382 The Marketing Book
Having elicited a functional attribute, which
acts as the anchor point, customers are then
asked why such an attribute might be impor-
tant to them. They are then asked why this
reason is important, and through repeatedly
probing about why the reason is important, a
value emerges. While this takes time to admin-
ister, it provides a rich insight into the brand’s
image.
For low involvement categories, where
customers habitually buy the brand, or under-
take minimal information searching, brand
image is a holistic impression of the brand’s
position relative to its perceived competitors. To
identify the brand’s image a low involvement
evaluation procedure would be appropriate, for
example mental mapping. Customers are asked
which brands they believe a particular brand
competes against. The brand under attention
and the other named brands are then written on
cards. These are shuffled and given to the
person, who is asked to arrange all the cards on a
desk in such a way that those brands perceived
to be similar are placed close to each other. After
photographing the way the cards were
arranged, the respondent is asked to explain
their map, and from this insight is provided
about the brand’s image.
Brand as relationship
The interpretation of a brand as a relationship
is a logical extension of the idea of a brand’s
personality: if brands can be personified, then
customers can have relationships with them.
Research has shown (e.g. Fournier, 1998) that
relationships are purposive and enable both
parties to provide meanings. Customers
choose brands in part because they seek to
understand their self and to communicate
aspects of their self to others. Through engag-
ing in a relationship, albeit briefly, customers
are able to resolve ideas about their self and,
with the brand metaphorically akin to an
active member of a dyad, it helps legitimize
the customer’s thoughts about themselves.
Within this perspective managers consider
how the brand’s values should give rise to a
particular type of relationship.
The interpretation of brands as relation-
ships enables managers to involve staff more in
the branding process. Some people find the
concept of brand values difficult to understand,
but they feel more confident about the idea of
describing relationships. One way of getting
employees to consider the implications of their
brand’s values is to use a variant on the party
game, ‘in the manner of the word’. Members of a
department are brought together and someone
is asked to leave the room with their manager.
That person chooses one of the brand’s values
and spends a few moments thinking about what
this means in terms of the relationship they
should be building with their clients to reinforce
the brand. They return to the room and in front
of their colleagues mime a series of activities. As
these are taking place their colleagues shout out
the value they think is being enacted and terms
to describe the relationship. A facilitator writes
on a flip chart what is being shouted and the
miming continues until the ‘actor’ feels some-
one has correctly mentioned both the value and
the relationship implications they are acting.
Besides being a fun activity, it surfaces lots of
assumptions about the brand’s values and
relationships. As staff have used their own
phrases and their own scenarios, it enables their
manager to build on their frames of reference
and help them develop more appropriate rela-
tionships in their daily working tasks.
When considering what the relationship
implications are from the brand’s values, it is
important to recognize that relationships come
about because of reciprocal exchanges
between at least two individuals. While the
organization may wish to use its brand to
develop a close relationship with its custom-
ers, they may prefer instead to have a more
distant relationship. It is therefore important
that, once a relationship has been identified,
research be undertaken with customers to
evaluate their view about the desired relation-
ship. Through understanding what customers
want from a relationship, then revising the