Brand Resonance
Helen Strong
Brand Resonance: Purpose
Strategic marketing activities today attempt to create a relationship with consumers through the creation of a brand image and personality for the organization and its products. The underlying assumptions are that if a consumer identifies with a brand or product, he or she will be more likely to trust that brand and become loyal customers. One of the more recent models to emerge is Kevin Lane Keller’s brand resonance.
The model is typically applied in the context of brand-building activity, when the focus is on increasing consumer loyalty. The systematic process reveals how the marketing mix needs to be adjusted to align the brand’s positioning and communications with the needs of its target market.
Brand Resonance: Structure and Description
The model describes the consumer’s journey from basic awareness, through an exploration of what the brand stands for, the establishment of an emotional connection, through to a relationship (Figure 6.1). There are two aspects to the building blocks: the physical performance and second, the emotional or affective side of the brand.
Brand Resonance: Strategic Considerations
Consumers have an ever increasing range of choices, which satisfy needs and in some cases help define their own personal identity. Marketers have a greater chance of becoming the preferred brand if they capture trial and regular use of their product before the consumer has experienced other brands. If the consumer feels in sync with a brand (i.e., it resonates with his or her lifestyle), then he or she is comfortable with it and is more likely to become a loyal user.
Figure 6.1 Kevin Lane Keller’s brand resonance model
Source: Keller 1999
Brand Resonance: Implementation
Building Blocks at Level 1
The foundation of the model is built on the salience or meaning of the brand in the consumer’s life. At this level, research is concerned with first understanding the consumers’ needs in relation to the product class, simultaneously establishing the level of awareness of the brand, its positioning, and their interpretation of the brand slogan or mantra.
Building Blocks at Level 2
The promise to the consumers has to be something that they aspire to. The brand has to be able to deliver on the promise. In today’s world, it has to be something that sets the brand apart from the other competing products. These are all components of the research that are required to help the brand build its image.
Expected or desired product performance is the next cluster of information that has to be understood. The quality and performance of the product that are built into the product are part and parcel of its image. Performance will include the product features; the level of service associated with the brand; its reliability and durability. Price and price perception would be measured as part of this factor.
To establish brand imagery, Keller (2010) indicates that the researcher will investigate who is perceived to be the ideal user; what are the preferred distribution channels; how consumers perceive the brand personality and whether they associate with the brand heritage.
The marketer also needs to know how best to express the concepts at this level for maximum appeal to the target market.
Building Blocks at Level 3
Researchers need to understand how the consumers rate the product. What are the judgments made in respect of the product features and benefits? Keller indicates that the most relevant evaluations are in terms of product quality and its credibility. We need to ask: In what way are the products considered to be superior?
At this level, the research will also establish the emotions and feelings associated with the brand. A Google search will find an overload of emotions. Keller relies on research by Kahle et al. to refine the list to: warmth, fun, excitement, security, social approval, and self-respect.
Of course, the first prerequisite before carrying out any of this research is that the product appears on the consumer’s list of candidates for purchase!
Building Blocks at Level 4
Here the model peaks at resonance. What the researcher is looking for here is the affiliation that consumers have with the brand, and the way in which it fits into their lifestyle and values. Keller (2006) has some excellent advice on techniques that are applicable to finding out the alignment of a brand with a person’s lifestyle, emotions, and beliefs. He suggests the use of qualitative techniques such as free association and projective techniques.
Brand Resonance: Conclusions
Alignment of a brand with the lives and hopes of its consumers provides a powerful platform for building brand loyalty. The organization can take advantage of all the benefits that loyalty brings to the cost of marketing and ease of penetration of the brand into the chosen markets.
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