures than “low-imagery”
words(e.g.truth,moment)
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Brand Names (4)
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The brand name may be chosen to reinforce an
important attribute or benefit association that makes
up its product positioning.
A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit having
meaning.There are 6,000 morphemes in the English
language.
Compaq
“computers + communication”
Nissan’s Sentra
“central + sentry”
Alphanumeric brand names contain one or more
numbers in either digit form(e.g.5) or written form
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(e.g. five)
Naming criteria
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Descriptive : describes function literally
Suggestive : suggestive of a benefit or function
Compounds : combination of two or more words
Classical : based on Latin, Greek, Sanskit
Arbitrary : real words with no obvious tie-in to
company
Fanciful : coined words with no obvious meaning
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Naming Procedures
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Define the branding objectives
Generate as many names and concepts as
possible.
Screen based on the branding objectives and
marketing considerations.(double meaning,
unpronounceable,already in use, contradiction
of the positioning)
Collect more extensive information of the final
5-10 names.
Consumer testing
Formally register the name
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URLs (Uniform Resource Locators)
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Brand recall is critical for URLs .
Number of registered domain names, 20
million
Every three-letter combination was
registered.
98% of the words in a typical English
dictionary had been registered.
The rate of URL registrations, 84,000 per day.
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Logos and Symbols
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Non-word mark logos called symbols.
Word marks (e.g. Coca-Cola, Dunhill)
Abstract logos (e.g. Mercedes star, Rolex crown)
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Because of their visual nature, logos and symbols
are often easily recognized and can be a valuable
way to identify products, although a key concern is
how well they become linked in memory to the
corresponding brand name and product to boost
brand recall.
Unlike brand names, logos can be easily changed
over time to achieve a more contemporary look.
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Character
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Characters represent a special type of brand
symbol-one that takes on human or real life
characteristics.
Brand characters can provide a number of
brand equity benefits.Because they are often
colorful and rich in imagery, they tend to be
attention getting.Consequently,brand
characters can be quite useful for creating
brand awareness.
Cautions,brand characters can be so attention
getting and well linked that they dominate
other brand elements and actually dampen
brand awareness.
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Slogans
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Slogans are short phrases that communicate
descriptive or persuasive information about the
brand
Slogans can function as useful”hooks” or “handles”
to help customers grasp the meaning of a brand in
terms of what brand is and what makes it special.
Slogans can help to reinforce the brand positioning
and desired point of difference.
Slogans often become closely tired to advertising
campaigns and can be used as tag lines to
summarize the descriptive and persuasive
information conveyed in ads.
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Jingles
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Jingles are musical messages written around
the brand.
Jingles can communicate brand benefits, but
they often convey product meaning in a
nondirect and fairly abstract fashion given their
musical foundation,related to feelings and
personality.
The jingle will repeat the brand name in clever
and amusing ways that allow consumers
multiple encoding opportunities.
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Packaging (1)
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Packaging involves the activities of
designing and producing containers or
wrappers for a product.
Packaging must achieve the objectives:
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Identify the brand
Convey descriptive and persuasive information
Facilitate product transportation and protection
Assist at-home storage
Aid product consumption
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Packaging (2)
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Level of package
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Primary package
Secondary package
Transportation package
Main functions of package
1. Protection
2. Handling
3. Identification
4.Convenience
5.Attractiveness
6.Suitable cost
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Packaging (3)
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Packaging materials
1. Paper
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bag, folding boxboard carton, corrugated fiberboard
box, fiber drum,
2. Metal
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can, drum, collapsible tubes, aluminum foil
3. Glass
4. Plastic
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PE, PP, PS, PET, PVC
5. Wood
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Packaging (4)
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Designing packaging process
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Analysis of the market
Retail environment
Product’s strengths and weakness
Competitors’ strengths and weakness
Packaging option
Packaging positioning
Copy strategy
Package design brief
Package test (functional, visual, dealer, consumer)
Evaluation
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Packaging (5)
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Functionally, structural design is crucial.for
example,packaging innovations with food
products over the years have resulted in
packages being resealable, tamperproof, and
more convenient to use(e.g. easy to hold,easy
to open, or squeezable)
Structural packaging innovations can create a
point of difference that permits a higher
margin.New packages can also expand a
market and capture new market segments.
“less cost-effective” and “last five seconds of
marketing”
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Packaging (6)
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Packaging color can affect consumer’s perceptions of the
product itself.
Packaging changed for a number of reasons:
Upgraded to signal a higher price
Sell products through new or shifting distribution channels.
When there is a significant product line expansion that
would benefit from common look.
Package redesign may also accompany a new product
innovation to signal changes to consumers.
If changed too significantly, consumers may not recognize
the package when confronted with it in the store.
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Putting it all together
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Each of different brand elements can play a
different role in building brand equity.
Conceptually,it is necessary to “mix and
match” these different brand elements to
maximize brand equity.
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