BY

PAUL OLOLA OMOLO – D65/68454/2013

paulolola@hotmail.com

16TH March, 2015

University of Nairobi DBS 551

BRAND EQUITY MANAGEMENT BRAND TRACKING STUDIES

“Authentic Brands don’t JUST emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising. They emanate from everything the company does.”

-Howard Schulz-

BRAND TRACKING is a way to continuously MEASURE the development of a Brand within some key Matrices/Variables.

These variables include :

1. Awareness

2. Preference

3. Usage

4. Attitudes

5. Perceptions

6. Judgment

What is Brand Tracking?

Brand Tracking Studies allow Marketers to : Monitor the health of a brand to allow for proper

adjustments. Provide information to facilitate marketers day-to-day

decision making. Provide insight into the effectiveness of marketing

programs implemented by an organization. Provide insights into the effects of many marketing actions

on brand equity. Tracking involves usage and application of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods of Data collection and Analysis by using tools like Questionnaires and Interviews which may be administered online through emails or websites, electronically or physically.

Why Brand Tracking?

Whom to Track? Heavy User.

Light User.

Non-consumers.

When to Track? Brand tracking studies usually involve collecting quantitative data from consumers on a regular basis. One way to do it is to continuously collect information which allow us to control for unusual marketing activities and provide a more representative picture of how the brand stands in consumers' mind and against competitors.

When determining the frequency of data collection in brand tracking studies, an organization should consider:

Frequency of product purchase: for example durable goods with long purchase cycles can be tracked less frequently.

Marketing activity in the product category: a category where brands are constantly launching marketing programs and promotions should be monitor more often.

Level of competition in product category: highly competitive product categories, where new products and competitors are constantly trying to break in, should be tracked regularly.

Stability of brand associations: brands with an established image that don't show appreciable changes over time, can afford a less frequent brand tracking.

Brand tracking studies are often conducted with current customers, but monitoring non-users of the brand can prove to be valuable to the development of an acquisition and market penetration strategy in search for business growth.

What to Track

Customer Satisfaction Product performance

Customer Service

Shopping Experience

Future purchase intent

Price as a Barrier

Customer Behavior Brands Purchased

Purchase Frequency

Purchase Amount

Total Spending

Brand Change Likelihood

Brand Loyalty

What to Track

Brand Benefits Functional

Symbolic

Experiential

Strength Quantity of brand information

processing

Quality of the brand information processing

Favorability Desirability

Deliverability

Product Attributes Product features

Product performance/quality

Non-product Attributes Price

Brand personality

User Imagery

Feelings/experience

Uniqueness Point of differentiation

Shared associations

Brand Attitudes

Assume that APPLE IPHONE 5 is conducting a short phone interview to gather consumer opinions about the new Brand.

Interview questions on Brand awareness and Usage will be :

• What brands of hand set are you aware of?

• Which brand of hand set you consider using or buying?

• Have you bought any hand set in the last week? Which ones?

• If you need to buy any hand set tomorrow, which one would you go for?

• Have you ever heard of Apple iPhone 5? [Establish familiarity]

• Have you used Apple iPhone? [Establish trial]

Brand Experience and Usage ctd..

Brand Matrices - iPhone 5 Performance Apple iPhone 5…..

Is convenient to use

Has better features

Battery back-up

Offers innovative feature

Has a stylish and attractive look

Varied features

High quality

Brand imagery To what extent do you admire and

respect people using iPhone 5?

How much do you like people using iPhone 5?

How well do each of the following words describe iPhone 5?

Up-to-date, successful, upper class ,stylish, charming, classy, costly

Judgement Interested in overall opinion of iPhone 5

How favourable is your attitude towards Apple iPhone 5?

How well does Apple iPhone satisfy your needs?

How likely would you recommend iPhone 5 to others?

Is iPhone 5 worth a premium price?

What do you like best about Apple iPhone 5?

To what extent Apple iPhone 5 is superior to other brands?

Apple as a company is….

Innovative b)Trustworthy c)Likable d)Concerned about their customer e)Concerned about society as a whole f)Admirable g)Sophisticated

BRAND FEELINGS

Does Apple iPhone 5 give you a feeling of….

Fun

Excitement

Sense of Confidence

Social approval

Self –respect

Classy

Stylish

BRAND RESONANCE

I consider myself loyal to Apple

I buy Apple products whenever I can

I would go out of my way to buy Apple products

I really love Apple products

iPhone 5 is really special to me

It is more than a product to me

I really like to talk about Apple products

I am always interested in learning more about apple products

I like to visit website for Apple products

Compare to other brands, I follow news about Apple closely

Brand Matrices…ctd

Model for Brand Tracking

Attention Intention Current

experiences

Respondent background information

Brand Awareness

Top of Mind

In Mind

Ad Awareness Top of Mind In Mind

Preference

- Top of Mind

- In Mind

Latest purchase

- Main brand

- Other brands

Each variable is identified using a question

Advert Awareness

mobile brands have you heard of? Brand Awareness

Preference Which mobile brand do you

e brand do you own? Latest purchase

Which mobile brands have you noticed

any advertisement from over the last

month?

Which mobile brands have

you heard of?

Which mobile brand do you prefer?

What other brands are interesting?

What mobile brand do

you own?

The answers make out the consideration set

and are split into Top of Mind and In Mind

Top of Mind (ToM) This is the brand the consumer puts in first position. Often, this means that this is the most likely candidate for a later purchase, which makes this position the most wanted for all brands.

In Mind (IM) The rest of the brands mentioned are included in the consideration set but has a lower chance of being bought in the end. A brand that is not included here virtually does not exist in the mind of the consumer.

IPhone i5

Nokia

Sony Experia

Samsung

Black Berry

Wiko

How to Interpret Brand Tracking Measures

1) Given the comparative nature of brand tracking studies, brand tracking measures tend to stay the same over time. However, they should be revised from time to time to assess their reliability and sensibility. They may be stable over time and thus reflect stability of brand associations, but they can also be unable to capture important shifts in the market due to changes in socio-demographic trends, competitive landscape and economic macro-trends.

2) Finally, each brand tracking study should be customized to capture the brand associations that contribute the most to brand equity and the marketing activities that are effective at strengthening it. The goal is to identify key drivers that have an impact on consumers' brand choice and purchase behavior and develop marketing tactics that can lead to brand growth and sustainability.

3) Another issue with brand tracking measures is defining what constitutes the desirable level of a particular metric. Is a 40% level awareness good enough? It depends. It is all relative to the product category and the competitive environment. In low involvement product categories and those with many competitors, it may be difficult to get very high levels of awareness and strong brand associations, so the benchmark for what it is a good level for a metric differs across industries and product categories.

Where Brand Tracking Studies Fail

1. Great care should be taken when designing questions. One of the problems with quantitative surveys is that it asks the respondent to be deliberative, when purchasing behavior is actually much more instinctive. Surveys must therefore be created in such a way as to scratch away the deliberative response that questions are likely to invoke.

2. While brand survey data is critical to the success of marketing efforts, there are many surveys that have been over-engineered and are not achieving the desired results. There is no consumer on the planet that can honestly say that they enjoy filling out surveys. Surveys often ask the same question fifty different ways and the is low completion rates and inaccurate results.

Keller, K.L., (2003). Strategic Brand Management : Building, measuring and managing brand equity (2nd ed.) New Jersey: Prentice Hall International Inc.

Kotler, P., & Keller, K.L., (2012). Marketing Management (14th ed.) New Jersey : Cerebellum Press.

Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G., (2012). Principles of Marketing (14th ed.) New Jersey : Prentice Hall International Inc.

Kruger, R., & Stumpf, A., (2013). Brand Growth Barriers : Identify, Understand & Overcome them. Berlin : New York : Springer.

“Change your marketing, Care about your business level, Go multichannel, Be ready for future forward looking company with

innovation technology and avoid being URBERED”

Maurice Levy,

C.E.O. Publicis

2014.

References

Thank You