While Brand X cola or
even Pepsi-Cola may win blind taste tests over Coca Cola, the fact is that more people buy
Coke than any other cola and, most importantly, they enjoy the experience of buying and
drinking Coca Cola. The fond memories of childhood and refreshment that people have when
they drink Coke is often more important than a little bit better cola taste. It is this
emotional relationship with brands that make them so powerful.
What is Brand Identity?
Brand identity includes brand names,
logos, positioning, brand associations, and brand personality, culture and relationships.
A good brand name gives a good first impression and evokes positive associations with the
brand. A positioning statement tells, in a few words, what business the brand is
associated with, what benefits it provides and why it is different from competition. Brand
personality essentially adds emotion, culture and myth to the brand identity by the use of
a number of means, including mnemonics such as the Amul Girl and the Nike tick mark logo
called the ‘swoosh’.
Brand associations are the attributes
that customers think of or feel when they hear or see the brand name. For example, you
think of ‘Prestige’ when you experience the brand ‘Mercedes’.
An important aspect of the Brand Identity
is the Brand Physique, which is the public image of a product, line, or service. It is a
visual connector (like a log, tagline or mnemonic) from the company to the individual
customer. A good brand physique stands out from its competitors, as if demands attention
and markets itself more effectively to its audience.
A good brand identity communicates
directly and indirectly. It consciously and subconsciously draws a consumer to a product,
line, or service... and to the company. A good brand identity is an important (and
sometimes the primary) contributor to the bottom line of a company.
What is Brand Equity?
There is no universally accepted
definition of brand equity. The term means different things for different companies and
products. However, there are several common characteristics of the many definitions that
are used today. There are several stakeholders concerned with brand equity, including the
firm, the consumer, the channel, and some would even argue the financial markets. But
ultimately, it is the consumer that is the most critical component in defining brand
equity. Some researchers in the field of marketing have defined brand equity as follows :
Lance Leuthesser, et al. (1995) wrote,
“...brand equity represents the value (to a consumer) of a product, above that which
would result for an otherwise identical product without the brand’s name.” In
other words, brand equity represents the degree to which a brand’s name alone
contributes value to the offering again from the perspective of the consumer.
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