Brand Management

A.A. 2022/2023

Virginia Vannucci
School of Economics and Management
Third lesson – learning objectives

1. Outline the eight main ways to leverage

secondary associations
2. Explain the process by which a brand can
leverage secondary associations
3. Describe some of the key tactical issues in
leveraging secondary associations from
different entities
Brand Associations

• It is possible to leverage secondary brand associations by linking the brand to

the following:
Ø Companies (through branding strategies)
Ø Countries or other geographic areas (through identification of product
origin)
Ø Channels of distribution (through channel strategy)
Ø Other brands (through co-branding)
Ø Characters (through licensing)
Ø Spokespersons (through endorsements)
Ø Events (through sponsorship)
Ø Other third-party sources (through awards or reviews)

• The first three entities reflect source factors: who makes the product, where
the product is made, and where it is purchased. The remaining entities deal
with related people, places, or things.
Secondary Sources of Brand Knowledge
factors we can use to leverage secondary brand associacions
Conceptualizing the Leveraging Process
Linking the brand to some other entity—some source factor or
related person, place, or thing—may create a new set of
associations from the brand to the entity, as well as affecting
existing brand associations.

• Three important factors in predicting the extent of leverage from linking the
brand to another entity:
Ø Awareness and knowledge of the entity: if consumers are aware of the
entity, and hold strong, favorable, and unique associations about it; they
will have positive judgments and feelings about it.
Ø Meaningfulness of the knowledge of the entity: the meaningfulness may
vary depending on the brand and product context.
Ø Transferability of the knowledge of the entity: if some useful and
meaningful associations exist regarding the entity and could possibly
transfer to the brand, how strongly will this knowledge become linked to
the brand?
• The basic questions are: What do consumers know about the other entity?
Does any of this knowledge affect what they think about the brand?
Understanding Transfer of Brand Knowledge
Guidelines

• Leveraging secondary brand associations may allow marketers to

Ø Create or reinforce an important point-of-difference or
Ø Create or reinforce a necessary or competitive point-of-parity versus
competitors

• Commonality leveraging strategy

Ø Makes sense when consumers have associations to another entity that
are congruent with the brand
big producers of wool, so companies want to be
associated with NZ to be associated with quality wool

• Complementarity branding strategy

Ø Makes sense when entities represent a departure for the brand because
there are few if any common or similar associations
Company

• Branding strategies are an important determinant of the strength of

association from the brand to the company and any other existing brands.

• Existing brands can be related to a corporate or family brand

• Corporate or family brand can be a source of brand equity

• Leveraging a corporate brand may or may not be useful

• Three main branding options exist for a new product

Ø Create a new brand
Ø Adopt or modify an existing brand
Ø Combine an existing and a new brand
Company
COO and Other Geographic Areas

• Besides the company that

makes the product, the
country or geographic
location from which it
originates may also become
linked to the brand and
generate secondary
associations.

• Many countries have become

known for expertise in certain
product categories or for
conveying a particular type of
image.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMzIHbxgyUw
COO and Other Geographic Areas

• A country of geographic location from which a product originates may

Ø Become linked to the brand
Ø May generate secondary associations
• Consumers choose brands originating in different countries based on:
Ø Their beliefs about the quality of certain types of products from certain
countries
Ø The image that these brands or products communicate
• In an increasingly globally connected world, the concept of country-of-origin
is likely to become very confusing at times.
• Governments in some countries have even taken steps to protect their
popular industries.
Ø Swiss lawmakers have stipulated that local watchmakers can label their
products Swiss-made only if non-Swiss parts equal less than 50 percent of
the value of the watch’s movement, or motor
Channels of Distribution

• A consumer may infer certain characteristics about a brand on the basis of

where it is sold.

• “If it’s sold by Nordstrom, it must be good quality.” Consumers may perceive
the same brand differently depending on whether it is sold in a store seen as
prestigious and exclusive, or in a store designed for bargain shoppers and
having more mass appeal.

• Retail stores can indirectly affect brand equity through an “image transfer”
process

• Retailers have their own brand images in consumers’ minds due to the
following associations
Ø Product assortment
Ø Pricing and credit policy
Ø Quality of service
Co-Branding
2 strong brand
• When two or more existing brands are combined into a joint product or are
marketed together in some fashion

• Also called brand bundling or brand alliances

• Interest in co-branding as a means of building brand equity has increased

• In assessing a joint branding opportunity, marketers will ask themselves:

Ø Is it a profitable business venture?
Ø How does it help to maintain or strengthen brand equity?
Ø Is there any possible risk of dilution of brand equity?
Ø Does it offer any extrinsic advantages such as learning opportunities?
Co-Branding

Advantages Disadvantages
• Borrow needed expertise • Loss of control
• Leverage equity you don’t have • Risk of brand equity dilution
• Reduce cost of product • Negative feedback effects
introduction • Lack of brand focus and clarity
• Expand brand meaning into • Organizational distraction
related categories
• Broaden meaning
• Increase access points
• Source of additional revenue
Co-Branding

One of the highest-profile brand alliances was that of Disney and McDonald’s,
which had the exclusive global rights from 1996 to 2006 in the fast-food industry
to promote everything from Disney movies and videos to TV shows and theme
parks. Because of concerns that the fast-food industry is fueling childhood
obesity, Disney ended its exclusive partnership with McDonald’s, although they
agreed to continue partnering on some occasional promotions. This example
demonstrates some of the downsides of co-branded partnerships, particularly
when one partner ceases to be a source of positive brand associations.
Let’s try this…

Think of the country in which you live.

What image might it have with consumers in other countries?
Are there certain brands or products that are highly effective in
leveraging that image in global markets?
Ingredient Branding

different from cobranding becasue here the brand is a component for an other brand

• A special case of co-branding is ingredient branding, which creates brand

equity for materials, components, or parts that are necessarily contained
within other branded products.

• Branded ingredients are often a signal of quality

• Uniformity and predictability of ingredient brands can reduce risks and

reassure consumers
Ingredient Branding

Guidelines:
• Consumers must first perceive that the ingredient matters to the performance
and success of the end product.

• Consumers must then be convinced that not all ingredient brands are the
same and that the ingredient is superior.

• A distinctive symbol or logo must be designed to clearly signal to consumers

that the host product contains the ingredient.

• A coordinated program must be put into place so that consumers understand

the importance and advantages of the branded ingredient.
Licensing

• Creates contractual arrangements whereby firms can use:

Ø Names, logos, and characters of other brands to market their own
brands for some fixed fee
• Can also provide legal protection for trademarks

• Successful licensors include movie titles and logos, such as Harry Potter,
Transformers, and Spider-Man; comic strip characters such as Garfield and
Peanuts characters; and television and cartoon characters from The
Simpsons, SpongeBob, and others.

• Licensing can be quite lucrative for the licensor. It has long been an important
business strategy for designer apparel and accessories, for example. Designers
such as Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Pierre Cardin, and others command large
royalties for the right to use their name on a variety of merchandise such as
clothing, belts, ties, and luggage.
Licensing

• Firms may license corporate trademarks to:

Ø Generate extra revenue and profits
Ø Protect their trademarks
Ø Increase their brand exposure
Ø Enhance their image

• Risk
Ø Product may not live up to the reputation established by the brand
Ø Inappropriate licensing can delete brand meaning
Ø Consumers don’t care about the financial arrangements behind a
particular product or service
Ø Manufacturers can get caught up in licensing a brand that might be
popular at the moment but is only a fad à may produce short-lived sales
Celebrity Endorsement

• Using well-known and admired people to promote products

• The hope is in using celebrity endorsements is that the celebrities’ fans will also
become fans of their products or services.
• The celebrity must be well enough known to improve awareness, image, and
responses for the brand. its a case of endorsement when for example
Ferragni at Sanremo, she revealed the
collaborations

• Rationale
Ø A famous person can:
§ Draw attention to a brand
§ Shape brand perceptions, by virtue of consumers perceptions of the
famous person

https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=mzaCt
sAvEXs
Celebrity Endorsement

• Celebrity endorsers should have

Ø High level of visibility
Ø Rich set of potentially useful associations, judgments, and feelings
• Potential problems might be percieved as more expensive by the customers.

Ø Celebrity endorsers can endorse so many products that they lack any
specific product meaning
Ø Or are seen as opportunistic or insincere
Ø Must be a reasonable match between celebrity and product
Ø Celebrity endorsers can get in trouble or lose popularity
• To overcome these problems, marketers should strategically evaluate, select,
and use celebrity spokespeople:
1. Choose a well-known and well-defined celebrity whose associations are
relevant to the brand and likely to be transferable.
2. There must be a logical fit between the brand and the person.
3. The advertising and communication program should use the celebrity in
a creative fashion that highlights the relevant associations and
encourages their transfer.
Celebrity Endorsement
Social Influencers as the New Celebrities

• Rapid growth in the use of social media celebrities for advertising brands
• Noncelebrity or micro-influencers who have considerable sway on social
media
• One survey suggested that micro-influencers may have 10 times more impact
on in-store purchases than celebrity influencers
• Today’s customers trust regular people like micro-influencers because their
endorsements appear to be driven by genuine expertise, and not just money.
• A survey of 1,470 women found that 86 percent of them wanted product
recommendations from real people and that 58 percent turn to YouTube
reviewers to get them.
• In this way, online social influencers are rapidly taking the place of traditional
celebrity endorsement strategies as more authentic ways of connecting with
smaller audiences.
Sporting, Cultural, or Other Events

• Events have their own set of associations

Ø May become linked to a sponsoring brand under certain conditions

• Contribute to brand equity by

Ø Becoming associated to the brand and improving brand awareness
Ø Adding new associations sponsorship might be repeated overtime or might be temporal.

Ø Improving the strength, favorability, and uniqueness of existing

associations
Third-Party Sources

• Marketers can create secondary associations in a number of different ways

Ø By linking the brand to various third-party sources

• Third-party sources can be especially credible sources

Ø Marketers often feature them in advertising campaigns and selling effort

The most important factor in the brand’s

success was a taste-test result from the
Beverage Testing Institute that ranked Grey
Goose as the number-one imported vodka.
Fueled by exhaustive advertising that
trumpeted its big win as “the World’s Best-
Tasting Vodka,” Grey Goose became a top
seller.
Let’s try this…

• Work in pairs
• Pick a brand
• Evaluate how it leverages secondary associations.
• Can you think of any ways that the brand could more effectively
leverage secondary brand associations?