Module Name :- MK566- STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT

ALTERNATE ASSESSMENT 19/20

SUBMITTED BY :- Abner Arpit John SUBMITTED TO :- Dr Elaine Wallace

STUDENT ID :- 19232242
“In submitting this work I confirm that it is entirely my own. I acknowledge that I may be
invited to undertake an online interview if there is any concern in relation to the integrity
of my submission.”

“I have read the University’s code of practice on plagiarism. I hereby certify this material,
which I submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of M.Sc.
Marketing Management, is entirely my own work. It has not been taken from the work of
others, except to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text
of my work.

Student ID Number: 19232242

Name: Abner Arpit John

Signature: Abner John

Date: 28/04/20

Question 1
Describe in detail the Consumer Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model, presented by
Keller et al. (2011). You are not required to draw the CBBE model. However, in your
answer, please discuss how the model might apply for a leading brand that you are
familiar with.

Answer 1

Customer-based brand equity is the concept to built a strong brand for the company. To build
a strong brand, the company need to understand how the customer feels and think about the
product offered. If the company want their customer should like the products, they should
create a delightful experience around the brand. If the customer has a positive experience in
terms of thought, opinions, feeling and perception, then it indicates a positive brand equity.

Customer-based brand equity shows the influence of customers attitude towards a brand and
how it can drive to a brands success or its failure.
Positive customer-based brand equity has many advantages like long term revenues,
customers’ willingness to seek out for themselves new channels of distribution, the ability of
firms to command higher prices and the effectiveness of marketing communications (Keller,
2003).

The CBBE model is in the shape of a pyramid which helps in creating strong brand equity by
understanding and designing the strategies around them. When the customers feel a strong
connection with the brand, it shows a positive brand equity the model helps the brands create
the value which the customers are looking for, and that helps the brands to offer products
which hit the customers in their sweet spot. (Bhasin, H 2018).

The diagram below shows is a CBBE model also know a Keller model which was developed
in 1993. Keller describes six elements that contribute to brand loyalty for consumers, which
is further classified into four levels. 
Levels 1:- This is the base of the pyramid, which is referred to as a brand identity. This level
mostly describes about brand awareness, and it generally depicts about if the people are
aware of the existence of the brand. So if the customers or the general public don't recognise
the brand or the brand existence, it will be hard for them to build up an impression or the
opinion about the brand. So it is necessary to built strong brand awareness in order to create
substantial customer-brand equity.

let's take an example of Harley Davidson. Harley Davidson, an American motorcycle brand,
has created its brand awareness across the world. That much if the impact Harley Davidson
has created in the heart and mind of the consumers. This describes the strength, favourability
and uniqueness of the brand. Harley Davidson achieve this by selling emotive themes and a
lifestyle to a generation of Americans who yearned for safe rebellion and the promise of the
open road(Incite).

Level 2:- Brand meaning, at this level, the consumers are seeking for more information about
the brand in terms of usability, reliability and services and how well the brand can
communicate what the brand stands for. This level of CBBE is divided into two segments
imagery and performance.

Brand Performance:-it can be defined as how well product/ services meet consumer needs.
Quality includes the real functionality and features of brands products/service offered toward
the customer. this summarises of
 Functionality
 Reliability
 Style/Design
 Price
 Durability
 Customer Service
 Customer Satisfaction
Following our example of Harley Davidson, When it comes to its usability and quality,
Harley Davidson has always been confident about the bikes and service they offer to their
customers.

Brand Imagery:- it can be defined as what consumers think when then comes across the
brands on a social and phycological level. 
for example, when people think of Harley Davidson bikes, they automatically associate it
with luxury and comfortability.

Level 3 Brand Response:- The third level of Keller’s CBBE model is also divided into two
categories those are judgement and feeling. In simple words, when a consumer buys a
product, he has build expectation towards the products and its purchase. If the products he
purchased matches his expectation, then the consumer is happy, and he builds a strong
positive feeling towards the brand. If the products exceed what consumer expects, the
consumer might become their brand advocate and spread his experience it via word of mouth.
Those positive experiences build feelings within consumer minds. 

However in some case when the customer has a bad experience with the brand he/ she may
build up a negative feeling towards it, which can result in judging the brand and spread
negative word of mouth.
Harley Davidson has maintained its positive image towards the consumers mind. This can be
seen that people still buy Harley Bikes even though they are super expensive. The brand
achieves this by providing excellent aftersales service and by hosting numerous social
activities Harley organised for its customer, for example, Miss Harley Davidson Contest.

Level four(Resonance): this is the last level of Keller CBBE model. At this stage, the
customer knows the brand and product offered very well and are highly engaged with the
brand. They even get involved in becoming the brand advocate and are ready to recommend
it to their friends and relatives. 
The resonance can be achieved by the brand providing some incentives for the customers, for
example, Exclusive offers, loyalty cards, community forum and events.
In the case of Harley Davidson, they have attained their brand resonance by creating Harley
community for their rider and host many charitable events.

Question 2
Describe in detail the brand elements that brand managers can use to identify and
differentiate their brands. Please choose a brand of your choice as an example for each
element (if you wish, you may use different brands as examples for some elements/each
element). In your answer, briefly also outline why avoiding overpackaging might be
important, both for the manufacturer and for the consumer.

Answer 2
Brand elements are often referred to as brand identities. these brand elements are used to
identify and differentiate the brand from other brands. The main brand elements are names,
website addresses, logos, symbols, characters, spokespeople, slogans, jingles, packages and
signage. (Incite )
these brand elements are used to increase the brand awareness among the consumer. These
brand elements are used for promotional purposes so that they can leave a profound and
favourable impact on their targeted customers.

There are six characteristics for developing effective brand element, those are
1. Memorability: when a customer is out to make a purchase, how easily can he/she can
recall and recognise the brand elements.it is suggested to have a short brand name as they are
easy to remember and memorised by most of the customers. For example, tide, LG, Apple.

2. Meaningfulness:- the brand elements should be descriptive and should describe something
about the product. As it is essential to increase the awareness and recognition for the product.
secondly, it should be persuasive that means it should say something about the benefits and
characteristics of using the specific product.

3. Likeability:- The brand elements should be aesthetically appealing. it needs to be fun,

engaging and attractive. so that it can create recognition for the brand in the customers mind.

4. Transferability:- the brand must be able to transfer the elements when they think of
expansion geographically or when they are extending their product line.

5. Adaptability:- Consumer value and opinions keep on changing over a period of time , so
the more adaptable and flexible the brand elements are it more natural to keep up to date and
continuously remain in the liking of the targeted customer segments.

6. Protectability:- In this competitive world, the company should protect its brand elements.
The brand elements should be legally registered, and the trademarks should be done for their
brand elements.

The company chosen as an example of brand elements is Apple

Logo:- Apple has a very unique and subtle logo of half bitten apple.
The apple logo has an intense connection consumer. The Apple logo seen on any product line
on apple whether is iPhone, iPad or MacBook is perceived as the best of a kind in term of
innovation and technology.

Packaging:- Apple products come with straightforward yet elegant looking high-quality
boxes. Generally, it has a product picture on the top of the box. It is opening the box for the
first time that makes the package special.
Slogan:- Apple uses numbers of slogans for each of its products line that describing their
importance, benefits, use and creativity of that
product. One of the best examples is of IPad that has the slogan of "Thinner, Lighter, Faster,
" and for the recent iPhone 11 they used the smart slogan for "Just the right amount of
everything." which claims the phone has everything the customer wanted.

Memorable:- Apple brand elements are unforgettable, as Apple still uses the Apple log on
each of their product. Consumer easily recognise the brand after seeing the logo anywhere.

Meaningful:- as explained above the elements should be descriptive and persuasive. The
marketing team of apple has promoted the brand so well brand logo became meaningful as
the name of the Apple does not associate with the product. Whenever people see the Apple
logo, they think of high-quality innovation and technology.

Likeable:- All Apple's products have exciting features, they modernise their products very
often, every nine months they are with a new product, and this makes the consumers curious
for new updates and products.

Transferable:- Apple has an extensive product line with lots of new products in various
categories such as Phones, computers and Tv's.
Each of the apple brand elements contributes to its brand equity for their new products or
whether they are entering into a new market.

Adaptable:- the brand elements must be flexible and updatable. As apple have their product
available in every country in almost every city and with ease of internet is can be updateable
remotely by the customer itself regardless of any country the customer is.

Protectable:- All the brand element of the apple are legally protected and formally registered
both nationally and internationally. So, they can defend their trademarks from unethical
competitors.
Overpackaging can be described as when the product is wrapped with the multiple of a
material or box which is generally not needed. there is a huge debate going on now a day
whether should company overpack. Well, from my point of view it creates a negative impact
on the company, consumer and environment. With the boom of e-commerce sites and apps
the overpackaging is increased tremendously. It is hard for the consumer to dispose of
unwanted boxes and plastic that were unnecessarily used to secure the product, which in turn
have a negative impact on the environment. For the company with will cost more money in
packaging which can save and use for CSR. If they reduce overpackage, it will act as
free/low-cost marketing, and they could appeal to more environmentally conscious
customers(Monnot et al., 2019) . Amazon has been found guilty of it. Recently Amazon has
started a new sustainable packaging program. It encourages it, vendor, to use their e-
commerce packaging to reduce waste and eliminate damages.

Question 4
Effective brand positioning is critical for the creation of brand equity. Explain in detail
the concepts of points of parity (POP) and points of difference (POD) as methods for
implementing a brand positioning strategy. Thinking about any two competing brands
that you are familiar with, discuss how those brands use POP/POD in their strategies.

Answer

Brand positioning can be described as the company that creates the image in the mind of the
customer and how they are different in from their competitors. Effective brand positioning is
very important in creating brand equity. It is a crucial part of the marketing strategy that helps
the company or the business to set them apart from the rest. A successful brand positioning
also helps the customer to recognise the brand and connect with them. One of the vital factors
of a successful business is how well and how many people know your brand.
Brand positioning is the process of building companies offering and image in mind set of the
target market. It can be simplified that the primary goal of brand positioning is to establish a
unique representation of the brand, so that company can take advantage and maximise the
profit from it. The company must connect with relevant points of difference to the brand with
positioning to provide a competitive advantage and the reason why the customers would
purchase it.

In order to achieve a good brand position, the company should always focus on the Point of
Parity(PoP) and Point of Difference (POD).

Point of Parity:- those are the attributes of the business that are not unique to any other
business and are common within the industries. In simple words, Point of Parity is the
specific similarities that are shared among with other competition.
It allows the business to compete and remain in the market place. It helps tell the company's
target market or customers why the product or service offered by the company is better than
the other competitors.

Point of Difference:- it can be described as the attributes that the company process that is
unique to one company or businesses. The Point of Difference are the areas where an
organisation can create a competitive advantage. Therefore it is important to not only look at
your own businesses Point of Difference but also keep an eye on your competition point of
difference to try and eliminate them into points of parity. So when creating the marketing
strategies or campaign the points of difference should be highlighted in the message, the
company want to convey to the target market.

Point of difference of Snickers

Snicker Hershey’s
 It has been positioned itself as the  It promotes love for the chocolates.
energy bar that satisfies hunger.

 Not expensive  It offers wide range of chocolate

products.

 It is generally associated with athletes.  It is priced higher than other in

completion.

 The target market it focus on is are the  Its target market are men and women
people who are involved in fitness and of all age.
looking for healthy alternative.

 It comes with many healthy ingredients

like almond and hazelnuts.

Points of parity of Snickers and Hershey’s

 They are both well-known brand around the world.
 their online and retail distribution strategy is same.
 They use advertisement as their preferred communication tool.
 They are the most recalled chocolate brand.
 They both have innovative product category

In conclusion, Points of Parity and Point of Difference are one of the essential element in
brand positioning strategy. It represents how the products are aligned within a company’s
portfolio and are distinguished from each other.
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