Brand Equity makes a brand more than a product by Raghu Viswanath

Brand Equity makes a brand more than a product

Brand Equity is always conceived as value generated by creating a unique identity for the brand. Most of the company’s focus is on differentiating the benefit that product delivers, but that is not enough to create strong brand equity. Companies with strong brand equity create the need of their product and also build a strong connection with its customers.

Think of brands like Google or Apple. Both of these are the respected brands which are looked upon by other companies. Apple on one hand has become a high end brand and considered to be a brand which delivers great quality technological products; Google on the other hand has surpassed the word brand and has become a common term to such an extent that if you ask for an information to someone, the reply that you would get is ‘I will Google it’.

Such kind of brand impression so formed is due to brand awareness and identity that is created by marketing activities conducted by the brand. Therefore the company has to think through the marketing communication since it will have a long lasting effect as customer will get a perception of the brand which is difficult to change.

There are various factors like Logo, Style, colour, Brand Ambassador Etc. which when combined together forms strong brand equity. All these efforts are centred on customers who ultimately decide what to purchase. Therefore the brand should leave a strong image in the minds of the customer with which he can relate. In the process of rebranding many times brands lose the familiarity with which the customers relate. The best example of this is Pepsi which has made significant change over the years probably to maintain the freshness and youth. But in the process it has lost its original feel to such an extent that you cannot relate the current logo to the original one.

On the other hand if you study the logo modification of Coke, then you would notice how stable the brand has been since its origin of its first logo in 1886. Though Coke logo has also evolved but it held on to its original feel. May be that is why it has slightly higher consumer preference.

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