Marketing Communications

BRAND EQUITY 55

oft en, in diff erent usage situations.^52 Deep and broad awareness are necessary to penetrate the

consideration set of consumers. Th e more a brand is in the consideration set of consumers,

the greater the chance that it will be purchased and that consumers will become loyal to it.^53

Furthermore, brand awareness leads to more interest and processing of advertising for the

brand, thereby enhancing the eff ectiveness of marketing communications.^54 Brand awareness

is more than just being aware of the fact that the brand exists. It also includes knowing what

the product stands for, and its attributes and characteristics, such as the brand logo, the

manufacturing company, functional, situational and symbolic characteristics, price, quality,

performance and advertising characteristics.

Performance refers to the extent to which the product meets the customer’s utilitarian,

aesthetic and economic needs and wants.^55 Th e utilitarian needs are largely grasped by the

attributes and the benefi ts that the product provides (number of calories, customer friendli-

ness, number of fl ights a day, a smooth shave, etc.). Besides attributes and benefi ts, there are

also other dimensions that diff erentiate the brand and determine a brand’s performance. A

nice style and design can be important to fulfi l the consumer’s aesthetic needs (think of how

Apple changed the computer landscape by introducing colours and frivolous designs). Price

is important because consumers may infer from the price whether the product is cheap or

expensive, and whether they can trust it or not. Perceived quality is the consumer’s subjective

judgement about a product’s overall quality, its excellence and superiority relative to alter-

natives.^56 Quality and superiority are extremely important because they largely determine

brand purchase.^57

Brand imagery 58 is related to how well the brand fulfi ls consumers’ psychological and social

needs. It refers to how consumers think about a brand in an abstract way rather than to what

consumers believe the brand really does. Brand imagery pertains to intangible brand aspects

that can become linked to the brand by customer experience, marketing communications,

word of mouth, etc. A fi rst intangible association that consumers can make with a brand is

user image. For example, the stereotypical user of Oil of Olay is seen as ‘a pretty, down-to-

earth, solid, female citizen’.^59 It goes without saying that a brand’s user image should corre-

spond to the target group’s actual or ideal self to be eff ective.^60 A second type of intangible

association pertains to usage imagery. Usage imagery indicates which usage situations

Figure 2.4 Components of consumer brand equity

Source : Based on Aaker, D.A. (1996), Building Strong Brands. New York: Free Press.

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