STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT - CHAPTER ONE

Kevin Lane Keller

What is a Brand?

American Marketing Associations definition:

A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design which is intended to identify the goods or
services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.

Practicing managers defines brands as more than that

What distinguishes a brand from a commodity gives it equity - the sum total of consumer
perceptions and feelings about how it performs (3M, Sony, Gillette)

Brand Elements are attributes that identify the brand

Brand versus Product

Product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or
consumption that may satisfy a need or a want (goods, services, retail store, person,
organization, idea)
5 levels of a product
1. Core benefit level fundamental need or want that is satisfied
2. Generic product level basic version attributes necessary for functioning (stripped down
level)
3. Expected product level what customer s normally expect
4. Augmented product level additional attributes, benefits that distinguish it from competition
5. Potential product level all transformation that it might undergo in the future

A Brand is therefore a Product that also has dimensions that differentiates it from other
products designed to satisfy the same need (competition)

Differences may be:

- Rational and tangible related to product performance (3M, Sony, Gillette)
- Symbolic, emotional, intangible related to what the brand represents (Coca Cola, Calvin
Kline, Marlboro)

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