Provide a brand analysis report on Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model 3.
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Branding Elements
Branding elements are the foundation of a branding strategy and help distinguish a brand
from its competitors. There are several elements that are important in distinguishing a
brand. These include brand personality, brand image, brand identity, brand differentiation,
brand positioning, brand communication, brand loyalty, and brand equity. Analysis of these
elements will allow marketers to understand the performance of a particular brand.
The branding elements described in the sections below are critical for a successful
branding strategy.
Brand Personality
Successful brands acquire a brand personality over time, which is a set of human
characteristics that is associated those brand name. Consumers "assign personality traits
to products"—for example, rugged, romantic, rebellious, or sophisticated—and choose
those brands that are more in line with their "desired self-image" (Kerin & Hatley, 2017, p.
304). Marketers can instill a brand with a personality; for example, Pepsi’s personality
traits include exciting and young, while Coca Cola is real and all-American. On the other
hand, Harley-Davidson portrays defiance, masculinity, and individualism (Kerin & Hartley,
2017).
The five key dimensions of brand personality include the following (Imagibrand, 2017):
1. brand competence—Is the company branding its expertise? The attributes
represented by this brand personality are success, intelligence, expertise, and
reliability.
2. brand sincerity—Does the company have a genuine brand? The attributes
represented by this brand personality are honesty, wholesomeness, genuineness, and
cheerfulness.
3. brand excitement—How daring is the company's brand? The attributes represented
by this brand personality are daring, playfulness, spirit, and imagination.
Learning Topic
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4. brand sophistication—Would James Bond ever use the company's brand? The
attributes represented by this brand personality are poise, elegance, and charm.
5. brand toughness—Can the company's brand stand against the competition? The
attributes represented by this brand personality are potency, forcefulness, power,
and ruggedness.
Brand Image
The American Marketing Association (AMA) (n.d.-b) defines brand image as the "The
perception of a brand in the minds of persons. The brand image is a mirror reflection
(though perhaps inaccurate) of the brand personality or product being. It is what people
believe about a brand—their thoughts, feelings, expectations."
There are two conventional—but incorrect —wisdoms about brand image (Johansson,
2009):
1. Brands are only important for luxury products. The typical reasoning behind this
misconception is that luxury products are hedonic (i.e., not bought for functional
utility).
2. Brands are not at all important for B2B products. The typical reasoning behind this
misconception is that business buyers are coldly rational and are not influenced by
emotions.
Research has shown that even utilitarian product choices are influenced by brands., and
the driving force is competition. When competition is intense, all products will soon offer
equal functional advantages (benchmarking, "me-too" strategies, follow-the-leader, etc.).
Accordingly, the one sustainable advantage is the brand image. Anything can be
differentiated and branded, even a commodity such Butoni or Barilla pasta (Johansson,
2009).
Brand Identity
Brand identity refers to the distinct and relatively lasting characteristics of a brand. A
brand tends to have an appealing and solid identity when consumers perceive its identity
as more distinct and prestigious (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003).
Creating a company's brand identity involves more than designing its logo. A brand
identity is both emotional and visual and communicates trustworthiness and relevance.
Building an effective brand identity takes many years of perpetual tweaking and hard
work; however, it is crucial to the success of the company. When it comes to creating and
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maintaining a brand identity, every small detail counts. It is a delicate task of following the
company's core values, while simultaneously being able to adapt to changing market
forces and trends. This task is difficult for even big multinational companies (Jansen,
2018a). Remember how Kodak failed to adapt to changing market conditions?
A strong brand identity can help a company succeed (e.g., Apple and Amazon). This
success requires a strong focus and strict brand guidelines to maintain the company's
brand and keep it elevated in the face of the changing market forces. In order to do this,
companies are advised to heed the following guidelines (Jansen, 2018b):
Keep things simple and focus on their core values.
Be flexible and adapt to changing market trends.
Follow data, but do not ignore emotion.
Do not jump on market trends without thinking of the bigger picture.
Do not wait too long to rebrand themselves.
Do not ignore market trends.
Brand Differentiation
Building a strong brand is crucial to success in today's business world, and strong
differentiation is necessary to build a compelling and powerful brand. Brand
differentiation is the means by which a company's brand is set apart from its competition,
by associating a superior performing aspect of its brand with multiple consumer benefits
(Carter, 2014).
Brand differentiation is related to a company's corporate reputation. There are several
elements of reputation, including a good customer service, packaging, prompt response to
problems, and product-specific comments, that consumers seek when buying. These
elements not only provide a basis on which the company can improve its reputation, but
also help it differentiate itself from the competition. Corporate reputation may be
enhanced by different activities that are closely related to the vertical differentiation of a
product, such as technological innovation and a strong brand image. On the other hand, a
solid corporate reputation may also help to differentiate a brand. Companies are
increasingly recognizing consumers as their most important asset in building an estimable
corporate reputation (Vahabzadeh et al., 2017).
In this era of globalization and hypercompetition, companies need to rethink the way that
they manage their customer portfolio, as well as how they interact with their customers.
Fader (2012) stresses that customers are an asset (customer equity) that should have a
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place on a company's balance sheet. The author defines customer equity as "the sum of
the customer lifetime values across a firm's entire customer base" (p. 62). Since every
company's objective is to maximize its overall equity and since customers are perceived as
an asset (customer equity) that is an integral part of the company's overall equity, the
company should dedicate the necessary resources to maximize its customer equity (Fader,
2012).
Employees are another crucial factor in enhancing a company's reputation. They may help
differentiate the company from the competition, as consumers evaluate the corporate
reputation that is behind the product and brand presented to them. Accordingly, many
companies use their corporate reputation as a vital resource in developing their strategic
value. Reputation includes corporate social responsibility, innovativeness, and honest
communication, which customers subconsciously convert into brand differentiation of the
company's products (Vahabzadeh et al., 2017).
Brand Positioning
Brand positioning is the designing of a company's offering and image to occupy a distinct
place in the mind of the target customers (Kotler & Keller, 2015). Brand positioning is the
sum of all the marketing activities that position the brand in the target customers’ minds
relative to the competition. Positioning does not create something new or different, but
rather manipulates the mindset (Ries & Trout, 2001).
Positioning is a crucial stage in a brand management strategy. A good brand positioning
strategy helps in the development of new products, communication, market expansion,
pricing, and the selection of the distribution channels (Fayvichenko, 2018). Brand
positioning is a process of creating the brand's own image, values, positive associations,
and distinctive properties in the customers' minds in order to create a sustainable brand
image and ensure consumers' attachment to that brand (Fayvichenko, 2016). Today, brand
positioning is perceived as a process that begins with the design of a trademark position;
however, it is "difficult to specify the essence of positioning when its ultimate goal is not
clearly understood" (Fayvichenko, 2018, p. 245). To understand the essence of brand
positioning, it is crucial to determine the ideal position of the brand. A clear representation
of the ideal position of a brand is a "prerequisite for researching positioning as a target
process and developing a system for evaluating its effectiveness" (p. 245).
Ideally, a brand will be positioned so that the customer has positive associations with a
brand, is convinced of its unique advantages over other brands, and considers the brand to
be of high value or a necessity. This brand-supporting customer is convinced that people
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who buy other brands are making the wrong choice, considers it a duty to recommend this
brand to other consumers, and feels a spiritual unity with consumers who have chosen
this brand (Kendukhov, 2008).
Accordingly, Kendukhov (2008) perceives brand positioning as a process of managing the
perception of a brand by a customer. The purpose of this process is "persuasion of the
consumer in the unique advantages of this trademark over other brands; formation of the
consumer's exclusive affiliates with this trademark; formation of the consumer's sense of
the indispensability and vital necessity of the brand; formation of fanatical devotion to the
brand; raising a sense of duty to recommend this brand to other consumers; forming a
sense of spiritual unity with consumers who chose this brand; forming a belief in the
consumer that other consumers who buy goods under other brands make the wrong
choice" (Fayvichenko, 2018, p. 246).
Brand Communication
The value of a company's brand may rise or fall with its brand communication. Even strong
brands must communicate their values and core benefits to the customers in order to sell.
Successful brand communication involves satisfied employees and enthusiastic customers.
Companies used to communicate their brands using PR and advertising. Nowadays,
customers and company employees define the reputation and reality of a brand. They
discuss their experience with the company and its products around the clock using social
media. Trust plays a crucial role here, and is only built up when the customers receive a
consistent and credible brand experience. Employees help a company earn its customers'
trust if they credibly communicate the brand's values and positioning (BrandTrust, 2018).
Social media provides an array of constantly changing brand communication tools in the
corporate world, which play a crucial role in how customers research and share
information, and learn about their brands. Similarly, companies use social media networks
for the advertising and sponsorship of their products and services brands in order to
develop trust and create sustaining relationships with their customers (Khadim, Hanan,
Arshad, Saleem, & Khadim, 2018).
Social media comprises well-built platforms that have a significant and substantial impact
on brand loyalty. Customers use social media as a tool to communicate and respond
quickly to each other at any time (that information moves much faster on social media
compared to traditional media). In addition, social media allows a company to send its
brand messages to multiple audiences and collect their recommendations. This feature is
crucial, as markets and customer preferences, needs, and wants change quickly, especially
in this era of globalization. Social media allows a company to judge how its customers
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think about its brand and what they want from it. It also enables the company to make
improvements to its brand and think forward to anticipate changes in customer needs and
preferences (Khadim et al., 2018).
Brand Loyalty
Consumers usually benefit from branding, and trademarks may help them shop more
efficiently, as they avoid brands that they dislike, while buying the brands that they like
most. Brand loyalty is a favorable perception of, and the consistent buying of, a certain
brand over time. The marketplace has been dramatically changing in the past decade
thanks to advanced and cheaper communications technologies, which enable consumers
to make better choices and share their buying experiences with others, worldwide.
Consumers are now increasingly dependent on the internet to acquire information and
compare brands before buying. Consumers can easily shift brands if they believe that they
have not been treated fairly by a certain company (Kotler & Keller, 2015).
Brand Equity
AMA (n.d.-a) defines brand equity as "the value of a brand. From a consumer perspective,
brand equity is based on consumer attitudes about positive brand attributes and favorable
consequences of brand use."
According to Johansson (2009) brand equity is “the value of the positive associations that
consumers have with a product's brand name. These associations often involve emotional
attachments, affinity, positive brand image, and brand identity. They also involve cognitive
factors such as familiarity, knowledge and perceived quality, as well as social factors
including peer-group acceptance. When these associations turn negative (as in
antiglobalization sentiments against global brands) the brand equity can go down very
quickly.”
Brand equity is basically the added value that a brand gives to a product beyond the
functional benefits that it provides. Brand equity provides competitive advantages; for
example, Mercedes Benz implies quality. A second advantage is that consumers are willing
to pay more for a product with a brand equity. Here, brand equity is represented by the
premium that a consumer is willing to pay for a certain brand over another when both
brands provide similar functional benefits. Acura, Infinity, and Lexus cars enjoy a price
premium that arises from their brand equity (Kerin & Hartley, 2017).
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Brand equity takes time to develop and is carefully crafted and nurtured by marketers who
forge unique, strong, and favorable experiences and associations with the brand. Brand
equity resides in the consumers' minds, and results from what they have seen, heard, felt,
and learned about the brand over time. Brand equity is not quickly or easily achieved
(Kerin & Hartley, 2017).
Financial Brand Equity
Financial brand equity is the monetary value of a brand in terms of net revenues the brand
is expected to generate over time, across all country markets. The set of assets linked to a
brand name include the following (Johansson, 2009):
brand name awareness
brand loyalty
perceived quality
brand associations (in the consumer's mind)
Financially lucrative brand licensing agreements may arise from brand equity. Successful
brand licensing needs a thorough marketing analysis to ensure compatibility between the
licensor's brand and the licensee's products. Companies such as Ralph Lauren, Disney, and
Luxottica eyewear earn millions every year from licensing their brand names to others
(Kerin & Hartley, 2017).
Global Brands
Why are global brands often the most valuable assets of a global company? Global brands
are important because product differentiation is difficult to sustain. Accordingly, global
brands become the most sustainable competitive advantage. Global brands have become
more important because financial brand equity is strongly correlated with global reach
(Johansson, 2009).
References
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AMA (n.d.-b). Brand image. Retrieved from
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Bhattacharya, C. B., & Sen, S. (2003). Consumer-company identification: A framework for
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