Justification for Brand Image and Brand Salience - Essay Example

Brand Image and Brand Salience The stiff competitive nature of the modern market systems coupled with the vast globalization has made the aspect of brand management an important marketing function. Brand management assists organizations to differentiate themselves from competitors and by extension avoid the avoid competition that is bent on price wars. The prime aim is to crate customer loyalty. This feat saves the company of the added costs of constantly sourcing for customers through promotional campaigns (Aaker 2004). The focus is therefore on customer retention through offering valuable products and services that create good memories and instigates the desire to buy the same brand next time. This paper evaluates the importance of brand image and brand salience in the whole mix of brand management. The specific focus is on appraisal (justification), comparison and contrasting of the two aspects. Finally a system of brand image creation for a new product is presented. Justification for Brand Image and Brand Salience Brand image and brand salience are two important aspects of the marketing theory. Their significance can be evaluated upon their ability to influence buying behavior and consecutive buying decisions by a consumer (Guido 1998). The product quality and price aside, these two aspects play a role in the buying decisions of a buyer in a non-monopoly market where there are many brands that are almost similar. It follows therefore that marketing executives have to allocate time and effort to promote brand image and brand salience for their products. Brand image refers to the sum total of consumer perceptions about a brand. It reflects the consumers’ opinion of the product though it may not necessarily coincide with the brand identity. Brand image is simply a reasoned or emotional perception that consumers will have over a product or range of products from a specific manufacturer (Guido 1998). The importance of brand image in the marketing mix is derived from the rationale that it represents a set of consumer beliefs regarding a product and that would be a force strong enough to instigate a buying behavior. Brand image emanates from the establishment of ideas and feelings towards a particular product and it is a learning process that ends with the customers getting accustomed to the brand. Organizations therefore have to strive to create strong and positive perceptions about their products in order to surpass competition from other products in the same category. This is because consumers are going to attach higher value to a brand they give a higher perception. Brand salience on the other hand can be taken to mean the propensity of a brand to be thought of by the buyers. It refers to the extent and speed with which a product will cross the mind of a consumer in a buying situation. Concern for a product’s salience from a marketer’s point of view is whether or not a certain brand will rank as the first one or simply highly in the mind of a buyer before making a choice. The concept of single operationalization refers to the ease of remembering the brand name as a member of otherwise wide category of products (Romaniuk 2010). Brand salience is an advertising ingredient and modern marketers have capitalized on this fact. In other words a company can create a brand salience through advertising campaign. The rationale is to create valuable and consistent memories with the consumers and consequently be reflected in their buying behavior. Comparison between Brand Image and Brand Salience There is a strong connection between the two aspects in marketing. Brand image is composed of the brand attributes that are created in the mind of the consumers once they think of a particular brand such as the name. Brand salience on the other hand refers to the propensity of the consumer to recall a certain brand in a buying situation. This interrelationship cannot be slighted in any marketing management context. The two phenomena cannot be treated or managed in isolation of one another. In essence brand image can be seen as the first step towards creating brand salience. The consumer must have an opinion of one kind or the other regarding a specific product or service for him/her to create memories that translate to the brand salience. In other words the brand image when embedded in the long term memory of the consumers becomes the brand salience. The two hence work together to influence the buying decision making process of a willing consumer (Guido, G 1998). The role of the management in handling brand image and brand salience is that of meeting the expectations of the consumers. The brand image simply represents a reasoned opinion of a rational consumer regarding the product quality and features. The same must in reality be reflected upon the purchase and subsequent consumption of the product. If in any case the experiences of a product greatly deviates from the consumers’ expectations that will invite frustration form the consumers and will revise his/her opinion towards the product. The good memories of the perceive quality will not be retained and the same product will not rank first in subsequent purchases. It would follow therefore that the brand salience creation process will be aborted prematurely. Differences between Brand Image and Brand Salience Brand image and brand salience differ in certain respects. For instance while brand image will virtually represent the perception of the consumers regarding the product which may not reflect the true state of affairs; brand salience will result from experiences with a product which creates a form of orientation and the consumers becomes realistically attached to the brand. This is a major deviation between the two concepts (Logman 2004). Studies have suggested that light consumers of a product will still mention the product with the strongest image. This is regardless of the fact that they consume products from that category or not. For example somebody who is not a drinker when asked to name a certain brand of alcoholic drink will likely to mention one of the best selling brands, say Guinness. This creates questions of how the high propensity to think about the brand came into being without constant engagement with the product (Yoo & Donthu 2001). Importance of Consistency in Brand Image Marketing executives and thinkers have taunted consistency as a pre-requisite to success. It is on this basis that the importance of consistency in brand image can be drawn. Customers are likely to program the look of the image and identify themselves with the product owing to the brand image. With time the product becomes embedded in their though process and will always give a consideration for it once they want to make a buying decision. In other words they link the brand image to the things they consider important in their buy list. Consistency can also help to create good memories in the minds of consumers. With time and wide spread usage of the brand image the product can become like the icon for the class of the product in the market (Hung, 2001). Consistency in brand image facilitates transformation of a new business from a small scale venture up the ranks to a market leader. This feat can be achieved by devising a standard brand identity guideline that can be used even when they operations of the entity grow in size and become diversified. This can be made possible though hiring the services of an overseer or enforcer (Hung 2001). The new business is able to hit the market by creating a strong force in the market by a promiscuous brand image. Frequent changes in brand image are not likely to reflect well in the eyes of the customers and may find it difficult to maintain their association with the producer. The rule of thumb in ensuring consistency with the brand image is create a very striking and well rehearsed brand strategy and identify at the start up level. This should follow the work of market survey to ensure that what is chosen reflects the insight of the majority of the customers. The brand image could at times be the sole identity of the firm. Though the same could be old and monotonously used for a long time it could be the weapon that allows the business to penetrate the market. Once it is lost or changed the penetration power is lost and the company’s fortunes will be dwindled. The image could be the sole representation of the expertise of the company in its field of specialization. It follows therefore that a complete change would be undesirable. What organizations should strive to do is to fine tune it to ensure that it moves with the changing environmental factors and company growth pattern (Logman 2004). Relationship between Brand Image and Brand salience Many scholars contend to the fact that many buyers will have less than appropriate time to make purchase decisions and they know that. Their aim will therefore to make choices that minimize their risks. The risk profile attached to a particular brand depends on their perceived brand image regarding the same product. After a series of consistent buying behavior based on this consideration, the same become embedded on their memories and this creates the brand salience. They become oriented to the product and consequently the product becomes the first in their buy list whenever they want to choose from the product category (Richardson, Dick & Jain 1994). Planning and Constructing a Brand Image for New product Successful marketing strategy for new products involves among other things making a strong introduction and uniquely presenting the product in an already existing market system. It is worth noting that consumers in the market already have their current choices of the product in the category to which the new product falls. Creating a strong brand image would go a long way to making the consumers think in a certain way about the company or the product itself. The brand image should at minimum be clearly defined to distinguish it from the other competitors in the same industry. There are a number of steps that should be taken to create an effective brand image for a new product (Aaker 2004). The brand design should be unique meaning it should not be a generic of an existing brand image and at the same time carry enough value in it. The value so referred should be reflected in the brand image’s ability to dislodge customers from their association with other brands and attach themselves to the new product. The brand further needs to be communicated in an understandable way (Aaker 2004). Consumers should precisely understand and remember it for them to incorporate it in their thought process while making purchases. The brand image should be capable of creating perceived value that creates perceived value which consequently makes the buyers impliedly commit their loyalty to the new product. The brand image must stand out from the pack of many of many others. It calls for total differentiation. A marketer should think what new dimension the product brings to the market. This involves resources implying that new product development should include the budget for brand image creation and communication which is the third step (Aaker 2004). The third step will entail driving the message to the right or targeted audience. The brand image is internally created but is only useful when it is externally viewed through effective communication. The message should be driven as a single idea. It is upon this single idea that all marketing tools should be based (Aaker 2004). All the efforts of the marketing functions should draw their originality and rationale from the brand image and this has to be done consistently. In essence the brand image should form the central theme upon which the product is presented to the consumers. The final step is fulfilling the commitments as formulated and communicated. A concern for honesty is a virtue not only it societal morals but also in business context. Creating customer loyalty is a call to meeting promises and expectations and where possible exceeding them (Aaker 2004). References Aaker, DA 2004, Brand Portfolio Strategy Creating Relevance, Differentiation, Energy, Leverage and Clarity, Free Press, New York. Guido, G 1998, ‘The Dichotic Theory of Salience: A Framework for Assessing Attention and Memory’, European Advances in Consumer Research Vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 114–19. Hung, KH 2001, ‘The Effects of Consistency, Distinctiveness and Size of Price Promotion on Brand Evaluations,’ Unpublished Master’s Thesis, National Taiwan University. Logman, M 2004, ‘The LOGMAN Model: A Logical Brand Management Model’, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 13 no. 2, pp. 94-104. Richardson, PS, Dick, AS & Jain, AK 1994, ‘Extrinsic and Extrinsic Cue Effect on Perceptions of Store Brand Quality,’ Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 28-36. Romaniuk, J 2010, ‘Brand Salience Measurement and Metrics, In Ehrenberg-Bass Institute Working Paper, Adelaide, South Australia: Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science. Yoo, B & Donthu N 2001, ‘Developing and Validating a Multidimensional Consumer-Based Brand Equity Scale’, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 52, pp. 1-14. Read More