The document provides an introduction to the concept of brand management. It defines a brand according to the American Marketing Association as a name, symbol or design that identifies a seller's goods/services and differentiates them from competitors. It then discusses the meaning and evolution of brands, explaining that branding has been used for centuries to distinguish goods. The document outlines the role and advantages of brands for both consumers and manufacturers. It distinguishes between products and brands, noting that brands can have additional associations beyond core product attributes. Finally, it introduces the strategic brand management process, which involves identifying brand positioning, implementing marketing programs, measuring performance, and growing brand equity over time.

1. Introduction to the Concept
of Brand Management

2. Brand
Definition
According to AMA (American Marketing
Association), a brand is a “name, term, sign, symbol,
or design, or a combination of them, intended to
identify the goods and services of one seller or
group of sellers and to differentiate them from those
of competitors.”

3. Meaning & Evolution of Brands
• Branding has been around for centuries as a means to
distinguish the goods of one producer from those of another.
• In fact, the word Brand is derived from the Old Norse word
Brandr; which means “to burn”, as brands were and still are
the means by which owners of livestock mark (burn mark) their
animals to identify them.
• According to AMA (American Marketing Association), a brand
is a “name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of
them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller
or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of
competitors.

4. Meaning & Evolution of Brands
• According to AMA, the key to create a brand, is to be
able to choose a name, logo, symbol, package
design, or other characteristic that identifies a
product and distinguishes it from others.
• The different components of a brand that identify
and differentiate it are brand elements.
• In fact, many practicing managers refer to a brand as
more than that – as something that has actually
created a certain amount of awareness, reputation,
prominence, and so on in the market place.

5. Meaning & Evolution of Brands
Consider the variety of brand name strategies:
• Some companies like General Electric and Samsung, use their
names for essentially all their products.
• Other manufacturers assign new products individual brand
names that are unrelated to company name, like Cadbury’s
-Dairy Milk, 5-Star, Éclairs and also Procter and Gamble’s- Tide,
Pampers, Pantene etc.
• Retailers create their own brand names- Big Bazaar, RG Kasat
etc..
• Some companies have brand names based on people’s names,
like- Porsche automobiles, McDonald’s, Ford etc..
• Names of places such as- El Paso deodorant, British Airways,
etc..

6. Meaning & Evolution of Brands
• Names based on animals like- Dove soap, Greyhound buses,
Kingfisher Airlines etc..
• In the category of “other” we find Apple computers, Shell
petroleum etc..
• Based on important features/attributes- Flair Writo-Meter, Die-
Hard auto batteries, etc..
• Other names that sound scientific, natural or prestigious like-
Intel microprocessors, Lexus automobiles, & Compaq
computers.
• Not just names but other brand elements like logos and
symbols also can be based on people, places, things, &
abstract images.
• In creating a brand, marketers have many choices about the
number and nature of the brand elements they use to identify
their products.

7. Role & Advantages of Brand
Role of Brand for Consumers:
• Brand helps in identification of source of product
• Brand assigns the responsibility to product maker
• Brand reduces risk
• It reduces search cost
• It gives- promise, bond, or pact with maker of
product
• It is a symbolic device
• It is a signal of quality

8. Role & Advantages of Brand
Role of Brand for Manufactures:
• Brand plays means of identification to simplify
handling or tracing
• It is the means of legally protecting unique features
• It is a signal of quality level to satisfy customers
• It is a means of endow (award) products with unique
associations
• It is a source of competitive advantage
• It is a source of financial returns

9. Product Vs Brand
Product
• A Product is anything we can offer to a market for attention,
acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or
want.
• Thus, a product may be a physical good like a cereal, laptops,
or automobile; a service such as an airline, bank, or insurance
company; a retail outlet like a department store, specialty store,
or supermarket; a person such as a political figure, a film star,
or a professional sports man; an organization like a non profit,
trade organization, or arts group; a place including a city, state
or country; or even an idea like a political or social cause.
• The above stated is very broad definition of product.

10. Product Vs Brand
Product
We can define 5 levels of meaning for a product:
(This is explained with an example of a Car)
1. The Core Benefit Level (Mode of transportation)
2. The Generic Product Level (Comfort and better mileage)
3. The Expected Product Level (Good looks, AC, Power
Steering, Power Windows etc..)
4. The Augmented Product Level (Built in Refrigerator, LCD
Display Screen, ABS etc..)
5. The Potential Product Level (Automatic drive, GPRS facility,
compatible for wide body parts etc..)

11. Product Vs Brand
Brand
• Harvard’s Ted Levitt has argued that “the new competition is not
between what companies produce in their factories but between what
they add to their factory output in the form of packing, services,
advertising, customer advice, financing, delivery arrangements,
warehousing, and other things that people value.
• A Brand is therefore more than a product, because it can have
dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other products
designed to satisfy the same need.
• What distinguishes a brand from its unbranded commodity
counterpart and gives it equity is the sum total of consumers’
perceptions and feelings about the product’s attributes and how they
perform, about the brand name and what it stands for, and about the
company associated with the brand.

12. Product Vs Brand
Brand
Extending our previous example, a branded product may be a
physical good like Kellogg’s Corn Flakes cereal, Dell laptops,
Ford automobiles; a service such as Kingfisher Airlines, ICICI
Bank, LIC Life Insurance; a store like Food basket, Reliance
Fresh, or Big Bazaar; a person like Rahul Gandhi, Amitab
Bachan, or Sachin Tendulkar; a place like the city of
Bangalore, Newyork, or London; an organization such as the
Reliance, Infosys, Wipro; or an idea like corporate
responsibility, free trade, or freedom of speech.

13. Product Vs Brand
Brand
• The reality is that the most valuable assets many firms have
may not be tangible ones, such as plants, equipments, and real
estate, but intangible assets such as management skills,
marketing, financial, and operations expertise, and most
important is the brands themselves.
• This values was recognized by John Stuart, CEO of Quaker
Oats from 1922 to 1956 who famously said, “If this company
were to split up I would give you the property, plant and
equipment and I would take the brands and the trademarks and
I would fare better than you”.

14. Branding
• Meaning
• Branding creates mental structures and helps consumers
organize their knowledge about products and services.
• In a way it clarifies the consumers decision making and, in the
process, provides value to the firm.
• The key to branding is that consumers perceive differences
among brands in a product category.

15. Creation of Brands
• To brand a product it is necessary to teach consumers “who”
the product is – by giving it a name.
• The brand elements will help to identity the brand.
• Firms should communicate what the product does and why
consumer should care.
• Marketer should give ‘label’ and meaning to the brand so that
consumer may recognize the brand and understand the
relevance of the brand to their needs.

16. Everything can be Branded
• Can everything be brand?
• Yes, branding can be done to- physical goods, services, retail
stores, online businesses, people, organizations, places, and
ideas etc.
• Physical goods (products like Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz,
Nescafe, Sony, etc)
• Services (services like- just dial, VRL, Kingfisher Airlines,
Professional couriers, etc)
• Retail stores (like- Big Bazaar, Wal-Mart, Reliance fresh, etc)
• Online businesses (make my trip, e-bay, Google etc)

17. Everything can be Branded
• People (like- Sharukh Khan, Amithab Bachan, Narayan Murthy,
Barak Obama, etc)
• Organizations (like- Infosys, IBM, Luftansa Airways, BEC, BEC-
DOMS)
• Places & Geographic Locations (like- New York, Las Vegas,
Bangalore, etc)
• Ideas & Causes (like- AIDS ribbons, World Wild Life Fund, etc)

18. Strategic Brand Management
Process
Meaning
Strategic Brand Management involves the
design and implementation of marketing
programs and activities to build, measure,
and manage brand equity.

19. Strategic Brand Management
Process
Steps in Brand Management Process
1. Identifying and establishing brand positioning
2. Planning and implementing brand marketing
programs
3. Measuring and interpreting brand performance
4. Growing and sustaining brand equity

20. Strategic Brand Management Process
1. Identify and Establish Brand Positioning & Values
“Act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it
occupies a distinct & valued place in target customer’s
mind”
• Mental Maps (visual depiction of different associations linked
to the brand in the minds of consumers).
• Core Brand Associations (associations like attributes &
benefits that best characterize a brand)
• Points-of-difference (a brand has over its competitors)
• Points-of-Parity (alleviating/improving the concerns or
disadvantages)
• Brand mantra (what a brand represents- brand essence or
core brand promise)

21. Strategic Brand Management Process
2. Planning and Implementing Brand Marketing
Programs
Building brand equity requires creating a brand that
consumers are sufficiently aware of and with which they
have strong, favorable, and unique brand associations.
• Mixing and matching of brand elements (such as brand
names, URLs, logos, symbols, characters, packaging, and
slogans etc)
• Integrating brand marketing activities (choosing suitable
marketing activities & integrate the brand in all activities)
• Leveraging secondary association (Influencing the
secondary entity which is associated with the brand to build
a better brand equity)

22. Strategic Brand Management Process
3. Measuring & Interpreting Brand Performance
• Brand Audit (It is a comprehensive examination of a brand to
assess its health, uncover its sources of equity, and suggest
ways to improve that equity).
• Brand Value Chain (It means to trace the value creation
process of brands)
• Brand Equity Measurement System (It is a set of research
programs designed to provide timely, accurate, & actionable
information for marketers so that they can make the best
possible tactical decisions in the short run and the best
strategic decisions in the long run to manage their brand
profitability)
• Brand Tracking (It is also similar kind of method like brand
equity measurement system)

23. Strategic Brand Management Process
4. Growing & Sustaining Brand Equity
• Brand-Product Matrix (graphical representation of all the brand
& the products sold by the firm)
• Brand Portfolios & Hierarchies (portfolio- means set of all
brands & brand line offered & hierarchy- means the number &
nature of common & distinctive brand components across
firm’s products)
• Brand Expansion Strategies (managing brand equity over
geographic boundaries, cultures, and market segments)
• Brand Reinforcement & Revitalization (managing brand equity
over time by continuously checking consumers’ responses to
marketing activities)

24. Strong Indian Brands
(Case Study)

25. Customer Based Brand Equity
• Meaning
• CBBE is the differential effect that brand knowledge has on
consumer response to the marketing of that brand.
• A brand has positive CBBE when consumers react more
favorably to a product & its marketing activities compared with
an unnamed or falsely named version of the same product.
• Positive CBBE also means that the customers are less
sensitive to price increases, withdrawal of advertising support
etc.

26. Customer Based Brand Equity
• Model of CBBE
• CBBE model provides a unique point of view as to what brand
equity is & how it should best be built, measured, & managed.
• The basic premise of CBBE model is that the power of brand
lies in what customers have learned, felt, seen, and heard
about the brand as a result of their experiences over time.
• The simplest way to illustrate what it means by CBBE is to
consider one of the typical results of product sampling or
comparison tests.
• Ex: In blind tests, two groups of consumers sample a product.
One group knows which brand it is, other does not. The two
groups have different opinions despite consuming the same
product.

27. Customer Based Brand Equity
• In many of CBBE tests conducted, it is found that consumers’
perceptions of product performance are highly dependent on
their impressions of the brand that goes along with it.
• In other words, clothes may seem to fit better, a car may seem
to drive more smoothly, the wait in a bank line may seem
shorter, and so on, depending on the particular brand.
• This differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer
response to marketing of that brand is known as Customer
Based Brand Equity (CBBE).

28. Customer Based Brand Equity
• Sources
• Customer-based brand equity occurs when the consumer has a
high level of awareness and familiarity with the brand and
holds some strong, favorable, and unique brand associations
in memory.
• In some cases, brand awareness alone is enough to create
favorable consumer response.
• In most of the cases, the strength, favorability, and uniqueness
of brand associations play a critical role in determining the
differential response that makes up brand equity.
• Establishing a positive brand image in consumer memory-
strong, favorable, and unique brand associations- goes hand-
in-hand with creating brand awareness to build CBBE.

29. Customer Based Brand Equity
Brand Awareness:
• It relates to Brand Recognition & Brand Recall.
• Advantages:- Learning advantages, consideration advantages,
choice advantages.
• Establishing Brand Awareness: In abstract, creating brand
awareness means increasing the familiarity of the brand
through repeated exposures.
• More a consumer “experiences” the brand by seeing it, hearing
it, or thinking about it, the more likely he or she is to strongly
register the brand by seeing it, hearing it, or thinking about it,
the more likely he or she is to strongly register the brand in
memory.

30. Customer Based Brand Equity
Brand Image:
• Creating positive brand image takes marketing programs that
link strong, favorable, and unique associations to the brand in
memory.
• Consumers can form brand associations in a variety of ways
other than marketing activities: from direct experience; through
information from other commercial or from sources like
Consumer Reports or other media vehicles; from work of
mouth; and by assumptions or inferences consumers make
about the brand itself, its name, logo, or by assumptions or
identification with a company, country, channel of distribution,
or person, place, or event.

31. Brand Equity
Meaning & Sources
Customers’ subjective and intangible assessment of the
brand, above and beyond its objectively perceived value.
Three key drivers of brand equity are
1. Customer brand awareness,
2. Customer brand attitudes,
3. Customer perception of brand ethics.

32. Brand Equity
To begin with, we can divide all definitions available on
brand equity into following categories:
1. Cost Based;
2. Price-based; and
3. Consumer-based (CBBE).

33. Brand Equity Definitions
Brand Equity
Cost-based Price-based Consumer-based
•Historical cost method
•Replacement cost method
•Market value method
•Discounted cash flow method
•Brand contribution method
•Inter-brand method
•Price premium method
•Market Share Equalization
method
•Price-Premium at Indifference
•Brand Image Method
(Strong, favorable
& unique brand
associations)
•Brand Awareness
(Brand recall & Brand
recognition)

34. Steps in Building Brands
CBBE model looks at building a brand as a sequence of
steps, The steps are as follows:
1. Ensure identification of the brand with customers and an
association of the brand in customers’ mind with a specific
product class or customer need.
2. Firmly establish the totality of brand meaning in the minds of
customers by strategically linking a host of tangible and
intangible brand associations with certain properties.
3. Elicit the proper customer responses to this brand
identification and brand meaning.
4. Convert brand response to create an intense, active loyalty
relationship between customers and the brand.

35. Steps in Building Brands
The four steps represent a set of fundamental question that
customers invariably ask about brands:
1. Who are you? (brand identity)
2. What are you? (brand meaning)
3. What about you? What do I think or fell about you? (brand
response)
4. What about you and me? What kind of association and how
much of a connection would I like to have with you? (brand
relationships)

36. Brand Building Block-Resonance
• To provide some structure, six building blocks are established
in a pyramid.
• The left side blocks represent a more “rational route” to brand
building and the right side blocks represent a more “rational
route” to brand building.
Resonance
Judgments Feelings
Performance Imagery
Salience
Identity
Who are you?
2. Meaning
What are you?
3. Response
What about you?
4. Relationships
What about you & me?
Deep, broad
Brand Awareness
Points of parity
And difference
Positive Accessible
reactions
Intense
Active loyalty

37. Salience, Judgments, Feelings, Performance,
Imagery, Resonance
• Brand Salience: It measures awareness of the brand. Ex: how
often & how easily the brand is evoked (call to mind) under
various situations or circumstances.
• Brand Performance: It describes how well the product or
service meets customers’ more functional needs. Ex:
Reliability, Durability, Serviceability etc.
• Brand Imagery: It depends on the extrinsic properties of the
product or service, including the ways in which the brand
attempts to meets customers’ psychological or social needs.
• Brand Judgments: These are customers’ personal opinions
about and evaluations of the brand. Ex: quality, credibility,
consideration, superiority.

38. Salience, Judgments, Feelings, Performance,
Imagery, Resonance
• Brand Feelings: These are customers’ emotional responses
and reactions to the brand. Important brand-building feelings
are- warmth, fun, excitement, security, social approval, & self-
respect.
• Brand Resonance: It describes the nature of this relationship
and the extent to which customers feel that they are “in sync”
with the brand. Ex: Harley-Davidson, Apple, Dell laptops etc.
Brand Resonance dimensions - Customer Loyalty,
Customer Attachment, Customer Community, & Customer
Engagement.

39. Brand Building Implications
• The CBBE model not only provides a road map & guidance
for brand building, but it also provides yardstick to measure
its progress.
• The CBBE model reinforces a number of important branding
principles, 5 of them are particularly noteworthy.
1. Customers Own Brands
2. Don’t Take Shortcuts with Brands
3. Brands Should Have a Duality
4. Brands Should Have Richness
5. Brand Resonance Provides Important Focus

40. Brand Building Implications
Important Branding Principles:
• Customers Own Brands (strength of the brand is the way
consumers think, feel, & act with respect to that brand)
• Don’t Take Shortcuts with Brands (there are not shortcuts to
build brands)
• Brands Should Have a Duality (it should appeal to both head
and the heart)
• Brands Should Have Richness (it should have brand depth to
build strong consumer bonds)
• Brand Resonance Provides Important Focus (marketers use
brand resonance as a goal to reach & means to interpret their
brand-related marketing activities.

41. David Aaker’s Brand Equity Model
Brand
Equity
Perceived
Value
Brand
Awareness
Perceived
Quality
Brand
Associations
Other
Proprietary
Brand Assets
Reduced Marketing costs
Trade Leverage (influence)
Create awareness etc.
Anchor to which other can be attached
Familiarity liking
Signal of substance/ commitment
Reason-to-buy
Differentiate / position
Price the brand
Build extensions
Help process / retrieve information
Differentiate / position
Reason-to-buy
Create positive attitude / feelings
Extensions
Competitive
Advantage
Provides value to
Customer by
Enhancing customer’s:
•Interpretation/ processing
Of information
•Confidence in the
purchase
Decision
•Use satisfaction
Provides value to firm
By enhancing:
•Efficiency & effectiveness
Of marketing programs
•Brand loyalty
•Prices / margins
•Brand extensions
•Trade leverage
•Competitive advantage

42. David Aaker’s Ten Guidelines for Building Strong
Brands
1. Brand identity: (have an identity)
2. Value proposition: (emotional, symbolic, functional benefits)
3. Brand position: (proper positioning)
4. Execution: (execute communication programs)
5. Consistency over time: (consistent identity, position & execution)
6. Brand system: (exploit brand features and services)
7. Brand leverage: (extent brands & co-brands)
8. Tracking brand equity: (track- brand awareness, perceived quality,
brand loyalty, & especially brand associations)
9. Brand responsibility: (have someone in-charge of the brand)
10. Invest in brands: (continue investing in brands & building them)

43. Brand Identity
• Meaning of Brand Identity
• Brand Identity is defined as the sum of the brand expressed as
a product, organization, person, & symbol.
• Brand as Product: It deals with the acceptance of the brand as
a product itself. Ex: Dalda, Nirma.
• Brand as Organization: It emphasizes that a brand is
successful among other things because of organizational
values it upholds. Ex: Tata- Indica, Salt etc.
• Brand as Person: It deals with the question “what happens to
the brand when its becomes a person?” Ex: Demin talc
(masculine), Sunsilk shampoo (feminine).
• Brand as Symbol: It deals with heritage and what the brand
stand for. Ex: Nokia (hands shake).

44. Need for Identity & Positioning
• The brand identity represent what the brand stands for and
imply a promise to customer from the organization members.
• It helps to establish a relationship between the brand and the
customer by generating a value proposition involving
functional, emotional, or self-expressive benefits.
• By positioning the brand occupies a distinct and valued place
in the target customers’ minds.
• Positioning helps to create brand identity.

45. Dimensions of Brand Identity
The four dimensions of brand equity are:
• The brand-as-product (product scope, product attributes,
quality/value, uses, users, country of origin)
• The brand-as-organization (organizational attributes, local
versus global)
• The brand-as-person (brand personality, brand-customer
relationship)
• The brand-as-symbol (visual imagery/metaphors and brand
heritage)

46. Brand Identity Prism
Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism
Picture of Sender
Picture of Recipient
Personality
Culture
Self-image
Physique
Relationship
Reflection

47. Brand Identity Prism
• Brand Identity Elements:
1. Physique is the basis of the brand (The physique of Philips is
‘technology & reliability, while Tata, is ‘trust’)
2. Personality is what happens to a brand when it becomes a
person (Mortein mosquito repellent)
3. Culture symbolizes the organization, its country-of-origin
(Dabur & Zandu evoke Indian brands)
4. Relationship is the handshake between the consumer & the
organization (Relationship of Saffola edible oil is that of
‘Safety’).
5. Reflection is the consumers’ perception of what the brand
stands for (Pepsi as a brand- reflects young values)
6. Self Image is what the consumer thinks of himself (benz
owner is telling himself that since he is one the best,
privileged, influential person, as he owns the best car in the
world)

48. Brand Positioning
Meaning
• Brand positioning is the heart of marketing strategy.
• It is the ‘act of designing the company’s offer and image so that
it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target customers’
minds.
• Good brand positioning helps to guide marketing strategy by
clarifying what a brand is all about, how it is unique and how it
is similar to competitive brands, and why consumers should
purchase and use it.
• As the name implies, positioning means finding the proper
“location” in the minds of a group of consumers or market
segment, so that they think about a product or service in the
“right” or desired way to maximize potential benefit to the firm.

49. Point of Parity & Point of
Difference
The proper positioning requires establishing the
correct points of difference and points of parity
associations.
1. Points of Difference Associations
2. Points of Parity Associations

50. Points of Difference (PODs)
• Points of difference (PODs) are attributes or benefits that
consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively
evaluate, and believe that they could not find to the same
extent with a competitive brand.
• The classification can be either functional, performance-
related, or abstract, imagery-related.
• The concept of PODs has much in common with several
other well-known marketing concepts (USP) and (SCA)
• Unique Selling Proposition (USP)- Offering a distinctive or
unique product benefit. PODs are much related to USPs.
• Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)- It is some what
broader than PODs and are based on business practices. Ex:
HR policies, process patenting etc..

51. Points of Parity (POPs)
• On the other hand, POPs are not necessarily unique to the
brand but may in fact be share with other brands.
• There are two types of POPS: Category POPs & Competitive
POPs.
• Category POPs: It represents minimally at the generic product
level & are most likely at the expected product level. Ex: A
Bank will not be considered a “Bank” truly unless it offers a
range of saving plans, deposit boxes, DD, ATMs, & other such
services. These may change over a period of time based on
many factors- technological, legal, consumer trends etc..
• Competitive POPs: It firm should cover & provide all general
benefits which competitors are providing but may not be
specialized in the same area. Achieve advantages in some
other areas, where brand should be in strong & unbeatable
competitive position.

52. Positioning Guidelines
• The concepts of points of difference and points of parity can
be invaluable tools to guide positioning.
• The two key issues in arriving at the optimal competitive
brand positioning are:
1. Defining & communicating the competitive frame of
reference
2. Choosing and establishing points of parity and points of
difference.
3. Updating positioning over time

53. Positioning Guidelines
1. Defining & communicating the competitive frame
of reference
• A starting point in defining a competitive frame of reference
for a brand positioning is to determine category membership
(with which set of products does the brand compete?)
• The product’s category membership tells consumers about
the goals they might achieve by using a product or service.
• Sometimes consumers know a brand’s category membership
but may not be convinced the brand is a true, valid member
of the category. Ex: Consumers may be aware that Sony
produces computers, but they may not be certain whether
Sony computers are in the same “class” as Dell, HP, &
Lenovo. Similarly for passenger car segments as well.

54. Positioning Guidelines
2. Choosing and establishing points of parity and
points of difference.
• The two important considerations in choosing PODs are that
consumers find the POD desirable & that firm can deliver the
same.
• Desirability criteria: (relevance, distinctiveness, believability)
• Deliverability criteria: (feasibility, communicability,
sustainability)
• One challenge for marketers is that many of the attributes or
benefits that make up the POPs or PODs are negatively
correlated. Ex: it might be difficult to position a brand as
“inexpensive” and at the same time assert that it is “of highest
quality”.

55. Positioning Guidelines
Examples of Negatively Correlated Attributes:
• Low price vs. high quality
• Taste vs. low calories
• Nutritious vs. good tasting
• Efficacious vs. mild
• Powerful vs. safe
• Strong vs. refined etc..
Strategies to Overcome Negative Correlated
Attributes:
1. Separate the Attributes
2. Leverage Equity of Another Entity
3. Redefine the Relationship

56. Positioning Guidelines
3. Updating Positioning over Time
• With established brands, competitive forces often dictate shifts
in positioning strategy over time.
• LADDERING- PODs helps initial to position but latter it
becomes necessary to deepen the meaning associated with the
brand positioning. This can be done by following Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs theory (higher-level needs become relevant
once lower-level needs have been satisfied).
• REACTING- Competitive actions are often directed at
eliminating points of difference to make them points of parity
or to strengthen or establish points of difference.
• Here the strategies suggested are- Do nothing, Go on the
defensive, & Go on the offensive.

57. Brand Value
• Definition

58. Core Brand Values
• Core Brand Associations: These are abstract association
(attributes and benefits) that characterize the 5 to 10 most
important aspects or dimensions of a brand.
• Ex: In response to a Nike brand probe, consumers listed Tiger
Woods, Roger Federer, Michael Jordan, whom we could call
“top athletes”.
• A Mental Map survey reveled the core brand associations of
MTV- fun & entertaining, young, hip & cool, popular, interactive,
live & immediate, lifestyle, music, informative, trusting, leader,
modern, popular etc..

59. Brand Mantras
• Brand Mantra is an articulation (expression) of the “heart and
soul” of the brand, a short, three- to- five word phrase that
captures the undeniable essence or spirit of the brand
positioning.
• It’s similar to “brand essence” or “core brand promise”, and its
purpose is to ensure that all employees and external marketing
partners understand what the brand most fundamentally is to
represent to consumers, so they can adjust their actions
accordingly.
• Ex: McDonald’s brand philosophy of “Food, Folks, and Fun”
nicely captures its brand essence and core brand promise.
• Nike- Authentic, Athletic, & Performance.
• Disney- Fun, Family, & Entertainment.
• Maggie Noodle- Swad-bhi, health-bhi, aur khushiya-bhi.

60. Internal Branding
• Brand mantras point out the importance of internal branding-
making sure that members of the organizations are properly
aligned with the brand and what it represents.
• Positioning the brand internally is equally important when
compared to building & managing the brand equity with
customers.
• Especially for service companies, it’s critical that all employees
have to up-to-date and deep understanding of the brand.
• Ex: Disney holds seminars on the “Disney Style” of creativity,
service, and loyalty for employees from other companies.
• It also helps to motivate the employees & also attract
customers. Ex: Intel ran an ad campaign showcasing its own
employees as heros.

61. Brand Audits
• Brand Audit is a comprehensive examination of a
brand to discover its sources of brand equity.
• To learn what consumers know about brands and
products so that the company can make informed
strategic positioning decisions, marketers should
first conduct a brand audit to profile consumer
knowledge structures.