Measuring and Interpreting Brand Performance - Assignment Example

Student’s Name University Course Code and Title Lecturer’s Name Measuring and interpreting brand performance Executive summary This report is about measuring and interpreting brand performance in the market. In this report, five competing brands will be looked at. They are; Mars Bar, Kit Kat, Snickers, Twix and Nestle Gold. These brands will be analyzed under three sections: brand performance, awareness and salience, demographics and segmentation. Under brand performance, we shall describe differences and patterns between the competing brands by considering the brand performance metrics. More emphasis will be laid on Mars Bas brand. The type of market that Mars Bar is operating in will be discussed. If the brands were operating in subscription market or repertoire market, there would be differences expected in the performance metrics. These differences will be discussed. It is better to have a marketing strategy that targets more light buyers than one that targets more heavy buyers. Reasons why more light buyers should be targeted rather than targeting more heavy buyers will then be discussed. Ways of getting into light buyers will finally be discussed Under awareness and salience, I shall start by giving a theoretical definition of the concept brand salience. Comparison of brand salience and top of mind awareness and attitude will then be discussed. Reasons why building brand salience is important will also be looked at. From the table provided, I will draw out various patterns relating to brand salience for the five brands. It is from the same table that we shall see whether Mars Bar is performing as expected within the whole sample as well as within its customer base. There will also be a discussion of reasons why it is important to look at salience for brand users separately. Discussion of how brand salience can be built and also appropriate marketing strategies will be then provided. Finally, I shall look at a case of cues that should be present in an advertisement of a chocolate brand. Under demographics and segmentation, I will analyze relationship status demography, total household income demography and gender demography in relation to the five brands. We shall see whether customer profile of Mars Bar is similar to competitors or not and look at the reasons for this. It is from these discussions that the implication of the marketing strategy of Mars Bar will be drawn. Brand performance 1. Mars bar has the highest market share and also the highest penetration. It has taken the highest value in the average market share and penetration. Kit Kat follows while Nestle Gold has the lowest value of market share and penetration. This shows that Mars bar is the brand that is being used by most of the customers while Nestle Gold is the least used brand by the customers. Kit Kat is the most frequently purchased brand, with a purchasing frequency 0.1 greater than Mars bar. Its purchasing frequency is 2.3 while that of Mars Bar is 2.2. Snickers follows with a purchasing frequency of 2.0. Twix has frequency of 1.7 while Nestle Gold has 1.2. In the category buying rate, Nestle Gold has the highest rate, with a rate of 8.5. Mars Bar on the other hand has the lowest buying rate, 5.8. in the share of category requirements, Mars Bar has 39 which is the highest. Kit kat follows with 37 while Snickers has 27 and Twix 23. Nestle Gold has the lowest share category requirement of 14. Mars Bar has a sole loyalty of 22 which is the highest. Kit Kat has 7.7 while Snickers has 4.2 2. Mars Bar is operating in a consumer market. This is because Mars Bar is a consumer good and the consumers have various choices. This brand’s loyalty is affected by other brands that are in the market. Mars Bar is facing a very high rate of brand deflection due to the other brands present in the market. There is also high competition that Mars Bar is facing from the other brands. According to Ferrell (2011, pg. 70), in a subscription market, the customer base is static or finite while for repertoire market it is infinite or fluid. This implies that penetration will not change for all the brands in subscription market while in repertoire market this will keep on changing because the customer base keeps on changing. In repertoire market, there is customer loyalty while in subscription market there is no customer loyalty but customer retention instead. This means that the sole loyalty for the brands will keep on changing as in the metrics in repertoire market while in subscription market there will be no sole loyalty. The purchasing frequency for subscription market is predictable and defined. For repertoire, market on the other hand, the purchasing frequency is not defined and less predictable. In the performance metrics, the purchasing frequency will be changing for the different brands of products under subscription market while there will be no defined purchasing frequency for the repertoire market. 3. Targeting light buyers in the market is a very good and more gainful strategy for the brands. According to Guido (2001, pg. 34), heavy buyers are very price conscious and deal prone and consequently they become disloyal to brands they buy. If they were targeted, there will be no assurance that they will be there tomorrow and therefore targeting them may end up being a very wasteful thing to do. Light buyers on the other hand are loyal to the brand they buy and therefore they are better to be targeted. According to Paley (2005, pg. 39), heavy buyers are already ‘psychologically locked’ to a competitive brand and are therefore hard to convert. Targeting them may end up being unsuccessful because they are already attracted to other brands. Light buyers are easy to attract and make them loyal to these brands because they are more flexible. Heavy buyers may seem more profitable and therefore it may be tempting to target them. However, they could stop being heavy buyers. This could be caused by a change in fashion or taste for the brands. This will lead to reduced profits. It is therefore risky to target them. According to Klagus (2005, pg. 13), Competitors will always tend to target the heavy buyers of the competing firm. Targeting them may therefore be more risky because they may finally be moved by competitors and therefore making the business looses its customer base. Light buyers are rarely targeted by competitors and therefore they will be easy to keep. It is therefore better to target light buyers. The best ways to get into light buyers is by advertising the brands, packaging the brands in attractive packets, and product promotion. Awareness and Salience 4. According to Guido (2001, pg. 57), brand salience can be defined as a measure or assessment of a brands ability to be thought about or noticed by customers in a purchasing situation. This means that customers are aware and familiar of the brand, and have the brand in their consideration list. Brand salience is different from top of mind awareness because, according to Franzen (2009, pg. 62), top of mind awareness is what brand that a customer will think of if asked to recall brands in a category. Brand salience is therefore based on customer’s memory according to the satisfaction that the customer got from previous use of the brand. According to Franzen (2009, pg. 33), attitude is all about what a customer likes about a brand. Building brand salience means that there will be an increase in purchase rate of a brand because whenever customers are in a buying situation, they will purchase the brand over other varieties available. 5. Brand salience for the whole sample is related to the top of mind awareness of the brand. Mars Bar has the highest top of mind awareness and still the highest salience awareness for whole sample. This brand also has the highest overall top of mind awareness. Nestle Gold has the highest salience for users only despite the fact that it has the lowest overall brand awareness and also lowest salience for whole sample. This implies that in a buying situation this brand will be the most purchased by the users and the users are less likely to purchase the other brands. Snickers and Twix have the same salience for users only meaning that the users that will stick to these brands in a purchasing situation are the same for the two brands. Mars bar has a salience of 36 in the whole sample and 41 in the customer base or users only. It is therefore performing as expected because it is purchased more in a buying situation by its users and still it is more likely to be purchased in the whole sample therefore it is attracting new customers. Looking at salience for brand users separately gives a real picture of how the brand is performing with regard to those who use it. This shows the customers loyalty to the brand when in a buying situation. According to Guinn (2012, pg.45), brand users pay more attention for brand salience than non-users. Therefore looking at salience for brand users separately will help in knowing and identifying the cues that buyers look at in buying the brands and hence using these cues will attract more customers. 6. Brand salience can be built by coming up with a range of cues which customers can use to think of the brand in a buying situation. According to William et al. (2011, pg. 56), increasing the quantity and quality of cues for a brand will be very appealing to customers and when in a buying situation, it will be easy for the brand to come in mind. Brand salience can also be built by focusing on retrieval of a brand by a customer, not just on evaluation of the brand by the customer. If a brand is easy to retrieve in a customer’s memory, then the customer will most likely buy it in a purchasing situation. The brand should focus on retrieval within competing brands, not just as an independent brand. This is because a customer will be faced by a variety of choices in a buying situation and therefore the quality of memory for a brand should be increased. The appropriate marketing strategies for a brand are increasing the quantity and also the quality of cues for the brand so that a customer will commit the brand to a long term memory. An increase in the range of cues will increase customer base and customer loyalty for the users. Cues that can be included in an advertisement of a chocolate brand are: Taste of the chocolate Aroma of the chocolate Attractive packaging of the chocolate The satisfaction that is brought in using the brand Various sizes of chocolate of the same brand Symbols that is present in the packaging of the chocolate. Positive comments of users Fair pricing of the chocolate Short statement about the product Demographics and Segmentation 7. Nestle Gold is the most popular brand among the single people and hence has the highest single deviation. All the brands are doing fairly among the couples. There is a small range between the highest and the lowest. Mars Bar has the highest popularity among the income earners below $50,000 and also among income earners between $50,000 and $70,000. It is bought by very few people who earn more than $70,000. Kit Kat is the brand bought most by earners of more than $70,000. All the brands are bought more by females than male. There is a small range in number of female buyers for the brands between the highest bought and the lowest as compared to male buyers for the brands. Mars Bar is the most bought brand by males while Kit Kat is the most bought by females. The profile for the Mars Bar is not different from that of competition. This is because the customer base for Mars Bar is more in couples and less in singles, which is the same for all the other brands. The customer base for Mars Bar is increasing with increase in income earned. This is the same for all the other brands except for Kit Kat. Mars Bar brand has more female customers as compared to male customers. This is the same for all the other brands. 8. The cues that are being used in marketing Mars Bar brand are not attracting as many customers as expected in the different demographic categories. The Mars bar marketing strategy is not creating a long term memory that can lead to customers purchasing the brand in a purchasing situation. The brand salience has not measured retrieval of the brand among the competing brands. References Author 2003, Branding and advertising. Copenhagen Herndon, VA: Copenhagen Business School Press Distribution, North America, Copenhagen Business School Press Books International. Ferrell, O 2011, Marketing strategy. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Ranchhod, A 2007, Marketing strategies: a contemporary approach. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Franzen, G 2009, The science and art of branding. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe, 2009. Guido, G 2001, The salience of marketing stimuli: an incongruity-salience hypothesis on consumer awareness. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001. Elliott, R 2007, Strategic brand management. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Guinn, T 2012, Advertising and integrated brand promotion. Mason, OH: South- Western, Cengage Learning, . Klagus G. and John T 2005, Consumers, policy and the environment a tribute to Folke Ölander. New York: Springer. Paley, N 2005, The manager's guide to competitive marketing strategies. London: Thorogood, 2005. William c., Barkel N., Valos M. and Shimp T 2011, Integrated marketing communication. South Melbourne, Vic: Cengage Learning. Read More