Criteria for choosing brand elements
1) memorability
2) meaningulness
3) likability
4) transferability
5) adaptability
6) protect ability
memorability
Easily recognized
Easily recalled
A necessary condition for building brand equity is achieving a high level of brand awareness. Brand elements that promote that goal are inherently memorable and attention-getting and therefore facilitate recall or recognition in purchase or consumption settings. For example, a brand of propane gas cylinders named Blue Rhino featuring a powder-blue animal mascot with a distinctive yellow flame is likely to stick in the minds of consumers.
meaningfulness
Descriptive
Persuasive
Brand elements may take on all kinds of meaning, with either descriptive or persuasive content
Two particularly important criteria are how well the brand element conveys the following:
General information about the function of the product or service: Does the brand element have descriptive meaning and suggest something about the product category, the needs satisfied or benefits supplied? How likely is it that a consumer could correctly identify the product category for the brand based on any one brand element? Does the brand element seem credible in the product category?
Specific information about particular attributes and benefits of the brand: Does the brand element have persuasive meaning and suggest something about the particular kind of product, or its key points-of-difference attributes or benefits? Does it suggest something about some aspect of the product performance or the type of person who might use the brand?
The first dimension is an important determinant of brand awareness and salience; the second, of brand image and positioning.
likability
Fun and interesting
‘Rich visual and verbal imagery
Aesthetically pleasing
Independent of its memorability and meaningfulness, do customers find the brand element aesthetically appealing?1 Is it likable visually, verbally, and in other ways? Brand elements can be rich in imagery and inherently fun and interesting, even if not always directly related to the product.
A memorable, meaningful, and likable set of brand elements offers many advantages because consumers often do not examine much information in making product decisions. Descriptive and persuasive elements reduce the burden on marketing communications to build awareness and link brand associations and equity, especially when few other product-related associations exist. Often, the less concrete the possible product benefits are, the more important is the creative potential of the brand name and other brand elements to capture intangible characteristics of a brand.
Transferability
Within and across product categories
Across geographic boundaries and cultures
Transferability measures the extent to which the brand element adds to the brand equity for new products or in new markets for the brand. There are several aspects to this criterion
First, how useful is the brand element for line or category extensions? In general, the less specific the name, the more easily it can be transferred across categories
Second, to what extent does the brand element add to brand equity across geographic boundaries and market segments? To a large extent, this depends on the cultural content and linguistic qualities of the brand element. One of the main advantages of nonmeaningful, synthetic names like Exxon is that they transfer well into other languages
The difficulties or mistakes that even top marketers have encountered in translating their brand names, slogans, and packages into other languages and cultures over the years have become legendary. To avoid such complications, companies must review all their brand elements for cultural meaning before introducing the brand into a new market.
5) Adaptability
Flexible
Adaptable
The fifth consideration for brand elements is their adaptability over time. Because of changes in consumer values and opinions, or simply because of a need to remain contemporary, most brand elements must be updated. The more adaptable and flexible the brand element, the easier it is to update it. For example, logos and characters can be given a new look or a new design to make them appear more modern and relevant
6) Protectability
Legally
competitively
The first three criteria—memorability, meaningfulness, and likability—are the marketer’s offensive strategy and build brand equity. The latter three—transferability, adaptability, and protectability—however, play a defensive role for leveraging and maintaining brand equity in the face of different opportunities and constraints.
The sixth and final general consideration is the extent to which the brand element is protectable—both in a legal and a competitive sense. Marketers should (1) choose brand elements that can be legally protected internationally, (2) formally register them with the appropriate legal bodies, and (3) vigorously defend trademarks from unauthorized competitive infringement
Another consideration is whether the brand is competitively protectable. If a name, package, or other attribute is too easily copied, much of the uniqueness of the brand may disappear.
More meaningful th brand name
more difficult it may be to transfer it to new prodiuct categories or other cultures
Brand names
The brand name is a fundamentally important choice because it often captures the central theme or key associations of a product in a very compact and economical fashion. Brand names can be an extremely effective shorthand means of communication. Whereas an advertisement lasts half a minute, and a sales call could run to hours, customers can notice the brand name and register its meaning or activate it in memory in just a few second
hard for marketers t change so cpmaoes research names beforehand
can be a long process
naming guidelines
brand names come in different forms,–> can be the product function, a feature, personalty, made up,
have to be chosen based on the six criteria
how to create brand names that will bring high awareness
Brand names that are simple and easy to pronounce or spell, familiar and meaningful, and different, distinctive, and unusual can obviously improve brand awareness.
Simplicity and Ease of Pronunciation and Spelling
Simplicity reduces the effort consumers have to make to comprehend and process the brand name. Short names often facilitate recall because they are easy to encode and store in memory
Marketers can shorten longer names to make them easier to recall
make brand names easy to pronounce
Ideally, the brand name should have a clear, understandable, and unambiguous pronunciation and meaning.
To improve pronounceability and recallability, many marketers seek a desirable cadence and pleasant sound in their brand names.
Familiarity and meaningfulness
The brand name should be familiar and meaningful so it can tap into existing knowledge structures. It can be concrete or abstract in meaning. Because the names of people, objects, birds, animals, and inanimate objects already exist in memory, consumers have to do less learning to understand their meanings as brand names.
what to use to improve brsnd recognition; Differentiated, Distinctive, and Unique
To improve brand reognition→ brand names should be difefremt, distinctive and unusual
recognition depends on consumers’ ability to discriminate between brands, and more complex brand names are more easily distinguished. Distinctive brand names can also make it easier for consumers to learn intrinsic product information
A brand name can be distinctive because it is inherently unique, or because it is unique in the context of other brands in the category
Even if a distinctive brand name is advantageous for brand recognition, it also has to be credible and desirable in the product category.
Brand Associations
Because the brand name is a compact form of communication, the explicit and implicit meanings consumers extract from it are important.
The brand name can be chosen to reinforce an important attribute or benefit association that makes up its product positioning (see Figure 4-4). Besides performance-related considerations, brand names can also communicate more abstract considerations, such as Joy dishwashing liquid, Caress soap, and Obsession perfume
sounds of letters can influence consumer perceptions –> Plosives (string, concert letters), sibilants (more soft)
letters like x have been suggested like tech
Consumers sometimes prefer names that share letters with their own names (subconscious identification).
Even visual aspects (font, logotype) can shift consumer perceptions (e.g., bold fonts = strength, cursive = elegance).
Research shows harder consonants + higher vowel pitch make products (like cleaners or toilet paper) seem harsher, while softer sounds make them seem gentler.
naming procedures
1) define objectibes
2) generate names
3) screen initial candidates
4) study candidate names
5) research the final candidates
6) select the final name
define objectives
First, define the branding objectives in terms of the six general criteria we noted earlier, and in particular, define the ideal meaning the brand should convey. Recognize the role of the brand within the corporate branding hierarchy and how it should relate to other brands and products In many cases, existing brand names may serve, at least in part. Finally, understand the role of the brand within the entire marketing program and the target market
generates name
With the branding strategy in place, next, generate as many names and concepts as possible. Any potential sources of names are valid: company management and employees; existing or potential customers (including retailers or suppliers if relevant); ad agencies, professional name consultants, and specialized computer-based naming companies.
screen initial candidates
Screen all the names against the branding objectives and marketing considerations identified in step 1, and apply the test of common sense to produce a more manageable list. For example, General Mills starts by eliminating the following:
Names that have unintentional double meaning
Names that are unpronounceable, already in use, or too close to an existing name
Names that have obvious legal complications
Names that represent an obvious contradiction of the positioning
Next, General Mills runs in-depth evaluation sessions with management personnel and marketing partners to narrow the list to a handful of names, often conducting a quick-and-dirty legal search to help screen out possible problem
study candidate names
Collect more extensive information about each of the final 5 to 10 names. Before spending large amounts of money on consumer research, it is usually advisable to do an extensive international legal search. Because this step is expensive, marketers often search on a sequential basis, testing in each country only those names that survived the legal screening from the previous country.
Research the final candidates
conduct consumer research to confirm management expectations about the memorability and meaningfulness of the remaining names. Consumer testing can take all forms. Many firms attempt to simulate the actual marketing program and consumers’ likely purchase experiences as much as possible.36 Thus, they may show consumers the product and its packaging, price, or promotion so that they understand the rationale for the brand name and how it will be used. Other aids in this kind of research are realistic three-dimensional packages and concept boards or low-cost animatic advertising using digital techniques. Marketers may survey many consumers to capture differences in regional or ethnic appeal. They should also factor in the effects of repeated exposure to the brand name and what happens when the name is spoken versus written
Select the final name
Based on all the information collected from the previous step, management should choose the name that maximizes the firm’s branding and marketing objectives and then formally register it.
URLS
URLs (uniform resource locators) specify locations of pages on the Web and are also commonly referred to as domain names. Anyone wishing to own a specific URL must register and pay for the name. As companies clamored for space on the Web, the number of registered URLs increased dramatically. Every three-letter combination and virtually all words in a typical English dictionary have been registered. The sheer volume of registered URLs often makes it necessary for companies to use coined words for new brands if they wish to have a Web site for the brand
cybersquatting aka domain squatting
as defined by government law, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else
-
chapter `145
-
sept 2nd- class notes (chapter 1)26
-
chapter 2 textbook68
-
September 4th- session 3 chapter 232
-
chapter 3 - textbook74
-
session 4- September 9th36
-
hbr article17
-
session 5- September 11th5
-
chapter 922
-
chapter 10 textbook59
-
chapter 4 textbook44
-
September 18th brand elememts24
-
sept 3027
-
October 2nd19
-
chapter 5 textbook49
-
chapter 6 textbook75
-
chapter 8 textbook42
-
October 721
