Brand Image and Brand Salience - Coursework Example

Brand Image and Brand Salience Name: University: Course Title: Instructor: Date: Brand Image and Brand Salience 1.0 Introduction The ultimate goal of any business organization as a whole or through brands is to drive their profit margins. This can only be guaranteed when a business organization or a brand is capable of attracting and retaining customers so that they lock them in while locking out competitors. In essence, business organizations must gain competitive advantage through their brands of products and services to achieve sustainable and profitable business performance. The desirable end result of such business strategies would be market leadership in any given market segment chosen by a given business organization. One significant way through which business organizations can achieve market leadership is through appropriate marketing approaches. Successful marketing approaches arise from the ability of marketers to create and leave a lasting impression on customers. This implies that there must be proper communication between the business organization and its target customers. One way to leave this desired image is through branding so that the business organization can differentiate its products from those of their competitors. This can be achieved via easy to remember symbols, word and slogan among others (Ghani, 2012, p.147; Romaniuk and Sharp, 2004, p.327; Datta 1996, p.799). This paper seeks to examine the concept of brand image and brand salience as significant concepts in marketing. 2.0 Brand Image Nijssen and Frambach (2001, p.117) describe a brand as a name or rather a trademark that is associated with a given product or the manufacturer/producer of such a product. According to American Marketing Association, a “brand” other than being a trademark or a name can also refer to a term, symbol, design, or a sign or a combination of them which identifies the products and services of one business organization or group of business organizations and differentiate them from the products and services of competitors (Ghani, 2012, p.147). Branding as a business marketing strategy enables business organization in realizing their targeted performance. Research indicates that brand image is increasingly becoming significant components of culture, as well as the economy (Datta 1996, p.799). Brand image differentiates the products and services of a given business organization from those of its competitors. For instance, the “differentiation” component of a brand image is used by business companies to provide their products with equity and added value for strength and competitiveness. It is this “differentiation” in a brand image that enables companies to produce products which effectively satisfy the needs and preferences of the customers in a given market segment. Branding is an important exercise in guaranteeing market leadership by enabling business organizations define product oriented market lines for the various market segments. Consistency is critical in this process so as to guarantee customer value. 3.0 Brand Salience Brand salience in contemporary theory of marketing significantly draws from social psychology. Brand salience relates to the ability of a product or organizational brand to be distinct or rather “stand out” from others in the same category. Thus, saliency draws from the fact that not all of consumers or rather buyers’ beliefs on a given brand generate equal cognitive prominence. As a result, consumers or buyers may become more aware of some of their beliefs than other beliefs on a given brand of product or organization, which may be more easily and readily conceptualized in their thoughts. According to researches on saliency, it is this cognitive prominence that enable consumers or buyers to easily notice a given brand (Romaniuk and Sharp, 2004, p.327). In addition, cognitive prominence of a brand enables buyers to more easily retrieve them from long term memory. As such, brand salience is concerned with both the quality as well as the quantity of memory structures’ network held by consumers regarding a particular brand of product or business organization. In essence therefore, brand salience plays a significant role in influencing consumers’ choice of brands, as well as consumer/buyer behaviour. Romaniuk and Sharp (2004, p.327) postulates that brand salience is much more than brand awareness and attitudes; as well as the propensity for customers to recognize or remember a brand when buying. As such, brand salience is conceptualized as the prominence or rather how easily consumers or buyers can access a particular brand of product or organization in their memory. According to research, from the perspective of human memory, prominence is achievable in two distinct ways. First, current prominence in which consumers or buyers of a given brand of product notice, remember or recognize the recent brand they bought and that is what is retrieved from their working memory. Second, consumers or buyers notice, remember or recognize a given brand of product from long term memory. Brand salience is thus concerned with the prominence of a given brand of product when consumers or buyers are in buying/shopping situations or consumption of media situations such as reading or viewing a brand marketing advert. 4.0 Comparison of Concepts According to Datta (1996, p.799), product branding is a significant strategy in business marketing which enables business organization achieve their business targets and objectives. Research indicates that business organizations have recognize that brands are increasingly becoming crucial and key players in organizational culture as well as the economy. Similarly, business organizations recognize that to drive their sales, their product saliency must become increasingly prominent and easily accessible in both the short term as well as the long term memory of their consumers or buyers. As such, they strive to create brand which provide consumers and buyers best experience. The modern day consumers want the characteristics, superiority, quality, and brands of products, services and companies which raise their experience. Therefore, both brand image and brand salience are employed companies and marketing agencies to ensure that products and services correspond to the lifestyles of consumers, awake their feelings, and agitate their souls, as well as minds (Grundey, 2008, p.145). Despite the fact that both the concepts of brand image and brand salience are significant strategies in business marketing and driving product and services sales, they also exhibit differences. According to American Marketing Association, a “brand” other than being a trademark or a name can also refer to a term, symbol, design, or a sign or a combination of them which identifies, products and services of one company or group of companies and differentiate them from the products and services of competitors (another company or group of companies) (Ghani, 2012, p.147). Romaniuk and Sharp (2004, p.328) on the other hand reiterate that brand salience is concerned with brand equity. Brand equity refers to the differential effects resulting from a brand name which heightens the propensity of a brand of product or service to be noticed, remembered, recognized or even thought of when consumers or buyers are in buying/shopping situations or consumption of media situations such as reading or viewing a brand marketing advert. In essence, brand image is product oriented while brand salience is consumer or buyers oriented since it is cognitive in nature. 5.0 The importance of Brand Image and Brand Salience A brand can be described as a name or rather a trademark that is associated with a given product or the manufacturer/producer of such a product. For instance, In the automobiles industry brands represents the various models of cars associated with car manufacturers such as Toyota, Ford, VW, Mercedes Benz, Renault and Mitsubishi just to name, but a few (Nijssen & Frambach, 2001, p.117). Brand image and brand salience play important role in business marketing by being value adding strategies which seek to project the brands of products and services, as well as the organizations associated with a specific brand of products or services. As such, product and service brands are the some of the assets of organizations with the most significant values which provide business organizations with competitive advantage over competitors in the marketplace. Due to the prevailing competition in the global business environment, organizations in various industries are increasing becoming keen promoting brands, as well as creating brand value with the objective of projecting their products and services; and sustainability in the marketplace (West, Ford & Ibrahim, 2010). Brand image and brand salience enable business organizations to define their product lines for the various customer groups or rather market segments. Brand managers in organizations use brand image and brand salience as promotional strategies to achieve a variety of objectives among them; increase their sales, enhance their image, as well as to create brand awareness. 6.0 Practical Example Organizations have recognized that superior customer experiences are significant for their successes. As such it is crucial that business organizations incorporated superior customer experience into their mission statements. Organizations must acquire the information regarding the value that target customers place on their brands to market their products. Alternatively, they build customer value through producing brand of products which customers are likely to find competitive, satisfactory and trustworthy (Ghani, 2012, p.150). Therefore, the process of branding must also include market segmentation. McDonald (2007, p.370) notes that segmentation is the process through which companies subdivide the market into various distinct groups of customers who need different products or marketing mixes. Thus, to plan a brand image, it is crucial that business organization seek information about: buying and usage behaviour of customers; attitudes of buyers towards a given product or service category; and buyer attributes such as psychographics, geographic, and demographics. For instance, automobile companies exploit segmentation of markets by targeting specific needs and preferences of consumers via producing cars with higher margins, but lower volume, and tailored to the needs and preferences of customer in the various market segments (OECD, 2007, p.66). Taking Toyota as a practical example, the company markets its luxury cars under brand name Lexus, mid-range cars under Toyota brand and Scion brand for small cars meant for the youths. According to Raulerson, Malraison and Leboyer (2009, p.31), these three brands share facilities, parts and management, but are perceived different from each other by customers. In the Australian auto industry how companies communicate and market their brands significantly influence the volume of their sales. Even though Holden Commodore as a model is a stronger brand, Toyota as a corporate brand remains the most appealing brand in Australia (Deloitte, 2010, p.11). A study conducted by Hanzaee and Yazd (2010) indicated that a product’s brand had significant influence on customer value and behavioural intentions. Customers’ value of a given brand of car influences his behavioural intentions with regard to search and purchase of that given brand of car. The figure below is a conceptual model representing the influence of a brand on customer value and behavioural intentions (search and purchase). Figure 1: Conceptual model for the influence of a brand on customer value and behavioural intentions Source: (Hanzaee & Yazd, 2010, p.3779) MacDonald (2007, p.373) postulates that the use of market segmentation in enhancing brand image is a significant source of competitiveness. The success of automobile companies such as Toyota is dependent on their ability to discover new segmentation possibilities, effective communication with customers and marketing in these market segments. Toyota for instance, employs off-the-shelf product components which are very basic and extremely simple such as the production of small, medium and large cars with regard to the needs and preferences of customers in the different market segments (McDonald, 2007, p.373) which they then market through effective communication to the customers in such market segments. 7.0 Conclusion This paper emphasizes that for business organizations to be successful, their marketing approaches must be effective and their branding must adequately meet the needs and preferences of their consumers or buyers in the various categories of market. As such, customers must find product and services, as well as corporate brands trustworthy, reliable, competitive price-wise and of impeccable quality. This paper concludes brand image and brand salience must be unique and distinctive to enable business organizations differentiate their products and services from those of their competitors in any given marketplace. 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