Brand assessment: a key element of marketing strategy
| Date | 01 October 1997 |
| Published date | 01 October 1997 |
| Pages | 293-304 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610429710179462 |
| Author | Haydee Calderon,Amparo Cervera,Alejandro Molla |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Introduction
Nobody disputes the importance of the brand for the company or the
consumer: over the past 20 or 30 years its definition, functions and
characteristics have been widely studied. However, since the early 1990s,
brand has been the object of new questions and concerns.
From the marketing viewpoint, as Santesmases (1991) points out, marketing
management is that which connects the company to the market, in order to
find out about market needs and to develop the products which serve the
demand and supply them. The firm must do this by designing products that
will adapt best to such needs, at the same time competing with other firms or
entities that also try with their offers to attract the market to themselves.
Furthermore, the firm has to obtain benefits to be able to continue its
survival and agreeing with its more or less laid down targets. It is within this
perspective of marketing strategy that we consider the importance of brand
value in marketing management.
One of the reasons for this interest, as indicated by McKenna (1991) and
Bello et al. (1994) is the fact that new tendencies in marketing are concerned
fundamentally with the creation of added value, long-term relationships,
based on knowledge and experience with the aim of finding a way for the
client to interrelate and integrate with the company. In the type of
competitive market in which companies act, brands are the strongest, most
stable values through time that they can count on (Aaker and Alvarez del
Blanco, 1995a).
Another reason for a company’s interest in studying brand value arises
from strategic considerations. To improve its productivity in the market,
marketing managers need an understanding of consumer behavior and
attitude toward the brand on which to base strategic decision making. Here
is where the study of brand value can offer us a measure of consumer
attraction, or loyalty to the brand, which reflects a measure of the
resistance to brand change if there is a change in commercial policy
(Aaker, 1994).
The final motivation for analyzing brand value comes from the environment.
From the company’s point of view, it is becoming more and more costly and
complex to develop new brands or manage existing ones in increasingly
competitive markets. A slow down in economic growth and consumption
only makes the situation worse. Thus in a world governed by uncertainty, we
begin to realize that brand management and rationalization should be an
important part in the strategic considerations of many companies
(Guillaume, 1993).
Brand assessment: a key
element of marketing strategy
Haydeé Calderón, Amparo Cervera and Alejandro Mollá
An executive summary
for managers and
executives can be found
at the end of this article
JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 6 NO. 5, 1997 pp. 293-304 © MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1061-0421 293
Marketing
management
Strategic
considerations
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