Moreover, strong brand enhances positive evaluations of a product’s quality, maintains a high level of product awareness, and provides a consistent image or brand personality.. This prop
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW2.1 Brand and brand equity 2.1.1 Brand definition
Brands have arguably existed for thousands of years (Moore and Reid 2008), but the modern idea of brands commences in the late 19" century with the introduction of trademarks and attractive packaging (Fullerton 1988; McCrum 2000), which were developed as ‘a guarantee of authenticity’ (Feldwick 1991, p21) The origins of branding were reflected in the American Marketing Association (AMA) 1960 definition of the brand, which focused on tangible brand attributes as points of differentiation: “A name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of the competitors” (Cited in Wood 2000 p664)
The problem with this early definition was that, whilst being relatively straightforward, it failed to account for the introduction of consideration of intangible brand attributes into brand theory (e.g Gardner and Levy 1955) A more recent AMA definition (1995) adds ‘any other feature’ to the attributes that might differentiate, reflecting the developments in brand theory The open- endedness of this definition reflects increasingly varied perspectives and definitions of brand, leading Stern (2006, p216) to discuss “semantic confusion” and the “instability and idiosyncratic usage” of the word brand Likewise, de Chernatony (1989) discusses problems with the interpretation of the term brand, Wood (2000, p664) proposes that there are “diverse approaches to brand definition”, and Kapferer (2004, p9) suggests that that each “expert comes up with his or her own definition, or nuance to the definition.” One interesting approach to brand definition is illustrated by de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley
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(1998), who consider brands as constituted by their components However, even this approach presents the problem of what components might be included For example de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley do not include brand equity amongst the components, and the evolution of brand theory continues to add to potential brand components (e.g brands as cultural artifacts, Schroeder 2009) In addition to questions of which components might be included, a further problem arises in how the components might be defined and delineated As just one example, the definition of brand image is the subject of debate (Stern et al 2001), including how it might be delineated from other brand components (Patterson
Brand equity Brand equity is important in marketing consumer godds and services
Brand equity is regarded as very important concept in business practice as well as in academic research because marketers can gain competitive advantage through successful brand The competitive advantage of firms that have brands with high equity includes the opportunity for successful extensions, resilience against competitors’ promotional pressures, and creation of barriers to competitive entry (Farquhar, 1989) Building brand equity is considered an important part of brand building Most articles automatically assume that brand equity has an impact on a brand's performance; brands should do everything feasible to increase their equity However, it does not make sense economically to invest a firm’s scarce resources in strategies to add value if the value does not translate into preferences and purchase behavior Brand equity is supposed to bring several advantages to firm For example, high brand equity levels are known to lead to higher consumer preferences and purchase intentions (Cobb-Walgren et al 1995) Firms with high brand equity are also known to have high stock returns (Aaker and Jacobson, li NGUYEN THỊ THANH TAM - MBAOUM0912 3D- 2451972
1994) Aaker (1991) provide the most comprehensive definition of brand equity available in the literature, defining brand equity as: “a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol that add to or subtract from value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firm’s customers”
In effect, Aaker conceptualized brand equity as a set of assets (or liabilities) He uses is consumer preference ratings for a branded product versus an unbranded equivalent Aaker is one of the few authors to incorporate both perceptual and behavioral dimensions He suggested using a brand-earnings multiplier that is based on a weighted average of the brand on five key components of brand equity: awareness, associations, perceived quality, loyalty, and other proprietary assets such as patents and trademarks Many researchers try to prove the real brand equity model Pappu and et.al.(2005) provide empirical evidence of the multidimensionality of consumer - based brand equity, supporting Aaker’s and Keller’s conceptualization of brand equity The research also enriched consumer- based brand equity measurement by incorporating the brand personality measures The overall model goodness-of-fit results and the measurement model supported the proposed four-factor model The measures of absolute and incremental fit indicated that model in each case was acceptable The overall results of the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that consumer-based brand equity was a four-dimensional construct So, this dissertation will use Aaker’s model for measuring corporate re-branding strategy on brand equity by excluding other proprietary assets component
Element of brand equity Brand equity can be defined as many different ways, including some small elements such as brand awareness, perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand association and proprietary brand assets (Aaker, 1996) Whereas, Aaker and
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Joachimsthaler (2000) have defined brand equity in various concepts which namely are; brand awareness, brand association, brand loyalty and perceived quality Other scholars also argue that the brand equity is a multifactor structure that contains brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand knowledge, customer satisfaction perceived equity, brand associations, and other proprietary assets (Aaker, 1991, 1996; Blackston, 1995; Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995) Further research is more inclined to consider brand equity and other brand assets, such as brand knowledge, brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, perceived quality, as inseparable parts of brand equity, yet independent (Keller, 1993;
This study will discuss the dimensions of brand equity as according to the theories of brand equity found by both authors namely: Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2000) and Keller (2003) The dimensions of brand equity being discussed in this paper consist of brand association, brand awareness perceived quality, brand loyalty and brand image e Brand awareness
Brand awareness is a key and essential element of brand equity which is often overlooked (Aaker, 1996), and it is a prevalent selecting factor among customers (Cobb-Walgrenet al., 1995) Aaker (1996) defines brand awareness as the durability of a brand that embedded in the customer memory Therefore, brand awareness will be created by ongoing visibility, enhancing familiarity and powerful associations with related offerings and buying experiences (Keller, 1998) Keller (1993, 1998) further argues that brand awareness could influence customer decision making in buying goods via strong brand association Pitta and Katsanis (1995) have argued that there is an inter-relationship between brand awareness and brand association by asserting that the brand awareness of a product can be produced in the consumer's mind prior to brand association of the
13 NGUYEN THỊ THANH TAM - MBAOUM0912 3D- 2451972 product is built and embedded in the consumer’s memory Atigan et al (2005) and Pappu (2005) have also pointed out the correlation between brand association and brand awareness © Perceived quality
According to Aaker (1996), one of the main elements of brand equity is perceived quality and perceived quality itself is an essential part of study in evaluating brand equity According to Aaker (1991, p 85-86), perceived quality can be defined as the overall perception of customers about brilliance and quality of products or services in comparing with the rivalry offering Zeithaml (1988) and Erenkol and Duygun (2010) states that quality of product is different from perceived quality because the perceived quality is the buyer’s subjective appraisal of the product
Therefore perceived quality cannot necessarily be fairly determined because perceived quality in itself is a summary construct (Aaker, 1991, p 85-86)
Zeithaml (1988) asserts that perceived quality can act as a key influencing factor in determining consumer's choices According to Motameni and Shahrokhi (1998) and Yoo et al (2000), perceived quality is positively related to the brand equity © Brand loyalty
Aaker (1991) defines brand loyalty as symbolizes a constructive mind set toward brand that leading to constant purchasing of the brand over time Aaker (1991) also argues that brand loyalty is an essential element when it comes to evaluate a brand in terms of value because loyalty can generate profit According to Assael (1992, p.87-89) and Samuelsen and Sanvik (1997, p 1123-1128), there are two approaches being used to understand the brand loyalty that have completely outclassed in the marketing literature The first approach in marketing literature
NGUYEN THỊ THANH TAM - MBAOUM0912 3D- 2451972 14 is behavioral approach to brand loyalty in which the advocators believe that constant purchasing of one brand over time is an indicator of brand loyalty The second approach in the marketing literature is cognitive approach to brand loyalty in which the advocators argue that behavior solely does not reflect brand loyalty According to Yoo (2000), brand loyalty has the power to impact on customer decision to purchase the same product or brand and decline to shift to competitors’ brands As a result, Yoo (2000) concludes that brand loyalty 1s the core of brand’s value In addition, Strategic Marketing and Research Techniques (2008) discover that there is a strong positive relationship between customer loyalty and brand image
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Corporate branding Definition and features