Strategic Brand Management and Equity Fundamentals

Posted on Feb 9, 2026 in Marketing

Defining the Brand and Its Elements

A brand is a “name, term, sign, symbol, or design intended to identify the goods and services of one seller and to differentiate them from those of the competition.” It is also “the promise, the big idea, and the expectations that reside in each customer’s mind about a product, service, or company.”

Brand elements include the name, logo, symbol, package, and design.

Product Differentiation and Levels

There are three levels of product differentiation:

  • Core product
  • Actual product
  • Augmented product

There are five levels of meaning for a product: core benefit level, generic product level, expected product level, augmented product level, and potential product level.

Brands vs. Products

  • Companies make products; consumers make brands.
  • Products can be copied; brands are unique.
  • Products become obsolete; brands are timeless.
  • Products are instantly meaningful, but brands become meaningful over time.

Main Branding Challenges

  • Savvy customers
  • Economic downturns
  • Brand proliferation
  • Media transformation

Strategic Brand Management (SBM) Process

  1. Brand plans: Brand positioning, brand resonance, and brand value chain.
  2. Brand marketing programs: Brand elements, marketing programs, and others.
  3. Measure brand performance: Brand audits, brand tracking, and brand equity management.
  4. Grow and sustain brand equity: Brand architecture, brand portfolios, and brand expansions.

Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE)

Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) is the differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand (Keller). This involves:

  1. Differential effect
  2. Brand knowledge
  3. Consumer response to marketing

Nodes represent stored information or concepts, while links represent the strength of association between the nodes.

Brand Awareness and Associations

Brand awareness consists of:

  1. Brand recognition
  2. Brand recall

Advantages of brand awareness: It registers the brand in the minds of consumers. It provides consideration advantages (the likelihood that the brand will be a member of the set) and choice advantages (choices among brands in the consideration set).

Brand associations include:

  1. Brand attributes: Descriptive features of the product.
  2. Brand benefits: Personal value and meaning.

Brand Positioning and Market Segmentation

There are four components of brand position:

  • Who is the target consumer?
  • Who are the main competitors?
  • How is the brand similar to these competitors?
  • How is the brand different from these competitors?

A market is a set of actual and potential buyers who have sufficient interest, income, and access to a product.

Market segmentation divides the market into distinct groups of homogeneous consumers who have similar needs and consumer behavior (using the same marketing mix). The basic criteria for segmentation are:

  1. Identifiability
  2. Size
  3. Accessibility
  4. Responsiveness

Points-of-Parity (POP) and Brand Mantra

There are three types of POP:

  1. Category POP
  2. Competitive POP
  3. Correlational POP

A brand mantra is a short, three-to-five-word phrase that captures the essence or spirit of the brand positioning. It is similar to “brand essence” or “core brand.”

The Brand Resonance Model

This model describes how to create intense and active loyalty relationships with consumers. The model considers how brand positioning affects what consumers think, feel, and do about the brand.

Brand Development Stages

  1. Identity: Who are you?
  2. Meaning: What are you?
  3. Response: What about you?
  4. Relationships: What about you and me?

Four Steps of Brand Building

  1. Brand salience: Ensuring the brand is important and matters.
  2. Brand performance & brand imagery: Developing communication with the customer.
  3. Brand judgments & brand feelings: Consumers make judgments.
  4. Brand resonance: Creating a connection.