Chapter 9 and 10 - Brand Equity and Brand Positioning

1. A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or some combination of these elements, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. The different components of a brand—brand names, logos, symbols, package designs, and so on—are brand elements. 

2. Brands are valuable intangible assets that offer a number of benefits to customers and firms and need to be managed carefully. The key to branding is that consumers perceive differences among brands in a product category. 

3. Brand equity should be defined in terms of marketing effects uniquely attributable to a brand. That is, different  outcomes result in the marketing of a product or service because of its brand, compared to the results if that same product or service was not identified by that brand. 

4. Building brand equity depends on three main factors: (1) The initial choices for the brand elements or identities making up the brand; (2) the way the brand is integrated into the supporting marketing program; and (3) the associations indirectly transferred to the brand by links to some other entity (the company, country of origin, channel of distribution, or another brand).

5. To develop an effective positioning, a company must study competitors as well as actual and potential customers. Marketers need to identify competitors’ strategies, objectives, strengths, and weaknesses. 

6. Developing a positioning requires the determination of a frame of reference—by identifying the target market and the resulting nature of the competition—and the optimal points-of-parity and points-of-difference brand associations. 

7. A company’s closest competitors are those seeking to satisfy the same customers and needs and making similar offers. A company should also pay attention to latent competitors, who may offer new or other ways to satisfy the same needs. A company should identify competitors by using both industry- and market-based analyses. 

8. Points-of-difference are those associations unique to the brand that are also strongly held and favorably evaluated by consumers. Points-of-parity are those associations not necessarily unique to the brand but perhaps shared with other brands. Category point-of-parity associations  are associations consumers view as being necessary to a legitimate and credible product offering within a certain category. Competitive point-of-parity associations are those associations designed to negate competitors’ points-of-difference or overcome perceived weaknesses or vulnerabilities of the brand.