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Midterm GSS Assignment

Submitted By: Submitted To:

Name: Jannat Chopra Prof. Chandan Thakur
Roll No: N20212314
Section: B
Question 1. Explain various brand equity models.

Brand equity is nothing but the value of a brand. But the concept of attaching a value to
a brand is very interesting and has a deeper meaning to it. In general terms, good brand
equity is believed to give better pricing and thereby a better revenue to a company. But
there are numerous ways in which the brand value is calculated. Numerous ways and
extensive studies have been conducted to understand the concept of brand value.
Based on numerous research studies, it has been established that the brand is one of
the most important intangible assets of a company which helps to improve the financial
performance of a company. Out of many different types of research and tools
developed, the Brand equity model is a significant one.

Based on the various brand equity models, it is evident that brand equity is controlled by
different components such as quality, performance, brand awareness, and loyalty.
Brand equity models are designed to establish the way in which brand value is created
for a brand. Each of the brand equity models offers a deep insight into the brand value
concept and the ways to evaluate it.
Explain the brand positioning strategy.
Describe product mix, product length, product width, product depth and product
consistency with the help of examples.

Types of Brand Equity Models

1. Aaker Model 
2. Keller’s Model 
3. Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) Model

Aaker Model:
David Aaker has defined brand equity in his Aaker Model. He defines brand equity as a
group of assets and liabilities that can be directly associated with the brand and that
which adds value to the product.
Aaker model consists of 5 components:
Brand Loyalty
This explains the level of loyalty that a customer shows towards a brand. The following
factors depict the extent to which customers are loyal to a brand 

 Reduced Costs − Maintaining loyal customers is cheaper than charming new

ones.
 Trade Leverage − The loyal customers generate steady source of revenue.
 Bringing New Customers − Existing customers boost brand awareness and
can bring new customers.
  Competitive Threats Response Time − Loyal customers take time to switch to
a new product or service offered by another brand. Hence this buys time for the
company to respond to competitive threats.

Brand Awareness
This is the extent to which the brand is popular in the market. The following measures
depict the extent to which a brand is widely known among consumers −
 Association Anchors − Depending upon the brand strength, associations can
be attached to the brand which influence brand awareness.
 Familiarity − The consumers familiar with a brand will speak more about it and
thus, influence brand awareness.
 Substantiality − Consumers’ review on brand brings substantial and strong
commitment towards the brand.
 Consumer’s Consideration − At the time of purchasing, consumer looks for a
particular brand.

Perceived Quality
The image of a product and its quality in the eyes of the customers. It is the extent to
which a brand is believed to provide quality products. It can be measured on the
following criteria −
 Quality − The quality itself is the reason to buy.
 Brand Position − This is a level of differentiation as compared to competing
brands. Higher the position, higher is the perceived quality.
 Price − When quality of the product is too complex to assess and consumer’s
status comes into picture, the consumer takes price as a quality indicator.
 Wide Availability − Consumers take widely available product as a reliable one.
 Number of Brand Extensions − The consumers tend to take a brand with more
extensions as a measure of product guarantee.

Brand Associations
The level of recognition that a brand has in its product category. It is the degree to
which a specific product/service is recognized within its product or service category.
For example, a person asking for Xerox wants to actually make true copies of a paper
document.
  Information Retrieval − It is the extent to which the brand name is able to
retrieve or process the associations from consumer’s memory.
 Drive Purchasing − This is the extent to which brand associations drive
consumers to purchase.
 Attitude − This is the extent to which brand associations create positive attitude
in the consumer’s mind.
 Number of Brand Extensions − More the extensions, more the opportunity to
add brand associations.

Proprietary Assets
The number of patents, intellectual property rights, trademarks, etc. that a brand owns.
These components of the Aaker model help to influence the customer’s choice. A
customer will be willing to associate with a brand that offers higher quality and
satisfaction.

Keller’s Brand Equity Model:

Kevin Keller has made a signification contribution to the branding theory and has rolled
out the concept of customer-based brand equity. Keller defines brand as an effect that
emerges out of a favorable association with a brand. This model is developed by Kelvin
Lane Keller, a marketing professor at Dartmouth College. It is based on the idea that the
power of a brand lies in what the consumer has heard, learnt, felt, and seen as a brand
over time. Hence this model is also termed as Customer Based Brand Equity (CBBE)
model.

Keller’s model seeks to get answers to 4 questions:

Who are you? (Brand Identity)
The first step is to create awareness about the brand and build a strong identity. When
people have not heard or seen a product, it is difficult to sell the product.
It is important to know your customers and what they expect from a brand. When you
start building a brand identity, it becomes easier to catch the attention of the consumers.
You should ensure that your brand stands out, and customers are aware of your brand
can recognize your brand.

What are you? (Brand Meaning)

The next step is to communicate to the users about what your brand means and what
does it do. You should explain the performance of your product, which means that your
brand should be reliable, should offer good service, it should be durable, should have
service effectiveness, good style, and design and reasonable price.
It is important to explain how your brand is able to meet the needs of the customers and
connect with them on a social and psychological level. This can be done using a variety
of marketing strategies such as direct promotion, by sharing customer experiences or
by using social proof.

What do I feel or think about you? (Brand Responses)

In this stage, the brand response is obtained. The brand response can be either a
feeling or a judgment about a product. Consumers always have a feeling or judgment
about a product. 
When a product meets the expectations of users, it evokes a positive feeling about your
brand. A product has to be attractive, satisfy the needs of the consumers, and should be
unique when compared to the competitor products.
The companies must cater for the consumer’s response. Keller segregates these
responses into consumer’s judgments and consumer’s feelings.
 Consumer Judgments − They are consumer’s personal opinions regarding the
brand and how he has put imagery-related and performance-related
associations together. There are four types of judgments crucial for creating a
strong brand −
o Quality
o Credibility
o Consideration
o Superiority
 Consumer Feelings − They are consumer’s emotional reactions to the brand.
They can be mild, intense, positive, negative, driven from heart or head. There
are six important feelings crucial in brand building –
 o Warmth
o Fun
o Excitement
o Security
o Social approval
o Self-respect

What type and extent of association I would like to have with you? (Brand
Relationships)
In this step, the relationship between the brand and the customer is strengthened. The
brand response that came from the earlier stage is now converted into an intense and
emotional bond between the brand and the customer. This is the final stage and the
most difficult to achieve.
When the customer is in a good relationship with the brand, they often make repeated
purchases and become loyal customers.
These steps in Keller’s brand equity model provides direction to build and measure
brand equity.
It is the level of personal identification the consumer has with the brand. It is also
called brand resonance, when a consumer has a deep psychological bonding with the
brand. Brand resonance is the most difficult and highly desirable level to achieve.
Keller categorizes this into four types −
 Behavioral Loyalty − Consumers may purchase a brand repeatedly or in high
volume.
 Attitudinal Attachment − Some consumers may buy a brand because it is their
favorite possession or out of some pleasure.
 Sense of Community − Being identified with a brand community develops
kinship in the consumer’s mind towards representatives, employees, or other
people associated with the brand.
 Active Engagement − Consumers invests time, money, energy, or other
resources and participates actively in brand chat rooms, blogs, etc., beyond
mere consumption of brand. Thus, the consumers strengthen the brand.
Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) Model

BAV is a brand equity model that gives the brand equity value of many brands and
helps to compare brand equity across many brands.
As per the BAV model, collecting consumer insights will help to improve brand health
and the future of a brand.
The four key components of brand equity are:

Differentiation
This is the extent to which the brand is different from another brand. A brand should be
unique and stand apart from its competitors.
Relevance
This is a measure of how relevant your brand is for consumers. It is important to know if
your brand is relevant to consumers in terms of its cost, needs, and convenience.
Esteem
This is a measure of how well a brand is perceived and respected for its quality and
performance. This depicts the response of the consumers to the growing popularity of
the brand or the decline of the brand.
Knowledge
This measures the level of understanding of the consumers relating to identifying the
brand. Knowledge can be built by brand building exercise.

The BAV model tries to ascertain how the differentiation, relevance, esteem, and
knowledge are related to each other for the determination of the brand strength.

Question 2. Explain various brand positioning strategy.

Brand positioning is defined as the conceptual place you want to own in the target
consumer’s mind — the benefits you want them to think of when they think of your
brand.  An effective brand positioning strategy will maximize customer relevancy and
competitive distinctiveness, in maximizing brand value.

Positioning Strategies:

1. Positioning by product attributes and benefits:

It is to associate a product with an attribute, a product feature, or a consumer feature.
Sometimes a product can be positioned in terms of two or more attributes
simultaneously. The price/quality attribute dimension is commonly used for positioning
the products. A common approach is setting the brand apart from competitors on the
basis of the specific characteristics or benefits offered. Sometimes a product may be
positioned on more than one product benefit. Marketers attempt to identify salient
attributes (those that are important to consumers and are the basis for making a
purchase decision).

2. Positioning by price/quality:
Marketers often use price/quality characteristics to position their brands. One way they
do it is with ads that reflect the image of a high-quality brand where cost, while not
irrelevant, is considered secondary to the quality benefits derived from using the brand.
Premium brands positioned at the high end of the market use this approach for
positioning the product.

Another way to use price/quality characteristics for positioning is to focus on the quality
or value offered by the brand at a very competitive price. Although price is an important
consideration, the product quality must be comparable to, or even better than,
competing brands for the positioning strategy to be effective.
3.   Positioning by use or application:

Another way is to communicate a specific image or position for a brand to associate it

with a specific use or application. Surf Excel is positioned as stain remover ‘Surf Excel

haina!’ Also, Clinic All Clear – ‘Dare to wear black’.

4. Positioning by product class:

Often the competition for a particular product comes from outside the product class. For
example, airlines know that while they compete with other airlines, trains and buses are
also viable alternatives. Manufacturers of music CDs must compete with the cassette
industry. The product is positioned against others that, while not exactly the same,
provide the same class of benefits.

5. Positioning by product user:

Positioning a product by associating it with a particular user or group of users is yet
another approach. Motography Motorola Mobile, in this ad the persona of the user of the
product has been positioned.

6. Positioning by competitor:
Competitors may be as important to positioning strategy as a firm’s own product or
services. In today’s market, an effective positioning strategy for a product or brand may
focus on specific competitors.

This approach is similar to positioning by product class, although the competition is

within the same product category in this case. Onida was positioned against the giants
in the television industry through this strategy. Onida colour TV was launched with the
message that all others were clones and only Onida was the leader— ‘Neighbour’s
envy, owner’s pride’.

7. Positioning by cultural symbols:

This is an additional positioning strategy wherein the cultural symbols are used to
differentiate the brands. Examples are Humara Bajaj, Tata Tea, and Ronald McDonald.
Each of these symbols has successfully differentiated the product it represents from
competitors.
Question 3. Describe product mix, product length, product width, product depth
and product consistency with help of examples.

Product Mix - Product Mix, also called Product Assortment, refers to the variety of
products offered by a company to its customers. For example, a company might sell
multiple lines of products, with the product lines being fairly similar, such as toothpaste,
toothbrush, or mouthwash, and also other such toiletries.

Width - The width of a company’s product mix pertains to the number of product lines
that a company sells. For example, if a company has two product lines, its product mix
width is two. Small and upstart businesses will usually not have a wide product mix. It is
more practical to start with some basic products and build market share. Later on, a
company’s technology may allow the company to diversify into other industries and
build the width of the product mix.

Length - Product mix length pertains to the number of total products or items in a
company’s product mix. For example, A company may have two product lines, and five
brands within each product line. Thus, this company ' s product mix length would be 10.
Companies that have multiple product lines will sometimes keep track of their average
length per product line. In the above case, the average length of this company’s product
line is five.

Depth - Depth of a product mix pertains to the total number of variations for each
product. Variations can include size, flavor, and any other distinguishing characteristic.
For example, if a company sells three sizes and two flavors of toothpaste, that particular
brand of toothpaste has a depth of six. Just like length, companies sometimes report the
average depth of their product lines, or the depth of a specific product line.

Consistency - Product mix consistency pertains to how closely related product lines
are to one another -- in terms of use, production, and distribution. A company’s product
mix may be consistent in distribution but vastly different in use. For example, a small
company may sell its health bars and health magazine in retail stores. However, one
product is edible and the other is not. The production consistency of these products
would vary as well.