The Marketing Book 5th Edition

Essence

Distinctive

name

Risk

reducer

Symbol

feature

Service

components

Sign of

ownership

Legal

protection

Shorthand

notation

Functional

capabilities

Brand building 391

Huczynski, 1997). To decide upon the level of
empowerment, consideration must be given to
the brand’s values, the organization’s culture,
the business strategy and the types of staff
(Bowen and Lawler, 1992).
An outcome from the mechanistic and
humanistic components of the value delivery
system is that it engenders a unique relation-
ship between customers and the brand. As
thinking becomes more refined in the flow
model of Figure 15.8, so eventually a genuine
relationship of trust and respect should emerge,
bonding customers to the brand. Alas, some
organizations have become overly attached to
the cost savings from IT. There still remains a
need for some staff interaction with customers,
even just having an empathetic telephone
helpline team, otherwise the firm is erecting
barriers impeding bonding between consumers
and its brands (Pringle and Gordon, 2001).

Brand resourcing which

characterizes the brand

Just as the marketing mix enables a marketing
strategy to be enacted, so the atomic model,
shown in Figure 15.15, enables the brand
essence to be realized.
There are eight components that can be
used to characterize the brand essence. Pro-
gressing in a clockwise manner, the first two
components relate to brand naming. To what
extent is the brand’s name going to exhibit the
name of the company owning it (sign of
ownership) and to what extent will the brand
have the freedom to bear its unique name
(distinction name)? The functional capability
component summarizes the functional advan-
tages of the brand, for example performance,
reliability and aesthetics. Provision needs to be
made for after-sales service, through the service
components. Engendering consumer confi-
dence by allaying particular worries is the task
which the risk reducer component addresses.
Questions to be resolved here include the
extent to which the brand should major on
reducing performance risk or time risk, or

social risk, or financial risk. The legal protection

component focuses on providing the brand

with rights to prosecute counterfeiters. The

shorthand notation component forces the

brand’s team to simplify the brand presentation

so there is more emphasis on quality, rather

than quantity, of information. Finally, the sym-

bol feature component considers how the

brand’s values can be brought to life through

associations with a personality or lifestyle.

Brand evaluation

By following the flow chart in Figure 15.8, there

is a greater likelihood of developing an inte-

grated brand which is respected by all stake-

holders. Brands are complex multidimensional

entities and thus to use just one measure, e.g.

sales, gives a superficial evaluation of brand

performance.

Instead, brand metrics are needed that

monitor the suitability of the internal support-

ing systems, along with the external favour-

ability of the brand’s essence and the degree of

satisfaction generated by the eight components

of the brand.

Figure 15.15 The atomic model of the brand