Brand Equity as a Bridge
Thus, according to the customer-based brand equity concept, consumer knowledge drives thedifferences that manifest themselves in terms of brand equity. This realization has important managerial implications. For one thing, brand equity provides marketers with a vital strategic bridge from their past to their future.
Brands as a Reflection of the Past. Marketers should consider all the dollars spent on manufacturing and marketing products each year not so much as “expenses” but as “investments” in what consumers saw, heard, learned, felt, and experienced about the brand. If not properly designed and implemented, these expenditures may not be good investments, in that they may not have created the right knowledge structures in consumers’ minds, but we should consider them investments nonetheless. Thus, the quality of the investment in brand buildingis the most critical factor, not the quantity beyond some minimal threshold amount. In fact, it is possible to “overspend” on brand building if money is not being spent wisely. Conversely, as we’ll see throughout the book, some brands are considerably outspent but amass a great deal of brand equity through marketing activities that create valuable, enduring memory traces in the minds of consumers, as has been the case with Snickers.
Brands as a Direction for the Future. The brand knowledge that marketers create over time dictates appropriate and inappropriate future directions for the brand. Consumers will decide, based on their brand knowledge, where they think the brand should go and grant permission (or not) to any marketing action or program. Thus, at the end of the day, the true value and future prospects of a brand rest with consumers and their knowledge about the brand. No matter how we define brand equity, though, its value to marketers as a concept ultimately depends on how they use it. Brand equity can offer focus and guidance, providing a means to interpret past marketing performance and design future marketing programs. Everything the firm does can help enhance or detract from brand equity. Those marketers who build strong brands have embraced the concept and use it to its fullest as a means of clarifying, communicating, and implementing their marketing actions.
Thus, according to the customer-based brand equity concept, consumer knowledge drives thedifferences that manifest themselves in terms of brand equity. This realization has important managerial implications. For one thing, brand equity provides marketers with a vital strategic bridge from their past to their future.
Brands as a Reflection of the Past. Marketers should consider all the dollars spent on manufacturing and marketing products each year not so much as “expenses” but as “investments” in what consumers saw, heard, learned, felt, and experienced about the brand. If not properly designed and implemented, these expenditures may not be good investments, in that they may not have created the right knowledge structures in consumers’ minds, but we should consider them investments nonetheless. Thus, the quality of the investment in brand buildingis the most critical factor, not the quantity beyond some minimal threshold amount. In fact, it is possible to “overspend” on brand building if money is not being spent wisely. Conversely, as we’ll see throughout the book, some brands are considerably outspent but amass a great deal of brand equity through marketing activities that create valuable, enduring memory traces in the minds of consumers, as has been the case with Snickers.
Brands as a Direction for the Future. The brand knowledge that marketers create over time dictates appropriate and inappropriate future directions for the brand. Consumers will decide, based on their brand knowledge, where they think the brand should go and grant permission (or not) to any marketing action or program. Thus, at the end of the day, the true value and future prospects of a brand rest with consumers and their knowledge about the brand. No matter how we define brand equity, though, its value to marketers as a concept ultimately depends on how they use it. Brand equity can offer focus and guidance, providing a means to interpret past marketing performance and design future marketing programs. Everything the firm does can help enhance or detract from brand equity. Those marketers who build strong brands have embraced the concept and use it to its fullest as a means of clarifying, communicating, and implementing their marketing actions.
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