Victoria Bitter: Reviving a Once Loved Aussie Icon - Assignment Example

Customer Behavior Name Institution Date Customer Behaviors Questions for Case One: Victoria Bitter: Reviving a once loved Aussie Icon 1. a.) Definition of Brand Equity The term brand equity is often used in the marketing industry to emphasize on the importance of having a well-known brand name for a product. Brand equity is based on the concept that products with known brand names often attract more customers than those with less known brand names. b.) Should brand equity be the center of marketing campaign? Even though research has concluded that brands are one of the most valuable assets that can be owned by a Company, brand equity is, however, not the only thing that marketing departments should focus on in a bid to popularize a give product. Brand equity is one of the factors which can increase the financial value of a given brand, but it certainly is not the only thing. In the valuation of brand equity, certain elements should be included, viz; the changing dynamics of market share, profit margins, and most importantly, the ability of customers to recognize logos and other visual components of the ad. According a paper posted on the Harvard Business Review issue of September, 2004 titled “Customer-Centered Brand Management,” Companies should reinvent their marketing and brand management strategies that put the brands in the service of one larger goal; to increase customer equity. The argument in this paper should not, in any way, be taken to mean that brand equity is meaningless: Far from it. Instead, Rust, Zeithml and Lemon (2004) argue that new marketing strategies should harmonize the concepts of Brand equity with the new emerging concept of customer equity. In this paper, an example is given about the Japanese brand of Will which is owned by a consortium of three unrelated Companies, Toyota (dealers in automobiles), Panasonic (dealers in electronics) and Asahi (beer manufacturers). The three Companies have one common interest of pursuing new and affluent demography, and Will brand offers that affluence; the kind of affluence and fun that has attracted young “New generation of women in their thirties” (Rust, Zeithml & Lemon, 2004). The products that use Will brand name include Will vi (automobile made by Toyota), Will PC (electronic made by Panasonic and Will bear (made by Asahi). In the case of Victoria Bitters, the Company adopted the concept of brand equity in order to capture men, who have the tendency of choosing a brand based on values rather than image. The Company had to revert to its original packaging, full flavor and bringing back the tag line “a hard earned thirst.” 2. How Different Communications drove the campaign In the new commercials meant to popularize and rebrand the Victoria Bitters, a new communication strategy was adopted to eliminate the myths that previously crowded the minds of Victoria Bitter consumers. The Commercials adopted are funny, entertaining and visually spectacular. The target audience in the new marketing strategy is the workers, and especially men who had stopped consuming Victoria Bitters. The ad ran like “Blokes who chop wood rather than buy from the server. 3. What Influences Consumer spending? Consumer spending can be regulated by either internal or external factors. External factors that affect consumer spending include taxes and government economic stimulus. Internal determinants of consumer spending are personal needs or personal lifestyle (Kapfere & Bastien, 2013). In the case of Victoria Bitters, most of the consumers had reduced confidence on the quality of the product being offered, and hence they decided to reduce their expenditures. The male consumers, for instance, reduced their intake of Victoria Bitters because of the belief that the brand was not the same quality they used to enjoy, and that quality had been compromised in the new recipe. Questions for Case Two: BankWest: Money can’t make you happy, but being happy can make you money. 1. Brand Image and its relevance in product positioning Brand image refers to consumers’ perception about a specific brand of product. The main components of a positive brand image include a unique logo reflecting the organization’s image, a captivating slogan describing the organization’s business. The idea behind brand image is that it influences consumers’ choice of brand product to buy, since consumers not only buy products, but also images associated with the products. Brand image can be a good tool for product position since it summarizes to consumers the company’s ideals, which may either attract consumers or scare them away. To secure a good product positioning, the choice of the brand image selected by a company should be that which is positive, unique and creative (Breckenfeld, 2009 P 88). BankWest employed brand image technique in a unique way to ensure that customers had a different, but positive perception of the bank. The first challenge the bank had to face was to carry out brand awareness, something that has been hugely successful. BankWest started by changing its theme to “Happy Banking,” a change that has largely been received positively by the bank’s customers. To show their seriousness with the issue of happiness, the bank signed to be the official Happy Partner for the 2008 Australian Olympic Games. The bank has in recent past, adopted a liberal approach to the way it does things; by being open to try new things, and the results have been remarkable. The official website of BankWest has also been redesigned to reflect on the theme of happiness, which is the main brand image of the bank. 2. Use of Cast Characters to drive the Happy Banking Campaign by BankWest The BankWest launched a campaign drive dubbed “Happy Banking” with the aim of expanding into the national bank market. The initiative uses a series of animated characters with real voices of known celebrities who offer different insights into what exactly makes people happy about banking with BankWest. The bank’s main image of making banking a happy experience is well captured by these animated characters in a way that has never been seen before. Universal symbols of happiness like the Sun and sunflower have been used before, but BankWest use of animated characters to show its theme of happiness has been exceptional. 3. What Influences consumer spending, in relation to the BankWest Consumer spending in the case of bank refers to the tendencies of customers to do their banking services with the particular bank. In the case of BankWest, high consumer spending would mean there is high number of consumers who are depositing their money into the Bank. The external factors the influence customers’ banking activities are: availability of disposable income; when the economy is doing well the people can have some money to keep in the bank. The other determinant of customer banking tendencies is government policies, especially the policies that affect the bank interest rates. The higher the interest rates, the more people will prefer to keep their money in the banks. Internal factors that determine customers’ banking include: bank’s service delivery; customers would prefer banks that whose service delivery is within or beyond their expectations. The other factor is customers’ perception of the banking services offered by a given bank. This is why BankWest used brand image of happy banking as its theme, to create the impression that banking in BankWest would always be a happy experience. Questions for Case Three: Yorkshire Tea: taking Yorkshire Tea to the world- the story of Little Urn 1. Involvement theory and how it explains the customers’ choice decisions Involvement theory of consumer behaviour states that there are two main factors that determine the purchase choices made by consumers: The first factor is the amount of time and energy that an individual devotes to making the decision (Evans & Jamal, 2009). Second factor is the degree to which emotion or reason influence an individual’s purchase decision. The high or low involvement scale of CIT measures the amount of time, though, energy and other resources people devote to the purchase process. On the other hand, rational or emotional scale of CIT is a measure of reason against impulse, desire against logic or passion against prudence (Loch, 2008) Consumers tend to engage in routine response behaviour when making low-involvement decision. In this case, purchase decision is done using only the limited information available because the risk involved in such purchase is low. In contrast, high-involvement decisions pose great threat to consumers if they turn out to be bad choices because they often involve expensive purchases like a house or a car. Instead of engaging in routine response behaviour purchasing, consumers of expensive and high stake goods engage in extended problem solving, where a lot of time, energy and thought is put into the process of purchasing. The Yorkshire tea company made it easier for its customers and potential new customers to make decisions on which tea bags to buy. In order to influence the customers towards its brand, the Company used a unique advertising technique that encouraged customers to look for the ingredients of the tea before making choice on which tea to consume. 2. Customers indifference and how it was solved The indifference of Yorkshire tea customers created a huge dilemma for the Company since they could not tell the difference between the tea products in the market. So bypass this challenge, the company took to the social media where it managed to convince its customers of the need to put some time in getting the differences among the various tea products in the market. 3. What Influences Consumer spending In relation to the case of Yorkshire Company, consumer spending can be influenced by the nature of their involvement in the purchasing process. The more the time, energy and thought a consumer puts into a purchase decision making process, the more the consumer is likely to spend. References Breckenfeld, D. (2009). The cool factor building your brand’s image through partnership marketing. Hoboken, N. J.: Wiley Evans, M., & Jamal, A. (2009). Consumer behaviour (2nd Ed.). Chester, England: Wiley Kapfere, J & Bastien, V. (2012). The luxury strategy: Break the rules of marketing to build luxury brands (2nd Ed.) London: Kogan Page. Loch, C. (2008). Handbook of new product development management. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann. Rust, R., Zeithml, V., & Lemon, C. (2004). Customer-centred brand management. Harvard Business Review. Read More