Study material for MBA marketing specialization, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University kerala. Useful for Brand management subject.

1. Unit : Measuring Brand Equity Brand Management
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KTU –MBA
APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Study Material
MKT-T5-8 BRAND MANAGEMENT
Mr.Scaria Thomas
Assistant professor
Rajadahani Business school

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Unit 4
Measuring brand equity: Measures – The Brand Equity Ten, Brand value based upon future
earnings.
Planning & Implementing Brand Marketing Programs: Criteria for Choosing Brand
Elements, Options & tactics for Brand Elements, Use of Integrated Marketing
Communication for Brand Building, Leveraging Secondary Brand Associations to Brand
building.
The impact that a brand has on consumer purchases or perceptions about a product is known
as brand equity. The word equity indicates that an asset has been generated. In brand
equity, the asset is intangible and is measured in terms of the value attributed by a consumer
or potential consumer of the product or service

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Brand Elements
Brand can be identified and differentiated with the help of small brand identities that can be
trademarked. These brand equity drives are called brand elements.
Options and Tactics for Brand Elements (Refer pdf file ‘LPU Brand Management
Page number 225)
How to choose Branding Elements to build Brand Equity
6 integral criteria for choosing your brand elements:
1. Memorability
2. Meaningfulness
3. Likability
4. Transferability
5. Adaptability
6. Protectability
1. Memorability: Brand elements that help achieve a high level of brand awareness or
attention to the brand, in turn facilitate the recognition and recall of a brand during
purchase or consumption.
2. Meaningfulness: Here a marketer needs to ensure that brand elements are descriptive
and suggesting something about the product category of the brand. This is important
to develop awareness and recognition for the brand in a particular product category.
Secondly, the brand elements also need to have a persuasive meaning and suggest

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something about the particular benefits and attributes of the brand. This is necessary
for defining the positioning of the brand in a particular category.
3. Likability: Brand Elements need to be inherently fun, interesting, colourful and not
necessarily always directly related to the product.
A memorable, meaningful and likable brand element makes it easier to build brand
recognition and brand equity, thus reducing the burden on the marketer and thereby
reducing the cost of marketing communications.
The above 3 criteria constitute the "Offensive Strategy" towards building brand equity
4. Transferability: is the extent to which brand elements can add brand equity to new
products of the brand in the line extensions. Another point, a marketer needs to keep
in mind is that the brand element should be able to add brand equity across
geographical boundaries and market segments. For example, brand names like
“Apple”, “Blackberry” represent fruits the world over, thus as a brand name it doesn't
restrict brands and product extensions.
5. Adaptability: Consumer opinions, values and views keep changing over a period of
time. The more adaptable and flexible brand elements are the easier it is to keep up
changing and up to date from time to time to suit the consumers liking and views. For
example, Coca -Cola has been updating it's logo over the years to keep up with the
latest trends, fashions and opinions.
6. Protectability: the final criteria in choosing a brand element is that it should be
protectable legally and competitively. Brand elements need to be chosen in such a
way, that they can be internationally protected legally, legally registered with legal
bodies. Marketers need to voraciously defend their trademarks from unauthorized
competitive infringements.
The above 3 criteria constitute the "Defensive strategy" towards leveraging and maintaining
brand equity
The most ideal brand elements would be those which satisfy all the criteria. But it is not
possible have a brand element which would satisfy all the above criteria. For example, if we
choose a brand name which is most meaningful in a country or culture or a market segment, it
would be very difficult to make it transferable to other brand extensions and to other cultures
and market segments.

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KTU –MBA
Integrated Marketing Communication
Integrated Marketing Communications is a term used to describe a holistic approach to
marketing communication. It aims to ensure consistency of message and the complementary
use of media. The concept includes online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing
channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, from Search Engine Optimization
(SEO), pay-perclick, affiliate, email, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog,
micro-blogging, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional
print (newspaper,magazine), mail order, public relations, industry relations, billboard, radio,
and television.A company develops its integrated marketing communication programme
using all the elements of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion).
Integrated marketing communication is integration of all marketing tools, approaches, and
resources within a company which maximizes impact on consumer mind and which results
into maximum profit at minimum cost. Generally marketing starts from “Marketing Mix”.
Promotion is one element of Marketing Mix. Promotional activities include Advertising (by
using different medium), sales promotion (sales and trades promotion), and personal selling
activities. It also includes internet marketing, sponsorship marketing, direct marketing,
database marketing and public relations. And integration of all these promotional tools along
with other components of marketing mix to gain edge over competitor is called Integrated
Marketing Communication.
Growing Importance of IMC
Several shifts in the advertising and media industry have caused IMC to develop into a
primary
strategy for marketers:
1. From media advertising to multiple forms of communication.
2. From mass media to more specialized (niche) media, which are centered around specific
target audiences.
3. From a manufacturer-dominated market to a retailer-dominated, consumer-controlled
market.
4. From general-focus advertising and marketing to data-based marketing.
5. From low agency accountability to greater agency accountability, particularly in
advertising.

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6. From traditional compensation to performance-based compensation (increased sales or
benefits to the company).
7. From limited Internet access to 24/7 Internet availability and access to goods and services.
Use of IMC for Brand Building
Communication is always one of the most important and vital strategic areas of an
organization’s success. You can have the best or most innovative products or services, but if
your internal and external communications are weak, then the demand for your products or
services raises a personal flag of concern. When communicating the value of your products or
services, you want to focus on how they will benefit your clients.
When planning your strategy for Integrated Marketing Communication or IMC, you want to
have dialogue with your customers by inviting interaction through the coordinated efforts of
content, timing and delivery of your products or services. By ensuring direction, clarity,
consistency, timing and appearance of your messages, conveyed to your targeted audience,
these factors will help avoid any confusion about the benefits of your brand, through the
connection of instant product recognition.
When looking at your marketing mix, you’re examining price, distribution, advertising and
promotion, along with customer service. Integrated marketing communication is part of that
marketing mix included in your marketing plan. IMC strategies define your target audience,
establishes objectives and budgets, analyzes any social, competitive, cultural or technological
issues, and conducts research to evaluate the effectiveness of your promotional strategies.
It is impossible to talk about IMC without talking
about brand. That is because brand building
relies on creation and nurturing of profitable
relationships to meet objectives, which is the goal
of all IMC processes. IMC devises strategies to use
MCs to create and build brand for individual
audiology practices. IMC has important
characteristics (Figure 11.1), are:
1. Continuous and circular, with no beginning or
end as long as the practice is alive.
2. Data-driven, using information collection and
feedback from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology to develop messages
and dialog with target markets.

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3. Customer-centric, focusing on target market needs and wants rather than on specific Notes
products and technologies.
4. Strategic, creating a consistent meaning in all messages and dialog.
5. Nurturing, “growing” customers by finding new ways to increase their satisfaction.
6. Profitable, focusing on lucrative relationships to make them more worthwhile.
7. Integrated, ensuring that all messages and all personnel work together to speak with one
voice.
8. Accountable, viewing marketing expenditures as short and long-term investments to meet
objectives (MROI) rather than expenses to be minimized.
9. Independent of any specific marketing mix, recognizing that each practice is unique.
Tools of Integrated Marketing Communication
The basic tools of integrated marketing communication help for brand building are:
1. Advertising: This tool can get your messages to large audiences efficiently through
such avenues as radio, TV, Magazines, Newspapers (ROP), Internet, Billboards and
other mobile technological communication devices. This method can efficiently reach
a large number of consumers, although the costs may be somewhat expensive.
2. Sales Promotion: This tool is used through coupons, contests, samples, premiums,
demonstrations, displays or incentives. It is used to accelerate short-term sales, by
building brand awareness and encouraging repeat buying.
3. Public Relations: This integrated marketing communications tool is initiated
through public appearances, news/press releases or event sponsorships, to build trust
and goodwill by presenting the product, company or person in a positive light.
4. Direct Marketing: This tool will utilized email, mail, catalogs, encourage direct
responses to radio and TV, in order to reach targeted audiences to increase sales and
test new products and alternate marketing tactics.
5. Personal Selling: Setting sales appointments and meetings, home parties, making
presentations and any type of one-to-one communication, to reach your customers and
strengthen your relationship with your clients, initiate this IMC tool.
Leveraging Secondary Brand Associations to Brand Building
Marketers want to achieve a return on their investment, and one vital decision is how to best
utilize their brand assets. Marketers may choose to leverage some of the brand’s established
equity to create line extensions, brand extensions, or co-branded products.

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1. Line Extensions: Adding a new form of the product or service is generally regarded as the
easiest extension, but is likely to generate low incremental revenue. Critical questions to be
answered when considering a line extension include: From what brands do we want to launch
extensions of existing product lines or services? How do we launch line extensions
successfully?
2. Brand Extensions: This type of extension differs from a line extension in that it consists of
extending the products or services brand into a new category. A brand extension has the
benefit of real growth opportunity, but a drawback is the potential for costly mistakes. A
critical question is: How do we select brand extensions to be successful?
3. Co-branded Products: This method of leveraging brands consists of an alliance of
complementary brands. This can often take the form of ingredient branding. A good
marketing strategy will consider whether co-branding is appropriate for particular situations.
Brand associations may themselves be linked to other entities that have their own
associations, creating “secondary” brand associations. In other words, a brand association
may be created by linking the brand to another node or information in memory that conveys
meaning to consumers.
Secondary brand associations may be quite important if existing brand associations are
deficient in some way. In other words, secondary associations can be leveraged to create
strong, favorable, and unique brand associations that otherwise may be lacking. These
secondary associations may lead to a transfer of global associations such as attitude or
credibility (i.e., expertise, trustworthiness, and likability). These secondary associations may
also lead to a transfer of more specific associations related to the product meaning and the
attributes or benefits of the brand.
Primary Association
Before I start on secondary associations, it makes sense that I talk about what the primary
associations of a brand are. Primary associations are qualities/equity inherently possessed by
the brand. These would include those of salience/utility (whether a washing powder cleans
clothes or whether fairness cream makes you fair), performance (does the washing powder
tackle tough stains well, whether the fairness cream makes you 5 shades or 2 shades fairer),
imagery (how reputed the brand is, how successful has it been), judgment (how the brand
fairs in comparison to competitors), etc.
Secondary Association
Secondary association on the other hand is more of a branding-marketing function. It
transfers the qualities/equity of other entities to the brand in question. Consider a commodity

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KTU –MBA
like salt. One can argue that iodized salt is iodized salt and while one can double filter it and
another triple filter it, the two salts cannot be too different. But when one of them is Tata Salt
and the other Dandi Namak one would tend to think of the former as of better quality. This is
a classic case of the secondary association: Tata’s reputation of quality being transferred to
the salt.