include; what are the fundamental drivers
of brand equity within a specific category?
How healthy is my brand against the
competition? Why is the brand not
responding to my initiatives? How is my
pricing initiative affecting my brand’s
perception? Why is the brand doing well
in some countries and not others? What
drives loyalty in this category?
From category perspective, it would be
important to check if the entire category
is changing and more specifically, what is
driving those changes and whether the
changes have any immediate or future
impact on the overall share of the brand
within the category. This is important
because any brand would like to ride on
the category drivers to win.
At the brand portfolio level, the key
question would be whether one has the
right mix of brands to maximize the
value. It is also critical to understand
how each of the brands in the portfolio
is performing so as to execute a strong
portfolio management structure that
Gaining competitive
edge partly depends
on how any business
makes best use of
its intangible assets
that the business can
identify as unique
and not vulnerable
to duplication by
competition. How a
business stays aware
of these key assets
and leverages them
to create value – both
in the short and long
term, would deter-
mine its performance
in this increasingly
challenging environ-
ment.
ensures total market share growth.
Ideally, the tracking of brands should
view the consumer-brand relationship as
one that climaxes with an intense ‘love’
or exclusivity - where consumer is said
to solely prefer a particular brand over an
array of choice present in the market. This
would represent the most intense of desire
for the brand.
To achieve a good level of consumer
engagement, a brand must be so strongly
differentiated in the market to a level
where consumers see no other substitute –
when measured, the brand should record
low scores for substitutability. A high level
of substitutability would certainly call for
an exceptional initiative to give the brand
a unique positioning in the market.
This is a desired position but in reality,
given the extensive choice in the market,
even the most ‘exclusive’ customers do
interact with other offers making it
extremely difficult to maintain a base
of 100% exclusive customers. Thus,
understanding and creating advantages
against the competing offers is more
critical than ever.
How consumers care about brands and
about brand choice in general when
shopping would also affect their overall
engagement with the brands. This would
give a measure of how consumers are
sensitive to brands in the category.
Normally, the set of questions would be
asked for the entire category and the data
compared to other categories. If the data
shows high level of sensitivity, it would
mean that players in the category have
made deliberate effort to differentiate their
brands. Where there is low sensitivity,
initiatives to build relevant differentiation
would be worth pursuing.
Looking at things at the brand level, it
would be good to get an understanding
of how consumers discriminate between
brands, including competition. By looking
at attribute ratings of different brands
in the market, one can begin to draw a
picture of how consumers profile a brand
against the competition and thus get a
view of the points of difference (PODs).
This is useful to diagnostically understand
which perceptions of a brand are critical
in driving each element of brand equity
and thus provide a clear direction on the
communication initiatives required to
increase equity of the brand.
Key in this investigation is measuring the
extent to which a brand is seen as unique,
relevant (appropriateness of the brand to
the needs and lifestyle of the consumers),
understanding (extent of consumers’
understanding what the brand stands for),
popular (degree to which consumers feel
the brand’s stature in the market) and
quality (extent to which consumers see
the brand as providing high quality).
The last bit of measurement would be to
see how the brand engages consumers’
spending through an understanding of
how they perceive the brand’s price as
being higher, equal or lower than other
brands in the category. In addition to this,
an evaluation of how they feel that the
brand costs more than they expect to pay
for any brand in the category is important.
In today’s market place, constantly
expanding media options, constantly
emerging consumer sub segments,
new channels of distribution that are
challenging the old models of value chain
and finely targeted consumer and trade
communication have created a highly
complex operating environment that
calls for constant monitoring of brand
performance, relative to competition
along the three pillars – extent of
consumer emotional engagement, level of
brand discrimination within a category
and price perception.
Looking at data from all these levels
would clearly give direction to brand
teams to build strong brands that can
withstand competitive forces in the
market and remain ahead thus growing
the overall business.
Enock Wandera currently serves as the
Chief Client Officer at Ipsos Limited.
You can commune with him on this
and related matters on mail via: Enock.
[email protected].