Position your brand
In the process of building customer-based brand equity it is also important to
identify the maximum level of congruence between brand associations.
Congruence means that it is beneficial to build the communication platform
around the associations that are the most similar. Congruence among the different
brand associations determines the cohesiveness of the brand image. A coherent
brand image facilitates the spreading activity in the mind of the consumer. In other
words, the ‘computer’ is better able to process data it does not have to retrieve in
too many different places.
The need for congruence is related to the question of heuristics in the infor-
mation-processing theory of consumer choice. The consumer has a limited
processing capacity and lives in a world of a million commercial messages.
Therefore, the consumer only pays attention to the incoming information that
captures attention andstarts a relatively easy spreading activity.
Consistency in communications is also a key aspect of the consumer-based
approach. Once having established high brand awareness and the right
congruent brand associations, it is assumed risky to change course. These
aspects of the consumer-based approach share many characteristics with the
idea of positioning(Ries and Trout 1983, 2001). This hugely popular theory
rests upon the same key assumptions about the human mind being a computer
with limited processing capabilities in an over-communicated society which is
why the clever marketers are the ones repeating over and over again the
commercial messages that are fine-tuned to establish a lasting mental territory
for the brand. This very important aspect of the consumer-based approach is
what associates it with terms like Unique Selling Proposition, brand DNA,
brand mantra, and ‘owning associations’.
Marketing a brand according to the consumer-based approach also requires
identifying the most relevant competition. As customer-based brand equity is
defined as being either positive or negative compared with competitors, there is
- The brand name should be easily recognized. Studies show that
pseudo-words (nonsense) words are more difficult to recognize than
real words (meaning something). But as the number of exposures
increases the difference seems to diminish. - Consider a frequently used word as brand name. Frequently used
words are more easily remembered than infrequently used words.
Other criteria apply when it comes to recalling a brand name. The inquiring
reader should turn to the original source, as the above list is by no means
exhaustive and meant only to indicate how many details the marketer can go
into when managing the brand in the consumer-based approach.
SourceAlba and Hutchinson (1987)106 Seven brand approaches