Corporate branding is where the corporate name is the brand, and here the products tend to be described more in alpha numeric or letter terms, and not have distinctive brand names. Such is the case with BMW. Corporate branding gives each product the strength of the corporate brand values and positioning, and saves a great deal on advertising and promotional spend. It builds up the strength of the corporate brand and its financial value.

Corporate branding is very appropriate to those companies engaged in service industries, as their products are more intangible in nature. When consumers cannot see the product, the company brand name helps give them an assurance of quality, heritage, and authenticity.

Branding, a term used more and more often in the 90s, is more than just the image of a particular product. Branding is defined by Susan Friedmann, the Tradeshow Coach, as a basic marketing concept that is designed to set your products and services apart from the competition. Ward Randall, managing partner of The Brand Consultancy, a company specializing in brand strategy, management, and positioning, takes the definition a step further, saying, “Brands are all about making promises and keeping them.”

In a competitive marketplace, companies brand their products to help differentiate them from the competition. It would be naive to suggest that product branding in general is wrong or should be avoided, but it is fair to say that software branding is too often executed poorly. The goal of software branding is to associate the brand with the style and quality of the product and its experience. Too often, developers attempt to achieve this by drawing attention to the program itself. The result is to distract users instead of delight them.

It can also go further to product range branding, where a number of products or services in a broad category are grouped together under one brand name and promoted with one basic identity. An example here would be Intel’s Pentium and Celeron ranges of microprocessors. Whilst generating some economies of scale in advertising and promotion, care must be taken to ensure that the extensions do not step away from the central proposition of the main product brand, and that they do not cannibalise its sales.

The task of product branding is to build intangible values and associations around the tangible product in order to differentiate it from physically identical products that are available. Thus, a Nokia-branded cell phone suggests something different to a buyer and owner than a Samsung-branded cell phone, even if the quality level and feature set of the two phones are identical. Or detergent powder branded Tide vs the same powder branded Wheel signal powerful perceptual differences. Emotional benefits, sensory cues and brand personality leveraged in advertising are powerful ways to add layers of emotional meaning and intangible values to the basic product and differentiate it.

House or endorsement branding uses both ideas, and the corporate name is placed alongside the product brand name, as is the case with Nestle’s Milo. This allows the product brand to assume its own identity and positioning, but draw strength from the values of the corporate brand, and give consumers the assurance, in many cases related to quality, of the corporate brand. There are a variety of ways in which this can be achieved, with the corporate brand in lesser or greater prominence. House branding also gives some economies of scale in A&P, and helps with the introduction of new products, where it can be very difficult to break into mature markets without the endorsement of a strong and credible corporate parental brand name. One possible disadvantage is where the product is not favourably received and causes damage to the parental brand name.

Bearing this in mind, it becomes clear why regularly fine-tuning your branding strategy to better suit the desires of your customers is absolutely crucial. This is especially true if your firm is in a particularly competitive market, up against several rival products or services which claim to do what yours does, and possibly even better, through their own branding. It is specifically your branding that will separate your product from the competitors.

Companies sometimes want to reduce the number of brands that they market. This process is known as “Brand rationalization.” Some companies tend to create more brands and product variations within a brand than economies of scale would indicate. Sometimes, they will create a specific service or product brand for each market that they target. In the case of product branding, this may be to gain retail shelf space (and reduce the amount of shelf space allocated to competing brands). A company may decide to rationalize their portfolio of brands from time to time to gain production and marketing efficiency, or to rationalize a brand portfolio as part of corporate restructuring.

In other companies the product manager creates both the MRDs and the PRDs, while the product marketing manager does outbound tasks like giving product demonstrations in trade shows, creating marketing collateral like hot-sheets, beat-sheets, cheat sheets, data sheets, and white papers. This requires the product marketing manager to be skilled not only in competitor analysis, market research, and technical writing, but also in more business oriented activities like conducting ROI and NPV analyses on technology investments, strategizing how the decision criteria of the prospects or customers can be changed so that they buy the company’s product vis-a-vis the competitor’s product, etc.

In smaller high-tech firms or start-ups, product marketing and product management functions can be blurred, and both tasks may be borne by one individual. However, as the company grows someone needs to focus on creating good requirements documents for the engineering team, whereas someone else needs to focus on how to analyze the market, influence the “analysts”, press, etc.

When such clear demarcation becomes visible, the former falls under the domain of product management, and the latter, under product marketing. In Silicon Valley, in particular, product marketing professionals have considerable domain experience in a particular market or technology or both. Some Silicon Valley firms have titles such as Product Marketing Engineer, who tend to be promoted to managers in due course.

Slogans can be just as difficult as names to create. Saying something powerful and original in a small number of words is a tough part of the branding process. In order to generate ideas for slogans to lead your branding, you should always stay focused on the potential customer. What are they looking for in a product such as yours? What values and aspirations do they expect from a firm producing it? Why should they buy your product in particular? What do the products and slogans of your rivals represent? The slogan you choose should attempt to take into account strong answers to each of these questions.

Marketing is the process by which companies satisfy customer wants and needs. This forms the basis of repeat business. A popular definition of marketing is the Four P’s: product, price, promotion and place (distribution). Decisions in these areas cannot be made without a clear idea of the benefits sought by customers and those offered by the product. Branding is a device that telegraphically communicates those benefits to the customer.

Great product names drive strong brands. A great software product name is memorable and concisely conveys the benefit of the product, providing distinction in a crowded market. Hire a branding professional to help you choose the right product name. In the long term, a well-chosen name is far more important to your branding effort than details like logos, color schemes, and control theming.

Introduction – introduce a quality product with the strategy of using the brand as a platform from which to launch future products. A positive evaluation by the consumer is important.

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Until the eighties, however, since the value of a company had just been measured on the bases of its revenues and tangible assets, not many companies had really paid attention to any sort of branding strategy, not to mention co-branding strategy. It is only in the last thirty years that companies have understood that the real value of a business resides in the minds of its consumers: in the brand.

But how can co-branding enhance this value? Why do brands invest in interlocking their identities to create co-branded products?

Co-branding, as it has been defined by Tom Blackett and Bob Boad in their book (Co-Branding: the Science of Alliance, St Martin’s Press, 1999) is:

“…used to encompass a wide range of marketing activities involving the use of two (and sometimes more) brands. Thus co-branding could be considered to include sponsorships, where Marlboro lends its name to Ferrari or accountants Ernst and Young support the Monet exhibition.”

The ultimate objective of any co-branded strategy would be to combine the strengths of involved parties to increase respective brands value.
In order to be successful, the co-branding effort needs to be directed to:

1. Increase brands distinctiveness by capitalizing on the values embedded in the cooperating brands.

Product and services life cycle shorten by the day, and distinctive products and services features and innovations are easily copied among brands in the same industry. This is a reality of today’s business that co-branded products can withstand to. By merging values and identities of brands originally engaged in different industries, co-branded products and services can gain consumer choices, loyalty and ultimately make the brand unique and distinctive.

In this category Labbrand includes:

Loyalty programs co-branding, where the involved parties share the cost of customer loyalty programs or other CRM marketing programs to deliver extra benefits and eventually strengthen the relationship among consumers and the two brands

British Airways and Citibank, for instance, co-branded a credit card allowing the owner to automatically become a member of the British Airways Executive Club.

Trade marketing co-branding, where the involved parties cooperate in designing co-branded products made specifically for a certain distributor or facility. Danone provides a good example in this sense as it has produced a special yogurt for Quick, the European fast food chain.

By increasing their distinctiveness, involved brands get to occupy a unique place in consumers minds and eventually gain customer loyalty by providing them with merged benefits.

2. Deliver consumers greater value by creating highly relevant products or services:

Due to the increasing amount of choices available and in order to cut through all other offerings brands have to custom design added value products and services to meet variable individual needs.
As brands research and uncover these specific customers’ needs, they also find that a single brand may not be able to meet the demands of such profoundly segmented market.

In this category Labbrand includes:

Usage extension co-branding. Bacardi and Coca Cola, for instance have co-branded Bacardi Mixers range to demonstrate and spur other ways to consume the two brands.

Multiple sponsors co-branding, where more than two companies unify their effort to form a strategic alliance and create a specific co-branded technologically enhanced product.

Market niche co-branding.
Take for instance the cooperation between Adidas and Stella McCartney. This brought about a women-oriented, stylish and casual sport design collection: Adidas by Stella McCartney. This co-branded line manages to satisfy the demand of female buyers looking for sportswear that blends functionality and style while being able to deliver “products that both perform and look great”1

Moreover, having a high end designer create a sport range for women translated into practical benefits for both the collaborating parties: new consumers, willing to pay a premium to get the “special” sportswear, and buzz advertising around a range of products that was, back in 2004, the first ever sportswear collection signed by a high-end designer.

Look also at Smart car: a joint creation of Mercedes and Swatch designed especially for young consumers of big metropolis. In this case signatures of cooperating brands do not even appear on the car but in fact this is the result of each company’s specific expertise.

3. Increase the esteem consumers have toward participating brands

As consumers became ever more environmental and social aware it becomes essential for brands to create new touch points and build images consistent to the brand promise in consumer’s mind while aligning participating brand values.

In this category Labbrand includes:

Image reinforcement co-branding. A very good example to explain this form of co-branding can be seen in companies getting involved with NGOs to direct a percentage of their revenue toward a worthy cause. P&G and the National Association for Blinds, Starbucks and the African Wildlife foundation are just a few examples of companies cooperating with charities and fundraising organizations to align their brand values in consumers mind.

Co-branded in the luxury industry, Motorola mobile phone designed by D&G merges the image of the Italian luxurious brand with the high quality technological brand promise of the American mobile phone manufacturer.

Complementary brands co-branding, refers to brands in the same or complementary industries that cooperate to strengthen respective brand images in consumers’ mind. Credit cards such as Visa and Mastercard are a perfect example of complementary alliances as they merge the customer service skills of payment services franchisers with the image of reliability of banks.

Danone and Motta, both in the food industry, co-branded a yogurt ice-cream called Yolka that successfully satisfied the desires of healthy conscious gourmand and avoided direct competition to their respective brand portfolio.

Global co-branding, consisting mainly in alliances among MNCs and local players. Typically, the local player will provide an already established distribution network and local brand image while the MNC will bring technical know-how and international brand attachment.

For example, in 2004 Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and American Express Co. co-branded a credit card issued by the bank and bearing the American Express logo designed to sustain the nation’s effort to build a national credit-card system.

4. Increase the knowledge consumers have toward cooperating brands through the merger of each other’s strength in the respective domains.

In this category Labbrand includes:

Ingredient co-branding,whose appellation refers to the fact that a material,adding value ingredient is created by the cooperation of the two involved brands. This greatly increases the ultimate products value for consumers, and consequently the brand value in consumers’ minds.

Intel and Compaq Personal Computer, for instance, represent a perfect example of synergy in this sense as the value created in their cooperation is great and without it the ultimate value of the product will be tremendously diminished. .

Coopetition, as this has been defined by Brandenburger and Nalebuff in their homonym book (1996, Co-Opetition : A Revolution Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation), which dictates that in order to dominate the market companies may need to cooperate with and compete against the same company.

Examples in coopetion are found in the co-branded city cars Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107, and Citroen C1 by Peugeot and Citroen launched in direct competition to the Ford Ka, the Volkswagen Lupo and the Mercedes/Swatch Smart

The direction co-branding takes should not be considered unambiguous but rather as a comprehensive value creation process that might combine one or all of the four co-brand equity enhancement process aforementioned.

Very often the value pursued by each party may be different from one other, and the benefits that are likely to be achieved by the parties are usually in more than one field.

Adidas and the Japanese designer brand Yamamoto, for instance, have successfully created Adidas Y3 by matching very different goals. In this cooperation Adidas benefits in brand image from the “coolness” of Yamamoto and steps into the style arena while Yamamoto benefits from the size and network of Adidas to increase brand awareness.

That being said, crossover branding cannot represent an easy made strategy for every brand. Such kind of cooperation needs careful coordination among the parties involved and attentive care in realization. In fact over 90% of co-branding ventures fail.

Co-branding must, indeed, create equal value for both cooperating brands. No cooperation based on an unequal relationship has proved to be successful.

Moreover, no co-branding strategy can be feasible if the brands involved do not share core values and brand belief with each other.
Interlocking two brands identities can indeed be tricky as you need to look at your brand message and make sure that its perception will not be diluted in consumers’ minds.
Otherwise, the brands original consumer can be lost and disputes may arise between the partners.

Co-branding needs careful coordination, attentive communication among parties and detailed performing analysis. This complicates day to day operations and can cause one or both brands to under perform and fail to meet each others standards.
Respective brand goals and objectives being brought to the cooperation should clearly coincide with each others ultimate partnership strategies.

With the increased sophistication of today’s consumers it becomes vital for brands to understand their audiences’ needs and desires as consumers decide, in fact, the life or death of a brand. Consumers in the 21st century have become increasingly aware of the quality of the products and services they seek and now search for added value in these items.
Crossover branding, if rightly conceived and managed, can provide an attractive 1+1>2 formulas which creates added value for both participating brands and consumers.

1.Bill Sweeney, Project Leader and Head of Apparel at Adidas Sport Performance Division.

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China’s growing affluent consumer segment has been attracting worldwide luxury brands for a long time. Gucci, LV, Zegna, and many other top brands tapped into the Chinese market in the early nineties, long before it started generating revenues1. And quite rightly so, as more than 300,000 Chinese now have a net worth of more than US$1 million. The mainland’s millionaires control about US$530 billion in assets and more than 170 million Chinese can afford to buy top-tier brands2. Indeed, it seems clear now that the Chinese luxury consumer market, which did not even exist a mere 20 years ago, is on the path to dominate top end retail.

But what about domestic luxury brands?

China has a long history in the appreciation of luxuries – for example, tea, jade, and silk – and given the impressive growth of domestic consumption of luxury goods, local brands should have plenty of opportunities to grow.

Despite Chinese consumers thirst for luxury, very few local luxury brands have taken off. In fact, several analysts have observed that when it comes to luxury Chinese consumers are more likely to buy products made outside of China3.

Previous Labbrand research has confirmed that consumers esteem towards luxury products is heavily influenced by the brand’s country of origin. Indeed, a “foreign/westerner” origin seems a given for many luxury product categories.

Still, if it is true that in industries like top fashion garments and accessories that foreign top brands dominate, in other industries, and specifically those having deep roots in China’s heritage and tradition, Chinese brands have good chances to gain the upper hand.

In fact, in a recent MasterCard survey, Chinese top spenders have been found to prefer Hong Kong born Chow Tai Fook over Cartier and domestic Wu Liang Ye and Maotai over Spanish, Australian and German liquors4.

Indeed, the same survey has found that high-end Chinese consumers rank quality ahead of other considerations with a notable 92.7% of respondents citing quality as the first criteria when buying luxury, well before brand recognition, still scoring a good 68.3%, or fashion design, with 58.5%5.

Whereas until a couple of years ago it looked like Chinese brands had no chance to tap into the luxury market6, under these circumstances a window of opportunity seems available.

So the key issues now are:

1. What are the domestic brands that are already perceived as top luxuries by domestic consumers?

2. What are the challenges and opportunities they have to face in order to win consumer preferences at home and abroad?

Labbrand has set to investigate these questions. We have interviewed a few people, both industry insider and outsider, and have drawn the list of the 10 top Chinese luxury brands:

1. NE Tiger – established in 1992
2. Chow Tai Fook – founded in 1929
3. Kweichow Mao Tai – established in 1999
4. Omnialuo – set up in 1998
5. Erdos cashmere – started in 1979.
6. Wuliangye – founded in 1959
7. Changyu – established in 1892
8. Yunnan Pu’er Tea – established in 1975 and privatized in 2004.
9. Dorian Ho – established in 2004.
10. Xiangyunsha Silk – established in 2003

We have asked people what made them feel these brands were luxurious.

The heritage brand

Interestingly enough, the most commonly cited attribute was “Chinese heritage”. In fact, many of these brands draw or are deeply rooted in Chinese culture.

– Kweichow Mao Tai, Wuliangye, Changyu, Yunnan Pu’er Tea, Xiang Yun Yarn Silk all are deeply rooted in China’s cultural heritage as they brand traditional products of China. Indeed, there is no foreign competitor that could challenge these brands on the same position domestically. For traditional products such as “bai jiu” liquor, tea, ginseng and handcrafted silk, there is no other country that has the same expertise as China does. Take Yunnan Pu’er Tea for example: in 2005, 500g of 64-year-old Pu’er tea sold at auction for one million yuan, making it six times more expensive than gold7.

The young fashionable brand

– NE Tiger, Omnialuo and Dorian Ho are all relatively young brands, and they all compete in a field where Chinese brands are relatively weak: fashion luxury. Their strength, however, is rooted in the fact that they source, even if in different ways, from Chinese culture by combining Chinese traditional elements with western style craft techniques and quality manufactures.

Still, when it comes to buyer preferences, none is yet able to compete on equal terms with foreign fashion luxuries. None of them enjoy the same brand awareness of European top luxury brands – even though both have participated in top fashion shows in China and abroad – and they are generally not regarded as luxurious as their foreign counterparts. Generally speaking, the common reasons given to justify this conception were:

* they are not as “status-making” as foreign fashion brands
* consumers did not trust the quality standard to be on the same level of
foreign brands

The quality experts

– Chow Tai Fook and Erdos Cashmere, on the other hand, are brands of a different kind. Their brand equity is rooted in their capabilities to match quality and precious products with good targeting, capacity that has helped them be known and highly regarded domestically.

For instance, Chow Tai Fook is one of the most famous luxury jewelry brands in China. Founded in 1929 in Canton and then acquired by Hong Kong entrepreneur Mr Chen Yu Tung in 1956, it combines luxury with fashion and high quality products to appeal to mature customers in higher income groups8.

Chow Tai Fook illustrates the value that word of mouth has in Chinese culture. The company developed its brand name more by reputation and word-of-mouth than any formal business plan. They have managed to win consumer preferences thanks to their long history and sound capabilities (Chow Tai Fook has been the first jewelry brand to use gold 999,9 in pure gold ornament, which has become an industry standard today).

Building Chinese luxury

So what are the challenges and what are the opportunities Chinese luxury brands have to face in order to win consumer preferences at home?

On the one hand, it seems that Chinese consumers highly esteem domestic brands if their status and quality standard are well accounted for. Chinese heritage, cultural elements and traditional skills seem to be key characteristics of every top domestic brand in luxury. Indeed, for those product categories where China has historically developed a long tradition, Chinese brands seem to be unrivaled.

In the first instance, we believe that Chinese brands can successfully draw from their heritage in order to build a sound customer base and eventually raise brand awareness.

Even though there are still a few obstacles hindering the development of Chinese luxury brands:

1. Lack of expertise and marketing capabilities

Among our top ten, only a few brands invest consistently in branding. Many of them rely only on their own heritage to attract consumers and do not really invest in any communication activity. Brands such as Xiangyunsha Silk or Yunnan Pu’er Tea do not even have a well designed website, nor do they protect their trademark properly.

1. Made in China label

Chinese consumers do not easily view brands made in China as luxury and Chinese brands are generally associated with low quality. Apart from the product categories where China is traditionally strong, respondents of Labbrand’s survey clearly showed that:

* The concept of luxury is strongly associated with the question of brand awareness. The more brand is know, the better it will support and show the status of the buyer.
*Esteem toward luxury brands seem generally higher for brands that are not labeled “Made in China”.
*The brand is an indicator of the quality and design. Foreign fashion luxury brands are assumed to guarantee not only the exclusivity of the design, but also the originality and safety of the product.

Creating strong brands is a difficult endeavor. Producing strong luxury brands in a market that is affected by a horde of fakes and cheap products is even more complicated.

There is still a long road ahead for Chinese luxuries to compete in the global arena with already well established brands.

However, given the fast pace of development of the domestic luxury market and the changing purchasing attitude of Chinese consumers, Chinese companies now have the tools to understand how to position their brand and how to build luxury identities to satisfy the needs of high end buyers.

1. 2007 October Issue, Cafolla L., “China Luxury”, A Plus magazine
2. 2006, Dec. Issue, Schwarz B. and Wong V., “Money Talks”, Insight
3. The top 10 brands preferred by China richest are all made in Europe or USA by Hurun Report 2007 Best of the Best Survey Preferred Brands of China’s Richest http://www.hurun.net/bestofbest2006en.aspx
Also cfr:
– note 2
– 2008, Debnam N., Svinos G., “China luxury Consumers: Moving up the Curve” KPMG
– 2006, Chadha R., Husband P “The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia’s Love Affair with Luxury”
4. 2008-02-21, MasterCard Worldwide, cited by Chen Shu-Ching Jean in “China’s High-End Consumers Seek Quality Over Status”, http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/02/21/china-luxury-survey-markets-equity-cx_jc_0221markets02.html
5. MasterCard Worldwide, cited by Shu-Ching Jean Chen in “China’s High-End Consumers Seek Quality Over Status”, 02.21.08 http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/02/21/china-luxury-survey-markets-equity-cx_jc_0221markets02.html
6. 2006, Martin Roll, Asian Brand Strategy, how Asia builds strong brands
7. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1555518/Tea-in-China-costs-six-times-as-much-as-gold.html
8. A Glittering Legacy – China”. HKTDC. 10 July 2008 .

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A great brand name is one of the most important assets of a company1. It conveys the brand identity, it tells people what the company does and why it does it better than others, and it gives space for creative design and communication developments.

Indeed, a great brand name tells a story about your business, a story that transforms your brand into a broader idea: the business, the product, the service, but first and foremost, the promise you make to your customers. One phrase – preferably no longer than 4 syllables or 4 characters – that can tug the heartstrings of your audience.

Creating a brand name that wields this much meaning is quite a challenge.
But such a challenge becomes even greater when it comes to the Chinese market!

The nature of the Chinese language makes the art of naming brands and products even more complicated: characters have “multilayered” connotations and the slightest change in pronunciation can greatly alter the meaning of a word.

Such a multilayered nature gives space to countless creative routes (and constraints). In fact, multiple-meaning words can be used in brand naming to break the normal codes of expression and better convey brand values.

This code breaking quality can be used for simple wordplay – i.e. 51job.com where 5 pronounced as [w?] sounds as [w?] “I”, and [y?o] as [yào] “want” – but also to create names integrating a poetic dimension, as words having multiple connotations can be used to deviate from the normal means of expression and create an emotional gap between what is said and what is actually perceived by consumers. Such a gap can have a stronger capacity to transform the brand into an idea, an emotion, an abstract image and thus strongly engage potential brand loyalists.

We call these brand names “poetic” for their capacity to evoke an emotional response in consumers through the creative use of meaning, sound, context, images, or rhythmic language choices.

Chinese brand names that draw from this poetic-like dimension can be classified in three main categories:

1. Brand names integrating a poetic dimension by sourcing directly from China’s literal history tradition
2. Brand names creating emotional touch points with consumers by twisting the meaning of characters to express the brand message
3. Brand names sourcing from the brand attributes to communicate on the brand identity in a non-conventional way.

1. Brand names sourcing directly from China’s literal history tradition

In this category, Revlon provides a good example. Revlon’s Chinese brand name is [lù huá nóng] that literally means “glimmering with the bright spring dew”. However [lù huá nóng] is also a verse of one of Li Bai’s poems: Qing Ping Ci 2.

Li Bai, who lived during the Tang Dinasty (701-762 AD), is regarded as one of the greatest poets in China’s literary history. His words have been looked upon by generations of Chinese scholars and have often been indicated as the exemplification of the best poetic practices.

Qing Ping Ci is an ode to the beauty of women. The verses that the famous poet coined back then have become over the centuries canonical expressions to refer to female beauty. Therefore, the allusion to the poem combined with the image of bright spring dew glimmering in the sunlight creates a powerful brand name that makes Revlon’s abstract meaning reach such a legendary beauty.

Also, the pronunciation of  [lù huá nóng] is quite close to the English pronunciation of “Revlon”. The name is short and easy to pronounce, and has a round sound that is very well suited to represent the famous cosmetic brand across the country.

2. Twisted poetic brand names

When OLAY tapped into the Chinese market in 19893 it adopted the Chinese brand name of [yùlán yóu].

OLAY’s brand promise is to give women the skin care products, tools and advice to help them love their skin.

Then how does the poetic dimension of [yùlán yóu] help OLAY connect with Chinese women?

[yù] is the character for jade. In China, it has traditionally been used to describe women’s natural beauty. [lán] for orchid, represents the chasteness of a girl. These two Chinese characters have been used countless times in China’s literature history to compliment or to refer to beautiful women.

Besides, just like Revlon, [yùlán yóu] recalls OLAY’s original name in terms of pronunciation. It has a beautiful sound and multilayered meaning – a cream to make your skin soft (like an orchid) and smooth (like the jade) – but also a promise of unchanging beauty. Both represent and promote the brand promise among Chinese consumers and have helped raise the brand awareness domestically.

[h?g?n dás?] – Häagen Dazs Chinese name – is clearly a phonetic transliteration of the original brand name. Still, this brand name also integrates a strong “poetic” twist that evokes the feeling of enjoyment and pleasure, both key to the brand message.

Literally the combination of the 4 characters means nothing.[h?] expresses happiness, surprise, amazement or joy; [g?n] translates to root, origin, source, cause;[dá] translates as reach, arrive; and [ s?] is tear, divide.

But on a deeper level, the combination of characters evocates the feeling of joy and cheerfulness and the idea that Häagen Dazs is the source of every joyful moment. Hence the emotional connection: when eating Häagen Dazs people will be happy ever after.

Meanwhile, the characters lead also to the brand design development:

3. Non-conventional poetic brand names

Apple in Chinese, follows the same lines of the original brand name: an apple – something that has really nothing to do with PCs – to convey the creativity and uniqueness of a brand that has matched design, technology and originality in one branded concept.

’xu? bì’ – Sprite in China – (snow green/jade) also belongs to this category. The Chinese brand name does not communicate the product category of the brand, nor does it directly convey any of the functional attributes of the sparkling drink. Still the name stands for snow, white, crystal transparent on the one hand and for green, jade, clear blue, on the other hand, which evokes the idea of freshness, nature, and transform the brand in an abstract idea: pure as jade, cool and refreshing as snow. Indeed, sales skyrocketed in China after Sprite adopted this brand name.

So what makes for a great brand name and when are poetic names the best choice?

Naturally many factors are to be taken into account.

The industry, first of all, plays a relevant role here. Some industries, pharmaceutical for instance, might prefer descriptive names as these are best suited to convey product attributes and brand reliability.

Secondly, the brand identity, values and tone all need to be taken into account to determine the sort of name that could be best suited to represent a brand in China. Look at Baidu and Google. Whereas both brands operate in the same industry, Baidu’s poetic name has been a great mean to convey the brand identity while creating an emotional bond with netizens4. Google’s name ["GuGe"], instead, has been unwelcome by Chinese consumers as its poetic, traditional feeling does not exemplify Google’s creative, young, innovative brand identity and character5.

Surely, the brand target market also plays an important role here. What tugs your consumer heartstring? What do they look for when they prefer a certain brand over another? A poetic name is definitely a good choice when it helps introduce a company to its customers, to characterize it with the public at large and to differentiate its offerings from the competition’s.

This being said, the most important advantage of poetic brand names is to create an emotional touch point with customers. Whenever a poetic dimension can provide your brand name with a set of associations and images that meet your customer needs and desire, poetic naming can be a good choice as it promotes your image and gives your brand a unique allure and differential factor.

1. 2004, Aaker David A. “Brand Portfolio Strategy: Creating Relevance, Differentiation, Energy, Leverage, and Clarity” Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

5. 2006, May, “Are you listening Google?” Labbrand http://labbrand.com/english/view_news.php?id=185-Are-you-listening-Google-

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Customer Based Brand Equity – A Pragmatic Approach

Dr.K.Krishnakumar, Lecturer in Commerce, Periyar University, Salem – 636 011

Introduction

In the new era of a globalized market place, brands are key drivers of economic values of a corporation. In the new emerging business scenario, brands offer the capacity to add value which is perhaps unmatched by any of the assets which once enjoyed honour. Brands are the basis of consumer relationship and brands are becoming the most valuable assets that a business can possess. Markets, which were earlier protected, are now being liberalized. Product commonality is a major headache for marketers. Thus, marketers are left with a challenge: how to achieve differentiation which is valued by the customers. Brands in this context are new business warriors. They connect corporations with customers. Brands are wealth generators of the twenty-first century. As a result, brand management has long since grown into a vital ingredient for success in corporate strategy.

            From the marketer’s point of view the brand is a value, the brand name of the product marketed by them should be leads to attain brand equity. From the consumers point of view a brand which comprises of benefits. It means benefits in the sense of utility and service. A brand said to have equity when the consumers are prefer to buy a branded one instead of unbranded commodity. When a consumer who is able to recall the brand name and its attributes for the long period where the brand is having a equity. From that point of view of brand equity, it is the extension of brand loyalty and brand knowledge. So in this critical situation the marketers are supposed to create a value for their brand. But here some questions are raised, What is that value? How can create a value and what are the parameters for creating value to a particular brand? In recent years customer-based brand equity (CBBE) has garnered considerable attention in both academic and non-academic researches. Developing further insights into the measurement of consumer based brand equity is important in the face of prominence of branding. Hence the aim of this paper is to identify various elements and parameters for identifying the value, that is customer based brand equity.

Brand Equity

The concept brand equity has emerged as the central concept in marketing over the past 20 years. Much attention has been devoted recently to the concept of brand equity. The concept of “brand equity” is generally considered to refer to that part of the value of a product that is attributable to the brand name. From a managerial point of view, Farquhar (1989) defines brand equity as the “added value” with which a brand name endows a product.  Aaker (1991) defines brand equity is a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol, that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firm’s customers. For assets or liabilities to underlie brand equity they must be linked to the name and/or symbol of the brand. More generally, it has suggested that brand equity be considered from the perspective of three separate entities: firm, trade and consumer. From the firm perspective, brand equity is incremental cash flow arising from use of the brand name. From the trade perspective, brand equity is leverage (in terms of acceptance and distribution) arising from using the brand name. From the consumer perspective, brand equity is generally considered to be something to do with “value”.

Customer Based Brand Equity

                Customer-Based Brand Equity is formally defined as the differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand. A brand is said to have positive customer-based brand equity when consumers react more favourably to a product and the way it is marketed when the brand is identified than when it is not (e.g., when the product is attributed to a fictitious name or is unnamed). (Kevin Lane Keller 2004).Thus, a brand with positive CBBE equity might result in the consumers’ acceptance of a new brand extension, less sensitiveness to price increases and withdrawal of advertising support, or willingness to seek the brand in a new distribution channel. On the other hand, a brand is said to have negative customer-based brand equity if consumers react less favourably to marketing activity for the brand compared with an unnamed or fictitiously named version of the product. The main ingredients of consumer based brand equity are differential effect, brand knowledge, consumer response in marketing.

The followings are the some of the important building blocks identified as the crucial elements of customer based brand equity.

Brand Loyalty

This is major component of brand equity. Brand loyalty, a long a central construct in marketing, is a measure of the attachment that a customer has to brand. If the customer continue to purchase one particular brand even in the face of competitors with superior features, price and convenience where we can find the brand loyalty. It reflects how likely a customer will be to switch to another brand, especially when that brand makes a change, either in price or in product features. It is one indicator of brand equity which is demonstrably linked to future profits. Brand loyalty is qualitatively different from the other major dimensions of brand equity in that it is tied more closely to the use of experience. Brand loyalty cannot exist without prior purchase and use experience. It is a basis of brand equity that is created by many factors, chief among them being the use experience. (Aaker 1991) defines loyalty as “the attachment that a customer has to a brand” and consider it to be a primary dimension of brand equity. In contrast, Keller (1993) views loyalty as a consequence of brand equity, i.e. when favourable attributes results in repeated purchase. (Yoo and Donthfu 2001) defines brand loyalty from the attitudinal perspective that “the tendency to be loyal to a focal brand, which is demonstrated by the intention to buy the brand as a primary choice” 

Brand Knowledge

            From the perspective of the CBBE model, brand knowledge is the key to creating brand equity, because it creates the differential effect that drives brand equity. What marketers need, then, is an insightful way to represent how brand knowledge exists in consumer memory. In particular brand knowledge can be characterized in terms of two components: brand awareness and brand image. Brand awareness is related to the strength of the brand node or trace in memory, as reflected by consumers’ ability to identify the brand under different conditions (Rossiter, J.R, and Piercy.L (1987). Brand image can be defined as perceptions about a brand as reflected by the brand association held in consumer memory. A positive brand image is created by marketing programmes that link strong, favourable, and unique associations to the brand in memory. The brand knowledge effects through brand awareness and brand association, the benefits of brand are underlined as outcomes. Therefore brand knowledge entails significant activities leading to brand loyalty and equity. In brief brand knowledge encompasses the consumer’s ability relating to the awareness of the product, product features, where the product is available, company that makes the product, how the product is used and for what purpose and the specific and distinctive features of the product.

Brand Awareness

            Brand awareness refers to the strength of the brand presence in the consumer’s mind. It is the ability of a potential buyer to recognize or recall that a brand is a member of a certain product category. This refers to the strength of a brand’s presence in consumers’ mind. Brand awareness is an important component of brand equity (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993). It is believed that brand awareness is improved to 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. Brand awareness consists of brand recall and brand recognition. A brand can increase the demand for a product in several ways. Brand awareness makes it easier for consumers to identify products with the well-known brand names (Mary W.Sullivan 1998). Therefore, brands provide information by increasing awareness and serving as a proxy for quality. Brands can also appeal to a consumer’s sense of individuality or make consumers feel as if they belong to a particular social group.  Brand awareness can be characterized according the depth and breath. The depth of brand awareness concerns the likelihood that a brand element will come to mind and the ease with which it does so. The breath of brand awareness concerns the range of purchase and usage situations in which the brand element comes to mind. The breath of brand awareness depends to a large extent on the organization of brand and product knowledge in memory.

Perceived Quality

        Perceived quality can be defined as the customer’s perception of the overall quality or superiority of a product or service with respect to its intended purpose, relative to alternatives (Valarie A.Zeithaml 1988). Perceived quality is, first a perception by customers. Perceived quality is defined relative to an intended purpose and a set of alternatives. Perceived quality is an intangible, overall feeling about a brand. However, it usually will be based on underlying dimensions which included characteristics of the products to which the brand is attached such as reliability and performance. To understand perceived quality, the identification and measurement of the underlying dimension will be useful. Perceived quality is a major determinant of brand strength. Quality helps to increase market share, which results in lower unit costs through scale economies. So it provides a competitive edge over the rivals in securing potential market area by inspiring the customers.

Brand Association

To create brand equity, it is important that the brand have some strong, favourable and unique brand association. Creating strong, favourable and unique associations is a real challenge to marketers, but essential in terms of building customer-based brand equity.The favourable brand associations are created by convincing consumers that the brand possesses relevant attributes and benefits that satisfy their needs and wants such that they from positive overall brand judgments. Basically brand associations can be classified into three major categories viz, attributes, benefits and attitudes. Attributes are those descriptive features that characterize a product or service. Attributes are further sub divided into product related and non-product related. Benefits are the personal value consumers attach to the product or service attributes can be further distinguished into three categories i.e. functional benefits, experimental benefits and symbolic benefits. Brand attitudes are consumers overall evaluations of a brand, which is most important one because it is directly associated with the consumers buying behaviour.

Purchase Decision

            The core of marketing is exchange. It is the actualization of a transaction between the seller and the seeker of value. In this process the customer must make a choice or decisions with regard to selection of a value provider. A decision involves a choice between two or more alternative actions or behaviours (Henson, Flemming 1976). The customers essentially make two types of decision in the context of marketing. The first type of decisions is directed at the choice of product or service. These decisions are called assortment decisions. The second type decisions concern the choice of specific brands and how to obtain them. These are called market related decisions (Walters,GC 1974).

            After searching and evaluating the alternatives, the consumer must decide whether to buy or not. Thus, the first outcome is the decision to purchase or not to purchase. If the decision is to buy, various decisions are to be taken regarding where and when to make the actual transaction, how to take delivery or possession, the method of payment, and other issues. The buying decision also highly influenced with cultural, social, personal and psychological factors. For consumers, brand equity is the value addition in the product of the brand. Brand equity result in increase in sales through consumer’s acceptance.

Post Purchase Behaviour

            After purchasing the product, the consumer will experience some level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The consumer will also engage in post purchase action and product uses of interest to the marketer. The consumer’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product will influence subsequent behaviour, if the consumer is satisfied, then he/she will exhibit a higher probability of purchasing the product on the next occasion. The satisfied consumer will also tend to say good thighs about the product and the company to others. The post purchase behaviour is depending upon the extent of consumers’ set of experience stored in memory, how well they select products and stores and the type of feedback they received.

The post purchase evaluation involves comparison between the expectations and actual performance of the product or brand. There are three possibilities at this stage. First, there is no discrepancy between expectations and actual performance. It leaves the consumer with neutral feelings. Second, performance exceeds expectations, in this situation consumer feels satisfied. Third, performance falls below expectations, this leaves the consumer dissatisfied (Cadotte, Ernet R, Robert B Woodruff and Roger L Jenkins 1987). Post purchase behaviour indicates to what extent these purpose have been met and motives achieved. Post purchase activity gives an indication as to whether the customers are going to again patronize a firm in future, and also whether they will be in a mood to recommend a product to potential customers.

Conclusion

            So it is concluded that the customer based brand equity discussed by considering the perceptions of brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand knowledge, perceived quality, brand association, purchase decision and post purchase behaviour are the most essential elements for forming customer based brand equity. As a result the manufacturers and marketers should build brand loyalty among the customers. The loyalty will be created by the through brand knowledge which consists of brand image, brand recall etc. So the customers will be aware about the brand what ever they are buying. The quality aspects should be covered with all other kinds of association characteristics which will leads the customers towards purchase decision. Finally the post purchase behaviour of the customers after utilizing a product will reflect the real brand equity of a brand.  

References:

Cadotte, Ernet R, Robert B Woodruff and Roger L Jenkins, “ Expectations and Norms in Models of Consumer Satisfaction, Journal of Marketing Research, Aug 1987, pp. 305-14.

David A.Aaker, “Positioning your Brand”, Business Horizons, 25, May/June1982, pp 56-63.

Farquhar, Peter H, “Managing Brand Equity”, Marketing Research, A Magazine of Management and Applications, 1989, pp. 23-33.

Keller Kevin Lane, “Conceptualizing, Measuring and Managing Customer Based Brand Equity”, Journal of Marketing, Jan 1993, pp. 1-22.

Kevin Lane Keller, Strategic Brand Management, Second Edition , Pearson Education Singapore) Pvt., Ltd., (2004).p.60

Kevin Lane Keller, Susan Heckler and Michael J.Houston, “The Effects of Brand Name Suggestiveness on Advertising Recall”, Journal of Marketing, 62, Jan,1998, pp. 48-5.

Mary W.Sullivan, “How Brand Names Affect the Demand for Twin Automobiles,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XXXV (May 1998), pp.154-165.

Rossiter, J.R, and Piercy.L (1987), “Advertising and Promotion Management, McGraw-Hill , New York, NY.

S.P.Raj, “Striking a Balance Between Brand ‘Popularity’ and Brand Loyalty”, Journal of Marketing, 49, Winter 1985, pp. 53-59

Valarie A.Zeithaml, “Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality , and Value: A Means –End Model and Synthesis of Evidence,” Journal of Marketing, July 1988, pp.2-22.

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